Impeccable balance from start to finish; clean and structured. The nose is floral and fresh with jasmine, freesia, and apple blossom, plus green pears, lemon, talcum powder, and almond cream. Lemon, coconut, and vanilla form a sweet bright palate that revels in its celebration of malt: Think of apricot jam in a shortbread thumbprint cookie. Sweet and clean finish with persistent lemon, vanilla, and mouthwatering oak.

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Spring 2021)

A bright and delicate nose is spritzed with lemon and mandarin orange, perfumed with salt-sprayed hibiscus, and supported by the creamy sweetness of almonds and pistachios. Consistent on the palate, which shines with zingy, zesty lemon, orange, and grapefruit, though cinnamon, peppermint, almonds, and oak offer a tempering influence. It finishes with sweet mint and oak, cinnamon, and a creeping tobacco flavor—the end of a great cigar. (Collectible)

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Spring 2021)

An expressive yet delicate nose of honeyed toasted cereals, peach jam, hibiscus, fresh kiwi, and almonds gives way to fresh tropical and citrus fruit on the silky palate: mango, kiwi, pomelo, grapefruit, and mandarin orange, all overlaid on a soft base of malt, sprinkled with peppery spice. Coffee, nutty malt, polished oak, and tinges of tropical fruit on the medium-length finish.

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Spring 2021)

Raspberry tart, marzipan, honeyed cornbread, cinnamon, new leather, cedar, and herbs on the nose. A creamy mouthfeel, with notes of chocolate fudge, tobacco leaf, leather, spice, and mature oak. Water brings out generous flavors of chocolate nuttiness, licorice, cinnamon, spearmint, and mature but balanced oak. Spiced and lively, particularly considering its age. (146 bottles)

Reviewed by: David Fleming (Spring 2021)

Peanuts in the shell, corn silo, baking spice, Lipton’s tea bag, brown sugar, blueberry Pop Tart, and Dr. Pepper on the nose, and a touch of solvent that reveals maturity. The chewy palate’s blueberry muffin and grape jelly combine seamlessly with peanuts and milk chocolate. Water brings out a sheen of citrus oil, but bruises the fullness of flavor; use sparingly. A rounded finish of oak, dark chocolate, and integrated spice leaves nothing but satisfaction. (Collectible)

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Spring 2021)

In its new embossed bottle, this year’s vintage release has a complex, evolving nose with a huge hit of vanilla, backed by caramel, nuts, zesty citrus notes of lemon and lime, fragrant ginger root, white pepper, orange hard candies, and hints of marshmallow. Rich and indulgent flavors of shortbread, graham cracker, runny caramel, dried fruit, and citrus; the honeyed sweetness deepening to toffee notes, loading up with more fruit and nuts. (1,500 bottles)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Arbikie’s signature rye is matured in virgin oak casks, giving notes of cinnamon swirls, choux pastry, vanilla seeds, flaked chocolate, and allspice, developing a little savory pepperiness on the nose as it opens up. The flavors are superb, with vanilla pod, caramel popcorn, honeyed fruit pulp, apricot, cocoa, and cinnamon, opening up a deep well of swirling spices. Hints of butterscotch follow, ending enticingly with vanilla toffee and clove. (Editors' Choice)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Burning cedar, chocolate-flavored tobacco notes, and sooty ash pierce through this powerful whisky’s smoky aromas, just as latitude 63 strikes through the High Coast warehouse. Experiment with dilution to your heart’s content: tangy citrus, rolling spices, and smoke are smashed by a meteoric impact of high alcohol that abates slowly, revealing dark fruits, toffee, wood tannins, cocoa, and cappuccino notes. If Cohiba cigars made a whisky, this would be it.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Bottled to celebrate the refurbishment of Mars Shinshu Distillery, it’s named after the area’s native chestnut tiger butterfly. The nose is beautiful but delicate: cotton candy, spring blossoms, powders and lotions, rose-scented Turkish delight, fresh linen, and cherry sherbet. The palate offers ripe orchard fruit, vanilla custard, clove, and honey. Its smooth mouthfeel makes graceful transitions between flavors, showing glimpses of cherry and strawberry. (1,122 bottles for U.S.)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

  A delicious example of a developing national style, this characterful whisky revels in peppery wood spices that obscure faint strands of vanilla fudge and soft fruitiness, supported by toasted coconut, rock cakes, and burnt banana loaf. Soft caramel, nectarine, and the grip of dusty oak under the menace of an approaching storm of pepper and clove spices subside to leave barrel char, heather honey, and cinnamon-spiced muffins.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

The rose-gold tint of this natural-color whisky serves as a visual hint of its heavy port cask influence. Dominated on the nose by butterscotch and caramelized sugar, maple syrup, pralines, candied pecans, dates, and syrupy stewed plums. A silky but weighty palate revels in raspberry jam, raisin bread, semi-sweet chocolate, toasted nuts, dark sea-salt caramel, and gentle spice, concluding with a balanced finish of raspberry-dark chocolate squares, tobacco, and ginger.

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Spring 2021)

Spot whiskeys inhabit a flavor profile between Redbreast’s fruitiness and Powers’ muscularity, and this feisty newcomer completes the family with its nose of baked apple, spiced nuts, toffee, very crisp spices, and cool mint. The creamy palate of melted toffee and condensed milk layers on tangy citrus, bitter peels, baked lemon, apple, dried cherry, and walnut, with peppery pot still spices running amok at full strength.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

A nose to savor and get lost in contemplation with its array of beautifully layered wood spices interwoven with balanced smoke, polished wood, vanilla pod, and lemon-scented biscuits. This new edition has a waxy feel, with sappy flavors of star fruit, preserved lemons, Asian pear, lychee, peach syrup, and an underbelly of moody spices. The spicy finish retains a residual sweetness.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Sweet, smoky brisket, brown-sugar bacon, vanilla bean, nutmeg, buttered pecans, milk chocolate, dried strawberries, and spearmint swirl on the expressive nose of this mesquite-smoked single malt, and there’s more of the same on the palate: minty freshness, nutty milk chocolate, vanilla, dried red fruits, and sweet smoke. The oak turns mouthwatering into the peppery, cinnamon-hot yet minty-cool finish, where vanilla smoke lingers longest. (785 bottles)

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Spring 2021)

A blend of straight bourbons finished in maple syrup barrels. The nose is rich with brown sugar, honey, orange peel, and rose oil; elegant and polished. The palate suggests hot chocolate, raspberry jam, and bitter cherries, a syrupy sweetness shining through. The finish shows good length and continued sweetness with brown sugar glaze, cocoa powder, and coffee cake. A dessert lover’s dream, the finishing cask sweetness is the star here.

Reviewed by: Ted Simmons (Spring 2021)

Named after a 1930s Danish political slogan, this is a combination of Stauning’s unpeated malt, smoked malt, and malted rye whiskies. Give it time to open up and reveal its full beauty: coffee bean, plain chocolate chunks, a warming twist of sweet peat smoke, wood spices, apple, and fresh breakfast pastries. Green apple flavors, rocked by a pandemonium of spices, dissipate to sugary caramel, vanilla, chocolate, and malt permeated by mellow smoke.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Marmalade, vanilla, brittle toffee, cream, dried red fruits, red currant, dates, and wafts of floral scents, flecked with ground pepper and a little chile heat. The sherry wood flavors are polished, delicious, and really deliver: honey, marmalade, baked orange, and candied peel, it rides a crest of active spices, then runny caramel, canned peaches, and raisin, leaving the gums tingling with residual spices.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Metallica’s standard Blackened with the proof turned up to 11. The nose is nutty and sweet with pralines, caramel corn, brown-sugar butter, and vanilla-almond ice cream. There’s more spice on the palate, with Red Hots, toasted nuts and oak, candy apple, and pepper. The finish is rich and warming, carrying over many of the spices. Water elongates and opens the palate. This demonstrates excellent consistency from nose to finish and quality development over time.

Reviewed by: Ted Simmons (Spring 2021)