Blog — north star spirits

Two more releases from North Star, including our first review of spirit produced at Annandale distillery.

Independent Caol Ila's are in no short supply, but they tend to represent great quality and value in the Islay whisky market, so how do these two single casks stack up?

Can quality and value be found in blended malts? We're interested to find out as more independent bottlers release their own takes on this category of whisky.

We head to the lowlands to check out a few IB releases from Auchentoshan, which we consider to be an underrated distillery producing a unique spirit.

Two IB Blair Athols, distilled within a month of each other and both finished in different casks .. will we prefer the more common oloroso cask maturation, or be swayed by the rarer mezcal cask?

We take a look at Benrinnes, another distillery in Diageo's vast portfolio of blending workhorses. Luckily, they supply a good number of casks to independent bottlers so let's find out if the spirit shines on its own.