This has a significant proportion of sherry wood and it marks a real step up from its younger stablemates. It boasts a stylish nose of old leathery cigar boxes, vanilla, and orange marmalade. Syrupy on the palate, with oranges, sweet sherry, honey, and figs. Spicy oak, caramel, citrus fruits, and aniseed in the lengthy finish.

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Summer 2018)

Unmistakably Jameson on the nose, this is a belter of a whiskey: honey, apple, toasted coconut, creamy vanilla, and sublime pot still spiciness. This offers sweet toffee and caramel, bursting with spices, just a hint of sherry, Brazil nut, vanilla, creamy oak, and a caressing mouthfeel. A triumph that exemplifies the glories of pot still blending, and its sherry influence makes for a rich ending.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

The tastiest of their Signature range, this boasts a dry oak and spice nose with fudge, rye bread, and banana interwoven with French oak influences of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground ginger. As the gentle orange, malt, pear, and apple settle down, little spicy explosions of ginger and pepper detonate, leaving an aftermath of spiced malt, coffee cake, milk chocolate, and cocoa. Such a wonderful flavor trajectory to behold.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

Voluptuous, fruity nose of lemon meringue pie, Conference pear, and fudge, with floral top notes balanced by aromatic spices. The flavors are focused around orange, pear, and lemon, infiltrated by caramel and hectored by some abiding spice notes of ginger, clove, and pepper. Late gains made by honey and nougat at the end. Lemon sherbet and aniseed frame the conclusion. Superb sourced single malt from Boann Distillery.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

The oldest of the fifteen expressions in Batch 16 of GlenDronach’s single cask release program, this cask-strength offering has been matured for 26 years in a Pedro Ximénez sherry puncheon. The nose yields fresh-from-the-oven Christmas cake, cherries, nutmeg, and sweet leather. Viscous on the palate, with dark sherry, raisins, plain chocolate, tangy orange, and caramel. Prickly chili and dates in the long finish. (546 bottles) £310

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Summer 2018)

A sourced whiskey of 95% corn, finished in wine barrels from winemaker Dave Phinney. This makes a super first impression, with Bit-O-Honey candy, eucalyptus, black cherry, cinnamon hearts, violet candies, and sandalwood. The flavors pour layered and complex, with clove-studded orange, flickers of rye spice, and pure, crystalline sweetness balanced with lemony lift. Laser-like spice, sweet caramel corn, and more floral notes dance across the long finish.

Reviewed by: Jeffery Lindenmuth (Summer 2018)

Sumptuously rich and intense whiskey emerges from these double-charred casks; a seduction of butterscotch, treacle, toasted nuts, scorched coconut, raisin, and vanilla essence. Secure in its deep-centered sweetness, it revels in caramelized sugar, dark vanilla, pecan nut slice, crème brûlée, peppery spice, and fleshy fruits gloomily submerged in sticky, umber syrups. Memorable for its long, satisfying, toasted aftertaste, heavy on the vanilla and raisins.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

Floral, resinous, almost hoppy on the nose, with dusty cedar chest, old leather chair, white pepper, licorice, and an intriguing tangy note, like pickles. The palate’s intense oakiness is tempered by an herbaceous sweetness and integrated spice—cinnamon, cubeb, and allspice, with chalky minerality. There’s a savory and saline quality that lingers into the finish, which is spicy and dry with oak tannins. Distilled in 1989 in what was then Czechoslovakia, using Czech peat, and matured in Czech oak casks. (300 bottles; U.S. only)

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Summer 2018)

The dance begins in the open barley fields, with a gust of wind catching grain’s natural aromatic presence. Then cherry blossoms and roasted pine nuts tango for dominance, just before the core notes kick in: caramel chew, malt, cornbread, brown sugar, and chocolate, followed by hints of molasses, cardamom, and gingersnaps. As the finish lingers, it’s clear that this is sippin’ whiskey.

Reviewed by: Fred Minnick (Summer 2018)

This dark, walnut-colored dram delivers the fabulous first-fill sherry cask characteristics we love: raisin, mixed peel, fruitcake, marzipan, Brazil nut, jellied fruits, and nutmeg. So wonderfully thick and chewy that you need to resist the temptation to pick up a knife and fork. It imparts dark weighty fruit, blackened oak, cooked apple, and a twister of peppery turmoil. Add water liberally to unlock figs, dates, and plums.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

This is the first of four bottlings in the Vault Edition series and was matured in bourbon barrels in the distillery’s famous No.1 Vaults. Nectarines in brine on the nose, with iodine and sweet spices. Medium-bodied on the palate, with peaches, vanilla, salt, and slightly bitter orange. Lingering orange notes in the finish, with cocoa powder and lots of salt. This expression lives up to its name!

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Summer 2018)

Definitely one to taste. The nose offers up allspice, moderate peat smoke, pomegranate, dried peel, and ground almonds. The palate is superb; milk chocolate caramels, assertive smoke, and peppercorn, then a slow, warm slide into coffee, cocoa, and licorice, becoming lush and velvety in texture. Paradoxically, the more diluted it becomes, the thicker and more substantial it seems to taste. Long finish of coffee and chocolate. (Batch 4)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

The 2018 Ardbeg Day limited-edition bottling includes a proportion of spirit matured in red wine casks which have been heavily charred, leaving deep grooves in the surface of the oak. Fragrant soft smoke, warm leather, and salty red berries on the nose; background charcuterie. The palate offers red berry fruits, vanilla, dense peat smoke, brine, and asphalt. Beach bonfires and black pepper in the sweet finish.

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Summer 2018)

An effusive offering of dark fruits: cranberry, blueberry, and black currant. This is a beautiful marriage of the spirit and the port cask finishing, showing applesauce, aged oak, macaroons, and dry aromatic spices. Black currant holds sway on the tongue, yielding to caramel, ground ginger, a second burst of juicy blueberry, with a hot finish evoking strips of dried tropical fruit and flashes of ground pepper. Rewarding and flavorsome.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

The third release in Macallan’s annual Edition series—which focuses on aspects of cask influence—was matured in a mix of European and American oak casks. Figs and apricot jam, vanilla, Jaffa oranges, and cinnamon on the nose. The palate is silky and offers a big citrus fruit hit, Bit-O-Honey, then creamy milk chocolate. Milk chocolate persists through the long, fruity finish, with attendant sweet oak.

Reviewed by: Gavin Smith (Summer 2018)

It opens with a crust of salt and Flintstones vitamins in honey, almond paste, and caramel. Then pumice, pear, canned peaches, and baked apples jump into the mix, followed by Nutella, Cheerios, candied pecans, and chocolate. As the medium to long finish sets in, slight hints of smoke appear and suggest it would pair great with a bold cigar. A drop of water only makes it better.

Reviewed by: Fred Minnick (Summer 2018)

Despite some inconsistent spelling of sherry terms on the exterior tube, Dingle is releasing some very good initial whiskeys. The nose brings dates, dried apricot and apple, haystacks, vanilla, unwaxed lemon, and cardamom pod. This second small batch release tastes fruity, with orange lollipops, a beautifully developed apricot note, and caramel, leading to a peak of gingerbread and pepper, followed by vanilla, toffee, and orange oil twisted from the peel. (6,000 bottles) €65

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Summer 2018)

With smoke and oak, this starts off so intense with pepper spices, peat, dried apricot, hard candies, caramel-covered apples, salted butter, pecan shell, and strawberry jam. Leather, tobacco, and baking spices begin the descent toward a medium, slightly bitter finish. If you like trying new things, this is an American cadre of flavors unlike anything out there. (Bottled on February 12, 2018)

Reviewed by: Fred Minnick (Summer 2018)