By Richard Thomas Rating: B- Premium vatted malts are only half of what those clever blenders at Wemyss Malts do. The other half is bottling select barrels they come across into limited edition, single barrel, single malt scotches. “A Matter of Smoke” is just one example of this line of rare birds. Distilled in 1996 and bottled in August 2011, ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A The folks at Angel’s Envy made their first limited edition release quite a doozy, going with a cask strength version of their signature port-finished bourbon. I’ve had a growing interest in portwood-finished whiskey, given how it brings together where I live (Portugal) with my beloved whiskey, going so far as to think of Angel’s Envy ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B The Entertainer is a special, limited edition release from those innovative, artisanal whiskey-makers at Compass Box. Intended as a tribute to the life of Gordon Selfridge, founder of Britain’s Selfridge department store chain, the scotch is available only through the Selfridge website and their four brick-and-mortar outlets. Americans with an interest in Compass Box products ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Wemyss Malts made a subtle change in how they demarcated their single malt, single cask line of limited edition scotches with their 2012 release. Rather than use a straight aging statement, as in their previous single cask line, the new releases bore an aging statement based on the distillation date. Thus the Autumn Berries is ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Although high-end vatted malts are the bread and butter at Wemyss, that isn’t the only thing those Scottish negociants get up to. Earlier this year, Wemyss released their first premium blended scotch, Lord Elcho, but the company also has a commitment to single malt whiskey. As a company that assembles choice scotch from different distilleries, ...