New - Kilchoman Rockside; New Aberfeldy; New Islay Rum; Whisky Warehousing Goes Digital; Ian Macleod Distillery Downturn

Posted by Caroline Dewar on July 16 2026 at 15:47

16th July, 2026

Hello everyone

First up this time is a new expression from Kilchoman – Rockside 11 Years Old. They were kind enough to send a sample so, as usual, I‘ve done my own notes before reading theirs. My notes are:

Appearance: Soft barley gold with pale brass highlights Tears slow to form and close at first before opening wider.

Nose: From the hbottle first, I got light smoke and barbecued lemon. In glass, Light smoke, fresh sea air and citrus zest. A slight sharpness on the nose. Rich cereal notes and some fruit sweetness – stewed apple/plum. A soft sherry touch. With water, a little more smoke and some creamy notes. Slightly waxy with sweet spices.

Palate: Smoky but not harsh. Some black pepper. Smoky honey and toasted walnuts. Sea salt with toffee and light spices.

Finish: Quite long with smoke and black pepper. Some nuttiness and salt.

This is the first age statement release in Kilchoman‘s core range and made with barley from their own farm, no other sources. Maturation is in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry wood with a strength of 46% abv and peating level of 20ppm so a little lighter on the smoke than other expressions from them. It‘s a tasty little dram with plenty of character to mull over.

Aberfeldy distillery which Dewar’s (Bacardi) owns has recently released another limited edition in its Exceptional Cask series. Aberfeldy 24 Year old White Port Double Cask is 24 years old and has had some maturation in white port casks. Director of Blending, Master Blender and Malt Master at Dewar‘s, Stephanie Macleod said: “The choice of white Port casks was a deliberate one. Port cask maturation is often known for bringing a lively character to whisky, but white Port offers something particularly fresh and vibrant. Rich in notes of citrus peel, stone fruits and delicate nuttiness, the casks complement rather than overpower Aberfeldy’s signature honeyed style, creating an expression that feels bright, elegant and perfectly suited to the season.”

This expression is limited to 252 bottles and you‘ll be able to purchase it, if you can with such a small run, at around £350 (US$465) per 70cl bottle. It‘s bottled at 50.7% abv. The whisky is available via Aberfeldy‘s online store or at the distillery. With someone like Stephanie who‘s won so many awards for her skills and artistry, behind this expression, I‘m sure it‘s a goodie.

Always keen to give other good spirits their due, the Islay Rum Co. has launched its firstsingle cask expression, Islay Rum Sherry Wood, aged in ex-oloroso sherry wood. Distilled in July 2022 (the year they opened), it‘s bottled at 50% abv and costs around £53 per bottle but you‘d need to be quick as only 390 bottles were filled from this cask. Their notes say,“The rum offers aromas of dried fruits, raisins, figs, sherried spice, toasted oak and hints of caostal salinity. The palate displays notes of caramel sweetness, butterscotch, green banana, sea salt and tropical fruits.“ I‘d reckon it‘s worth a try at that price if you can get hold of any.

News just came in yesterday of a new, hopefully tamper-proof warehousing facility. The release says,“While much of the UK whisky industry still runs on paper delivery orders and spreadsheets, one new whisky storage facility just outside Edinburgh won’t be using them at all.

Royal Elizabeth Bond, the independent cask storage facility at the historic Royal Elizabeth Yard near the Forth Bridge in Dalmeny, has assigned every cask on its site — held on behalf of distillers, brokers and private owners from across Scotland — with a unique Digital Deed. In an industry with centuries of documented history, Digital Deeds are an industry-first creating a digital identity, accessed by QR code, recording exactly what is in a cask, who owns it, where it sits in the warehouse and everything that has happened to it. The record stays with the cask for its lifetime and, unlike paper, cannot be lost or fraudulently duplicated. The approach comes at a moment of reckoning for cask ownership. A BBC Scotland investigation into cask investment fraud found victims sold casks that were overpriced, sold twice or did not exist at all.“ Rather like traceability for livestock! This just after a recent report that another cask investment company has just been found wanting on its claims in advertising – indeed, it‘s the second time it has been publicly shamed. The new facility has nothing to do with bad claims in advertising but it does chime with previous information that there have been some rather dodgy cask investment companies out there (definitely NOT the distillers themselves) and facilities like this should help to stop some of these goings on. Indeed, this distillery and inventory management platform from UK-based Proof 8 is being adopted by warehouses and distilleries in an effort „to embed traceability and transparency into operations to shore up cask confidence“. The more reliable info we have, the better for the whole industry.

On a sadder note, Ian Macleod Distillers have reduced production at their Glengoyne and Rosebank distilleries by 30% due to drop in sales and „lower forward demand“. They‘re joining a raft of other distilleries in a number of countries, particularly the US and Ireland as well as Scotland as global events and tariffs in some places continue to upset things. These are really good whiskies so let‘s hope things improve reasonably soon for everyone, including us as consumers.

There were other bits and pieces of news in the last couple of weeks but not all of interest. I‘ll be back later in July with more whisky news and musings.