More Drams, Less Drama - Coldorak's Whisky Blog.

What Does ‘Refill Cask’ Actually Mean?

9th October 20268th October 2026Coldorak

There are whisky labels that appear to tell you almost nothing, and others that seem extraordinarily precise. Refill sherry hogshead certainly belongs to the second category. Three words, and apparently we know the cask. We know its size – or at least its general format. We know something about what it held before. And we know that it has been used before.

Easy.

Except that we still don’t know what kind of oak it is. We don’t necessarily know what kind of sherry was involved, how long it held it, how long its previous whisky maturation lasted, whether this is its second Scotch fill or its fourth, whether it was rejuvenated somewhere along the way, or exactly how active the wood remains.

Suddenly, ‘refill sherry hogshead’ doesn’t look quite so precise. So what does refill actually tell us? And perhaps more importantly, what doesn’t it tell us?

The Hidden Distillery: The Language of Undisclosed Whisky

7th October 20266th October 2026Coldorak

Independent bottlers are usually associated with transparency. They tell us the vintage, age, cask number, cask type, outturn, and strength, sometimes even the exact dates of distillation and bottling. In some cases, an independent bottling tells you considerably more about the whisky than an official bottle from the same distillery. And then, occasionally, it tells you almost everything except where the whisky was actually distilled.

Secret Speyside. An Orkney Distillery. An Islay Single Malt. Secret Highland. Williamson. Westport. Wardhead. Burnside.

Sometimes the distillery is genuinely difficult to identify. Sometimes everybody in whisky seems to know what it is, while nobody involved in selling the bottle will actually write the name down. And sometimes what looks like an undisclosed single malt isn’t legally a single malt at all.

Welcome to one of the stranger languages of independent whisky.

They Don’t Make Whisky Like They Used To. Literally.

5th October 20264th October 2026Coldorak

‘They don’t make whisky like they used to.’ It’s the sort of thing whisky enthusiasts like to say after tasting an old bottling, usually followed by something about wax, tropical fruit or an elusive ‘old-school’ character. Taken literally, though, they’re right: whisky really isn’t made exactly as it used to be. Raw materials, production methods, casks and bottling practices have all evolved, while the liquid in those old bottles has sometimes spent another half-century sitting behind a cork or screw cap. So when an old bottling tastes noticeably different from its modern equivalent, what exactly are we tasting – and can we really know why?

How to read a Scotch whisky bottle label

2nd October 20262nd October 2026Coldorak

I spend a fair amount of time looking at labels before I pour anything. Independent bottlers in particular tend to put a lot of information on the bottle, and a little of it is required by law, some of it is voluntary, and some of it is simply the bottler’s own wording. The trouble is that all three look identical in small print.

So while the glass is temporarily empty, I thought I would go through some of the bottles I have reviewed and work out what each line on the label actually tells you – and what it does not.

For the legal side, I am relying mainly on the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, together with the Scotch Whisky Product Specification, where it adds relevant details. I will distinguish those rules from labelling conventions and voluntary information supplied by bottlers.

And, as we will eventually discover, this matters: something not specifically defined by the Scotch Whisky Regulations does not necessarily mean that anything goes.

Glen Garioch 2011 Cadenhead’s / 1998 Thompson Bros

28th September 202627th September 2026Coldorak

It has been a while since Glen Garioch last appeared on More Drams, so it is time to return to the distillery with two independent bottlings with very different stages and types of maturation. First up is a young 2011 Glen Garioch from Cadenhead’s, followed by a much older 1998 release from Thompson Bros. The contrast should be especially interesting: the Cadenhead’s is a 12-year-old with a second maturation in a white port cask, while the Thompson Bros expression spent 27 years in a second-fill barrel.

Hakushu Distiller’s Reserve, 12- and 18-year-old

25th September 202624th September 2026Coldorak

We reviewed Hakushu 25 Year Old almost two years ago, but what about the rest of the distillery’s core range? Today, I’m filling in that gap with four bottlings: the Hakushu Distiller’s Reserve, the 12 Year Old, and two versions of the classic 18 Year Old. Together, they should provide a useful overview of Hakushu’s house style across different age statements—from the fresher, younger profile of the Distiller’s Reserve through to the more mature, fruit-led and gently smoky character of the 18 Year Old. And since we’ve never properly introduced Hakushu Distillery, we’ll begin with some history.

Tullibardine Sovereign & 2004 The Whisky Agency

23rd September 202622nd September 2026Coldorak

After the two large French whisky reviews from Friday and Monday, we turn back to Scotland with a shorter review as well. We take a look at Tullibardine with quite opposite bottlings: an ex-bourbon non-age-statement official bottling with the Tullibardine Sovereign, and a 22-year-old Ruby port matured Tullibardine from the independent bottler The Whisky Agency. But first, as it is usual when we introduce a distillery on More Drams, let’s have a short look at the distillery itself.

7 Peated French Whiskies: Naguelann / Fontagard / Vilanova / Kornog…

21st September 202621st September 2026Coldorak

After the seven unpeated French single malt whiskies reviewed on Friday, we continue exploring French whisky, but this time with seven peated French whiskies. On the menu, the Naguelann Start, bottled for the Malt in France French whisky show 2025, Fontagard TORB 9121-1, La Piautre d’Eire et d’Alba, the Kornog Single Malt and Santez Erwann 2025, the Vilanova Shed Signature #1 and the Armorik Yeun Elez Jobic single malt.

7 French Single Malts: Armorik / Fontagard / Glann Ar Mor / Arlett / Cormeil / Vilanova

18th September 202618th September 2026Coldorak

Over the past few years, I’ve built up a small collection of French whisky bottles, having been fortunate enough to taste a wide range of releases—mostly across the three editions of Malt in France, the French-whisky-focused show held in Rennes on the first weekend of April since 2024.
My original plan was to gather them all into one large review. However, as the number of bottles kept growing, it made more sense to keep tasting and split the feature into two parts. This first instalment focuses on unpeated French whiskies from distilleries across the country; Monday’s review will turn to the peated side of French whisky.

Ardmore 2009 Whisky Agency / 40yo Whiskyland

16th September 202615th September 2026Coldorak

Today, I’m looking at two independently bottled Ardmores from very different points in the distillery’s history. The first is a 2009 vintage bottled by The Whisky Agency in 2026 after 16 years in a Port cask, while the second is a 40-year-old 1985 Ardmore from Whiskyland / Decadent Drinks, drawn from a marriage of two refill hogsheads and bottled in 2025. On paper, it looks like an uneven contest: a relatively young, wine-cask-driven Ardmore against a much older whisky shaped by comparatively gentle refill wood. Age alone, however, rarely decides the outcome. The question is whether the younger bottling’s energy and cask influence can match the depth and maturity of the 40-year-old.