Welcome back to another side-by-side tasting of two three single malts, where I get to really appreciate the slight difference between them as I sip on this whisky and write down these words. Today is a special one, my friends, as I have three different bottlings of Scotch by the same distillery of the same age by three different independent bottlers. We’ve got an Advent Calendar Exclusive dram #10 from That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC), then a pour from a bottle of The Single Malts of Scotland by Elixir Distillers (ElD) from my own collection, and finally a sample from a friend of a bottling by James Eadie (JE). I’m pretty excited about this one, are you? So let’s get to it, but first, we need music! Now playing: Burial – Untrue.

Let’s kick things off with the TBWC dram. As I previously mentioned in many of my write-ups, I have grown to really like this independent bottler. I look past the whimsical labels on their bottles, and I may even look past the 50cl volume, for which I usually feel like I’m overpaying a bit [that’s a whole other story], but it’s the liquid that really counts, and so far, I haven’t been disappointed by anything from TBWC [okay, except that one Helsinki distillery, where the whisky tasted like a raw pine tree sap]. I’ve also covered Glen Moray as a distillery before. You can refresh your knowledge with Duncan Taylor’s Octave bottling tasting I documented here. For this write-up, suffice it to say that it’s a Speyside workhorse of a distillery used by La Martiniquaise in blends like Cutty Sark. The TBWC dram and all subsequent samples I will try among these independent bottlers are all “integrity malts” – meaning they are un-coloured and un-chill filtered. On top of this special honour, all three are sourced from single casks and bottled at cask strength! This is as good as it gets, folks! Of course, the casks themselves will be different, and yes, the spirit itself is produced in different years (sometimes even 5 years apart). But let’s see what the first dram has to offer! Presented at 48.9%, TBWC’s dram has a light ex-bourbon influence on the nose, and it almost looks like white wine in my Glen cairn.

The ElD dram is a bit sweeter on the nose, with more complexity [I’m hoping it’s not too oakey], and is slightly darker. The label clearly states it’s from an ex-bourbon barrel, bottled at a hefty 58.7%. This Elixir Distillers’ range is supposed to showcase the various origins of single malt whiskies across Scotland. I am a huge fan of their Elements of Islay series [I bought up as many bottles as I could], as well as their Port Askaig expressions. But, honestly, I haven’t been able to find my footing with The Single Malts of Scotland range. It’s been too woodsy for my taste so far. Finally, the JE dram is darker and even sweeter on the nose, with some oak present, but also nicely stewed plums and cherries, which come from the refill oloroso hogshead, bottled at 57.3%. James Eadie has impressed before, most notably with its Caol Ila bottlings and older bottled grain from Cambus. Okay, let’s go in for a taste! TBWC is thick and comes in with oils and wood, some leather and some malt, finishing off with old cardboard [in a good way] and chocolate in the corners. It’s a darker version of a straight-up ex-bourbon Scotch as if it has been concentrated for a while in a barrel. The ElD is slightly stringent, making my tongue a bit tight and super dry, with lots of oak [that’s what I was afraid of before], but it’s the type of single cask-drawn malt that surely needs some water, and so I’ll do that in a bit.

Finally, the JE sample… wow, that’s very different from the first two, and there is a fragrance I almost don’t recognize here, like some type of fruity shampoo or a bit of perfumed soap left on my Glen Cairn. Perhaps my buddy didn’t wash the 30ml glass container well enough? Haha! I’m only saying that because I know that he will read this. I add some water to all three [a bit more to the ElD dram because it’s strong and woody] – let’s see how they turn out. I’ll go in the same order again. TBWC has rounded off. The sweetness of the bourbon cask is well present now, but it got a bit bitter on the finish with the flavours of that wood. The ElD turned worse, and it’s basically all bitter wood now and still lots of alcoholic punch. Bleh. Finally, I don’t know what’s going on with this JE sample – one moment, it’s plums, then it’s celery, then dandelions and then liquorice. Can’t say that I’m a fan. A bit more water and now the final round in reverse. The JE is just … it tastes like gin, I think. That’s it! That’s what I taste. It’s not liquorice – it’s juniper and dried roots and berries. And, for the record, I am not a fan of gin. The ElD has been diluted further, and it’s not as bitter as before on arrival, but then it just turns acrid on the finish. It’s not for me as well. Finally, the TBWC bottling is the most drinkable [to me] out of all the three, but frankly, it’s nothing super special, and I could see [taste?] why it is used as filler in some blends.

Bottler / Series	TBWC / Advent Calendar	Elixir / Single Malts of Scotland	James Eadie
Stated Age / Vintage	10 years old / ?	10 years old / 2007	10 years old / 2012
Cask type	? [ex bourbon]	ex-bourbon barrel	ex-oloroso refill hogshead
ABV / Cask Strength	48.6% / Yes	58.7% / Yes	57.3% / Yes
Non-chill filtered/ Uncoloured	Yes / Yes 🌟	Yes / Yes 🌟	Yes / Yes 🌟
Price	Not available for sale	£60 [cheaper on an auction]	£64
Did it win? / Did I like it?	Yes / No – nothing to celebrate	No / No – way too much wood	No / No – a botched-up sample
Would I buy it? / Recommend?	No / No – unless you want to	No / No – want to buy mine?	No / No – I must redo this one

So there you have it, folks, another interesting tasting. I don’t need to write drawn-out conclusions. I think you’ll know which one I’ll pick here. I tried not to be biased. Frankly, I would have thought the sherried dram would win. It added much more to the somewhat pretty nondescript single malt [I’m not trying to hate on Glen Moray – I just don’t know how to say it]. I think there was some Mezcal left in the sample bottle that I shared with my friend before. I will dismiss this tasting for the time and think I have to run a re-do. But I’m mostly disappointed with Elixir bottlings, mainly because the Bruichladdich bottling by them was also super woodsy, and so was the Caol Ila, which I covered just yesterday. I know some people like that, but not me, not yet. I have another bottle by them of Ardmore [one of my favourite distilleries], and now my expectations have been set… so it could only come above them. In any case, I’ll pause here and proclaim TBWC bottling of Glen Moray, 10-year-old, as the winner of this round. Good night!