Coldorak's whisky blog.
We take a nostalgic look in the rear-view mirror as we explore four gems from Diageo’s exclusive Managers’ Choice collection – a limited one-cask-per-distillery series launched in 2009. In our glasses tonight: a Cragganmore, Knockando, Lagavulin and Talisker, all handpicked by their respective distillery managers and bottled that same year at cask strength, offering a rare snapshot of Diageo’s portfolio at the time.
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It’s been already two years since my last Balblair review (I was sure I did one last year, time flies!) and a few weeks since my last review (thanks to moving houses), so let’s have a look at the first three expressions from Balblair’s current core range with the Balblair 12-, 15- and 18-year-old.
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After Monday’s quartet of Bowmore, we stay firmly in peated territory with two Kornog: a Sauternes Cask Finish and the 2008 bottling for Wu Dram Clan. Kornog is the peated single malt produced by Celtic Whisky Distillerie, a small coastal operation based in Pleubian, Brittany in France, that we had the chance to visit a few years ago. Their unpeated spirit is released under the Glann Ar Mor label. It is a distillery that wears its Breton identity proudly, and these two expressions promise to show just how characterful its smoky side can be.
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As tomorrow will be the Chinese New Year, it felt appropriate to try and talk about The Chuan and Goalong Chinese whiskies. Chinese whisky is a young but fast‑moving category, driven by both domestic demand and big international players. Distilleries such as Pernod Ricard’s The Chuan in Sichuan and Goalong in Hunan produce malt whisky using broadly Scottish-style methods – malted barley, pot stills, cask maturation – but root their identity in local terroir, water sources and sometimes Chinese oak. The first commercial releases only started appearing in the 2010s and 2020s, so most are relatively young, yet they already show a spectrum from light, fruity, approachable profiles to more experimental cask finishes, positioning Chinese whisky as an emerging ‘new world’ scene rather than an imitation of Scotch.
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We explore Kyrö’s core range alongside their Sauna Stories No. 2, tracing the journey of this Finnish distillery from what began as a lighthearted, almost drunken idea into a serious and accomplished producer. After delving into Kyrö’s history, we’ll taste the four rye whiskies from their core lineup and their second Sauna Stories release, pausing in between to test samples in the sauna and assess how the heat and environment affect the character of their whisky.
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We continue our series of Ardbeg Fèis Ìle releases with three more Ardbeg: Drum, Blaaack and Scotch. Between Blaaack and Scorch, Ardbeg released Arrrrrrrdbeg!, but we’ll review it another time, since for now we’re focusing on those Fèis Ìle releases, from 2019 to 2021 today.
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Today marks More Drams’ first dedicated Miltonduff session—an introduction to the distillery paired with four compelling independent Miltonduff whiskies. On the tasting table: a Malts of Scotland from 2011, a 13-year-old cask bottled for Van Wees’ 100th anniversary by Gordon & Macphail, a 2009 Whisky Mercenary release, and a 22-year-old Chieftain’s Choice from 1989. This Speyside workhorse deserves far more attention than it typically receives.
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On the tasting table today are two Glen Grants in their twenties: a Glen Grant 2003 from Royal Mile Whiskies and a 1998 from The Whisky Agency. It has been far too long since we last delved into Glen Grant at More Drams, which is a shame; this distillery can produce truly stunning whisky—as long as you look beyond the standard core range.
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It’s been a long time we had a Linkwood on More Drams, so let’s taste three of them, with a Linkwood 1979 from Vintage Malt and two 30-year-old from Signatory Vintage and the SMWS. And since, apart from a short intro a long time ago, we didn’t properly talk about Linkwood distillery’s history, let’s have an in-depth look at the distillery’s history.
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