Laphroaig 15 Year Old Returns to the Core Range After a Decade Away
Laphroaig has brought back its 15 Year Old single malt, reintroducing the expression to its core range after roughly ten years of absence. Whisky Monkeys reported the return on July 1.
The 15 Year Old first appeared in 1985 and built a following among drinkers who wanted Laphroaig's medicinal peat character with more depth and composure than the younger 10 Year Old provides. It was quietly discontinued around 2016, leaving a gap in the range between the 10 Year Old and the 25 Year Old. That gap is now filled.
The whisky is matured for 15 years in American oak casks and bottled at 46% ABV — unchill-filtered, natural colour. The distillery describes orange and grapefruit on the nose, with dried hay, vanilla, and subtle barbecue smoke. The palate carries sea salt, peat smoke, smoked mackerel, black pepper, and coriander. The finish is long with ripe peach and grapefruit.
RRP is €76 (approximately £65), available directly from Laphroaig's website. Retail distribution beyond the distillery has not been confirmed.
Murray's take: The 15 Year Old was the expression that showed Laphroaig could do more than wallow in peat. It added structure — the oak taming the smoke without burying it. Dropping it from the range was always a strange decision, and its return is the kind of quiet, sensible move that distilleries rarely get credit for. The price sits in the gap where it should: above the 10 Year Old, well below the 25 Year Old. For drinkers who found the 10 Year Old too aggressive and the Cask Strength too much commitment, the 15 Year Old is the answer that has been missing for a decade. Welcome it back.
IWSC 2026 Names Eight Blended Scotch Winners — From £40 to £775
The International Wine & Spirits Competition 2026 has awarded Spirit Gold to eight blended Scotch whiskies, with scores between 95 and 97. The Whiskey Wash published the full results on July 1.
No blended Scotch reached Gold Outstanding, the band reserved for scores of 98 and above. The top of the category therefore belongs to eight whiskies that the IWSC's blind judging panels scored in the 95–97 range. The winners skew toward the luxury end — age statements of 21, 23, 25, and 40 years, with prices to match.
Chivas Regal 25 Year Old took the top spot in the category, priced at $330 (£290). Built around malt from Strathisla — the oldest working distillery in the Highlands — with grain from Strathclyde, every cask is hand-selected. Royal Salute 21 Year Old, also from Chivas Brothers, earned Spirit Gold at $969 (£775). The brand was created in 1953 as a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, and every whisky in the blend is at least 21 years old.
The full winner list includes Ballantine's, Dewar's, Noble Rebel, White Heather, and Wildmoor, spanning a price range from approximately £40 to £775. The IWSC has been running since 1969 and judges all entries blind.
Murray's take: Blended Scotch has spent two decades being talked down to by the single malt crowd. The IWSC results are a useful corrective — not because luxury blends need defending, but because the category's reputation has been dragged by its cheapest examples while its best work goes overlooked. The gap between Gold Outstanding and Spirit Gold tells its own story: no blend scored 98 or above. The blends are very good. None are transcendent. That is an honest result. The presence of a £40 winner alongside a £775 decanter is the more interesting signal. Good blended whisky at a fair price is still the backbone of Scotch. The industry forgot that for a while. The IWSC hasn't.
Isle of Arran Distillers Signs Exclusive UK Distribution Deal with Chimera
Isle of Arran Distillers, producer of Arran and Lagg single malts, has signed an exclusive UK distribution agreement with London-based Chimera Brand Development. The Spirits Business reported the deal on July 2.
The partnership covers both the Lochranza distillery, which has produced Arran single malt since 1995, and the Lagg distillery on the south of the island, which came online in 2019 and focuses on heavily peated spirit. Chimera will handle distribution across UK on-trade and off-trade channels.
Euan Mitchell, managing director of Isle of Arran Distillers, described the UK as "a vitally important and highly competitive market for single malts." The company's previous distributor was Amber Beverage UK, which had held the arrangement since 2023. Chimera was founded in 2025 by Seymour Ferreira and Douglas Bratten, former CEO and COO of Amber Beverage Group.
The distribution shift comes on the heels of Arran 14 Year Old returning to shelves in May 2026 after being discontinued in 2019, accompanied by a new 30 Year Old aged in sherry hogsheads from the distillery's earliest production years.
Murray's take: Arran has never had the profile it deserves. The whisky is consistently good, the distillery operates transparently, and the island itself gives the brand a story that doesn't need embellishment. The problem has been distribution — getting bottles into the right hands in the right markets. Whether Chimera can do better than Amber Beverage UK is an open question, but the timing is right. The 14 Year Old is back. The 30 Year Old gives the range a credible premium expression. A new distributor with founders who know the previous distributor's mistakes is a reasonable bet. The UK market is crowded. Arran needs someone who will push it, not just list it.
Glasgow Distillery Releases Recioto Cask Finish with Science Centre Collaboration
Glasgow Distillery has launched Glasgow 1770 Recioto Cask Finish, a limited-edition peated single malt created in collaboration with The Good Spirits Co and Glasgow Science Centre. The Whisky Wire reported the release on June 17.
The whisky marks Glasgow Science Centre's 25th anniversary. Spirit was initially matured for three years and six months in ex-bourbon casks before being finished for a further three years in rare Italian Recioto wine casks. Recioto is a sweet, concentrated red wine from the Veneto region — not a cask type commonly used in Scotch whisky maturation.
Bottled at 52% ABV, the release is limited to 306 bottles with an RRP of £66.50. It is available from Glasgow Science Centre's gift shop and The Good Spirits Co stores in Glasgow. Tasting notes describe dark stewed fruits, salted caramel, juicy sultanas, and lingering sweet smoke.
Sebastian Bunford-Jones, global marketing manager at Glasgow Distillery, said the Recioto cask amplified the whisky's natural smoky barbecue notes while adding layers of dark fruit and caramel sweetness.
Murray's take: Three years in a Recioto cask is a serious commitment to a finish — most cask finishes sit for six months to a year. The longer the spirit stays in the finishing cask, the more it becomes a different whisky rather than the same one with a coat of paint. At £66.50 for a peated single malt with genuine cask provenance and a 52% ABV, this is priced honestly. The collaboration with a science centre is unusual, and the 306-bottle outturn means it will disappear quickly. Recioto brings dried fruit and a bitterness that cuts sweetness — a profile that should work with peat. Whether it does is a question only the glass can answer.
Whisky 1901 Launches Ledger Series — Six Single Casks from Scottish Distilleries
Independent bottler Whisky 1901 has launched The Ledger Series, a collection of six single-cask Scotch whiskies ranging from 11 to 21 years old. The Luxe Review attended the London launch and published a first-pour review on June 22.
The series features bottlings from Miltonduff, Dailuaine, Tamnavulin, Ardmore, Glen Garioch, and Invergordon — the latter a single grain. All carry age statements and are bottled at natural cask strength. The collection takes its name from traditional whisky record-keeping, with each bottling intended to document a particular cask's journey.
Matt Chambers, Master of Whisky at Whisky 1901, selected six from approximately 40 samples based on three criteria: reflection of distillery character, cask maturation quality, and hitting "the sweet spot."
The range spans from a Dailuaine 12 Year Old at £125 (50.1% ABV, 117 bottles) to a Miltonduff 18 Year Old at £160 (52.1% ABV, 180 bottles). The Tamnavulin 13 Year Old sits at £155 (58.2% ABV, 186 bottles), and the Invergordon 21 Year Old single grain is priced at £145 (56.3% ABV, 297 bottles).
Murray's take: Single cask releases from independent bottlers live or die on selection. Six casks from six different distilleries, chosen from 40 samples by someone who knows what they are looking for, is a proper curatorial exercise — not a warehouse clearance. The inclusion of a 21-year-old single grain from Invergordon is the interesting one. Grain whisky is the most underrated category in Scotch, and a well-aged single cask grain at £145 is a genuine opportunity for drinkers who want complexity without the single malt price premium. The Dailuaine is the sleeper — a distillery most people know as a Johnnie Walker component, rarely seen on its own at this age. The Ledger Series name is apt: these are casks worth recording.
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