Scotch

Royal Brackla 12 Year

Royal Brackla 12 Year

The Royal Brackla holds a claim to fame that few Scottish distilleries can match, which is the royal warrant it was granted in 1835 by King William IV that allowed the distillery to use the “royal” adjective as part of the name (the other two are Royal Lochnagar in 1848 and the now closed Glenury Royal). Founded in 1817, Royal Brackla has run mostly uninterrupted for over 200 years. Like many distilleries, it shut down briefly due to world wars or market surpluses and has gone through several changes in ownership but has never been dormant for long. Its output has long gone into blends and thus not received much individual attention. That changed in 2015, however, when current owner Dewar’s released a range of single malts. This Royal Brackla 12 is from the spring of 2020, when the core range was relaunched to comprise a 12, 18 and 21 year age statements. 

Scotchology: Year Six

Scotchology: Year Six

Entering the realm of the absurd, July 2019 marks the sixth anniversary of Scotchology. The past couple of years have seen less drastic changes and even some relative stability. As of this posting, we currently have 123 reviews, comprising 88 scotches and 35 world whiskies. Social media continues to be the way we interact with others in the whisky community that are not in our immediate geographic vicinity. Apparently all the cool kids are doing it nowadays. We’re in a groove, and it feels good.

Deanston 12 Year

Deanston 12 Year

Deanston has been a distillery since 1966, though the site was a major cotton mill for almost 200 hundred years before that. Sourcing water from the River Teith, it is the only current distillery in Scotland to be entirely powered by hydro-electricity. Deanston is currently owned by Distell Group Limited, which also owns the Tobermory and Bunnahabhain distilleries. Its first single malt was named Old Bannockburn but the core range is now made up of the Deanston 12 and a No Age Statement offering, though they experiment with more limited or distillery-only editions.