Whisky Weekly Digest — Week 37, 2026 - Whisky Tasting Fellowship

I’ve always found silent distilleries fascinating — the ones that vanished, got demolished, or simply stopped running one day and never started again. I wanted to share another one of these stories with you.

Glen Grant’s Forgotten Twin

I’ve had a bottle of Caperdonich sitting in my cabinet for years — distilled March 1968, bottled September 2007 by Gordon & MacPhail for their Connoisseurs Choice range, a 39-year-old dram. It caught my eye over the weekend, as I was pouring a dram, and I finally decided to do a bit of digging into the distillery’s history.

Caperdonich started life in 1898 as Glen Grant No. 2, an extension built directly across the road from the original by James Grant, at the height of the 1890s whisky boom. The two sites were linked by a pipeline locally known as “the whisky pipe” — though contrary to popular telling, it had nothing to do with topping up Glen Grant. British tax law simply required that any new-make from a distillery extension pass through the main distillery’s spirit safe. Nearly 1.6 million litres came off the stills in that first year alone.

Then came the Pattison Crash, and the story everyone tells is that it took Glen Grant No. 2 down with it. Dig into the archives, though, and the real reason looks less dramatic and more familiar to anyone who’s ever run a business: Glen Grant simply wasn’t happy with the new-make. Despite using identical raw materials, it tasted different — likely down to subtle differences in still shape — and it couldn’t be sold under the Glen Grant name. By 1901, the stills had gone cold.

They stayed that way for over sixty years, the building relegated to malting floor and spare-parts store for its more famous neighbour. Revival came in 1965, driven by Glen Grant’s booming trade with Italy — demand for young single malt had outstripped what Glen Grant alone could supply, and reopening the old extension was cheaper than building new. The first cask was officially filled on 14 May 1965 (unofficially, probably a little earlier — some things the taxman didn’t need to know). Stills went from two to four in 1967, and in 1977 the distillery finally got a name of its own, taken from the Gaelic for a nearby water source — Tobar Domhnaich. Nobody entirely agrees on the translation: “secret well,” “Sabbath well,” “secluded spring” have all been used, though “Sunday well” is probably the most accurate.

My bottle was distilled in March 1968, three years into that second life — a year in which at least 53 casks were set aside for single malt, most heading to Duncan Taylor and Gordon & MacPhail. That’s not nothing, but it’s a rounding error against everything else that went straight into blends like Chivas Regal. Caperdonich never really stepped out of Glen Grant’s shadow, even after the two distilleries’ characters drifted apart — Caperdonich’s spirit came out softer, with more pear and cream and a touch of mint against Glen Grant’s crisp green apple. When Seagram reinstalled the original still shape in 1985 hoping to align the two, it still didn’t quite work.

The end came in 2002, a year after Pernod Ricard took over the business, and the site was sold to Forsyths — the coppersmiths next door — who demolished most of it in 2010 to expand their own works. But the equipment scattered rather than vanished: two stills went to Belgian Owl Distillery in Belgium, on a tip from Jim McEwan at Bruichladdich, replacing owner Étienne Bouillon’s tiny 1890s alembics; the other pair, plus the original mash tun, ended up at Falkirk. Washbacks are now doing service at Wolfburn, and the old malt mill runs at Annandale.

My bottle is still sealed, waiting for the right occasion. One day I’ll open it, pour a glass, and get to add my own two cents to the pile — for what little good it’ll do now — on whether Caperdonich ever deserved to be shut down in the first place. Until then, it just sits there in the cabinet, thirty-nine years of history in a bottle, a small scattered piece of a distillery that spent most of its life either silent or in someone else’s shadow.

Sláinte,
Mark

Sources:

What’s In Mark’s Glass This Week

Three Ships 8yo WhiskyBrother Exclusive with Strawberries & Cream

Three Ships 8 Year Old WhiskyBrother Exclusive 69.8% – Part of a 2021 collab between WB and JSD, the other being an 11yo that was matured in an Oloroso cask for the last 5 years.

Excuse the poor quality pic — the lighting wasn’t great, but I had to share this pairing. We were celebrating a milestone in our house with juicy strawberries, fresh hand-whipped cream and some bubbly, and I spotted the Three Ships on the whisky cabinet and took a chance.

All I can say is “Wow!” At 69.8% ABV, this whisky isn’t shy. Having it with the food though brought along balance, bringing out the flavours in both, while toning down the alcohol. The vanilla sweetness from the bourbon cask complemented the whipped cream, while the tropical fruit notes played nicely with the fresh strawberries.

This pairing ranks right up there with a couple of my other all-time favourite Three Ships pairings:

Three Ships 5yo (43%) + high-fat blue cheese – As recommended by the master himself, Andy Watts
Three Ships 8yo Oloroso Cask Finish + feta + melon/spanspek – A light, refreshing snack

I think I should do a write-up about some of my other food and whisky pairings. What do you reckon, would you be interested?

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.

“You know you have the right friends when this arrived as a gift. Cheers Nisch!” — Hardy M.

“Spring has sprung in the Mother City! Time for an IPA instead of a stout, A lighter cigar and a rye, some peat and some Campbeltown funk!!” — Gary H.

Industry News

Islay’s newest distillery fills its first cask: Laggan Bay is officially making whisky
Ian Macleod Distillers — the family firm behind Glengoyne, Tamdhu and the Rosebank revival — has confirmed the first cask has been filled at Laggan Bay, its new distillery at Glenegedale on Islay, with spirit laid down in April 2026 and the milestone marked by distillery manager (and Islay native) Malcolm Rennie. The Hundred founding-cask programme still has a limited number of casks open. Islay’s distillery count keeps climbing — and this one belongs to an independent.
— WhiskyIntelligence

Brown-Forman’s quarter: sales slip 1% as emerging markets cushion a soft US
Organic net sales fell 1% to $911m in the quarter ended July, with the US down 3% while emerging markets grew. The whiskey portfolio held flat — the new Jack Daniel’s Blackberry launch offset declines in Honey and Gentleman Jack — and RTDs rose 11%. Full-year guidance stands at flat organic sales with operating income down 3–5%, and CEO Lawson Whiting will step down once a successor is named. Read with the barrel-economics story below for the fuller picture.
— Shanken News Daily

“Greatly exaggerated”: Brown-Forman’s CEO on American whiskey — and the barrel numbers that tell the real story
Whiting told analysts US whiskey remains the “single strongest category” in Nielsen data despite being down 0.6% — but the supporting numbers are stark: US craft distillery count has collapsed from ~4,000 toward ~2,000, Brown-Forman’s used-barrel business has plunged from over $100m in FY24 to around $30m as Scotch and Irish demand for ex-bourbon casks dries up, and industry-wide new barrel fills fell 30% in calendar 2025. The used-cask slump is the same story GlenWyvis told from the other end last week: less new make going into wood, everywhere.
— The Spirits Business

Japan’s TWSC 2026: a 180-year-old shochu house and its young whisky arm sweep the board
Kagoshima’s Nishi Shuzo was named Best Distillery at the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition, with its Kiccho Hozan shochu taking Best of the Best — and its young whisky operation, Ontake Distillery, won Highest Gold plus the Japan Grand Prix for Single Cask Strength Ontake No.18. Ontake, known for maturing in rare ex-solera sherry butts, has now collected more than 13 international awards almost before its whisky era has begun. One to watch as allocations start travelling.
— The Whiskey Wash

Wales gets another single malt: Hensol Castle plans its first whisky for October
The Leekes family’s distillery in the cellars of a Grade I-listed 17th-century castle in the Vale of Glamorgan will launch its first single malt in October, timed to the fifth birthdays of both its Welsh Dry Gin brand and its £7m visitor centre. Master distiller Kyle Jones has been quietly laying down stock since the site opened — Welsh whisky’s expansion continues one castle cellar at a time.
— The Spirits Business

Malaysia seizes 190,000 litres of alcohol disguised as furniture — and bathtubs
Customs intercepted nine containers at Sepanggar Port, Sabah, holding 190,080 litres of alcohol declared as furniture, shoes, bathtubs and welding machines. The liquid was worth about $263,000 — but the evaded duties came to roughly $720,000, nearly three times the cargo’s value, in a market where spirits duty alone can hit $13.75 a litre. A vivid illustration of why duty-dodging, not counterfeiting, is Southeast Asia’s biggest grey-market problem.
— Vino Joy News

Fellowship Challenge

Three Truths & A Lie — New World Whisky

Which one of these four statements is the lie?

A. At Hellyers Road in Tasmania, the unusually tall cylindrical wash still is deliberately operated with a partial charge to encourage high reflux — producing a first distillate that can reach around 70% ABV.

B. Starward in Melbourne deliberately uses barrels sourced from nearby wineries and relies on Melbourne’s temperature fluctuations to accelerate the movement of whisky into and out of the oak.

C. Kavalan in Taiwan developed its STR cask programme with Dr Jim Swan, using shaved, toasted and re-charred ex-wine casks specifically to make wine-cask maturation work more effectively in Taiwan’s subtropical climate.

D. Amrut in India deliberately keeps its fermentation below 20°C because its tropical climate makes higher fermentation temperatures unsuitable for producing a clean, fruity new-make spirit.

Scroll down to the bottom for the answer.

New Releases

Kilchoman Cognac Cask Matured 2026 Release

Kilchoman Cognac Cask Matured 2026 — “Not A Finish”, the full term in French oak
The next chapter in Kilchoman’s full-term maturation series after Maury Cask Matured: 33 first-fill ex-Cognac barriques, distilled 2019 and bottled at 50% — no finishing, the French oak running the whole race. Anthony Wills says the first-fill experimental casks “work to their own schedule”: ripe pear and apple, crystallised ginger and baking spice against the coastal peat. Available across the UK and Europe from this week; no SA allocation confirmed yet.
— Kilchoman Distillery

Ardbeg closes the Vintage_Y2K trilogy: a 25-year-old with a distillery-first Tempranillo finish
The third and final millennium-vintage release comes from spirit run off the still retired in 2001, finished — a first for Ardbeg — in Tempranillo casks from Spain’s Bodega Numanthia. Bottled at 48% and priced at £730 (about US$987), it sells via the distillery, The Whisky Exchange, Berry Bros. & Rudd and Master of Malt. A quarter-century-old Ardbeg with a red-wine coda: the auction watchers will be circling before the corks settle.
— The Spirits Business

Loch Lomond crowns the Waypoint Series: a 31-year-old, its oldest peated whisky ever
The third and oldest bottling in the Waypoint Series — straight-neck-still spirit matured in three types of ex-bourbon American oak, married and then finished for twelve months in Tawny Port pipes. Bottled at 44.1%, non-chill filtered and natural colour: 2,600 bottles at £750 (around US$1,000), available globally from 1 September, with a 99-point score from this year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition already attached. Three decades of peated Loch Lomond is genuinely uncharted territory.
— WhiskyIntelligence

Arbikie’s first-ever single malt: The Signature, ten years to the day
The Angus single-estate distillery launched its debut Single Estate Single Malt on Monday — the tenth anniversary, to the day, of filling its first cask. 1,000 bottles worldwide at £250, 48% ABV, ten years old, made from estate-grown Odyssey barley and matured in six ex-bourbon casks in the estate’s converted dairy warehouses. The B Corp-certified farm distillery was named Sustainable Distillery of the Year at Icons of Whisky 2026 — and field-to-bottle whisky doesn’t come more literal than this.
— WhiskyIntelligence

Jackton launches RAER — the first South Lanarkshire single malt in nearly 180 years
First bottles of the inaugural RAER Single Malt shipped Friday 4 September, from casks first filled in February 2020: a marriage of bourbon, PX, Amontillado and Oloroso wood at 48.7%, natural colour and non-chill filtered, 6,000 hand-numbered bottles at £68. The front label’s “RAER View” window changes as the bottle empties. The last malt distillery in what is now South Lanarkshire — Gill — closed in 1840; a Scotland roadshow runs 5–12 September with an Edinburgh launch event on the 13th.
— The Whiskey Wash

Nikka opens a five-year countdown: Taketsuru Pure Malt Essentials 2026
The first chapter in a five-part annual limited series running to the Taketsuru brand’s 30th anniversary in 2030. The 2026 edition spotlights Yoichi’s direct coal-fired distillation — preserved since 1934 and now exceptionally rare anywhere, even in Scotland — in a blend of Yoichi and Miyagikyo malts at 43%, around €180, through La Maison du Whisky boutiques and specialist retailers. Japan’s most famous pure malt is turning its production heritage into an annual event.
— The Whiskey Wash

Amrut launches Kranthi — billed as India’s first non-chill-filtered single malt
The Bengaluru pioneer’s newest expression is matured at over 3,000 feet in four cask types — new American oak, ex-bourbon, ex-Madeira and ex-Oloroso — and bottled at 40% without chill filtration, at a very friendly $39.99. It rolls out from September through new exclusive US importer PM Spirits; no SA allocation word yet, but with Fusion just landed at Mother City and the Peated on Bottega’s shelf, Amrut is having a moment on our side of the ocean too.
— Wine Industry Advisor

Guy Ritchie’s Rosemaund goes public: The Director’s Cut 10 Year Old, no ballot required
The Herefordshire farm distillery’s third single malt — and the first sold directly without a ballot — is a Tristan Stephenson-blended marriage of ex-bourbon, Oloroso and virgin oak at 48%. 3,000 numbered bottles at £126, on sale from 1 September, as the distillery announces a ramp-up to lay down as many as 200 casks in 2026. English whisky’s ambitions keep climbing.
— The Spirits Business

Murray McDavid turns 32 — and marks it with six Islay casks, Leapfrog included
The indie bottler’s anniversary Islay Exclusive Release spans its Mission Gold and Benchmark ranges: a Leapfrog 1992 33-year-old from ex-bourbon (Leapfrog being the not-so-secret Laphroaig that dare not speak its name), an Ardbeg 2008 17yo from an Oloroso butt, a Bunnahabhain Mòine 2007 18yo with an Amontillado octave finish, a Leapfrog 2011 14yo, a Caol Ila 2014 11yo finished in Madeira, and a Bunnahabhain Mòine 2020 5yo. All non-chill filtered and natural colour; ABVs and prices per cask still to be confirmed.
— Whisky For Everyone

Reviews Roundup

The last-ever Gordon & MacPhail Talisker — a 1987 39yo farewell at 9/10
Phil Dwyer tastes G&M’s final Talisker bottling ever — a 1987 39-year-old from a single refill sherry butt, 451 bottles at 51.4% — now that the indie giant has lost its licence to bottle the distillery. “A fitting farewell to a legend,” and already sold out almost everywhere in the UK; one for the auction watchlists.
— The Whiskey Wash

Post No. 5000: a 92-point Tamdhu 35yo 1973 for a birthday — WhiskyNotes’ highest score in months
Ruben marks his birthday — and the blog’s five-thousandth review — with a Gordon & MacPhail Tamdhu 1973, 35 years in a first-fill sherry butt (#3230, 56%, 481 bottles, bottled 2008). Old-style outspoken-but-elegant sherry: plums, tobacco, cinnamon and leather, the oak getting slightly loud but “a truly classic example of what sherry casks used to deliver.” 92 points, and the week’s top score.
— WhiskyNotes

Thompson Bros 18yo Highland single malt (48.5%) — 8/10, a peated-Highland value pick
Mark Bostock reviews the Dornoch duo’s undisclosed-distillery 18-year-old: heather peat, tar, brine and “crushed oyster shell” minerality from refill wood, natural colour and non-chill filtered. On liquid alone he’d call it 7.5 — at around £65 for a peated 18yo Highlander, the price talks it up to 8.
— The Whiskey Wash

Signatory’s “secret Macallan” — a Speyside 15yo 2009 from Oloroso butts (48.2%) — 90/100
Robert De Santis hands out a score he says he very rarely gives: chocolate orange, caramel apple, raisins and walnut from first- and second-fill Oloroso butts — “velvety, sweet, and rich”, and now rated above the Macallan 12 Years 110 Proof he once preferred head-to-head. Already sold out at retail, but one to hunt on the secondary shelves.
— The Whiskey Wash

A “Time Warp” pair of indie Aberlours — the Signatory oloroso butt plays “A’bunadh Indie” at 87
Friday’s session sets two high-strength independent Aberlours bottled almost twenty years apart against each other: a C&S Dram Collection 12yo 1994 hogshead (60.4%, 245 bottles) takes 84, while Signatory Vintage’s Cask Strength Collection 14yo 2012 from a first-fill oloroso butt (61.9%, 660 bottles) wins at 87 — kirsch and chocolate in a style Serge dubs an indie A’bunadh.
— Whisky Fun

Holyrood Smoulder (47.1%) — 86, and a new style of Edinburgh peat
Ruben reviews the young distillery’s heavily peated release — a mash of 75% peated Highland malt with unpeated, plumage archer and brown malts, matured in first-fill bourbon with rum barriques and oloroso. “Great nose”, drier Highland-peat character rather than Islay medicine: further evidence Edinburgh’s new wave is finding its own accents.
— WhiskyNotes

Glen Garioch 13yo 2012 for the Whisky Tasting Festival (57.5%, Archives) — 8.6
A full ex-bourbon single cask bottled for the Dutch Whisky Tasting Festival’s tenth anniversary, held this very weekend. Thijs finds a malt “on its way to something next level” — classic fruity Garioch with the cask kept out of the way.
— Words of Whisky

CRN57° — Gordon & MacPhail previews The Cairn with an 18yo (7/10) and a 30yo (7.5/10)
The Bros taste the pair of blended malts G&M has built from its mature stocks to sketch the future character of The Cairn distillery, both at 43%: the 18yo (£80) is solid, while the 30yo (£300) reads “subtle, sherried, old style” — lovely, but a big ask at 43% for the money.
— Two WhiskyBros

Kilchoman Islay Series “The Vineyard” 6yo (58.7%) — 6/10
Ogilvie Shaw reviews the fifth-anniversary Martha’s Vineyard exclusive, picked up on-island during his “Good Morning” walkabout experiment. A middling score for a hard-to-get bottle — a useful reminder that exclusivity and quality travel separately.
— Dramface

Bourbon Corner

Four Roses Anthology Chapter 1 “Origin” — the oldest Four Roses ever bottled, rated A
Richard Thomas reviews the new 21-year-old OBSF-recipe launch of the Anthology series (102.6 proof, 1,200 bottles, $500): herbaceous thyme and sage over cinnamon toast, and a flat “if you can get one at $500, you should”. Distinct from — and rather more exclusive than — October’s Limited Edition Small Batch covered last week.
— The Whiskey Reviewer

Remus Repeal Reserve reaches Series X — and brings the first-ever Remus rye with it
MGP’s flagship line marks its tenth series (107 proof, a blend of three mashbills including the rarely seen LISV, from 2008–2017 stocks) alongside the brand’s first rye — 111 proof, 95% rye from 2015/2016 barrels. Both $79.99, nationwide this month; the same week, sister brand Joseph Magnus reintroduced its rye after a century.
— The Whiskey Reviewer

Bib & Tucker 8 Year Bottled in Bond — a “Bottle” rating for a brand stepping out of obscurity
Steve Coomes gives the charcoal-mellowed Tennessee bourbon (100 proof, $64.99, nationwide from September) Bourbon & Banter’s top rating: “mature, well-structured… everything a good bourbon should be.”
— Bourbon & Banter

Basil Hayden Cognac Cask Reserve — Beam’s high-rye goes travelling
The first release in a new “passport”-themed direction for the brand: high-rye bourbon finished in French oak that held Cognac exclusively for 20–25 years, bottled at a gentle 80 proof, $49.99 at select US retailers now, with 8th-generation master distiller Freddie Noe fronting it.
— The Whiskey Wash

Woodford Reserve Super Seasoned Oak — staves weathered five to seven years
The 22nd Master’s Collection release, under master distiller Elizabeth McCall, uses barrels built from staves seasoned outdoors for five to seven years against the usual six to nine months — less green tannin, more concentrated wood sugar. $179.99 per 700ml.
— The Whiskey Wash

Willett Family Estate Small Batch 4yo 2026 (125.2 proof) — a bruising 2/5
Breaking Bourbon finds the in-house Willett distillate ($67) “underdeveloped… dominated by ethanol and peppery heat” — a rare public misfire for a name whose single barrels set auction records only weeks ago.
— Breaking Bourbon

Ass Pocket Whiskey Lot No. 6 — an 11-year Kentucky bourbon in a 200ml flask
Ed Escott reviews the Derek Trucks-selected Lot No. 6 (100 proof, $50 per 200ml): “mature bourbon character… pretty special”, with the flask format doing nothing to diminish an 11-year-old Kentucky straight. The blues-guitarist bottling series keeps quietly out-punching its novelty packaging.
— Bourbon Obsessed

Available Now — Local Online Retailers

Here’s a snapshot of some of the new and/or interesting whiskies available this week from our top whisky retailers:

Upcoming Events

McGregor Whisky Weekend
Friday–Sunday, 11–13 September 2026 | McGregor, Western Cape | Main event: Saturday 12 September
A weekend-long celebration of whisky in the village of McGregor, featuring over 60 whiskies to taste at the main event at Lord’s Winery, plus Friday evening masterclasses and tastings around the village. The main event runs from 1–5pm, with free transport between McGregor and Lord’s Winery. Most whiskies available for tasting will also be on sale on the day.
Book tickets via McGregor Whisky Weekend

The Macallan Dinner Experience at Bottega

The Macallan Dinner Experience with Thami Banda
Tuesday, 15 September 2026 | Bottega Parkhurst, 22d 4th Avenue, Parkhurst | R1,200pp
An exclusive Macallan dinner experience hosted by Brand Ambassador Thami Banda, featuring guided tastings of The Macallan 12, 15, 18 and 30 Year Old Double Cask. The R1,200 ticket includes the whisky tasting, a 3-course meal and waiter gratuity (extras excluded). Arrival is at 18h30 for a 19h00 start, with limited seats available.
RSVP via email to parkhurst@bottegacafe.co.za

The Whisky Experience at The Firs
Friday, 18 September 2026 | The Firs, Rosebank, Johannesburg | R390pp
An evening showcasing more than 70 whiskies from a wide range of producers, styles and countries, with live entertainment. Guests can explore and taste at their own pace from 6pm to 9pm. VIP access is also available at R1,500pp, offering a more intimate experience with a hand-picked selection of rare and exceptional whiskies, hosted by expert presenters.
Book via WhiskyBrother

Queens Cape Town - Weird & Wonderful Tasting

Weird & Wonderful @ Queens
Friday, 18 September 2026 | Queen’s Lounge | R500pp
An exclusive tasting exploring five unconventional, experimental and unexpected whiskies that challenge the traditional boundaries of the category. Seating is limited and advance booking is essential.
Book via bar@queenslounge.co.za

Highland Park Heritage Day Whisky Tasting & Spit Braai
Thursday, 24 September 2026 | The Whisky Shop, Fourways | R900pp
A Heritage Day afternoon featuring a guided tasting of Highland Park 12, 15 and 18 Year Old, followed by a traditional South African spit braai. The R900 ticket also includes a bottle of Highland Park 12 Year Old. Tasting starts at 1pm at The Whisky Shop, The Gantry Shopping Centre, Fourways.
Book via The Whisky Shop

Bushmills Whisky Tasting
Wednesday, 30 September 2026 | Hyde Park, Johannesburg | R290pp
A guided tasting with Bushmills SA ambassador Muzi Mathe, featuring the 10, 14, 16 and 21 Year Old expressions from the historic Northern Irish distillery. 7pm at WhiskyBrother Hyde Park.
Book via WhiskyBrother.

1 October — Randpark Golf Club Whisky Festival
Thursday, 01 October 2026 | Johannesburg | R300pp
A new one for the calendar: 40+ whiskies in the Jacaranda Room & Terrace, 6–9pm.
Book via WhiskyBrother

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 via WhiskyBrother

Whisky Live South Africa
Thursday, 5 – Saturday, 7 November 2026 | The Galleria | From R695pp
South Africa’s largest whisky festival, with General Access (R695) for the tasting hall, Combo (R1,095) for tasting hall + Master Class + 18 tokens, or VIP (R2,495) for the VIP Lounge, tasting hall, dinner, private bar and 20 tokens.
Book via Ticketpro

Auction & Market Watch

Sotheby’s opens its first Nightcap Festival with the largest Willett offering ever auctioned
The Whisky & Whiskey live auction (3–18 September, alongside the new Nightcap Wine & Spirits Festival at Sotheby’s Breuer building in New York, 16–19 September) is headlined by the “Wax Top Collection” — 328 Willett Family Estate bottles, including Doug’s Green Ink bottlings estimated at $13,000–15,000 each and the Iron Fist and Velvet Glove Epic Ryes at $10,000–15,000. Beyond Willett: an A.H. Hirsch Reserve 18yo distilled 1974 ($20,000–30,000), a Bowmore ARC-54 1968 for charity ($40,000–60,000) and a Mount Vernon rye from 1874. It follows a record $49.25m first half for Sotheby’s wine and spirits.
— The Whiskey Wash

Scotch Whisky Auctions’ 183rd sale goes live — a 1938 Glenlivet and a Michter’s Celebration lead
Thousands of lots opened this weekend at SWA’s September auction. Among the headliners: a Gordon & MacPhail Glenlivet 1938 (88 years since distillation), a Macallan Fine & Rare 1949 52-year-old from a single first-fill sherry hogshead, Suntory’s Hakushu 1984 Distillery Treasured Pure Malt, and a Michter’s Celebration Sour Mash 2025 — a marriage of seven barrels aged 12 to 30 years, one of just 315 bottles.
— WhiskyIntelligence

A 170-year-old California “whiskey ranch” lists for $8 million
The 80-acre Reinstein Ranch in the Livermore Valley — five generations in the same family, never sold in roughly 140 years — comes with a transferable federal distillery licence, production equipment and an inventory of estate-grown wheat whiskey aged up to seven years. Its Prohibition-era claim to fame: a hidden still in Jackass Canyon running on ranch spring water, whose wheat won gold at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair.
— The Whiskey Wash

Worth Reading

The GlenDronach has spent 200 years mastering sherry — so why add Claret?
Tom Pattinson sits down with master blender Dr Rachel Barrie for the bicentenary: why the new Boynsmill House Edition (14yo, 46.8%, £95) takes a French Claret “top dressing” over its Oloroso and PX backbone, how it squares with the £35,000 56 Year Old at the other end of the birthday range, and what two centuries of sherry orthodoxy still leaves room to change. The bottle ran in our W36 New Releases; this is the thinking behind it.
— Barley Magazine

Beyond the barrel: chef Erik Niel’s whiskey revolution in Chattanooga
Sailor Guevara interviews the James Beard-nominated chef who treats bourbon barrel picks the way he sources produce — travelling to distilleries, tasting blind, and building 400-plus-bottle lists across his restaurants (including the Elijah Craig pick his team christened “HR Nightmare”). Food culture meets barrel-pick culture, and both come out better for it.
— Whisky Magazine

The man who collected a century of Johnnie Walker
Tom Pattinson profiles Frans Op den Kamp, whose $130 Blue Label purchase in 1999 grew into more than 3,200 bottles and pieces of memorabilia — the very collection heading to Whisky Auctioneer’s “One Hundred Years of Striding” sale on 11 September (see Auction & Market Watch). With whisky historian Dr Nick Morgan as guide, the bottles become a physical history of 20th-century Scotch: closure-era rarities, paxarette-days Black Label, lost-distillery blends and a £30,000 Jenson Button bottling.
— Barley Magazine

The Macallan’s collectible series, decoded
Rebecca Marshall’s long-read collector’s guide walks through seven Macallan series — Fine & Rare (home of the £1m 1926), the Lalique Six Pillars, the Red Collection, Folios, Easter Elchies, Distil Your World and the Replica Collection, whose reference bottles were literally built to fight counterfeits. A clear-eyed map of the most collected whisky brand on earth, from the house that auctions most of it.
— Whisky Auctioneer

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!

The Fellowship Challenge – Three Truths and a Lie Answer

The lie is D

Amrut actually cools its fermentation to a maximum of around 28°C, with fermentation lasting around six days. The distillery uses the longer fermentation to develop its desired character; it isn’t trying to keep fermentation below 20°C. (Wikipedia)

Here’s some whisky geekery related to the other 3 statements:

Kavalan: the STR process wasn’t just a convenient cask finish — it was developed specifically to deal with the interaction between wine casks and Taiwan’s climate. (King Car)

Hellyers Road: the still design itself is being used as a tool for creating reflux. (Hellyers Road Distillery)

Starward: its maturation philosophy is almost inseparable from Melbourne’s climate and Australian wine industry. (Starward Whisky)

Glen Grant’s Forgotten Twin

What’s In Mark’s Glass This Week

The Fellowship Pour

Industry News

Fellowship Challenge

Three Truths & A Lie — New World Whisky

New Releases

Reviews Roundup

Bourbon Corner

Available Now — Local Online Retailers

WhiskyBrother & Co

Mother City Liquor

Navigate World Whisky

Wild About Whisky

Whisky Emporium

Perifly

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Auction & Market Watch

Worth Reading

And That’s a Wrap!

The Fellowship Challenge – Three Truths and a Lie Answer

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