Ardbeg Spectacular
The Ardbeg Committee was founded in 2000, born from a fan club of sorts started in 19999. Ardbeg was officially founded in 1815, though it had been producing whisky there for over almost twenty years there previously. It shuttered in the early 1990s and was purchased by Glenmorangie in 1997 and reopened, with the Ardbeg Committee soon following to foster love of the brand and make sure the distillery never closed again. While the Committee offers communications and solidarity for the affecionados, there has also been yearly whisky releases under the Committee banner. The 2024 Committee offering is the Ardbeg Spectacular, which was matured in a blend of ex-bourbon and ex-port casks. This is different than past releases that made use of cask finishing. The circus connection is unknown.
Kanosuke Single Malt
Kanosuke started in 2018, named after the leader of the Kanosuke Komasa. The distillery is located in the southern Kagoshima Prefecture of Japan, along Fukiagehama Beach. Each of their three copper pot stills is of a different design, allowing them greater blending opportunities since the distillate off each would be somewhat different. One can maybe get a sense of their aim by acknowledging their distillery motto: “Japanese whisky, richer and more mellow.” They produce pot still and blended whiskies in addition to single malts and are in the midst of releasing batch offerings by year. The Kanosuke Single Malt is the current flagship whisky of the distillery, the third batch of which was released in 2023. It is made using a blend of single malts from all three pot stills, though curiuously the grain is never specifically named. We presume it is barley.
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.