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Day 18 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 18, 2025

by Evan

Move over, Tim Hortons – there is a new Double Double in town!

If you name your Blended Scotch “Double Double”, it is pretty apparent that you are trying to corner the Canadian market. That is exactly what Dewar’s has done with this Blended Scotch Whisky range. Featuring 21, 27, and 32 year old versions, all available in cute little 375ml bottles with an unfortunately silly amount of extra packaging around them, the Double Double series has been quite popular over the past few years.

We don’t focus on Blended Scotch as much as the rest of the world seems to. You know, beyond being big fans of Compass Box, and anything that Walter is deems worth promoting. However, the Dewar's brand has been going through a bit of a renaissance with this Double Double lineup and a few other releases, and they have one of the most celebrated Master Blenders in charge of what they do.

Stephanie MacLeod is the woman behind the Dewar’s line of Blended Scotch Whisky. She has been a Master Blender with Dewar’s and parent company Bacardi since 2006. She was awarded the International Whisky Competition’s Master Blender of the Year Award in 2019, making her the first female Master Blender to do so.

Then she won it again in 2020.

And 2021, 2022, 2023, and for the sixth consecutive year in 2024. They were probably looking at changing its name to the Stephanie MacLeod Award at this point. Just this year, the IWC finally honoured somebody else with the Master Blender Of The Year award. It was presented to the also highly respected Drew Mayville of Sazerac/Buffalo Trace fame this time around.

Good to see that the IWC isn’t sexist, at least.

The great Stephanie MacLeod

Beyond her title of Director of Blending at Bacardi/Dewar’s, Stephanie is also Malt Master for the company’s five Single Malt Scotch distilleries. These are Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, Royal Brackla and Macduff (which is bottled as The Deveron).

Dewar’s was established by John Dewar in 1846. It started, essentially, as a liquor store. John sold wine and spirits at the shop with his surname on it, which resided in Perth, Scotland. Eventually, he started blending his own whiskies and selling them at the store. This was something many grocers did at the time, procuring casks and then creating their own house blends that they sold at their establishments. The Johnnie Walker brand’s own humble beginnings started much the same way.

It was John Dewar’s sons that really established and cemented the brand, though. John Dewar Sr. passed away in 1880, but the company continued with two of his sons at the helm. John Alexander Dewar – or John Dewar Jr. – mostly stayed in the UK, in charge of the stock an...

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Day 17 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 18, 2025

by Evan

Daftmill represents a new generation of Lowland Malt distilleries. In the year 2000, there were only two Single Malt producing operations left in the region: Auchentoshan, and Glenkinchie. Bladnoch was still around, but not really in production at the time. Rosebank had fallen during the 1980s whisky glut. So had Littlemill, which had much of its stills and copper stolen in the 1990s. St. Magdalene/Linlithgow closed in 1983 as well.

There had been more grain distilleries than malt distilleries operating in the Lowlands during this time as well. The largest distillery in the UK and perhaps Europe is Cameronbridge (Johnnie Walker, J&B, Haig Club) in Fife. Girvan is owned by William Grant & Sons (Grant’s, Famous Grouse) and operates in South Ayrshire. Strathclyde (Chivas Regal, Ballantines) is in Glasgow. And North British is in Edinburgh.

Times have changed over the last two decades for the Lowlands though. Here is a list of operating Lowland Distilleries that have opened this millennium:

Daftmill – 2005
Ailsa Bay – 2007
Eden Mill – 2012
Kingsbarns – 2014
Glasgow Distillery (bet you can’t guess where these guys are located) – 2015
Inchdairnie – 2015
Stirling – 2015 (though the Stirling Distillery did not produce their first new make spirit to eventually become whisky until 2024)
Aberargie - 2017
Annandale – 2017
Clydeside – 2017
Galloway – 2025 (Formerly known as Crafty Distillery, which was founded in 2014. Actor/Sexy Beast Sam Heughan - that dreamy dude from the Outlander TV Series - now has a hand in this operation. So you know it has to be promising. Right, Sassenach?)
Lindores Abbey - 2017
Borders – 2018
Lochlea – 2018
Lagg – 2019 (on the Isle of Arran – technically in the Lowlands)
Holyrood – 2019
Bonnington – 2020 (From the producer of Crabbie's Ginger Beer)
Falkirk – 2020
Jackton – 2020
Rosebank (revived and rebuilt) – 2023
Blackness Bay – 2024
Kythe - 2025 (Founded by three serious whisky geeks, including Angus MacRaild)

Lengthy, isn’t it? There may be a few news ones missing despite my attempt at being comprehensive.

As you can see, Daftmill was the first single malt distillery to open in the region this century. Founded and opened in 2005 by brothers Francis and Ian Cuthbert, Daftmill is about as close as you can find to a traditional farm distillery operated in modern times. It is extremely small production. Seriously – it makes Springbank seem like a gargantuan whisky making factory in comparison. The Daftmill distillery only operates when the Daftmill farm itself does not ...

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Day 16 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 17, 2025

by Evan

There are so many distilleries in Diageo’s arsenal of whisky production that are not well known. When you are a megacorp that operates 28 malt distilleries in Scotland alone, you can’t really give each one a focus with regular single malt releases and a visitor’s centre. We talked about this with the Diageo owned Teaninich Distillery on day 7 in this year’s calendar, and we are back here again to talk about it today with this Linkwood KWM Cask, which was selected by us and bottled under the Single Malts of Scotland label by Elixir Distillers.

Linkwood Distillery was founded in 1821 by one Peter Brown; the owner of the Linkwood Estate it resided on. The distillery did not officially start production until four years later in 1825. Peter’s son William Brown took over operations in 1868 and built a larger Linkwood distillery that opened in 1873 in the same spot. William died in 1898, at which point the Linkwood Glenlivet company was created and went public on the stock exchange. The distillery was taken over by Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD) in 1933. SMD in turn became part of Distiller’s Company Ltd. (DCL) in 1936.

In 1971, a second distillery was built alongside the first. The second distillery was dubbed Linkwood B. Twinning a distillery is a concept that has been used a few times over the years. A few examples include:

For a while there was both a Glen Grant 1 and a Glen Grant 2. Glen Grant 2 only operated from 1898 to 1902, before reopening under the name Caperdonich Distillery in 1968, closing for the final time in 2002.
Clynelish underwent a similar cloning process in 1968, though the older, smaller distillery had its name changed to Brora in 1969 and then closed in 1983. That close was permanent – at least until the new and revived Brora opened once more opened in 2021.
In Japan, there is both a Chichibu Distillery and a Chichibu Daini (Daini translates to second, or two in english). The first, smaller Chichibu distillery was opened in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto. Chichibu Daini opened in 2019. The long term plan is for the first Chichibu to remain on the craft and experimental release side of things, while Chichibu Daini will eventually offer more consistent and sustainable releases.

While both Linkwood A and B were in operation, the new make from the two would be vatted together before being put into cask for maturation. In 1985, the old Linkwood A was closed, leaving Linkwood B to be the primary Linkwood Distillery. The older Linkwood A was used for production for a few months each year between 1990 and 1996, but then fell completely silent and was eventually demolished in 2012.

From The Single Cask: The Dram Drone At Linkwood Distillery

Linkwood distillery’s whisky has long been revered as a top dressing malt and sought af...

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Day 15 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 15, 2025

by Evan

It is a bit surprising that we have not yet had a bottling from Lagg Distillery in our whisky calendar’s prior to this. We enjoy championing new and young distilleries and sharing their bottlings and discussing how they came to be.

The fanfare surrounding Lagg and its first releases has seemed quiet and even a bit unhurried in comparison to other young distilleries that reside within Scotland and abroad. We haven’t seen the pomp and circumstance around each new release and that manic energy that sometimes borders on desperation in the effort to get bottles of Lagg in front of consumers. There has not been that same urgent hustle to get sales of the young whisky and sell a half dozen different releases of the same product in a marginally different cask that many young distilleries and companies are forced to push because they need to see some sort of cashflow coming back in in the hopes of justifying the coin investors have already sunk into the project.

Maybe I am just not seeing it with Lagg and this is all actually happening in the background. Or, perhaps because with, Lagg, this not the Isle of Arran Distillers’ first time launching a new brand. They have done this before, and they can take a more steady, measured approach to building an audience for their whisky. They have been there and done that with the Lochranza Distillery, which celebrated it’s 30th birthday this year. You cannot sprint to the 30 year mark – it takes time to get there. About 3 decades worth of time, if my math is correct.

I had a chance to visit the Isle of Arran and both the Lochranza and Lagg Distilleries on a trip to Scotland in 2019. Undoubtably, a few things have changed in the intervening years. For one, Lagg did not yet have whisky when I was there, but I did get to taste spirit. It was burly, coastal, quite peated and impressively viscous in style. Tasting that new make was a solid confirmation that the company behind both distilleries was not just trying to create a second Lochranza Distillery. It even differs stylistically from Lochranza’s own peated spirit, which is usually bottled under the Machrie Moor label. And why should they? Lochranza does its style just fine, thank you. Lagg has had its own character from the get-go, and it will be fun to watch how it evolves as its stock continues to mature. Just like many of us have been fortunately to watch happen over the past few decades with Arran/Lochranza.

The Lagg Kilmory Edition that we will be tasting today is one of two releases in the core range currently available. Shall we give it a go?

Lagg Kilmory Edition – 46%

For the Kilmory Edition, we use Concerto malted barley and pure water from our borehole. Our carefully selected yeast and fermentation time allow us to craft a full-bodied flavor with a vibrant, fresh taste prof...

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Day 14 - KWM 2025 This Is Still Not An Advent Calendar

Posted on December 16, 2025

by Evan

What should I talk about with this one? We have no clue which Highland Distillery this bottling was distilled at. Kind like the Boutique-Y Highland 18 Year we had in last years Not An Advent Calendar Tasting Set, which in my opinion is superb.

What is the deal with mystery malts? Here is a short breakdown.

There are many Single Malts from Independent Bottlers that disclose which distillery the whisky came from. But not all of them do.

Nearly every distillery sells casks. Either to private buyers, whisky brokers, blenders, or independent bottlers. Most cannot afford to hold on to their entire stock for years or decades to release it themselves. So, they will sell or trade at least some of their younger stock, or even some of their spirit runs in bulk.

BUT: Imagine you were a distiller and sold a cask of your whisky off. Eventually, that cask is bottled and sold, but with your distillery's name still on it in big, bold print. Then it receives several poor reviews. Somebody else sold the final product, which you had no say in, and now consumers are complaining that your whisky is garbage. You had no control over how it was matured in the years - or even decades since you sold it.

Should your distillery's reputation suffer because of this cask that you sold off years ago?

This is where a lot of these mystery malts, like the Moonbroch Secret Highland Single Malt come in. The indie bottler – Moonbroch in this case – might not have the rights to name the distillery it comes from. Heck, they might not even know which distillery the casks came from – they might have been sold as Highland Single Malt with no distillery name attached in the first place. OR, the bottler might have had to sign a form saying they would not reveal the distillery it came from.

Regardless, it seems like we will have to follow our palates on this one and just contemplate which Highland Distillery that peats at least some of their spirit runs this comes from. Hmm….

Moonbroch Secret Highland 20 Year Old – 46%

This peated, secret Highland single malt was bottled at 46% and 20 years of age after finishing in an STR cask!

Evan’s Tasting Note

Nose: Malt, dark chocolate, tarry peat, a hint of iodine, grapefruit rind, blueberry pie, cherry cobbler, roasted sunflower seeds, and a touch of chicken soup stock.

Palate: Chalk and mineral notes hit up front before a tangy citrus note comes in, along with the peat smoke. Apple sauce, Strawberries with balsamic and black pepper, and ginger beer.

Finish: Warming, peaty, peppery, and sweet with notes of apple juice and candied ginger on the fade.

Comment: Love that bit of minerality on this dram. Once again I was worried about the wine cask finish, and more I ...

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