By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Although the crafty blender-bottlers at Wemyss Malts have put out a couple of blended scotch expressions during the last couple of years, these were under the Lord Elcho band. Under their own direct name, Wemyss has only released vatted malts like The Hive or The Peat Chimney. That reflects the company name. They are Wemyss ...

By Richard Thomas The critically acclaimed Scotch whisky blender and bottler Compass Box has announced that two new whiskies are slotted for release this autumn. First is The Lost Blend, which is already in distribution in the UK, US and Europe. The release is a homage to Compass Box’s first vatted malt release, Eleuthera, which was retired in 2004 after ...

By Richard Thomas MacDuff International of Glasgow announced the release of two new blended whiskies last week, adding to its Grand Macnish and Lauder lines. Grand Macnish 6 Cask Edition is a vatted malt drawing on sources from all of Scotland’s whisky regions: Highland, Speyside, Islay, Campbeltown and Lowland & Islands. Lauder’s Ruby Cask Finish is a conventional port-finished Scotch: ...

By Richard Thomas Whisky magazine’s World Whisky Awards attracted more attention than usual this year, perhaps because of the new faces that were among the results. Several of the WWA 2014 picks were also highlighted during the course of the last year by The Whiskey Reviewer, and here is our guide to the award winners: Best American Bourbon: Colonel E.H. ...

By Kurt Mailand Rating: A- Nikka is one of Japan’s premier whiskey distillers, with a much larger profile internationally than is apparent from a purely American perspective. This is because, until recently, Nikka only released a small amount of their full range here in the States.  Late last year, this changed with the release of four new spirits in the ...