Oh man, I am really sorry that I did ignore my own blog for more than 2 years... shame on me. And I need to say that I only found my way back by chance... Indeed I was googling for a bottling of Benrinnes and found a link to - yeah, guess to where - to my own blog. This was a shocking moment - and a very dissapointing one too. I promise to be back now on a regular base and to post more. Tonight nevertheless I want to raise my glas for Gary Anderson, the new Darts world champion who won the title by defeating alltime emperor Phil Taylor in an epic 7-6 match in Ally Pally yesterday night. Not knowing about Gary's favorite malt I choose a fruity sparkling big sherried BenRiach - a 1996 cask 3610 bottling for Germany - one of my current favorites. Be back within short time as the good thing (if there is any) in a 2 years absence is the vast number of new topics that came up in the meantime ;-)

The good news is - I am back. The bad: I have been offline more than 2 months. Absolutely inexcusable if you do a blog I would say. My only excuse is that I have been to Scotland during this period, so prepare yourself to some very nice shots and pictures from our beloved distilleries. Additionally I am going to post some impressions from our trip. We spent some great days in Edinburgh, Ballater, Isle of Skye and Isle of Mull. The best malt I tried during the two weeks was a very nice GlenDronach which I was allowed to bottle in the Visitor's Center - a 1993 first-fill Oloroso sherry monster with some 60% - great whisky for relatively great value. So stay tuned and check for pictures and new topics during the next days!

There have been several forecasts already on the decrease of Scotch single malt during the last months. Today, figures published by BBC confirm that apparently the golden times of Scotch whisky we saw over the last years might be over: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-21996285
I really hope that the times of disproportional prizes will now also come to an end... Obviously less and less people are willing to pay fantasy prizes for their malt. Need an example? Only 3 years ago I paid around 100 Euros for a bottling of Highland Park, today you will have to pay more than 200. Another one? Just google prizes for any recent Port Ellen bottling, my first one 5 years ago was at 120 Euro. Same happens to Talsiker 25 or others, I could name many many more. The sales indeed are effected with the standard 10-12-16-18 years old bottlings which have only increased smoothly - but as they are sold on large scales they make the biggest parts of the profit of the distiling companies - next to the proportion dedicated for the blending industry.
Malt whisky has unfortunately become en vogue during the last years and the whole industry was booming. As a result everything that could be sold was bottled, we saw (and still see) various no age statement bottlings, poor quality single casks and an artificial shortage by offering bottlings only to members of societies in order to make them more exclusive (and more expensive, of course). All this resulted in an increase in prizes and at least partially in a lack of quality. Those who suffer mostly from these tendencies are the malt aficionados looking for great and affordable bottlings... hopefully, the whisky bubble is bursting now, making single malt become again what it once was - a drink for lovers, not for speculators or en vogue people... Amen.

Yesterday was the International Whisky Day - a day to honor Michael Jackson, one of the greatest whisky writers of all times who died 6 years ago in 2007. His "Malt Whisky Companion" inspired generations of malt aficionados (me included). As Michael was "Mr. Macallan" I thought I would have a dram of his favorite malt - until I realized that I didn't have any Macallan at home... damn! My solution: a lovely Glenglassaugh 23yo 1984 Wilson and Morgan - big sherried malt and a wonderfuld dram to honor a VIP of malt whisky - Sláinte Michael - wherever you are now (I hope you can proft from the angel's share above Scotland!)... :-)


Source and more information: http://www.internationalwhiskyday.org

For whom it might interest... here are the best whisk(e)ies of the year according to Whisky Magazine - incredible, especially when you see the category world's best single malt... I highly recommend to set-up your own list asap ;-)

Main categories:
World's Best Blended Whisky Hibiki 21 Years Old
World's Best North American Whiskey George T. Stagg 71,30%
World's Best Blended Malt Whisky Mars Maltage 3 Plus 25, 28 Years Old
World's Best Grain Whisky Cape Mountain Whisky
World's Best Single Malt Whisky Ardbeg Galileo
World's Best Whisky Liqueur Speyside Whisky Liqueur 40 Years Old (MOM)

Sub categories:
Best African Single Malt Three Ships 10 Years Old
Best American Single Malt The Notch 10 Years Old
Best Asian Single Malt Kavalan Solist Fino
Best Australian Single Malt Sullivans Cove French Oak Cask
Best Campbeltown Single Malt Longrow
Best European Single Malt Armorik Double Maturation
Best Highland Single Malt Glenmorangie Quarter Century
Best Irish Single Malt Tyrconnell Single Malt Sherry Finish
Best Islands Single Malt Talisker Distiller's Edition
Best Islay Single Malt Ardbeg Galileo
Best Japansese Single Malt Yamazaki 25 Years Old
Best Lowland Single Malt Glenkinchie 12 Years Old
Best Speyside Single Malt The Balvenie 30 Years Old

Source: http://www.whiskymag.com/awards/wwa/2013/

There are many people outside there who think that a good single malt whisky has to be or a certain age before it can be a good whisky. I think this thesis is complete rubbish. Good whisky is no question of age. The only criteria that are important for good whisky are good ingredients (water, barley) and good casks for the maturation. I would even go so far and claim that there are more old whiskies that suffer from too much wood influence than there are young whiskies less than 10 years just ripe for drinking. Believe me or not there are great whiskies out there that are young of age. I will give you each five examples of great young whisky worth trying and partially still available on the market from official bottlers and independent ones through all regions – I will not score them, go out and get them for your own trying!

Official bottlings:
• Auchentoshan Valinch (cask strength, batches around 35 Euro)
• Laphroaig Quarter Cask, 48% (around 35 Euro)
• Port Charlotte An Turas Mor, 46% (around 35-40 Euro)
• Longrow CV, 46% (around 35 Euro)
• Springbank Rundlets & Kilderkins, 10yo, 49,4% (around 70-75 Euro – not very cheap but absolutely stunning whisky!)
• Amrut Fusion, 50% (around 35 Euro, Indian single malt, absolutely worth trying and recommendation of the day, great stuff!)

Independent bottlings (I have to admit that the Bunna, Glentauchers and Tamdhu may be difficult to find):
• Bowmore 10yo 1999, Douglas Laing, The Old Malt Cask, 46% (regular series, so there is no special cask number that I would recommend, around 40 Euro)
• Bunnahabhain 5yo 1997, Murray McDavid Silver Tin, 46%, 1.200 bottles (no cask number available on the label as vatting of different casks, around 35 Euro)
• Classic of Islay (single cask bottlings of youngish Lagavulin), Jack Wieber’s World of Whisky, all cask strength (around 35-40 Euro)
• Smokehead (youngish Ardbeg), Ian Macleod, 43 % (no cask number available as batches of vatted casks, around 30 Euros). By the way – Smokehead Extra Black is a fantastic whisky as well (18 yo vatted Ardbeg) but doesn’t really fit into this category as prizes are around 80-85 Euro ;-)
• Glentauchers 7yo 2003, A.D. Rattray, Cask Collection, 60,5%, cask 900610 (around 55 Euro)
• Tamdhu 7yo 2004, The Ultimate Whisky Company, The Ultimate, 52,9%, cask 5439 (around 55-60 Euro)

All these bottles offer great bang for your buck. And I could have listed many more without problem. They are all younger or at least not older than 10 years. You see – there is no best age for whisky – the quality of ingredients used in the distilling and the casks defines when it is mature and ready to be enjoyed.

Bullshit. Islay whiskies are building their own class of course but there are many other brilliant single malts out on the market. It would be much too simple to only focus yourself and your whisky life on Islay, you will miss many nice experiences. Have you ever tried a zesty grapy Clynelish from the Northern Highlands or a sherry monster from Glenfarclas or GlenDronach? What about a tropical fruity Imperial or a salty-malty Springbank that nearly breaks the glass because of its power and strength? Peaty whiskies indeed are offering another dimension to a single malt but it is definitely not the only interesting one to try. Whisky is so complex - it’s really worth trying all regions and all types of cask finishes, from sherry to wine or even other distillates like Cognac. Enjoy this journey, it will probably never end! By the way, I also love an ultra-clean Bowmore or a well-balanced Bunnahabhain, not to forget the other great Islay malts of course ;-)

I dedicated a very nice dram of Port Ellen (24yo 1983, Cask 4127, McGibbon's Provenance) to the honor of the new pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina. Good luck, Franciscus (or better Francisco). Don't get me wrong, I am not at all believing (additionally I am protestant) but I acknowledge your importance as a moral instance. And I hope that a pope from Latin America will be able to find the right way of modernizing the Catholic Church smoothly by giving the right answers to the most urgent challenges. If you manage to follow and fulfill the high expectations that go along with the name Franciscus you choose for yourself, then this dram of Port Ellen will for sure not be the last one I dedicate to you. So sláinte mhath, Francisco!

... well that's a difficult question. First of all I have not tasted enough malts from all distilleries to answer to this question correctly. I think you should at least try a minimum of ten bottlings from various years of destillation and from different casks to really be able to judge whether you like the overall character and the overall profile of a distillery. So far I have only identified three distilleries where I can definitely answer with a clear YES to the character and YES to the profile (jummie...) - these are Bunnahabhain, Port Ellen and Clynelish. By the way - this does not automatically mean that my favourite bottlings would also come from the same distilleries - there are single gems from other distilleries which I scored even higher, I am talking about... hm, no, I will not go on now - let's wait for the right moment ;-) But that's what is one of the great characteristicas of single malt whisky - there is hardly bad malt. Other great distilleries (my second choice, so to say) which I like are Springbank, Laphroaig, GlenDronach and Glenfarclas.

As I already pointed out you will mostly not find any tasting not from very old and expensive bottlings. Not that I wouldn't like to taste them but I rather dedicate my money to great value-for-money bottlings. Additionally I am not going to explain the production process or any technical information from the distilleries. There are many experts out there with excellent pages and sites so I don't need to repeat. For those who are looking for basic information I warmly advise to the Maltmadness Whisky Blog where you will find very good basic information: http://www.maltmadness.com/malt-whisky/beginners-guide-to-scotch.html. Additionally there is a lot of very good literature out there which you will in short time also find in a special section in this blog. As I am a lover of single malts you will probably not find Bourbon, Rye, Irish or other World Whisky - even if there's lots of high quality stuff on the market. Last but not least don't expect too many tasting notes - I see this blog as a wide platform for various topics around whisky - not just for notes. I will stop now - before you might decide to not read any of this rubbish anymore - too negative ;-)