Whiskies

Whiskies Ours

Here are the casks that we have acquired either as a Club on our own, or with other whisky enthusiasts:

Bottled casks:

  • 2012 - Kilchoman «50OF5» Single Cask

  • 2017 - Springbank «50OF5» Private Cask - Edition «55»

  • 2018 - Wolfburn «50OF5» Private Cask Edition «60» - (bottling planned in 2022)

  • 2018 - Highland Park Viking Soul Cask #500115 «ÒRAN NA BOII»

  • 2020 - Highland Park Viking Soul Cask #500153 «ÒRAN NA BOII» II

  • 2020 - Highland Park Viking Soul Cask #500174 «ÒRAN NA BOII» III

  • 2020 - GlenAllachie Chinquapin Cask (with Whisky Festival.cz)

  • 2021 - Tomatin 21yo Verdejo cask

  • 2028 - Wolfburn «50OF5» Private Cask Edition «60» - Part 1 / 36 bottles

  • 2022 - Old Well «50OF5» Private Cask Edition «60» - Initiated in Marsala cask

  • 2022 - Raasay - two 30l casks (with CMWS)


Maturing casks:

  • 2019/24 - Lindores Abbey - new make - sherry firkin cask (bottling planned in 2024)

  • 2019/26 - Lindores Abbey - new make - STR cask (bottling planned in 2026)


And we are working on additional ones ...


Details about individual bottlings below (in reverse order).

Ilse of Raasay - Two casks at one shot
Rapid maturation in baby cask
[posted Nov-19, 2022]

When Isle of Raasay distillery offered a program with 30l casks, we thought it would be nice to compare what different casks would do with the same new make. So within the CMWS group, we acquired in total four of them, with the plan to bottle them as soon as they become whisky legally. Oddly enough, two of the frou casks leaked and the distillery offered some options to tackle the situation - in any case some delay could not hav ebeen avoided. However, two casks came out intact and we could compare them against each other and against the core bottlings R-01 and R-02 (that follow the distillery's Na Sia / Six Casks philosophy).

Old Well «50OF5» «Edition 60»
Marsala Initiated - New way of making whisky
[posted Sep-03, 2022]

We acquired our very first cask in 2012, to mark of round birthday. Ten years later, we trumped it be acquiring two casks - the Wolfburn mentioned below and a Czech single malt Old Well that has used Marsala and Bourbon cask. Unlike applying old boring finish in a wine cask that Dr. Bill has been using ad absurdum, Old Well's master distiller Lukas Andrlik decided to initiate the new spirit in the Marsala cask. New make takes much more from the wine soaked wood than a tired old whisky that was trapped in a bourbon cask for many years. And we together decided to call this innovative process "Marsala Initiated"!

Wolfburn Part 1
Follow the Journey
[updated posted Nov-19, 2022]

What we value on Wolfburn team is extremely friendly cooperation on our cask and the chance to bottle it in more parts. To follow a journey that a liquid goes through in an oak cask is simply fascinating.
Right at the beginning in June 2018 when we ourselves could fill the cask in Thurso, we made sure we kept a bottles of the new make that went into the 90l cask. Four years later in June 2022, we bottled the first batch out of the cask. And we plan to do further 2-3 bottlings, each a few years apart. And what we are tremedousky looking for is the Single Cask Tasting where we line up all the expressions from the new make to the oldest version!

Tomatin 21yo
Verdejo Bomb !
[posted Jul-27, 2021]

Full disclosure - we have always been impressed by Tomatin single casks and limited bottlings during their numerous tasting sessions in Vienna. So when a chance came to acquire a private cask, we convinced other whisky clubs to join our effort (under the roof of a newly created CMWS) and went for a hogshead.

We didn't hesitate to choose something special - the tasting panel opted for the Verdejo cask (Spanish sweet white wine). And thanks to lockdown, we agreed with the distillery to let the liquid in the cask for as long as 21 years! Which was never done before!

Hence, born in the last century and bottled on the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin and Space Shuttle, we got a first ever Single Malt matured full 21 years in a Verdejo cask !

GlenAllachie Duo

California and Chinquapin !

[posted Jul-27, 2021]

Two streams crossed in this case. Billy Walker visited Prague in November 2019. We were so impressed by his whiskies (besides the official masterclass, we also succeeded to hold a session for a small group of enthusiasts) that we convinced the distillery to allow us to go for two private casks. One would be for the 10th Anniversary of the Whisky Festival CZ and the other for the Czech whisky community.

We had to cull the original plan of selecting the casks in the distillery, and chose the casks based on sent samples. The festival organizer wanted something special - and decided for the Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wine cask (that has never been filled by GlenAllachie before). And the CMWS group decided for the Chinquapin cask!

HP VSC - Season II - Lottery win II and III

A Family is Born !

[posted Jul-27, 2021]

When second of the HP VSC program was announced back in 2020, we knew two things: Firstly, we had been so impressed with our cask from the first wave, that it was clear we wanted another one! Secondly, we also new there will be a tough competition for the limited number of casks. Hence, we teamed with everyone we knew to increase our chance of winning in the lottery again.

This tactics turned our extremely well and we finally got a chance to purchase not one cask, but two. And we even could get one as American oak and the other as European oak - very interesting comparison!


That's the way how our «ÒRAN NA BOII» has become a family: 12½, American 14yo and European 14yo!




Note: Import of the bottles (post-brexit) proved a tricky treat. The carrier selected by the distillery is able to arrange the payment of the local excise and VAT tax, but they have no license to equip each imported bottle with a Czech excise stamp - that's needed to release the bottle to the local market. It took us as many as two months to find a way to get the bottles through the maze of the often contradicting rules ... But the two bottlings were worth it.

HP VSC Firkin 12½ «Bohemian Rhapsody»

He won a lottery and ...

[updated Jul-27, 2021]

In a syndicated effort by a group of Bohemian whisky fans, we succeeded to acquire one of the casks in the Highland Park's Viking Soul [private] Cask program.

Originally, the cask bore the number #50OF5, but HP's lawyers got scared at the end, and "renumbered" the cash to 500115.

It's been a 50-liter firkin, and - due of our origin - we decided to call it «ÒRAN NA BOII»

For those few of you who do not speak this language fluently, Òran Na Boii means Bohemian Rhapsody in Scottish Gaelic.

And for those who did not pay attention during your geography lessons, Bohemia is the central part of Czech republic!

Note: A year ago, we stared a research into the real history of the distillery in Kirkwall. This time without HP's Marketing department, to make sure we stick to the facts.

And the first artifacts uncovered in the HP's bottling hall show that the link to Vikings is false. The distillery origins are actually linked to the beer fans from Bohemia!

We plan to publish the evidence during 2019 !

Additional details on Whiskybase.

The Wolfcask is Born!

One Cask - Multiple Batches !

[updated Jul-27, 2021]

On June 5, 2018 at exactly 11:00am Wolfburn time, Shane Fraser hammered the bunk onto the full «50OF5» cask.

And that is exactly the moment that was registered as the birth of our next cask!

For the history, we have taken aside a few bottles of new make that went into the cask, reserved for history. Consider it Wolfburn «50OF5» Aged 0 seconds.

It's the most limited edition of Wolfburn so far, just 6 bottles!


You might recognize Wolfburn‘s first whisky maker Shane Fraser - he helped us fill our cask shortly before he moved over the pond!


We plan to bottle the cask in three batches with a year apart, starting in 2022.

Springbank 25yo «50OF«Edition 55»

The oldest Springbank Private cask ever bottled !!

[updated Sep-9, 2017]


If Kilchoman was our acquisition for the celebration of our 50th, we upped our game and used the opportunity to grab part of a private cask of Springbank 25yo to celebrate 55th!

Bottled in 1990, a few month after the Berlin Wall had been torn down, it was happily maturing in distillery warehouse in Campbeltown.

The program of selling private casks has been discontinued by the distillery owners ten years ago.

We got hold of the cask when the liquid was 22 years old, and the alcohol level was just shy of 46%.

Yet we decided to take the risk and waited - holding our breadth - till the age reached 25 years, making it the oldest private cask of Springbank!

When the whisky was bottled in February 2017, it alcohol level showed 42.7%

Lucky us :-)


Additional details on Whiskybase.

Kilchoman «50OF5» Single Cask

One of the first Kilchoman Private casks ever !

[posted Dec-31, 2012]

It was back in 2012. The idea to organize one event for five people to celebrate half-century has been considered out-of-the-box. And getting a limited edition of a single malt Scotch whisky for this occasion was even further from the box.

However, we finally made it, and also created an accompanying leaflet!

Additional details on Whiskybase.

Rollercoaster

An important bottle !

[posted Mar-25, 2010]

There’s one more whisky that has played a special role in our Club, even before it was conceived. It is the Ardbeg Rollercoaster. Due to synchronized approach of all club members, no matter where they were at the critical moment and no matter how overloaded the Ardbeg’s server was on that day and night in February 2010, we finally succeeded to get hold of this special Ardbeg expression celebrating 10 years of the new ownership of the distillery.