DramMaster Daily Whisky News — 6 September 2026

By Murray

The Dalmore 14-Year-Old Marsala Finish: Sicilian Casks Meet Highland Spirit

The Dalmore has released the latest expression in its Distillery Select Series — a 14-year-old single malt finished for one year and nine months in Semisecco Marsala casks from Sicily. Bottled at 53.7% ABV, the whisky is limited to 1,110 bottles and priced at £350. It is non-chill filtered and natural in colour. The spirit was initially matured in American white oak ex-bourbon barrels before the Marsala finish, which the distillery selected to show its house style — chocolate, orange, warming spice — in a distinctive light. Official tasting notes describe a nose of floral overtones, sweet clementine, stoned fruits, honeyed malt, and spiced vanilla, with a palate of candied orange peel, sweet pear, toffee, brioche, walnuts, clove, and cinnamon, finishing on sweet citrus and rich oak. The Distillery Select Series launched in 2024, drawing small parcels from The Dalmore's dunnage warehouses at its Highland home on the shores of the Cromarty Firth, where the distillery has stood since 1839. Members of The Dalmore Guild get advance purchase access; the guild is free to join. With the distillery's recent reopening, visitors can also buy the series from the on-site boutique.

Murray's take: Marsala is an uncommon finish for Scotch, and Semisecco — medium-sweet — is the right choice for The Dalmore's rich house style. The clementine and walnut notes from the source article track with what Marsala casks actually contribute, not generic dessert-wine shorthand. At 1,110 bottles and £350, this sits in the premium-but-not-trophy band. The Distillery Select Series is building a track record of genuine cask experimentation rather than packaging theatre.

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Glengoyne Scottish Oak 17 Year Old: Native Oak, IWSC Double Gold

Glengoyne has unveiled Scottish Oak 17 Year Old, the third release in its Oak Masters' Series, following White Oak (2024) and Mizunara Oak (2025). Bottled at 51.6% ABV and priced at £180 (US$243), the whisky launched on 3 September 2026. It spent most of its 17 years in refill bourbon and refill sherry casks before a finish of up to two years in casks made from virgin Scottish oak, sourced from woodland around Killearn — five miles from the distillery. Scottish oak (Quercus petraea) is rare in Scotch whisky maturation. The wood is prone to leaking, difficult to source, and hard to cooper into casks. Scotland has significantly fewer native oak woodlands than many European neighbours, making genuinely Scottish-grown oak a scarce resource. The release won a Double Gold Outstanding award at the IWSC 2026, placing it among just six whiskies in its category to achieve the distinction. Official tasting notes describe heather honey, lime, stewed pear, and porridge with raspberries on the nose, with a palate of toasted oak, fresh fruits, oat and raisin cookies, vanilla, warming ginger, and nutmeg. Glengoyne, founded in 1833 on the Highland Line north of Glasgow, distils at roughly five litres per minute — about a third of the industry norm — and has never used peat. The distillery is owned by Ian Macleod Distillers.

Murray's take: Scottish-grown oak is the genuinely rare part here. Most "Scottish oak" claims are thin — this one names the village. The IWSC Double Gold Outstanding is real validation, and £180 for a 17-year-old with native oak provenance is fair. The slow distillation and unpeated spirit give Glengoyne a fruit-forward base that carries cask influence without being overwhelmed by it.

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Tomintoul Premieres Spirit of the Cairngorms Rescue Film

Tomintoul Distillery has released a short film, Spirit of the Cairngorms, marking the fourth year of its partnership with the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team (CMRT). The film premiered at Tomintoul House, bringing together distillery staff, CMRT volunteers, local partners, and community representatives. Produced by Tomintoul in collaboration with the rescue team, it features members of both groups sharing personal accounts of living and working in the Cairngorms. The stories reveal shared ground between the distillery and the rescue team — respect for the landscape, a commitment to craftsmanship, and ties to community and place. Tomintoul, a Speyside distillery, has built its identity around the gentler side of whisky — unpeated, approachable malts — and the film extends that ethos into a partnership that connects whisky production with the people who work the same landscape in a different capacity.

Murray's take: A distillery partnering with a volunteer mountain rescue team for four years and making a film about it is the kind of community story that actually means something. No limited edition bottle attached, no charity auction — just a shared landscape and the people on it. Speyside's connection to the Cairngorms is real, and Tomintoul is leaning into it without forcing a commercial angle.

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Sotheby's Nightcap Festival: 328 Bottles of Willett Family Estate Hit the Block

Sotheby's will stage its inaugural Nightcap Wine & Spirits Festival at its Breuer building in New York from 16–19 September 2026, with a live whisky auction running 3–18 September. The headline is The Wax Top Collection — 328 bottles of Willett Family Estate, the single largest offering of the Kentucky distillery's whiskey ever brought to auction at one time. Highlights include Doug's Green Ink (est. $13,000–15,000 each) and Iron Fist and Velvet Glove (est. $10,000–15,000 each), both from Willett's sought-after "Epic Ryes" series. The sale also features 4/6/1993 vintage Willett Family Estate barrels, described by Sotheby's as a "mythical run" of high-age-statement bottlings, including The Wheated Patriot 21 Year Old (est. $7,000–9,000). Beyond Willett, the auction includes an A.H. Hirsch Reserve 18 Year Old distilled in 1974 (est. $20,000–30,000), a Bowmore ARC-54 Year Old from 1968 aged in Bowmore's No. 1 Vaults (est. $40,000–60,000, proceeds to The Foundation of Hope), and a 21-bottle collection from the National Distillers Museum Collection with proceeds benefiting World Central Kitchen. The wider sale spans more than 250 additional bottles of pre-Prohibition and Prohibition-era whiskey, rare Scotch, and Japanese single malts. Sotheby's Wine & Spirits generated $49.25 million in the first half of 2026, led by the Great American Whiskey Collection at $2.5 million — a record for the most valuable American whiskey collection ever sold at auction.

Murray's take: 328 Willett bottles in one sale is a market signal, not a curiosity. Willett has been the quiet cult of American whiskey for a decade — no national advertising, limited distribution, and a secondary market that runs on reputation alone. The Bowmore 54 Year Old at $40,000–60,000 is the Scotch anchor, but this auction is really about Kentucky. The $49.25 million half-year figure tells you where the premium spirits market is actually heading.

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Heaven Hill Partners with Kentucky Wildcats: Bourbon Meets College Athletics

Heaven Hill Brands has signed a multiyear partnership with UK Athletics, naming Elijah Craig the Official Small Batch Bourbon Partner of the Kentucky Wildcats and Evan Williams the Official Bourbon Partner. The deal includes venue naming rights across the University of Kentucky's athletics facilities: the Mezzanine Club at Kroger Field becomes the Elijah Craig Club, and the Bourbon Club at Rupp Arena is renamed the Elijah Craig Speakeasy. Both venues will be redesigned with elements drawn from the brands' heritage. Evan Williams will activate at tailgates and fan zones on gamedays through its Bourbon Nation program. The partnership also introduces limited-edition co-branded bottles, with the inaugural release an Elijah Craig single barrel hand-picked by J Batt, UK Athletics Director and CEO of Champions Blue LLC, who travelled to Bardstown to select the barrel personally. Batt said: "When you think of Kentucky, one of the first things you think about is the Wildcats. Another is bourbon. Bourbon is foundational to the uniqueness of Kentucky's culture and economy, and we are proud to welcome Elijah Craig and Evan Williams into the Kentucky Athletics family."

Murray's take: Bourbon sponsoring college athletics in Kentucky is not a stretch — it is the state's two biggest cultural exports sharing a venue. The naming rights (speakeasy at Rupp Arena, club at Kroger Field) are the real commercial play; the co-branded bottles are the collector hook. Heaven Hill is putting Elijah Craig, its premium badge, on the premium spaces, and Evan Williams, its volume brand, on the fan zones. That is clean brand architecture.

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