By Andrew Graham Rating: A Bushmills on Oct. 1 debuted the first release in a new annual series, “The Rare Casks.” It’s a dizzying and phenomenal dram: the 28-year-old expression was triple distilled in 1992 and spent 11 years maturing in ex-Oloroso sherry casks and bourbon barrels before marrying and having a secondary maturation of 17 more years in Cognac ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A The annual Redbreast Dream Cask has become the regular chimera for fans of the Irish single pot still whiskey revival. Every year, Irish Distillers release this ultra-aged limited edition, putting a different spin on it in terms of cask stock or secondary maturation. The production run is always quite small, it’s done in 500 ml ...

By Paer Johansson Rating: A- Irish Distillers, part of Pernod Ricard and the makers of fine Irish Whiskey such as Jameson, Midleton and “the Spots” have just released their oldest ever permanent expression of Redbreast at 27 years old. This single pot still whisky contains whisky matured in Ruby Port barrels designed to bring a new complexity and depth in ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A Laphroaig seems to be on a roll with releasing ultra-aged expressions. Last year they turned out a 27 year old single malt, and now they have a 28 year old. One might be tempted to see this new malt as an older rendition of the previous limited edition, but it has a different warehouse provenance. ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Last year Laphroaig made single malt lovers swoon by reintroducing its 25 Year Old expression. This year the distillery caught most observers off guard with the launch of a 27 Year Old, something few if any were expecting. One might wonder how much of a difference just two years of extra aging might make in ...