There was a time when a whisky finishing in a sherry, Port or Madeira cask was considered fairly adventurous.
These days, whisky makers are rummaging through almost anything that once held something interesting. Tequila. Mezcal. Guinness. Tobasco. Seaweed. Pineapple. Maple syrup. Even herring!
And yet, tequila and mezcal casks might be two of the more logical additions to the whisky world’s ever-expanding finishing toolbox. Tequila can bring citrus, pepper, sweetness and vegetal notes, while mezcal’s often smoky, earthy character can make an especially interesting partner for a peated whisky. The results can be surprisingly convincing: Smokehead’s Tequila Cask Terminado pairs its heavy Islay peat with citrus, lime, caramel and white pepper, while Kilchoman has explored mezcal finishes that bring together two very different kinds of smoke.
Which does raise the question: how weird does a cask finish have to be before it stops being innovative and starts being a gimmick? Because, as we’ve seen, some of the strangest combinations can work remarkably well. And some probably should have stayed in the warehouse. And others should never seen the light of day. Yes Fishky, I’m looking at you! (Read about it – at your peril – in the Worth Reading section.)
Sláinte,
Mark.
What’s In Mark’s Glass This Week
Oban 10yo Special Release 2024 (58% abv) – The last bottle of Oban I owned was the Oban 14yo, when it was still part of Diageo’s Classic Malts series. It always came a distant second to the Talisker 10yo and Lagavulin 16yo in that range. It was pleasant enough, if a bit soft. I remember a certain amount of waxiness, but that could be my brain making it up. I’d like to revisit it someday, especially after tasting this newer Oban.
The Oban 10yo “Coastal Orchard” label states that it was finished in charred American oak barrels, seasoned with Oloroso sherry. It’s bright, punchy and very fruit forward (as the name suggests), with a fair amount of salinity both on the nose and the palate. I like this one a lot! And will now start actively looking for other Oban releases to try.
Whisky Tasting Fellowship × The Only Whisky Show
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Thursday-Night Tickets
Choose between Johannesburg or Cape Town.
How to Enter
- Subscribe to the newsletter, if you haven’t already.
- Email us your answer: What whisky would you most like to try at the show — and why. Remember to tell us whether you’d like to attend the Johannesburg or Cape Town show.
- Refer a new subscriber and earn an additional entry.
The Fellowship Pour
Your whisky. Your glass. Your story. Send us a photo, share the moment, and add your pour to the growing Fellowship community. The submissions keep rolling in, and they’re great.
“Holiday sundowner and braai lighting in progress. Woodstock Moosehammer Hazy goes so well with Ardbeg 10CS. #holidayvibes” — Hardy M.
“When ordering a lovely old bottling like this, check the level of the bottle. Sometimes these old releases have been opened many moons ago making the remaining liquid lose its original zing.” — Roland R.
Fellowship Conversations: Dave Gunns
As co-founder of Wild About Whisky, Dave has spent twenty years turning a converted Dullstroom wine bar into one of South Africa’s true whisky destinations. From a friend’s parting bottle in his twenties to a sign reading “whisky tasting” put up with no idea if anyone would walk in, his guiding philosophy has stayed the same: education first, myths destroyed, and every bottle poured, not just collected.
In this Fellowship Conversation, Dave takes us back to the beginning — the trip to Scotland that sparked the idea, why Dullstroom turned out to be the perfect fit, and how the whisky flights and “taste before you buy” approach evolved into what the bar is today. We also get into his own palate, his opinions on the wider industry, and a Jim McEwan story that’s worth the read on its own.
Pour yourself a dram and join the conversation.
— Read the Interview
Industry News
Brown-Forman rejects Sazerac’s $15 billion takeover bid — again
The Jack Daniel’s owner is firmly in play. Sazerac has gone over the board’s head and written directly to Brown-Forman’s Class A shareholders, urging them to reconsider its all-cash offer of $32 per share — roughly $15 billion — and signalling it would improve the terms if the board would engage. Brown-Forman’s board, backed by the Brown family’s holding vehicle Wolf Pen Branch LP, received the renewed approach on Sunday and declared it “not actionable.”
This is the second rejection of the same suitor this year, after the original April offer was turned down in May — and analysts at TD Cowen link the renewed push to the news that CEO Lawson Whiting is heading for retirement. Consolidation pressure at the very top of American whiskey is now impossible to ignore.
US Restores Zero Tariffs on Scotch — The Trade Pivot We’ve Been Waiting For
As of 24 July, the United States has returned to tariff-free trading on Scotch whisky and all UK spirits, with the USTR formally enacting the terms of the US-UK Economic Prosperity Deal signed in April. The Section 301 tariffs that had loomed over Scotch exports since 2019 are now fully lifted. First tariff-free consignments left UK warehouses within 48 hours of the announcement. For distillers, independent bottlers, and importers shipping into the world’s largest Scotch market, this is genuinely transformative. Expect trickle-down effects on allocation, pricing confidence, and retailer stocking decisions over the months ahead — and watch for how this reshapes cask investment valuations.
Laser technology can now detect methanol inside a sealed bottle
Researchers at the University of St Andrews and the University of Adelaide have developed a laser system that detects toxic methanol in unopened bottles — even through coloured glass — and can capture an “optical fingerprint” of the liquid inside. Published in the Journal of Physics: Photonics, the technique could become a serious weapon against counterfeit spirits, a problem costing the industry billions annually. For anyone who has ever hesitated over a too-good-to-be-true auction lot, this is genuinely good news.
Kingsbarns opens the first putting green at a Scotch distillery
The Wemyss-owned Fife distillery — founded, fittingly, by a St Andrews golf caddie — has opened what is believed to be Scotland’s first distillery putting green. An August competition will hand the core range (Doocot, Balcomie, Coaltown) to any visitor who beats distillery manager Peter Holroyd’s score. A small story, but a telling one: whisky tourism is getting creative as the visitor market tightens.
Pernod Ricard faces a $600 million bill in India — Scotch at the centre
Pernod Ricard has withdrawn its Delhi High Court challenge to a $314 million customs demand over allegedly undervalued Scotch imports — and with penalties, the final bill could top $600 million, roughly three times its annual India profit. The timing stings: India has just become Pernod’s largest market by volume, and the world’s biggest whisky market is where every major Scotch house is placing its bets.
New Releases
Darkness returns with ten limited editions at once — including its first Dalmunach
Sherry-octave specialist Darkness has dropped ten Scotch bottlings in one go: a Ledaig 25 oloroso (just 108 bottles), the label’s first-ever Dalmunach 10, North British grain at 17 and 28 years, a cheekily named “Farkness” secret Speysider 12, young Inchfad and Islay casks — plus a tasting set covering all ten. For sherried-whisky obsessives this is the indie drop of the month.
Glenfiddich unveils The Voyage Collection — including its first-ever Port pipe finish
The world’s biggest single malt brand has launched a new permanent travel-retail range curated by Malt Master Brian Kinsman: Warehouse Eight Solera (40%, £53/1L), a 12-year-old Rum Cask Finish (43%, £60/1L), a 15-year-old Sherry Cask Finish (43%, £70), and the headliner — an 18-year-old Port Cask Finish (43%, £100), the first Glenfiddich single malt ever finished in Port pipes. The launch comes with fully refreshed packaging drawing on five generations of family archives. One to hunt through duty-free on the next trip.
Mac-Talla Friends of Feis Île 2026 — Cognac Cask Finish
Mac-Talla’s Friends of Feis Île releases mark the iconic Islay festival season with limited, community-focused expressions. The 2026 Cognac Cask Finish takes the house’s elegant, maritime Islay character and layers French brandy cask influence — a combination that tends to add soft fruit and an almost silky texture over the underlying peat. One for the Feis Île faithful and anyone who enjoys whisky with a Gallic twist.
Bulleit ’87 — the first new core Bulleit expression in fifteen years
Diageo’s Bulleit has launched its first new permanent expression since Bulleit 95 Rye in 2011: a blend of its Kentucky bourbon and Indiana rye, each finished separately on toasted American and French oak staves for four to six weeks before marrying. Named for the brand’s 1987 founding year and wearing Bulleit’s first-ever blue label, it lands at 45% ABV and a very reasonable $29.99, rolling out to US retail from September.
Killowen Barántúil — Sagaland Part V: The Young Son
The fifth chapter in the County Down distillery’s Norse-mythology-inspired Sagaland single-cask series. Killowen’s small-batch Irish spirit continues to punch far above the distillery’s size, and this instalment leans into tropical fruit and orchard notes. £120, and like every Sagaland release before it, unlikely to hang around.
Reviews Roundup
A huge congratulations to Whiskyfun on turning 24!
The OG whisky review website has been keeping whisky nerds entertained, informed—and occasionally wondering whether their own palates are remotely functional—for nearly a quarter of a century. Serge’s legendary tasting notes, dry wit and fearless scoring have made Whiskyfun essential reading, while Angus has recently joined the fun and helped ensure the whisky cabinet remains in very capable hands. Here’s to 24 years of drams, digressions, obscure bottles and gloriously uncompromising opinions. Long may the fun continue—Slàinte!
— Bookmark Whiskyfun if you haven’t already
Croftengea 8yo Red Cask
Loch Lomond’s heavily peated Croftengea expression goes through a Red Cask finish in this 8-year-old bottling, and Dramface’s review suggests the result is unexpectedly fruity — the peat is present but the red wine influence softens and redirects it toward raspberry, dark cherry, and smoke-dried fruit. A genuinely interesting dram for peat lovers who want complexity over brute force.
— Dramface
Bowmore 26yo 1999 “Crafted by Hand” PX cask
Ruben Luyten on a distillery-exclusive, full-on sherried Bowmore at 56.4%: sour cherries, chocolate ganache and ash rather than the fabled tropical fruit. “The nose was outstanding but on the palate I thought it lost the balance a little. Still a high scoring bottle worth tracking down.”
Lagavulin 14yo & Laphroaig 13yo — the Fèis Ìle 2026 headliners
The Bros tackle the two headline Islay festival bottlings of 2026, with the Lagavulin taking the honours. Worth a read locally — festival bottles have a habit of trickling onto SA shelves and auction listings in the months after Fèis Ìle.
Cadenhead’s trio: Bowmore 10, Fettercairn 19, Tamdhu 12
Thijs Klaverstijn rates a Cadenhead’s trio, with the Bowmore 10 stealing the show — coastal peat plus mango, papaya and “an avalanche of lemons.” His verdict: “a perfect example of what a 10-year-old Bowmore can be (or maybe should be).”
Ardbeg 18yo 1991, Douglas Laing Old Malt Cask
Ruben Luyten digs out a 2009-bottled single cask from Ardbeg’s 1991 vintage and finds something closer to the late-1970s style: totally maritime, ashy and medicinal, yet “very balanced — it satisfies the peathead” without brute force. Auction material rather than shelf stock, but a fascinating benchmark for what Ardbeg once was.
Bourbon Corner
Bardstown Bourbon Company — Victoria Pineapple Barrel Finish
Bardstown Bourbon’s Collaborative Series continues with this Victoria Pineapple Barrel Finish — a blend of 7- and 9-year Kentucky straight bourbons finished in barrels previously used to ferment Victoria pineapples. The result is genuinely surprising: light tropical aromatics on the nose give way to more traditional bourbon character on the palate, with the pineapple influence lending a clean sweetness rather than anything artificial or syrupy. Bottled at 98 proof, it’s more nuanced than the premise suggests.
Old Forester 117 Series: Triple Char — the first Old Forester made start-to-finish at the Main Street distillery in downtown Louisville, aged in barrels charred three times longer than standard. 115 proof, $64.99 per 375ml, distillery and select Kentucky retailers only.
Barrell Craft Spirits launches Decade 2 — a 20-year-old blend containing whiskeys distilled every single year from 1995 to 2005, finished in Spanish brandy and Hungarian oak casks. A statement ultra-aged release from the Kentucky blending specialists.
Garrison Brothers opens its first-ever pre-sale — Hye Rye Bourbon — the Texas distillery’s new rye-recipe bourbon, expected at 98 proof and $99.99 with distillery pickup. A first for Garrison, and a sign of how much demand the Texas category now commands.
Jackson Purchase Bottled-in-Bond — “unexpectedly delightful” — Bourbon & Banter finds the western-Kentucky distillery’s bonded bourbon “surprisingly weighty and rich for only 100 proof,” with fruit, spice, honey and pepper that shames many older bourbons. One for the value hunters.
SMWS New Releases & Reviews
Outturn No. 37 is live — eight new whiskies, 5 to 17 years old
The new SMWS South Africa outturn dropped on Monday 27 July at 8pm: eight whiskies spanning three Scotch regions, a peated Taiwanese release, and a Heresy small batch. Everything was still in stock at time of writing — but the sherry bomb is already down to its last three bottles. One bottle per member, members only.
| Cask | Name | Age | ABV | Price | Stock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11.67 | Intense Sherry — Be Warned! | 9yo | 61.0% | R2,150 | Only 3 left |
| 115.39 | Massaged With Birch Sap | 10yo | 62.8% | R2,190 | Available |
| SB 33 | Scrumptious! (Heresy) | 17yo | 50.0% | R2,250 | Available |
| 138.29 | Sea, Sand and Sausages | 5yo | 58.3% | R2,290 | Available |
| 53.499 | Peat and Meat | 13yo | 55.4% | R2,990 | Available |
| 41.183 | Along the Honeysuckle Vine | 17yo | 54.0% | R3,190 | Available |
| 24.189 | Robust Start to Sweet Jam Tart | 16yo | 62.8% | R4,490 | Available |
| 24.192 | Obsidian Eternity | 16yo | 62.5% | R4,490 | Available |
| — | Outturn No. 37 Tasting Set (5×30ml) | — | — | R560 | Available |
Picks of the outturn:
- The Heresy: Small Batch 33 “Scrumptious!” — a 17-year-old Speyside malt (distilled March 2008), 15 years in ex-bourbon then finished in first-fill Calvados-seasoned STR barriques. Apples and custard, tarte tatin, dried apricots, tobacco and chipotle. 1,568 bottles at a friendly 50% — the value pick at R2,250.
- 11.67 “Intense Sherry — Be Warned!” — first-fill Oloroso hogshead at 61%, only 260 bottles and already nearly gone locally. The name is the tasting note.
- The sister casks: 24.189 and 24.192 — two 16-year-old Speysiders vatted together at 10 years old, then split into separate Oloroso-to-PX maturations. A rare chance to taste cask divergence side by side — except you can’t: members may buy from one of the two, not both. Choose your fighter.
- 138.29 “Sea, Sand and Sausages” — a 5-year-old, 58.3% peated Taiwanese single malt (178 bottles) for anyone who wants to know what bold-and-peaty tastes like at subtropical maturation speed.
Auction & Market Watch
July results: a 1964 Bowmore leads, Penderyn sets a world-whisky record
Whisky.Auction’s July sale wrapped with a Bowmore 1964 38yo Bourbon Cask (Vault No.1, one of 300) making £8,400, while a Penderyn 21 Special Edition set a new record for Welsh whisky at £1,500. The oddity of the sale: a tornado-surviving Colonel E.H. Taylor Warehouse C bottle hit £4,000 — its highest price since 2024. A Glenfarclas Family Cask 1964 rounded out the top lots at £3,200. Old Bowmore remains the blue chip; the Penderyn result is the one collectors should file away.
Is The Macallan’s 1981 “Royal Marriage” worth $4,300? — with the big houses in summer lull, Alcohol Professor examines whether the Charles & Diana commemorative bottling’s collector price holds up. A useful case study in royal-memorabilia premiums — and a reminder that provenance stories and liquid quality are two different things.
SA Whisky News
To mark the launch of their new identity, Big Five Duty Free has partnered with Metanoia Distillery in the Klein Karoo. The result of this collaboration is the release of the Metanoia Klein Karoo Limited Edition Single Malt Whisky.
This whisky is finished in Oloroso Sherry and ex-Rupert & Rothschild Red Wine Casks, bottled at 46.3% ABV. With only 114 bottles available, it is a rare collector’s piece -Available exclusively at BFDF stores in ORTIA and CIA.
On the Friends of Metanoia WhatsApp group, we were told there would be 3 new releases in the latter half of the year. First was the Friends of the Metanoia bottling, now the second has been revealed as a Big Five Duty Free exclusive. What will the third be? I have a hunch, but it hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, so we’ll have to keep on guessing a little while longer.
Available Now — Local Online Retailers
Slim pickings again. If you’re a local retailer, please drop me a line. It’s hard to share your new stock if I can’t find it easily on your sites.
WhiskyBrother do have some new peated GlenAllachie whiskies in, from their Meikle Toir range: 5 YEAR OLD CHINQUAPIN ONE and 5 YEAR OLD SHERRY ONE.
Decanter Liquor have dug up a couple of the older Paul John Christmas editions, which you can grab here: CHRISTMAS EDITION 2020 and CHRISTMAS EDITION 2019.
Upcoming Events
WhiskyShop’s American Evening Whisky Experience
Thursday, 06 Aug | 6pm | R650pp (includes a bottle of Woodford Reserve)
Enjoy a guided tasting of four premium American whiskeys, a welcome Old Fashioned, a Woodford Reserve Malt Martini, and an unforgettable evening of whiskey discovery. Book tickets
The Only Whisky Show 2026
JHB: 13 & 14 August | The Galleria | R690pp
Book JHB
Cape Town: 20 & 21 August | CTICC | R690pp
Book CT
WhiskyBrother’s Helden Distillery Day Trip (Note: The date has changed)
Saturday, 17 October 2026 | Parys Free State | R1,490pp
A full-day experience at South Africa’s Helden Distillery with an in-depth tour led by founder and owner Dr Pieter van Helden — ideal for anyone who hasn’t visited a working distillery before. Book tickets
Worth Reading
“Building Southern Distilling: Pete Barger on Engineering, Innovation, and the Future of American Whiskey” — Bourbon Obsessed
A substantial distillery visit and interview with the Southern Distilling co-founder, covering contract distilling at craft scale, regenerative farming, automation-driven production and where American single malt is headed. Proper long-form.
Laphroaig “Willem by Willem” — the Willem Dafoe collaboration lands
In case you missed it a little while back, Laphroaig has bottled a 14-year-old, Oloroso-influenced expression chosen by actor Willem Dafoe, who worked through roughly twenty pilot blends with blender Sarah Dowling before settling on this one. It arrives at a cask-strength 53.7% ABV — and ships with a deliberately blank tasting-note page, the idea being that you write your own rather than chase someone else’s palate. This article dives into the story behind the collaboration. Personally, I’m still on the fence for any celebrity bottling, other than the Nick Offerman stuff.
“America’s Spirit, America’s Story: Heaven Hill’s Bet on Bourbon” — Whisky Magazine
A long-form feature published this week exploring Heaven Hill’s 90-year wager on the Kentucky bourbon category — from its founding by the Shapira family through to its current position as one of the most important independent distillers in America. With whiskey woven into America’s Sestercentennial narrative this month, it’s a timely read on what the category means beyond the glass.
“How have Trump’s tariffs impacted US spirits?” — The Spirits Business
A long-form trade feature analysing what the 2026 tariff regime has actually done to American producers — timely context for the Brown-Forman/Sazerac story above, and for anyone wondering why US bottle prices keep moving.
— The Spirits Business (13 Jul)
“The Worst Whisky I’ve Ever Tasted” — Mark Gillespie @ WhiskyCast
Fishky, a 1992 Bruichladdich single malt finished in an ex-salted-herring cask. Yes, really. WhiskyCast’s Mark Gillespie revisits one of the strangest — and apparently least successful — cask experiments ever attempted.
— WhiskyCast
And That’s a Wrap!
Thanks for all the support, comments, suggestions and inspiration that helped shape this issue of the Digest. What other community-related content would you like to see here?
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Until next week, DRAM on!