Benromach 15 Year
Benromach is a Speyside distillery founded in 1898 by Duncan McCallum and F.W. Brickman and currently owned by Gordon & MacPhail, a brand perhaps more known for their independent bottlings. Benromach makes their whisky using all of their senses: sight, smell, taste, feel. Using only first-filled casks, water from the Chapelton Spring in the Romach Hills they make a subtly smoky scotch that is only lightly peated. The Benromach 15 Year was then finished in ex-sherry casks. We often love a good sherry cask finish. Do you?
Ardbeg Blaaack
2020 marked the 20th Anniversary of the Ardbeg Committee, a fan club of Ardbeg enthusiasts and a way for the distillery to stay in touch with fans of the brand. Every year in the spring, the distillery will release a special Committee Release. While available to non-Committee buyers, members hear about the upcoming whisky first and sometimes have a chance to buy it before retail. The 2020 Committee Release is the Ardbeg Blaaack. The name references a black sheep, depicted on the cover amidst a sea of white sheep. The sheep are there because the whisky was matured in ex-pinot noir casks from New Zealand, another island nation known for having an extremely high number of sheep.
Andalusia Stryker
Andalusia Whiskey was started by friends Tommy Erwin and Ty Phelps in 2015. They discovered the site of their planned distillery was once called the Andalusia Ranches, perhaps after the hill country of southern Spain. The Andalusia Stryker is one of the four main offerings from the distillery. Harkening back to the Scottish tradition of drying malted barley using peat smoke for some of their whiskies, Tommy and Ty give Stryker a Texas twist by smoking the barley with a mix of oak, mesquite, and apple wood, pointing towards Texas barbeque as their inspiration.