WhiskyHeroes: Seven New Single Cask Whiskies

Seven new heroes have just landed. This latest WhiskyHeroes release brings together seven single cask whiskies from across Scotland, aged from 8 to18 years.

There's a Speyside honey trap, a Lowland grain gang, apeated blended malt with a curse on it and plenty in between. As always, every bottle is non-chill-filtered, every cask was picked for its character, and every hero's name hides a link to the place it came from.

Meet the heroes

The Ruthless Braes

Head deep into the Braes of Glenlivet and keep climbing. The road narrows, the trees thin out, and at around 350m you reach Braeval, one of the highest distilleries in Scotland. Braes are hillsides, and these ones don't make life easy, especially in winter. Built in 1973, the distillery went quiet in 2002 and came back in 2008, and it has spent most of its life making whisky for blends. So when a cask like this turns up, we don't let it go. Seventeen years old, finished in a first fill PX sherry hogshead.

Braeval 17yo, finished in a 1st fill PX Sherry hogshead, 50.7%, 374 bottles in total

Curse of the Thief's Cross

On Islay's south-east coast, at the end of a single-track road, an old churchyard holds one of Scotland's finest early Christian crosses. Just beyond its walls stands a second, plainer cross. Locals call it the Thief's Cross, and the story goes that it marks the grave of someone who wasn't allowed inside. Eight years old, peated, and finished in a first fill Amontillado hogshead.

Kildalton 8yo, peated, finished in a 1st fill Amontillado Sherry hogshead, 56.9%, 296 bottles in total

The Windygate Syndicate

Back in 1824, the Haig family started making spirit on the River Leven in Fife. Fifty-odd years later, John Haig & Co sat down with five other whisky firms and formed the Distillers Company, the group that went on to run much of the Scotch industry. Cameronbridge is still going strong. It's now the largest grain distillery left in Scotland, a maze of pipes, stills and warehouses, and almost everything it makes vanishes into blends. This cask didn't: 16 years in a first fill bourbon hogshead, and the only single grain in the release.

Cameronbridge 16yo, 1st fill Bourbon hogshead, 49.2%, 317 bottles in total

The Amber Champion

For over a century, Imperial distillery stood by the Spey at Carron, and it was famous for closing almost as often as it opened. Eventually it was pulled down. In 2015, Dalmunach opened on the same ground, with onion-shaped stills built as a nod to the old place and a name borrowed from a pool on the river nearby. Some of Imperial's red bricks now frame the new entrance. It's a fresh chapter for an old site, and we're glad to be part of it with this 11 year old cask, matured in a first fill bourbon barrel.

Dalmunach 11yo, 1st fill Bourbon barrel, 54.4%, 198 bottlesin total

The Glass Guardian

In 1875, James Moir and his nephews picked a spot at the end of Sandend Bay, right by the Glassaugh Springs, and started distilling. The stills ran on and off for the next hundred years, then went quiet in 1986. For 22 years the buildings sat silent above the beach, until new owners brought them back to life in 2008. Today it's a working coastal distillery again, with half a mile of sand on its doorstep. This one spent 12 years in a second fill Oloroso hogshead.

Glenglassaugh 12yo, 2nd fill Oloroso Sherry hogshead, 52.9%,276 in total

Keeper of the Apiary

Glenrothes ran its first spirit on 28 December 1879, the same stormy night the Tay Bridge came down. It's been doing things at its own pace ever since. In a quiet glen beside the Burn of Rothes, the spirit runs slowly through very tall stills, which leaves it full of fruit, nuts and sweet spice, and it has a long history with sherry casks. This one is 18 years old, the oldest of the seven, finished in a first fill Oloroso hogshead.

Glenrothes 18yo, finished in a 1st fill Oloroso Sherry hogshead, 55.7%, 307 bottles in total

Brotherhood of the Black Burn

Long before there was a distillery here, the monks of Pluscarden Abbey had a meal mill on this spot near Elgin. By the smuggling era, the glens around the abbey were hiding plenty of illicit stills. In 1824, Andrew Peary and Robert Bain took out a licence and went legal, and Miltonduff was born. The Black Burn still supplies its water today. This one spent 15years in a first fill bourbon barrel.

Miltonduff 15yo, 1st fill Bourbon barrel, 50.1%, 214 bottlesin total

Where to find them?

We've really enjoyed putting this release together, and we hope you enjoy discovering it. They're all single casks, so numbers are limited.

The heroes start heading out to whisky shops around the world this week. Keep an eye out for them at festivals and tastings in the coming months too, and follow WhiskyHeroes on Instagram to see where we'll be pouring next.

Ask your favourite whisky shop or follow @whiskyheroes onInstagram and Facebook for stockists.

Please enjoy responsibly.

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