Laphroaig Càirdeas 2023
Laphroaig has been creating Càirdeas (Gaelic for “friendship”) expressions since 2008, experimenting with with cask finishes or cask strength versions of older offerings. The Càirdeas 2023 is unique in that it combines two different casks not often seen in whisky maturation. Three quarters of the scotch is aged in second-fill Madeira casks. Madeira is a Portuguese island famous for producing fortified wine. The remaining quarter of the scotch is matured in first-fill port casks, the majority of which were of white port. Port is a fortified wine from the Duoro valley of Portugal, and white port uses white wine grapes instead of red. Therefore, this Càirdeas represents influences from multiple Portugeuse fortified wines.
Swift Single Malt
Swift is a small single malt-focused distillery founded in 2012 by Amanda and Nick Swift, both Texas natives. Having traveled the world to learn about the art, science and business of whiskey-making, the Swifts clearly took a page from the homelands of whiskies and import all their Two-Row barley from Scotland before making the wort with water purposefully mimicking those from Northern Ireland and the Speyside region of Scotland. Even the yeast is a single malt-specific variety from Speyside! After distilling in two copper pot stills from Portugal, they take the narrow cuts and put them into barrels from either Kentucky or Portugal. Being a true micro-distillery, almost all the work is done by Amanda and Nick themselves, bucket by bucket, drop by drop, barrel by barrel. Their flagship offering, the Swift Single Malt, is a mix of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Their hard work appears to be paying off, however, as Swift bottles have expanded beyond Texas onto shelves across the country.
Teeling Brabazon Series 2
While Teeling Distillery was founded in 2015, a quick look at their offerings will show releases carrying much older age statements. This is because when John Teeling sold the Cooley Distillery to what is now Beam Suntory, one of the stipulations of the sale was the family taking 16,000 casks of whiskey with them. It is from these casks that many of their older bottlings are derived, whiskey essentially sourced from themselves. The Brabazon series from Teeling kicked off in 2017 and was named after William Brabazon, the 3rd Earl of Meath, who oversaw the development of the New Market area in Dublin that would eventually become the Liberties district where the current distillery resides. There have been four entries in this series as of this writing. The Brabazon 2 was bottled in September 2017 and matured in a various sizes of ex-port casks.