Three Auchroisk: 1975 / Flora and Fauna / Chorlton

Auchroisk 1975 / Flora & Fauna / Chorlton

Auchroisk is one of those Speyside distilleries that most whisky drinkers know indirectly, because much of its spirit has long gone into blends rather than into a broad official single-malt range. That makes a trio like this especially attractive: a rare 1975 bottling from the old “The Singleton” era, the 10-year-old Flora & Fauna, and a 14-year-old independent bottling from Chorlton Whisky all show different faces of the same distillery across different periods and bottling philosophies.

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Three Fettercairn

3 Old Fettercairn: 80s, 90s & 2008

Fettercairn is one of those Highland distilleries that has quietly built a very distinctive identity without ever becoming noisy about it. This tasting brings together three bottles from very different moments in Fettercairn’s history: a NAS single malt bottled in the 1980s, a 10-year-old bottled in the 1990s, and a 2008 independent bottling from Douglas Laing. On paper, they span three eras of Fettercairn presentation; in the glass, they should offer a useful look at how the distillery’s spirit has been handled, interpreted, and sold across time, even though it lacks expressions from their current core range. More than just a vertical in age or bottling date, this is a small archive of how Fettercairn has been seen by both official and independent bottlers, and of how a once fairly discreet Highland malt can reveal surprising depth when you line up the older releases.

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Five Blair Athol

5 Blair Athol From the 1970s to 2020s

Blair Athol is one of those distilleries that rewards a broad tasting approach because its character has shifted noticeably across eras and bottling styles. Here, five whiskies – two 8-year-olds bottled in the 1970s and late 1980s, the 12-year-old Flora & Fauna, a 2010 independent release from Elixir Distillers’ Single Malts of Scotland range, and a 35-year-old from Signatory Vintage – offer a compact but revealing look at how this Highland malt can move from older official bottlings to a more contemporary cask-selected expression.

What makes this line-up especially interesting is the mix of perspectives it gives on the same distillery. The two older 8-year-olds should show Blair Athol in a more old-school official guise. The Flora & Fauna provides the classic distillery bottling reference point, and the 2010 Elixir Distillers and 1988 Signatory releases bring in the independent bottlers’ interpretation of Blair Athol’s spirit. Taken together, they create a useful comparison of age, era, and bottling philosophy, and a reminder that Blair Athol has long been more than just a quiet component of blends, as we’ve been able to see on these pages already.

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Dalwhinnie 15-year-old and 2008 NSS

Dalwhinnie 15-Year-Old vs 2008 NSS

Dalwhinnie 15-year-old has been a staple of whisky bars and whisky occasional drinkers’ cabinets for years, but is it worth it? Like most of Diageo distilleries’ core range expressions, it’s targeted at large retailers and occasional whisky drinkers, so not really my usual readers. But this doesn’t mean it should be dismissed and ignored by this humble blog, so let’s take a look at it and compare it to a (really) rare independent bottling of Dalwhinnie, with a 2008 from North Star Spirits.

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5 Glen Moray

Five Glen Moray To Reach My 100th

Reaching 100 Glen Moray tasted feels less like crossing a finish line and more like coming home after a very long, very enjoyable detour. This new line‑up of five independent bottlings – from The Whisky Cask, High Spirits, Archives/Whiskybase, Asta Morris and Celtic Whisky Distillerie – is both another step on that journey and a small personal milestone. These aren’t ‘official story’ bottlings, but rather five external, sometimes quirky lenses through which to look at Glen Moray’s spirit: different casks, different philosophies, different markets, all converging on the same Elgin DNA. Taken together, they say a lot about how adaptable Glen Moray is, and why it lends itself so well to being interpreted by bottlers beyond the distillery gates.

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5 Loch Lomond Glenshiel Inchmurrin Decadent Drinks

5 Loch Lomond: Glenshiel / Inchmurrin / Decadent Drinks

Loch Lomond is one of those wonderfully odd distilleries whose output resists neat boxes and tidy categories, and this line‑up leans straight into that eccentricity. On the table we have an old Glenshiel ‘pure malt’ from the days when blended malt labelling was still happily opaque, alongside four Inchmurrin bottlings: two official expressions and two from Decadent Drinks, with the latter, in fact, being a deliberate vatting of Loch Lomond and Inchmurrin rather than a single‑stream malt.

This tasting is less about ticking off labels and more about mapping the distillery’s multiple personalities – how the lighter, fruit‑forward Inchmurrin style plays against the denser, more heterodox Loch Lomond profile, and how an older, nameless‑by‑design Glenshiel fits into that picture. By placing official bottlings next to independent vattings, we can get a clearer sense of what is ‘house character’ and what is the blender’s choice, and perhaps also understand why Loch Lomond remains both underappreciated and quietly fascinating for those willing to chase down its more obscure releases.

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Three BenRiach

Three BenRiach: 1996 Single Cask / Whiskyland / Authenticus

Back in October 2025, we looked at several BenRiachs bottled in the 2010s, and today we’re returning to that period with two further releases, plus a much more recent independent bottling. The lineup consists of a BenRiach 1996 Single Cask bottled for the German market, the 25-year-old Authenticus peated expression, and a 33-year-old BenRiach released by Decadent Drinks under their Whiskyland range.

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Four Rums: Breizh'Cool / Hampden / Caroni

4 Rums: Breizh’Cool / Hampden / Caroni

We’ve reviewed rums… only twice on More Drams. I have a few samples accumulating, but it’s too hot with the third heatwave of the year in France, so let’s just have four today. We’re trying rums from a distillery located really close to where I live, Breizh’Cool, as well as an 8-year-old Hampden and a 19-year-old Caroni bottled by Valinch & Mallet.

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Five Glenrothes

Five Glenrothes (Official / Boutique-y / Cadenhead / Signatory)

We take a look at five Glenrothes today: two official bottlings and three independent releases from That Boutique-y Whisky Company, Cadenhead and Signatory. Building on last year’s enjoyable duo, I’ve dug out a few samples of older Glenrothes and opened a bottle acquired at auction some time ago. With that lineup ready, let’s get started.

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Michel Couvreur Overaged and Blossoming Auld Sherried

Michel Couvreur Overaged & Blossoming Auld Sherried

Two unusual whiskies, one very singular house: this review brings together Michel Couvreur’s Overaged and Blossoming Auld Sherried as an excuse to revisit the work of one of whisky’s most idiosyncratic ‘éleveurs.’ Both bottles are rooted in the same philosophy – that the cask, its history, and the way it is handled in the cellar account for most of a whisky’s character – yet they express that philosophy in contrasting registers: Overaged as a richly old school, multi‑vintage malt, Blossoming Auld Sherried as an almost baroque hymn to first‑fill sherry.

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