So how many Scottish regions are there? Six (Campbeltown, Highland, Island, Islay, Lowland, Speyside), five (dropping the unofficial Island) or in the case of The Whisky Warehouse No. 8 there are four regions represented in their tasting set:

• Highland – Deanston 10 year (Sep 2009 – Oct 2019) Bourbon Barrel 57.3% – A delightful appetizer dram… rather a nice way to start our evening
• Lowland – Port Dundas 10 year (26 Oct 2009 – 31 Oct 2019) Refill Sherry 47.9% – A complete surprise! Far more interesting and nuanced than expected for a youngish grain. The Refill Sherry cask certainly
• Speyside – Miltonduff 11 years (8 Feb 1995 – 30 Oct 2015) Bourbon Hogshead 59.5% 363 Bottles vs Miltonduff 14 year (Jun 2007 – July 2021) WW8 76 1st Fill Px Sherry Octave 50.4% – Here the Px cask was a stunner, the ex Bourbon unremarkable
• Islay – Braon Peat Batch 7 (15 April 2019) 57.5% – Those who tried the “peaty drop” raved!

I picked up two sets of the initial quartet in early February 2021 – one for me and one for my tasting companions in Paris. Our tasting session kept getting postponed and our London friend also wanted to join, so in October 2021 a third set was acquired with two substitutions: Miltonduff 14 instead of 11 year and Inchfad 14 year (02/2005 – 04/2019) 55.5% for the Braon Peat. It still took until February 2022 – yes one year later! – to finally sit down and taste together.

It was such a terrific experience that we enthusiastically ordered another set from Whisky Warehouse No. 8! So don’t be surprised if the list of tastings from this German independent bottler grows longer. In the meantime, here are a few more we’ve tasted so far….

• Ardmore 16 year (2000/2017) Bourbon Barrel Cask W80226, 52.3%
• Auchentoshan 18 year (12/1998 – 02/2017) 48.3%
• Benrinnes 19 year (10/1997 – 10/2016) 52.9%
• Bunnahabhain 14 year (Oct 2002 /Oct 2016) Bourbon Hogshead 3048, 56.7%
• Dailuaine 12 year (11/2007 – 01/2020) 61.5%
• Glencadam 8 year  (02/2011 – 06/2019) 61%
• Glenturret 8 year (12/2020 – 04/2019) Bourbon Hogshead 57.5%
• Inchfad 14 year  (02/2005 – 04/2019) 55.5%
• Linkwood 11 year (06/2007 – 01/2019)  58.2%

We’ll openly admit we also really like the wooden box with its 2 cl bottles that can tightly seal and hence travel well. They have become my preferred way to carry samples across borders. Whilst a 3 cl bottle is preferable if sharing with another, for one person we truly find 2 cl more than enough to get a good feel for a whisky’s character.

With Whisky Festivals still curtailed or limited, being able to explore this way has been terrific fun – all thanks to an introduction at The Village whisky fest in Nurnberg back in 2020.