Welcome back to another round of RECYCLED, where I quickly review the bottles that are leaving my shelves, specifically making a call on whether I should get them again so that you, too, can learn from mistakes and treasures. I’ve got a lot to cover among these nine bottlekills, so let’s jump into it right away, but first, we need music! Now playing: Forbidden Society – Lonely Road.

Looking left to right, we’ve got the Kilchoman Feis Ile 2017 release, subtitled 100% Islay. At 58% ABV, this was an exceptional single malt—bold, complex, and a true showcase of what Kilchoman can achieve. This [still relatively new] distillery continues to impress me, and I think it’s fair to say that I’ll keep buying their unique releases, especially if they’re cask-strength. I didn’t even get a chance to review this particular bottle before polishing it off, and I don’t think I even saved a stash of 100ml. Oh well, I’ll have to seek it out on the auctions. Behind it is an 18-year-old 2003 Vintage Bruichladdich, bottled by Gleann Mór for their Rare Find series. This was a gem I first discovered at a tasting and bought right away. The mild peatiness, combined with sherry hogshead maturation for a second round, made this an intriguing whisky—bottled at cask strength, no less. Though it didn’t win against the distillery bottling with a Fino finish, it remains a standout malt that I will miss.

Let’s skip the 18-year-old Bowmore. There’s nothing really to cover here, and I doubt I’ll ever buy this distillery-bottled, diluted, and compromised version again. You shouldn’t either. That said, see that cartoonish bottle from That Boutique-y Whisky Company (the one with the dude in the yellow shirt)? Now that’s an integrity bottling! This is a 19-year-old Bowmore (Batch 12) that completely blew my socks off! It was one of the first TBWC releases I tried, leaving me with a newfound appreciation for both Bowmore and the independent bottler. Two thumbs up on that one. Right behind it, to the left, is a 23-year-old Bowmore from 1995, bottled by Morrison and MacKay for their Càrn Mòr Celebration of the Cask series. This one was a total blast—distinctly different from the watered-down 18-year-old from the distillery itself. I highly recommend that entire series. Here, independent bottlers win again, while the 43% chill-filtered versions remain disappointing.

Next, we have the two Jura bottles up front. The one on the left was a delight—matured in American white oak ex-bourbon and finished in Chinkapin casks. I loved this 13-year-old from 2019, and I’d definitely rebuy it. The Distillery Cask next to it is very special indeed. I picked it up during my visit to the island, and it’s a peated Jura! I cherished this one as long as I could, but eventually, I finished it. Okay, I saved 100ml aside of both for future reference. These two are on a completely different level compared to the standard bottling—skip those and get these if you can. What else? That Laphroaig Cairdeas was a Feis Ile 2021 release—I stocked up on these bottles, and there’s nothing bad to say here. I rarely have anything negative to say about Laphroaig unless it’s bottled at 40%. The iodine works wonders with the PX! Finally, there’s an undisclosed Orkney bottling (oh, wow, what could it be?). This was my first taste of Infrequent Flyers, and it was impressive—a beautifully aged 24-year-old Highland Park with a Moscatel finish at cask strength. I’d gladly get more from the Alistair Walker Whisky Company bottler.

So here we are. A great round-up of empty bottles. I can tell that I started finishing off better wares than before. I would go back to everything here except Bowmore 18. I’m taking an afternoon stroll to my favourite whisky place in London, so I’ll be on the lookout for more Juras and Infrequent Flyers, and I want to grab a bottle of Kilkerran! Kilchoman, I can get aplenty, and I’m still navigating that distillery, unable to pick a favourite. Well, that was a fun revisit (even for me!), and now, I’m ready to finally part with these!