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

Glenburgie 8yo Gordon & Macphail/30yo Signatory

29th June 202629th June 2026Coldorak

Glenburgie remains one of those Speyside names most whisky drinkers ‘know’ without actually knowing, quietly toiling away as a backbone malt for Ballantine’s rather than as a headline single malt in its own right. Official bottlings are still thin on the ground, so when you want to explore Glenburgie’s character in any depth, you inevitably end up rifling through the shelves of independent bottlers instead.

This line‑up is a neat illustration of that reality: at the younger end, an 8‑year‑old Gordon & MacPhail licence bottling that was about as close to ‘official’ as Glenburgie got for many years, thanks to G&M’s long‑standing agreement to bottle the distillery’s spirit under its own name. Opposite it, two mature Glenburgie 1995s from Signatory Vintage, both 30‑year‑old single casks from that famous mid‑ 90s parcel, promise a far more opulent, sherry‑accented take on the same DNA. Once again, then, we are relying on the independents to sketch out a portrait of a distillery that, despite its importance in blends, still barely speaks for itself on the official shelf.

7 Talisker, With A 1954 As Our 1000th Review!

26th June 202626th June 2026Coldorak

Today’s post is one I never quite expected to write: the 1,000th spirit tasted and reviewed for this blog. What started on August 8, 2019, with a Balblair 1979 has become, over seven years and hundreds of evenings with a glass, a record of the spirits that shaped my palate and the stories behind them. There have been detours into cognac cellars, discoveries on Islay and other famous places, and far more independent bottlings than I could have imagined back then.

Today’s drams are seven Taliskers, all very special bottles. Over the last few years, I’ve found myself wanting to review several spirits in the same blog post so I can have proper comparison points. It also makes rating them easier, because I’m not judging each dram in a vacuum but against a few peers that helps bring out its strengths and weaknesses. That’s really what I wanted for this milestone post: not just a line-up of special bottles, but a set of drams that could speak to one another.

Tasting them side by side gives me context, and context matters when you’re trying to write something fair and honest. It helps me see what a whisky is doing well, where it falls short, and whether it stands out for the right reasons. That approach has become more important to me over the last few years. I don’t just want to taste a spirit once and move on; I want to place it in a small conversation, with a few other bottles around it to sharpen the picture. It makes the notes more useful for me, and I think it makes the article more interesting to read as well.

This article is part tally, part retrospective, and part tasting session — seven drams lined up to mark the moment, with the thousandth dram last.

Rozelieures Rouge Côte / Marsala / Coloma

24th June 202623rd June 2026Coldorak

Before we reach our thousandth spirit reviewed on More Drams this Friday, we make a small detour to France, and more specifically to Lorraine, to explore the Grallet-Dupic distillery. Initially best known for its fruit eaux-de-vie, the house is now primarily associated with its Rozelieures whisky and its farm-to-bottle approach. In this article, we review three of their expressions: the Rozelieures Rouge Côte from the Parcellaire range, along with two single casks, one matured in Marsala and the other in ex-Coloma Colombian rum.

Cardhu 12-Year-Old 1970s vs 2020s

22nd June 202621st June 2026Coldorak

Cardhu is a popular Speyside distillery, best known for its 12-year-old core expression. Since this is our first time covering the distillery, we’ll start with a brief introduction before comparing a Cardhu 12-year-old bottling from the 1970s with one from the 2020s.

Glen Elgin 12yo And Three Indy

19th June 202624th June 2026Coldorak

Glen Elgin is one of Speyside’s quieter distilleries (and another proof is we haven’t reviewed many yet), but it has a style that rewards a closer look. In this article, we’re tasting four Glen Elgin whiskies, three of them independently bottled (by That Boutique-y Whisky Company, Chorlton and Lady of the Glen), and using them as a way into a distillery that deserves more attention than it usually gets.

Go (Five) Hibiki

17th June 202616th June 2026Coldorak

Suntory Hibiki has come to represent the polished, expressive side of Japanese whisky, and this lineup of five bottles shows how Suntory kept the name alive as aged stock became harder to find. With four no-age-statement releases and only one age-stated bottling, the 17-year-old, today’s lineup also reflects the wider pressure the Japanese whisky industry faced in the 2010s as mature distillate was depleted and producers had to rethink what their flagship blends and single malts could be.

Suntory’s answer was to lean into blending skill and house style rather than rely only on age statements, and Hibiki became one of the clearest examples of that shift. This review looks at how those expressions differ, what they reveal about the brand’s approach, and how Hibiki adapted when older stocks were no longer available in the volumes the category had once depended on.

Six Glasgow 1770 Whiskies

15th June 202614th June 2026Coldorak

Glasgow Distillery has become one of the interesting names in Scotch whisky, doing so many things right (nice people, nice whisky, nice prices) and this line-up shows why. From the core range to the small-batch releases, these six whiskies give a good sense of what the distillery does best and how far it is willing to push things.

Lagavulin 11-year-old Nick Offerman and 12-year-old Special Release 2021

Lagavulin 11 yo Nick Offerman & 12 yo SR2021

12th June 202612th June 2026Coldorak

We conclude our celebrity and whisky week (after the Laphroaig Willem Dafoe and the Glenmorangie Harrison Ford) with a Lagavulin 11-year-old Nick Offerman 3rd edition, and we compare it to the 12-year-old Special Release 2021. Nick Offerman, as I’ve mentioned in the review of the 4th edition, is a known big fan of Lagavulin distillery. It first appeared as some kind of joke in the (brilliant and very fun) TV show Parks & Recreations, but in fact it was based on a true love for this Islay distillery. And since it’s our first Lagavulin dedicated blog post here, let’s introduce the distillery first, as we have not done it yet!

Glenmorangie Harrison Ford

10th June 202610th June 2026Coldorak

Glenmorangie Harrison Ford takes the spotlight after Monday’s Laphroaig 14-Year-Old Willem Dafoe review, as our celebrity-and-whisky week continues with another heavyweight pairing. It makes for a neat contrast with Dafoe’s wonderfully eccentric Islay turn, and it sets the stage for Friday’s final collaboration as the week’s closing act.

Laphroaig 12yo and 14yo Willem Dafoe

8th June 20267th June 2026Coldorak

Laphroaig 12-year-old and Laphroaig 14-year-old Willem Dafoe lead today’s review, bringing together two distinctive Islay whiskies and one unmistakable name. Celebrity collaborations in spirits often sit somewhere between genuine passion projects and smart storytelling, and whisky is one of the categories where that relationship feels especially natural. From brand partnerships to special editions created with distilleries, these releases show how a famous name can add another layer of interest to the glass. Here, though, the focus stays where it should be: on the whisky itself, with these two Laphroaig expressions taking centre stage.