Old Bannockburn Deanston

Deanston 18 Year Old Batch 1

Deanston used to be a cotton factory until 1966. Until 1971 they put Old Bannockburn on their label. Only after the distillery was taken over by Invergordon, in 1972, did they change it to Deanston. In 1982 it was closed, but in 1990 Burn Stewart Distillers Ltd gave it a second lease on life. Only 15% of the production is meant for single malt,...

Score 83/100

Deanston Virgin Oak

I hesitated about writing another review of Deanston Virgin Oak but noticed that the last review written was by Cricklewood some four years ago. Perhaps an update would be justified. It appears that the process behind this whisky is pretty much the same: first aged in bourbon casks (from a cooperage in Kentucky) then finished in virgin oak for...

Score 85/100

Deanston 20yo

When you explore a new distillery, do you start at the bottom and work your way up to the top, or do you skip the boring part and jump right in where the action is? Well I don’t have a preference, my preference usually goes out to the obscure, the interesting and preferably the good. But from time to time I do try out the official bottlings to...

Score 88/100

Deanston 9 Year Old 2008 Bordeaux Red Wine Cask

You see them more often nowadays: whisky’s finished or matured on red wine casks from France. This Deanston from 2008 spent the whole 9 years on such a cask from Bordeaux and was bottled at cask strength in 2017. The nose bursts with red fruit, caramel, sniffing tobacco and red candy. Some furniture polish and blood oranges, but cherries quickly...

Score 86/100