Aged for 20 years exclusively in sherry casks. Full flavoured and meaty as you'd expect from Mortlach.

From Diageo's 2020 Special Releases comes a cracking Cardhu single malt! This 11 year old expression was drawn from refill, new, and ex-bourbon American oak, resulting in a wonderfully honeyed flavour profile. Appropriately, continuing the Rare by Nature theme introduced in the 2019 Special Releases, the label features a rather handsome bee on it!

Nose: An orchard fruit-led delight, with oodles of crisp apple, pear and even some grapes coming through. Over time, the fruit turns a little more tropical, especially juicy pineapple and Galia melon. Rhubarb and custard boiled sweets, pencil shavings and a gentle cinnamon prickle add to the fruit.

Palate: Densely creamy and mouth-filling, with icing sugar adding to the fruit-forward palate. There's marmalade on toast, raisins and gentle white pepper in there, too.

Finish: Medium-long, with more of that pepper and cinnamon warmth cutting through.

Overall: A classic Speysider, and the perfect late-summer sipper.

The Glen Elgin 18 YO Special Release 2017 is a limited release of 5352 bottles. This is a special release in an unusual way - this is something of a yeast experiment. For this whisky the distillery used both the conventional cerevisiae yeast and the more unusual (in the whisky world) pombe yeast . Pombe is Swahili for beer, and this is a yeast known from East Africa.

The Glen Elgin 18 YO Special Release 2017 is a vatting of two batches. One part made using the pombe yeast and matured in ex-bodega sherry casks. The other part made using standard yeast and matured in refill European oak butts.

Nose: A deep and rich fruitiness is the first that greets my nose. It seems almost Japanese in style. Complex and clean. Apples, green and fresh on one hand and ripe and baked on the other. Freshly baked gourmet bread with a butter and floral honey spread.

Taste: Creamy, rich and most certainly full-bodied. A bit off-kilter but in a charming way. It could very well be the yeast used that has me confused and amused. Still very fruity, but not just apples now, I also get ripe banana and hints of honey melon and bitter oranges. Dry-ish.

Finish: Medium to long finish. Still fruity - which is not surprising. Creamy and rich all the way.

The folks at Tomintoul have raided the warehouse and unearthed a stunning 45 year old expression! This single malt was distilled back in April 1973 and initially aged in a bourbon barrel before being moved over to an Oloroso sherry hogshead to continue maturing. It was bottled in September 2018 with an outturn of just 240 bottles.

Nose: Clean Sherry influence on a sweet malty layer. Intense waxy aromas merge with hints of orange citrus and Christmas pudding.

Palate: Richly mouth-filling as notes of nuts, chocolate, mocha coffee bean and spicy oak tannins vie for supremacy.

Finish: Dry and spicy with a rich and enduring final?.

Aged for 15 years in hand-picked oak barrels, this Speyside single malt Scotch whisky was distilled using peated malted barley at Tomintoul Distillery, giving that self-acknowledged 'Peaty Tang' uncommon in its region.

Bottled at a smooth 40% ABV, this release marks something of a follow up from this little beauty, only this edition has a declared age statement.

Distilled in 1972 and aged in a single sherry butt until August 2015, this is one of 565 bottles produced from cask number 3551. These bottles were released in the Winter 2015 batch of Family Casks.

One of four official bottlings from the Craigellachie distillery released in 2014. A stunning 23 year old with plenty of bold fruit, complex herbs, refined oak and a touch of sulphur.

Nose: Lemon, orange and pineapple up front, backed up by warm oak and golden barley. Oak notes become increasingly toasty as it goes on.

Palate: Salted caramel, creamy vanilla and more orange zest. Cinnamon, nutmeg and a subtle whiff of sulphur give it plenty of depth.

Finish: The sulphur lasts, but it's not overpowering - the sweet spices bring balance to the long finish.

A nod to the history of Speyside, Benriach Temporis is peated, as they did back in the 1970s. It's been matured in a mix of bourbon barrels, virgin-oak casks, and Pedro Ximenez and oloroso sherry casks, adding in layers of fruit and spice on top of Benriach's honeyed peat smoke character.

46% ABV l 700mL

This whisky tells a different story of The Macallan spirit and casks, but more than that it tells a story of rarity. Less than 100 casks maturing at The Macallan distillery have contributed to the creation of this out of character whisky. These mysterious casks remained untouched in the dark warehouses of The Macallan under the watchful eye of our Master Whisky Maker, until he felt they were ready to be released.

Smoky Macallan is rare - there is very little in existence - and once used these casks will be no more. Unexpected and distinctive in flavour with full bodied richness from the Macallan spirit, Rare Cask Black is an unusual smoky spirit that tells a story of creativity and innovation.

The second batch of Glenglassaugh Octaves Classic features a more sherried profile than the first batch - something you might be familiar with when it comes to Glenglassaugh whiskies. The one was matured in octave casks made with wood from bourbon, Pedro Xim?nez and Amontillado casks, imparting huge helpings of dried fruit and vanilla notes to the single malt.

Tasting notes:

Nose: Earthy vanilla arrives first, but soon enough you'll find notes of dried cranberries and thick treacle.

Palate: Chocolate, salted caramel and hints of red chilli flakes. A backbone of barley helps it along.

Finish: Damson jam and toasted teacakes (with butter).

Thanks to years of closure over the past century, Glenglassaugh is a distillery with two types of whisky: very young or very old. This is one of the latter drams, bottled as part of the third batch of single casks released by the distillery. Matured in a cask that previously contained Massandra – a Crimean fortified wine, similar to sherry – and bottled in November 2016, it's a rich and dark dram, packed with dried fruit notes.

This exceptionally balanced single malt is matured in three different types of oak cask.  First fill American oak barrels bring sweet caramel notes, tempered with hints of warm spices from ex-sherry casks, whilst traditional oak casks impart subtle depth.  The result is a smooth malt, with delicate spice and sweet treacle toffee notes.