This is a quick guide to understanding my reviews.

The title of the review is just whatever bottling or expression I will be reviewing.

The first part of the body of the review should be understood as a sort of “tl;dr”–a general sense of how easily you might find what I’m reviewing, and a general sense of whether it is an expression that I recommend or not.

Everything that follows is more detailed information–a narrative text with information about the distillery and bottling, followed by detailed tasting notes and a score. Following that, I provide an opinion on who the target audience for the whisky is and some general comments on the expression.

The final two sections may be less obvious, so here’s a quick explanation:

Bottling Information: This section provides specific information about the bottling reviewed

Expression: Which expression was reviewed, including abv

Bottler: Who bottled it. Some expressions reviewed were bottled by the distillery’s proprietor, however, others were bottled by an independent bottler such as Gordon & MacPhail, Signatory, Douglas Laing or some other. If it was bottled by the distillery owner, the bottler is listed as “Proprietor” else the independent bottler in question is named.

Range: Some bottlings (both proprietary and independent) are part of a more extensive range of similar bottlings. If that is the case, the name of the range in question is listed here.

Bottle Code: Most modern bottles have a unique identifying code either stamped or etched onto them. It can be a good way of getting a sense of when something was produced, especially for mass-produced whiskies. If the bottle had a legible bottle code on it, it is listed here.

Presentation: The extent to which the whisky in the bottle has or has not been adulterated, inasmuch as that can be determined. If this is marked “unspecified,” especially if the alcohol content is below 46% abv, you can safely assume the whisky is probably both chill-filtered and has caramel coloring added.

Details: Any other relevant details about the bottling, such as specifications about the cask(s) used, batch numbers, and so on.

Price: The expected retail price for a bottle, generally listed as a range.

Availability: Where you can find it, if you can find it at all.

Distillery Information:

Region: The SWA-designated region where the whisky was produced. Although many people informally designate the islands (other than Islay) that produce whisky as a distinct region, the SWA designates all islands other than Islay as part of the Highlands. If the whisky is from outside Scotland, the country where it was produced will be listed here.

Location: The town and subregion where the distillery is located, where applicable.

Geography: Whether the distillery is located inland, or near enough to the coast to be considered a coastal distillery.

Date Founded: Either the year the distillery was founded, or the year the first spirit flowed from its stills.

Owner: The current owner, usually the parent firm but sometimes a subsidiary.

Website: The distillery website, where available. All Diageo distilleries in Scotland, regardless of individual renown, are subsumed under Diageo’s omnibus malt distillery site, malts.com. 

Capacity: How many liters of pure alcohol the distillery can produce in a year.

Plant Summary: A quick rundown of the distilling plant highlighting important features such as the type of mash tun, the number and type of washbacks, the number of stills (which can usually be assumed to work in pairs), and the type of condenser used to convert vapors coming off the stills back into liquid spirit.

Total expressions sampled: The number of expressions from the particular distillery that I’ve sampled over the years. Outside major rebrands, I don’t usually count different batches of the same general expression as a “different expression”.

Overall distillery score: My current overall assessment of the distillery’s output and highly personal to me. I use the Japanese-derived grading system that has become widely popular in gaming and other highly online circles: S+ is the highest possible rating, followed by S and S-; below that, the scale converges with the typical American A-F scale. If you see a distillery score in the A’s or S’s, you can assume I am very, very keen on what that distillery produces.