Crusty cornbread leads off in this Tennessee-distilled, sweet-styled bourbon brimming with Bit-O-Honey, Peanut Chews, and banana taffy. While the bold sweetness and stone fruits take the lead, there is enough tobacco-laced tannin and spice to back up and balance the initial sweetness, as char-grilled corn flavors take this across the finish line and make it decidedly moreish.

Reviewed by: Jeffery Lindenmuth (Fall 2018)

Smoke and spice and all things nice. With Mossburn Cask Bill #1, the blenders created a finishing cask using first-fill bourbon staves with heads of heavily toasted virgin European oak. Baked citrus with some fresh grapefruit sharpness, raw butternut squash, and a cool line in salty smoke. The palate riffs off wine gums, citrus, savory smoke, bitter roots, pepper, and clove, leaving a long, smoky finish.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

This whisky is slowly making its way around the world, but it was worth the wait, as master blender Colin Scott’s use of mizunara oak makes for an impressively different nose from Chivas Regal 12 year old. Pecans, sandalwood, coriander seed, honeycomb, peanuts, and rich oak aromas herald a warming dram with fabulously developed orange zest and vanilla toffee flavors, before a more assertive finish of dark toffee and tenacious spices.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

Twelve of the world’s leading bartenders collaborated to create this limited release. Whiskies chosen spanned five decades, and were aged in various oak barrels, including American and German, as well as rum, red wine, and Laphroaig casks. The nose is rich and fruity, with Jaffa oranges, apricots, caramel, and soft ginger. Voluptuous on the palate, with nectarines, Brazil nuts, nutmeg, and honey. Warming spices in the lengthy finish, with lingering nectarine notes.

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Fall 2018)

Like sniffing fine soil running through your fingers, with creamy milk chocolate, baked fruit, mild spices, and pungent, acrid smoke that catches the back of the throat. Baked apple, pear, sultana, and cocoa, but then there’s the smoke: an inferno of caustic, thick peat smoke and astringent pepper, the dark recesses of the mouth beginning to blacken. It’s like throwing a punch in slow motion. Try it. (Total Wine exclusive)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

Peated Glenturret lies at the heart of Smoky Black, but where will the master blender find her smoke when the distillery is sold? Contemporary bottlings are rich, warming, and comfortingly smoky, with chocolate, malt, cocoa, burnt fruitcake, and baking spices. Medium-weighted blend with malt, chocolate, and bourbon biscuits, interwoven with smoke, then cherry, baked apple strudel, and chocolate desserts. Dry smoke, ginger, pepper, and dark chocolate to finish.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

Compared to classic Grouse, this has more caramel notes, additional sweetness, and a greater delivery of lemon, vanilla, toasted coconut, and finely shredded orange peel. It’s lightly structured, drier, and comes with less-pronounced spices. Sipping reveals sweet light citrus, smooth caramel, vanilla sponge, apricot, soft fruits, and chocolate macaroon bars, with a late development of spice. Sweet caramel hangs on the lips. This is an easygoing, feel-good whisky.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

Finishing these malts in first-fill oloroso casks helps produce a tempting nose of tangy marmalade, cherry, chocolate sponge, malt, and apple tart, with a rub of spice. Chocolate, spiced orange, pepper, and ginger notes before sweet toffee breaks through, allowing the orange peel-rich marmalade to mingle with the malt. It’s a big mouthful and definitely one to try.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

Matthew Gloag introduced this classic blend in 1896, and now Kirsteen Campbell, master blender of Grouse since 2016, is taking it to new heights. Rich toffee, boundless baked orange notes, wood spices, dried banana chips, and some sweet floral top notes. Very smooth drinking, with citrus flavors, toffee and caramel, vanilla, ground ginger, star anise, and lemon peel. The spiciness abounds into the finish with well-rounded dark orange notes.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

The second Kilchoman to be fully matured in port casks, this expression is a vatting of 30 ruby port casks, filled in 2014. The nose offers milk chocolate sprinkled with white pepper, sweet red wine, and ultimately, smoky citrus fruit. Big red berry notes lead on the palate, followed by ginger and spicy peat. Tangy red currants and bonfire smoke in the relatively long finish. Impressive for its age. (10,000 bottles)

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Fall 2018)

This limited-edition Bunnahabhain was aged in sherry casks until 2011, when it was transferred into first-fill Pedro Ximénez sherry butts. The nose offers leathery sherry, red berries, ozone, and a little black pepper. Rich, sweet fruit notes on the palate; overt sherry, plus toffee, dark chocolate, and a hint of background salt. Cinnamon, honey, and raisins in the long finish. (2,154 bottles for U.S.)

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Fall 2018)

Honey, baklava, lemongrass, artichoke, vanilla, herbal stems, and Turkish delight make for a thought-provoking glass of whiskey. Sipping reveals a gentle, fruity delight; this is silky smooth and packed with dried fruits, mango, papaya, vanilla, light caramel, pleasant spices, and as it unwinds, it oozes honey and sweetness. As the honey and peppery spices fade on the finish, a hint of mint appears.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

The nose begins with notes of cinnamon, soft oak, cardamom, white pepper, and a hint of new wood. The palate shifts to a subtle blend of orange and vanilla. Water reveals fresh raspberry, along with notes of fresh herbs, roasted almonds, tobacco leaf, and more new wood. The finish is powerful and complex, leading with vanilla and more nuttiness, as well as red fruit and roasted pineapple.

Reviewed by: David Fleming (Fall 2018)

Well-balanced offering of sweet citrus, grapefruit peel, and beach bonfire smoke. Cream, lemon, and lime zest are overcome by smoke as the chili spice and pepper go off like a rocket. More disciplined, it settles down to sweet orange, lemon bonbon, cocoa, and driftwood smoke. An incredibly pale whisky, it’s punchy, but not overly complex, although it does include some fun stickers to let you customize your own bottle. (3,000 bottles)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

This addition to the Port Askaig range is presented with natural color, without chill filtration, and matured in refill American oak casks. The nose presents light peat, ozone, and faint medicinal notes, becoming saltier and spicier with time. Bracing. Woodsmoke, kippers, grapefruit, and lime on the palate. The finish is sweet, with receding smoke.

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Fall 2018)

A mix of American and Spanish oak casks was used to mature this addition to the core range. A big blast of orchard and tropical fruits characterizes the early nose, along with honey, vanilla, and toffee. The palate also majors in fruit, this time principally oranges, plus caramel, cinnamon, milk chocolate, and lots of vanilla. The finish is quite short, with banana and ginger.

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Fall 2018)

Fresh fruits, satsuma peel, lime zest, pear, lemon meringue pie, and a cheeky burst of spices in this red wine and American oak bourbon barrel-finished whisky. Marshmallow softness, with apple, cooked Jell-O, and cherry slam into fruit-skin bitterness, chicory root, and aniseed, descending into spicy bitter fruit flavors. This perks the palate up no end. Oak seems to hold stronger cards than the wine soaked into the staves.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2018)

Distilled from roasted blue corn. The spirit itself, not the grain, is smoked over Texas scrub oak. Spicy Red Vines, herbal notes, and blackened corn aromas. An initial burst of fire on the palate transforms into juicy red fruit, sweet cinnamon apple, and hints of bramble and forest floor. An unusual and polarizing whiskey, Brimstone is aggressive at first, but in the end it’s a gentle giant.

Reviewed by: Adam Polonski (Fall 2018)