Single Malt de Bretagne?

When I visited my local Swedish monopoly liquor store (yes, you can only buy beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks at government controlled stores in Sweden) the other week to buy a new whiskey for Easter I came across a French whiskey, Armorik. I've heard good things about French whiskey and I believe in stepping out of  ones comfort zone from time to time so it was a natural choice to put it in my shopping basket on my way to the Scottish section. The next evening I decided to give my new French acquaintance a try, and I must say I enjoyed it very much! The whiskey had a nice peatiness, with cask notes, barley and dried fruits.

Benromach

During my recent visit to Scotland I had the pleasure of visiting Benromach. This beautiful small distillery, owned and operated by Gordon & MacPhail, is located just outside Elgin. The contrast between huge distilleries like Glenfiddich and Macallan and micro distilleries like Benromach (not sure if that is the correct label to put on Benromach, but in terms of production capacity they sure ain't big) is obvious but of no significance when it comes to the quality of the end product. On the contrary it was smaller distilleries like Benromach that surprised me the most. The standard 10 yo was a joy to taste, and I was struck by the complexity of such a young whiskey. It was also a nice surprise to see a distillery doing some organic bottlings, both peated and unpeated.

Longmorn

I did a trip to Speyside, Scotland a couple of weeks ago. The trip was a massive success and I came home with a couple of nice new acquaintances. I plan to put these recommendations out one by one in the coming weeks and I'm starting off with Longmorn. Longmorn was one of the biggest surprises of the trip. I did not actually visit the destillery (it's only open by appointment and it does not have a visitor centre or shop). I got a taste (or actually quite a few drams) of it from the lovely couple who ran the B&B (Greenhall Gallery in Cragellachie) where I stayed. It was the owners personal favorite, and do understand why. The taste was really rich and complex in the 15 yo that I sampled and I must say I was surprised when I learnt that most of the Longmorn whiskey ends up in blends. Well worth a try and it's a definite buy for me!