No theme this time, just tasty whisky with the stories and background that come with it
When: 19th June 2026
Where: The Yard – Ely
Host: Elliott Drinks Whisky
My theory was that Father’s Day weekend is enough of a whisky tasting lure, and that our reputation hosting at The Yard was getting solid enough, that I didn’t particularly need a theme unifying the bottles. I hoped people would trust that I’d select interesting and appealing whiskies, and present a range of styles to represent a broad stroke of what whisky can be. You certainly don’t need a theme to pick 6 whiskies that stand up in their own right and can each tell a part of the story of whisky, but I know that sometimes it’s helpful to give a bit of a heads-up as to what to expect. As it turns out, my hunch was right about not needing the theme, but also the number of newcomers (both to our Ely tastings and to whisky in general) in our sold-out crowd was high enough that a theme might not have been particularly meaningful. And worse, there’s definitely a chance that seeing some specific descriptor on an event might have put some people off (though I definitely accept that can go both ways).
I ended up presenting a line-up of 6 whiskies, all malt-based, all but one from Scotland, and representing a good spread of what’s possible with those caveats (which I don’t mean to use in any negative way). It was, however, a very hot evening in a very hot room. While that certainly didn’t spoil any of the whiskies or our overall enjoyment of the event, I did notice a difficulty in nosing, particularly, with stronger alcohol evaporation in the heat. That’s something to bear in mind with my notes below. Perhaps I should start to include a room temperature in these reviews…
The Whisky
(Click on the images to buy a bottle)
The Cairn Distillery – CRN57° Vision
Blended Malt Scotch Whisky – 40%
When you are as experienced as Gordon & MacPhail, with countless whiskies released and casks aging, one successful distillery under your belt, and a second to prepare the world for, producing a predictive range of blends seems like a pretty good idea. In the CRN57° range (a designation for The Cairn Distillery at its latitude), there is a growing collection of blended malts painting a picture of what they hope to produce when their single malts arrive. They are mostly age statements, including the oldest blended malt in the world, which clocks in at an impressive 70 years. G&M also hold the record for the oldest single malt too (at time of writing), an 85yo Glenlivet.
The bottle we enjoyed, however, was at the other end of the spectrum (presumably) as it had no age statement. It had seemingly also disappeared from their website, which I can’t explain. I selected it as a friendly first drink, with that nice story behind it, plus, being able to show people that ‘blend’ isn’t a dirty word is always fulfilling. No news on the casks or components with this, but that’s not always a bad thing – we can enjoy the whisky for the spirit itself, without any expectation overhead.
Notes: 👃🏻Marshmallow, popcorn, fire, woody leather 👄Toffee, dates, creamy cereal, ginger, pepper, banana, good spice funk.
Virginia Distillery Co. – Cider Cask Finish
American Single Malt Whisky – 46.5%
If I had picked a theme, I could have imagined that legacy and family would have suited the event nicely (in fact, I have indeed chosen that for this occasion in the past), and this bottle would still have sat well in that line-up. Virginia Distillery Company was founded by Dr George Moore after the Irishman had spent some time in the tech world of California. With a growing whisky collection, he decided that he’d like to get into making it himself, especially as back in the 00’s there seemed to be a bit of a gap in the American single malt whisky market.
He picked Virginia as a home as it had no major history of spirit production (as opposed to going to Bourbon country, for example). The distillery was founded in 2011, but unfortunately George passed away in 2013 before he could see it completed. His wife and son ultimately took over, seeing initial releases of their spirit blended with Scotch whisky and aged further in the Virginia climate, building up to their own single malts in 2020, named from a phrase that their late husband/father used to say. In 2016 though, the distillery became a founding member of the American Single Malt Whisky Commission, whose charter was to promote, edify, and ultimately codify the spirit classification into law. This was achieved in December 2024, which feels like a nice achievement, and something special for the legacy of Dr George Moore.
This bottle we have is a representation of Virginia in a few ways. It is, firstly, an American Single Malt from there (though the barley is not), matured in its 4 seasons with winter and summer extremes pushing past Scotland’s. The finish (rather reductively described as Cider Cask) also features Virginia cider barrels, alongside American apple brandy and Calvados barrels.
Notes: 👃🏻Malt, flat cider, sulphurous fizzy apple, earthy citrus 👄Apple vinegar crisps, rice crispy chocolate squares, some orange, a little biscuity.
Thompson Bros. – Alness
Blended Malt Scotch Whisky- 50%
When I planned out this line-up, I had this whisky at number 4, but upon opening and nosing 3 then this, I realised that we might enjoy some more elements of this if I swapped them. I usually tend not to go backwards once the smoke has started, and on paper that places this after the Signatory bottle that ended up in slot 4. However, the power of the sherry punch from that bottle, followed by an altogether more subtle experience nosing this bottle, was enough to convince me of the swap. Despite this being a touch stronger in ABV, and having that persistent undercurrent of smoke, the room seemed to agree that the swap was sensible.
A 2-distillery blend isn’t a particularly common occurrence. If you’ll permit me to describe blends with sweeping statements: one is often looking to craft something with a softer marriage of characteristics, and if you’ve only got 2 distilleries to work with, then your chances of that reduce. Of course, there are plenty of blenders seeking to create new experiences with far more creative flair, and here, I’d say, is where we find the Thompson Bros. Alness expression. Named for the town where the 2 distilleries are located, and representing them on the label with a part stag, part porpoise hybrid, this is a blend of Dalmore and Teaninich.
More than the localisation making this a bit special though, is that the Dalmore involved (less than 10% of the final product) is a heavily peated Dalmore – something quite rare indeed. The distillery doesn’t bottle it themselves, and it’s a bit of an oddity, mostly popping up like this from independents, the product of very limited runs. Some would have been used by Whyte & Mackay in their blending, and in other experiments, but news of recent heavily peated runs from Dalmore is scant. It is very possible this is an old barrel that the Thomson Bros. have decided to eek some out of for the fun of releasing this expression.
After all that, the Teaninich is somewhat less remarkable in description, though by no means bad whisky and vital for the final package here. Most likely, it’s the Teaninich that brings the age statement down to 12 years(the youngest component). To complement the peated oomph of the bare Dalmore, the Teaninich was ex-bourbon barrel, to mellow the whole thing out with a fresh, grassy base, putting a tropical spin on, and very much softening the peat.
Notes: 👃🏻Tropical rubber/balloon, lemon, TCP but creamy, dusty charcoal 👄Coconut, foam tropical sweets, dry grass, engine oil, salt, lemon drizzle cake.
Signatory Vintage – Tartan Army Ben Nevis 11yo
Single Malt Scotch Whisky – 46%
As I said, this was pushed back in the line-up because of the sherry explosion I was hit with when I initially uncorked it. And, the line-up photo at the top of the page doesn’t really do the colour difference justice either. To skip to the end a little, this is a marriage of Oloroso casks, so all very understandable consequences of that, and a perfectly pleasant result, having it in this 4th slot.
Signatory has bottled this Ben Nevis under the banner of the Tartan Army to celebrate with the Scottish football fans as their men’s team storms the World Cup. But what’s missing from the front is the explanation that they’ve also partnered with the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal to give them a donation for every bottle sold. They are an organisation that makes donations to children’s charities around the world in countries where Scotland has played.
Notes: 👃🏻Farm grain funk, dried berries, hot soil, oily, industrial 👄Juicy + dry!? Orange pith, jam on crackers.
Kilchoman – Maury Cask Matured
Single Malt Scotch Whisky – 50%
It has been a little while since I’ve presented a Kilchoman, so long in fact that I can’t see one scrolling down my past event reviews here, and I had to go over to Instagram. I was introduced to Kilchoman quite early in my whisky journey, when they hosted a tasting at the St Andrews University whisky society, which means that was over 10 years ago! The distillery at that point must have been around 10 years old, where they’ve now just passed 20. They’ve definitely grown a lot in the last decade, increasing the number of available expressions and cycling through limited releases, putting increasing focus on Islay barley and utilising more cask variaties.
But, all these years on, one of the first of the new wave of small, passionate distilleries, now a seasoned player, is still showing it knows how to innovate. This is a whisky fully matured in casks that would usually be used as a finish, although these casks are rarely even used for that – I can’t see a Maury finished whisky with a quick search just now. The argument is that rather than a touch of extra flavour from the French fortified Maury wine, we’re treated to a longer marriage of characteristics (this is reportedly a vatting of 19 casks filled in 2021). It’s an interesting experiment from a certain point of view: all the ‘wet cask’ flavour of a finish, plus the use of that wood for aging of the spirit – some sort of hybrid of a refill and a wine finish. All that aside, it was a deliciously heavy whisky; it would be nice to have a chance to revisit it in cooler times.
Notes: 👃🏻Toffee biscuit, mackerel, leather 👄Good smoke, sweet grain, boiled sweets, pineapple, fishy charcoal.
The Single Cask – Glasgow 6yo
Single Malt Scotch Whisky – 61.5%
For the final bottle in the line-up, looking for something to take on what I anticipated being quite a hard palate hitter, the strength of this bottle, coupled with its virgin oak maturation, seemed right on the money. Similar to my remarks on the previous bottle, I think Glasgow Distillery make really impressive stuff, and I’m surprised I haven’t featured a bottle in the lifetime of this website! Though, I have installed their core peated expression as one of the core whiskies on the bar in our HQ, Thirsty.
The Single Cask are a company founded by a wine & whisky importer who discovered the joys of single cask variation and wanted to share it with people.
Glasgow Distillery are fairly young, being founded in 2012 but only starting to distil in 2015, and this spirit was distilled 3 years after that start. One of the three cycling new make profiles they produce is peated, and they use barley that was malted with mainland, highland peat for that. This leads to a different kind of smoke, less of the seaweed and iodine, more of the heather and fragrance. The virgin oak cask is going to contribute wood and pepper. Those two differences combined meant I was confident this whisky would stand out as our last bottle, and I was not disappointed.
Notes: 👃🏻Tropical/Calpol smoke, anchovies, butterscotch/cinder toffee, orange oil 👄Strong fragrant/perfumed smoke, pineapple & gammon, beef crisps, oatcakes.
The Winners
Vote Winner: Bottle #3 – Alness
Close Contenders: Bottle #4 – Tartan Army & Bottle #5 – Kilchoman
It was a pretty strong win for the Alness, with the Thompson Bros. again proving to me, and the people of Ely (thinking back to the Invergordon 34 on Burns Night), that they know what they’re doing; a good job too ahead of the next Ely tasting being a Thompson Bros. Mystery Malt blind event!
The Tartan Army bottle offered that firm favourite of styles: heavily sherried. And the Kilchoman was a similar style of densely fruity, but offering that good smoke on top. In some ways, I could have imagined, with the immense heat we were enjoying this line-up in, that one of these could have beaten the Alness to the top. The runners-up both had far more potent flavours to bite through any extra alcohol evaporating into your nose. But it wasn’t even close, so the delicate joy of the Alness can clearly beat the heat – I wonder what the votes would be like in February!