In each issue of Whisky Magazine we award the very best whisky from our tastings with the coverted Editors Choice award.
Kentucky, Louisville, Benromach
Glenfarclas The Family Casks 1953 Release
Single Malt - Scotland - 49.60%
8 ?Delightfully balanced
Black Bull 40 Years Old 3rd Release
Blended - Scotland - 41.50%
8 A classic old Speysider? Mature and lively at the same time. Really a perfect achievement.
Master of Malt Aberlour That Boutique-y Whisky Company
Blended Malt - Scotland - 54.60%
8 A rich and well structured whisky. Amazingly smooth given its strength.
BenRiach 21 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 56.70%
8 Reveals a rich profile by a succession of aromatic layers. Alcohol is perfectly tamed.
BenRiach 30 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 50.00%
9 Soft, subtle and not overwooded. Just shades it over the 25yo this time.
Bunnahabhain 1968 Auld Aquaintance, Hogmanay Edition
Single Malt - Scotland - 43.80%
8 A brilliantly sunny winter's day; a walk by the sea in late afternoon; a dram at dusk. Still Bunnahabhain, but so different.
Glengoyne 32 Years Old, Single Cask
Single Malt - Scotland - 48.70%
8 Complex, old, not perfect, but good darned fun!
Scotch Malt Whisky Society Yamazaki 1979, Japanese Oak Cask, 119.2
Single Malt - Japan - 57.40%
8 A breakfast malt? Splendidly complex, with Japanese oak adding that extra touch of distinctiveness.
Scotch Malt Whisky Society Yoichi, 116.1
Single Malt - Japan - 56.60%
8 A whole sequence of flavours emerges in this vintage. These are flavours I have found before in Nikka whiskies, but they have not been especially evident elsewhere in this flight.
Scotch Malt Whisky Society Yoichi, 116.4
Single Malt - Japan - 64.90%
8 Lots happening. Nice interplay of elements.
Aberlour 30 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 43.00%
8 More sophisticated, especially in the finish. Better balanced, but less voluptuous maltiness.
Adelphi Highland Park 17 Years Old, Cask 2903
Single Malt - Scotland - 55.30%
9 That dance might have been led by Fred Astaire. The great all-rounder in lean and energetic mood. Makes it look easy. Try it with a late-night movie.
Adelphi Linkwood 17 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 64.20%
8 Linkwood always evokes thoughts of sweetmeats, sometimes delicate, on other occasions more robust. This is in the latter mood: down-to-earth sweetness.
Adelphi Teaninich 31 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 57.80%
8 Well-matured, amazing for its age.
Ardbeg 10 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 46.00%
8 Not from a particularly peaty period, but packed with Ardbeg's other flavours. Wonderfully distinctive.
Ardbeg 1977
Single Malt - Scotland - 46.00%
9 Cleaner, more lemony and oily, and less assertive, than the 24 Years Old duty free edition.
Ardbeg Provenance, 1974, 24 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 55.60%
9 Rich and creamy, with huge flavour development.
Ardbeg Uigeadail
Single Malt - Scotland - 54.20%
8 The elemental opposite of the sophisticated Lord of the Isles.
Auchentoshan 1966, 31 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 45.80%
8 A fine whisky, but does something as fresh and soft benefit from quite so much ageing?
Auchentoshan 36 Years Old, 1975
Single Malt - Scotland - 46.90%
8 Elegance personified. A great mature complex dram.
Balblair 38 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 44.00%
9 A pure beauty. Absolutely beaming on nose and palate. The best a sherry cask can offer.
Balblair 38 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 44.00%
9 An enticing expression of old age. Forever young! With elegance and style.
Bernheim Original Straight Wheat Whiskey
Wheat - U.S.A. - 45.00%
8 At an ‘all you can eat' buffet in Chicago, a woman piling her plate said to me: “isn't this sinful?” This is temptation in a bottle.
Berry's Own Selection Rosebank 1990
Single Malt - Scotland - 46.00%
8 Cute as a button.
Black Bull 40 Years Old 3rd Release
Blended - Scotland - 41.50%
8 A classic old Speysider? Mature and lively at the same time. Really a perfect achievement.
Black Bull 40 Years Old Batch No. 2
Blended - Scotland - 41.90%
9 A pure beauty. The age without the wrinkles...
Bowmore 1968
Single Malt - Scotland - 43.40%
9 What a start! A truly magnificent dram and for me miles ahead of the competition.