Hedonism for $80, Fèis Ìle Turns 40, and the Top 5 Ex-Bourbon Scotches

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This week's deals come from Remedy Liquor, the LA-based shop that keeps showing up with unusually sharp Scotch pricing. Three bottles this week — a 25th anniversary limited release at $30+ under retail, a sub-$50 Campbeltown that punches above its tag, and a sherry-bomb Highland Park at full cask strength.

The 25th anniversary release of Compass Box's flagship blended grain — the whisky that helped make premium grain Scotch feel like a serious category back in 2000. The 2025 build is centered on Cameronbridge single grain, with a portion further matured for two years in a first-fill Marsala barrique. Compass Box also folded older Hedonism stock, ranging from 15 to 25 years, into the vat. Bumped from the historical 43% up to 46% ABV. Caramel, vanilla custard, peach purée, chocolate mousse, baking spice, with a fresh white-grape finish. Limited to 9,912 bottles, natural color, non-chill filtered.

ABV: 46% | Cask: Cameronbridge grain matured in bourbon casks, partial Marsala barrique finish | 700ml

Price: $79.99

Typical US Market Range: $130–$140 at most US retailers. Official RRP is $107.

Savings: $30–$60 under typical retail.

Who's this for: Anyone curious about quality grain Scotch and not interested in paying $140 to find out, Compass Box collectors completing the annual series, and anyone who wants a softer, dessert-leaning Scotch to round out a shelf that already has too many peated malts on it.

Buy Here

The sub-$50 single malt tier is usually compromise country: 40% ABV, chill filtration, caramel coloring, or volume-first blending. Glen Scotia Double Cask doesn't compromise. Matured in first-fill bourbon barrels and finished for 12 months in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks, bottled at 46% with no chill filtration and natural color. Dried fruit, toffee, and vanilla fudge layered over Campbeltown's signature maritime saltiness, with green apple and peach up front. NAS, but for under $50 with proper specs, it's one of the few sub-$50 single malts I'd pour for someone without an asterisk.

ABV: 46% | Cask: First-Fill Bourbon, PX Sherry Finish | 750ml

Price: $48.99

Typical US Market Range: $55–$65 at most retailers.

Savings: $6–$16 under typical retail, but the real value is getting this spec under $50.

Who's this for: Drinkers building a starter shelf who want Campbeltown character without spending Springbank money, anyone looking for a casual everyday pour with proper specs, and the Scotch enthusiast who needs something to keep in rotation that isn't a special-occasion bottle.

Buy Here

The fifth release in Highland Park's ongoing Cask Strength series — a NAS, sherry-leaning expression bottled straight from the cask at 64.1% ABV with no water added. The recipe leans heavily on first-fill sherry-seasoned European oak, including PX-seasoned casks, with refill, ex-bourbon, and a small amount of first-fill sherry-seasoned American oak rounding things out. Dried cloves, pine needles, and lingering wood smoke on the nose, then prunes, dates, sultanas, and that signature Orcadian heather-honey smoke on the palate. A few drops of water open it up considerably without losing the depth.

ABV: 64.1% | Cask: First-Fill Sherry-Seasoned European Oak (incl. PX), Refill, Ex-Bourbon, First-Fill Sherry-Seasoned American Oak | 750ml

Price: $79.99

Typical US Market Range: $85–$100 at most retailers.

Savings: $5–$20 under typical retail.

Who's this for: Sherried-Scotch drinkers who want Highland Park's island character at full intensity, cask strength enthusiasts who like to dial in their own dilution, and anyone building a sherry-forward Highland Park vertical who wants the Cask Strength series represented at a reasonable entry price.

Buy Here

Quick backstory on this one. I've been building out my whisky lounge for a while now, and one of the pieces I wanted was a Lazy Susan for the whisky table — something centerpiece-worthy that pulled the room together. The idea: a 3D wooden map of Scotland with the distilleries marked on it. Functional, conversational, and specific to what the room is actually for.

I went looking and found Gebra Crafters. They make handcrafted, laser-cut, layered wooden maps, and the Scotland piece comes in either rectangle or circle (the circle is what I went with for the Lazy Susan). The way the distillery customization works: each distillery gets marked on the map with a number, and a legend on the side tells you which number is which. I also asked them to add brand word art for a handful of distilleries that have been a meaningful part of my whisky journey — the placement, the engraving, and the way it sits against the layered coastline all came out exactly the way I'd hoped. The detail is impressive — coastline, islands, engraving — and it's exactly what I wanted: a unique piece that fits the theme of the room.

Sizes range from 11.5 × 10 inches up to 30 × 26 inches, starting at $99. Customization is free. Free shipping included. Custom orders include a draft for approval before anything gets cut.

Worth being clear on this: I reached out to them, they didn't reach out to me. After I posted the piece, a lot of you reached out asking where I got it from — so I went back to Gebra Crafters and asked if they'd put together a discount for newsletter readers. They did: 20% off with code WHISKY20 (minimum $150 order). The code is good across the site, so if you'd rather have a map of your hometown, a favorite golf course, or a marathon route, the discount still applies.

Shop the 3D Wooden Map of Scotland Here

Last week was sherry. This week we're going the other direction — the bourbon-only side of the cask spectrum, where there's no sherry sweetness or wine cask trickery to lean on. It's spirit, oak, and time. Ex-bourbon happens to be my personal favorite type of maturation, even though I love every style. It often lets the distillery's character shine through more clearly than wine or sherry casks, since the wood isn't masking the spirit with richer cask-driven flavors. Cask criteria: exclusively ex-bourbon maturation, no sherry vatting, no virgin oak, and no finishes outside the bourbon-cask family.

Honorable mention: Tobermory 12. On flavor alone, it could easily make the Top 5, but the cask makeup is murky. The distillery calls it "American Oak Cask" rather than "Bourbon Cask," while Whiskybase, Distiller, and Diving for Pearls all reference virgin American oak alongside first-fill bourbon. Some retailers still call it exclusively ex-bourbon. Under strict rules, I'm leaving it out. Under looser rules, it's a killer $50–60 bottle.

5. Glencadam 15 — 46% ABV, NCF, natural color. Around $80. An underrated eastern Highland malt from a distillery that still flies under the radar. Fully matured in American oak ex-bourbon casks, it's light, floral, citrus-driven, with apple, vanilla, and a clean malty backbone. Who's this for: the drinker who wants something fruit-forward and refined without leaning sweet.

4. Ardbeg 10 — 46% ABV, NCF, natural color. Around $55–65. The reference point for peated ex-bourbon malts. Refill ex-bourbon casks, no wine-cask gloss, just spirit, peat, and oak. Citrus, vanilla, brine, smoke, and that unmistakable Ardbeg medicinal core. Who's this for: the peat lover who already knows what they're getting and the drinker who wants to find out what Islay peat is all about.

3. Ledaig 10 — 46.3% ABV, NCF, natural color. Around $55–70. Tobermory's peated expression, distilled on the Isle of Mull from heavily peated barley (around 36–40 ppm) and matured fully in ex-bourbon casks. Different kind of peat than Islay — earthier, oilier, with a medicinal register all its own. Sweet briny smoke, vanilla, mint chocolate, and a distinctive farmy undertone. Who's this for: anyone who likes peat but wants something off the Islay path.

2. Hazelburn 10 — 46% ABV, NCF, natural color. Around $90–130, when you can find it. Springbank Distillery's triple-distilled, unpeated single malt, fully matured in ex-bourbon barrels. Clean, oily, vanilla and orchard fruit-forward, with the underlying Campbeltown weight that gives every Springbank-distilled whisky its signature texture. I'll be straight: it's hard to find and it's pricey for a 10-year-old. But it really is that good, especially once the bottle has been open for a bit. It transforms. Who's this for: the drinker who wants what Campbeltown does best, without peat or sherry getting in the way.

1. Deanston 18 — 46.3% ABV, NCF, natural color. Around $100. The Whisky Exchange's Whisky of the Year for 2022, and one you've probably seen me talk about a lot — it's a personal favorite, and one of the bottles I find myself reaching for most often. Matured entirely in ex-bourbon casks, spending most of its life in hogsheads before a final period in first-fill Kentucky bourbon barrels. Tropical fruit, honey, vanilla, gingerbread, and citrus, with the distillery's trademark waxy texture and a gentle American oak grip on the finish. Who's this for: anyone who wants real depth and complexity from an exclusively ex-bourbon malt.

Jeremy (Sippers Social Club) and Rob (Whisky in the 6) ran a blind ranking of six 10-year-old peated Scotches at standard strength — no cask strength bottlings, just the classic peated 10-year lineup at 45.8–50% ABV. The lineup: Ardbeg 10, Talisker 10, Laphroaig 10 Sherry Oak, Ledaig 10, Port Charlotte 10, and Glen Turret 10 Peat Smoked. They tasted blind, ranked individually, then revealed. The pacing of the conversation captures something most ranking videos miss — both reviewers acknowledged early on how close the top of the lineup was, with multiple positions swapping back and forth as they re-tasted. Their final rankings ended up nearly identical: same top 3, same 6th place, with two flips in the middle.

Final results:

Full Review Here

My take: The top two finishers — Ardbeg 10 and Ledaig 10 — are also numbers four and three in this week's Top 5 fully ex-bourbon Scotch list. What I appreciate about this format is the constraint: strictly standard-strength 10-year-olds. No cask strength to inflate scores, no age statement to lean on, no rare limited release to skew the scoring. Just six peated 10-year-olds at 45.8% to 50% ABV, head-to-head, blind. That's the cleanest version of the value question — when you strip away the variables that usually pad a whisky's case, what actually stands up? The fact that two veteran reviewers landed almost identically tells you more about which bottles deserve a permanent rotation slot than any individual scored review would.

Vin covered Torabhaig Taigh — the Isle of Skye distillery's first permanent core release, marking the transition from their Legacy Series of limited editions to a proper house style expression. Pronounced "tie," meaning house in Scottish Gaelic. Bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill-filtered, no added color, retailing at £40 / $52 USD. Cask makeup is first-fill and refill bourbon barrels with Madeira casks added. On color: almost crystal clear, which tracks with Torabhaig's standard no-added-color approach. Nose: strong, ashen, barbecued-meat peat that punches well above the 46% — Madeira not really coming through aromatically. Palate: big peat explosion that still drinks light, with a slight inflection of sweetness on the back end that's hard to specifically identify as Madeira — more of a "something different here" undertone than a clear cask signature. His verdict: "absolutely superb," "punches way above 46%," and at £40, "go out and grab a bottle."

Verdict: Strong recommend at £40.

Full Review Here

My take: Torabhaig has been one of the more interesting new distilleries to watch — slow, transparent, methodical, building toward a 10-year-old release that's still a few years out. Taigh is the pivot from "watch us figure it out" to "here's the house style." At £40 / $52 with 46% ABV, no chill-filtration, and natural color, the price-to-spec ratio is excellent for a peated single malt with this level of presentation. The Madeira inclusion is the interesting variable — not common as a secondary cask in peated whisky, and reviews so far suggest it adds softness without dominating. For a young distillery to put out something competent and competitively priced as their first core release is genuinely impressive. Worth tracking when US allocation lands more broadly.

Murdo reviewed an independent bottling from Chorlton Whisky — a 23-year-old Glendullan from a refill ex-bourbon hogshead, bottled at 58.6% cask strength, in collaboration with Hong Kong retailer The Rare Malt. Price paid: £128. On the nose: citrus-forward, lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits, with a hint of vanilla and a candlewax note. On the palate: gloopy and thick on arrival, astringent neat and quite closed at first — Murdo's initial reaction was disappointment, "a 5 at most." But with time in the glass and a dash of water, the whisky transformed. Citrus carried through alongside green apple, pear, and layers of baking spice. The refill hogshead's influence is gentle, but after 23 years there's still vanilla and oak coming through. The finish: long and lingering, fruits slowly fading, vanilla ice cream as the last note standing. Murdo also flagged how Chorlton let the spirit sing without putting it in an active finishing cask "just for the sake of it."

Score: 7/10 ("Very Good Indeed" on Dramface's scale, with the note that it "threatened to push through to an 8").

Full Review Here

My take: A 23-year-old fully ex-bourbon Scotch at cask strength for £128 is genuinely good value in 2026, and this is the kind of independent bottling that makes the case for patient, single-cask, no-finishing-tricks maturation. It also dovetails directly with this week's Top 5 thesis — ex-bourbon at age, when the spirit can stand on its own, delivers something a finishing cask can't fake or shortcut. Murdo's note about needing time and water is worth taking seriously for any high-age, high-ABV ex-bourbon dram. Don't rush it. Let it open. Chorlton Whisky is also worth knowing — an English-based independent bottler that's been increasingly visible in enthusiast circles.

Fèis Ìle — pronounced "faysh eela," Gaelic for "Islay Festival" — is one of the most important weeks on the whisky calendar. It runs every year during the last week of May on the Isle of Islay, and this year marks the 40th anniversary. But what it is now and what it started as are two very different things.

In 1985, a local committee on Islay formed with a simple goal: extend the tourist season on an island of about 3,000 people off Scotland's west coast. The first festival ran in 1986 and had almost nothing to do with whisky. It was a cultural event — ceilidhs, music, walks, history talks, village competitions. Communities competed for Best Dressed Village. There were decorated floats and a Carnival Queen from each parish. There was exactly one whisky tasting on the schedule.

The turning point came in 2000, when Islay's distilleries began hosting dedicated open days and — critically — started releasing limited-edition Fèis Ìle bottlings tied to the event. Once exclusive bottles entered the picture, the audience shifted. Whisky enthusiasts from around the world started making the trip, the island's population roughly tripled during festival week, and Fèis Ìle evolved from a local cultural gathering into a global whisky pilgrimage.

There's no general festival ticket — you get yourself to Islay and you're at the festival. Each distillery hosts its own open day, often with free general entry, live music, food, and bookable tastings. The distillery-exclusive bottlings are the main draw for collectors: single cask releases, experimental finishes, cask strength expressions you can't get anywhere else. The Fèis Ìle committee, a volunteer-run non-profit, organizes the cultural side — ceilidhs, folk nights, nosing competitions — and supports the festival, Islay culture, and community projects.

This year's 40th anniversary runs May 22nd through the 31st — ten days, with every major distillery on the island taking a day. The festival releases are already out or imminent — Ardbeg Dolce (Marsala and bourbon cask), a 31-year-old cask strength Lagavulin, and an 11-year-old Caol Ila finished in former Don Julio tequila casks among them. Whether or not you ever make the trip, Fèis Ìle shapes what shows up on shelves and in auctions for the rest of the year.

It started as a village fête. Forty years later, it's where the whisky world pays attention every May.

Saturday is World Whisky Day — the third Saturday in May, when it has been held since 2013. If you've seen the hashtag but never looked into what it actually is, here's the short version: it's a global day for drinking whisky. No ticket, no entry fee, no organization you need to join. Pour a dram, try something new, share it with someone.

The backstory is better than you'd expect. World Whisky Day was created in 2012 by Blair Bowman, a 21-year-old student at the University of Aberdeen who had founded the school's whisky club a few years earlier. While studying abroad in Barcelona, he noticed World Gin Day was trending on Twitter and realized whisky didn't have an equivalent. So he bought the domain, built a website, and organized the first event that March. The Scottish Government and VisitScotland backed it almost immediately, and it has grown into a recurring fixture on the whisky calendar. The day has also supported Just a Drop, an organization focused on clean water access — a nod to the Gaelic origin of "whisky": uisge beatha, the water of life.

The whole point is accessibility — it's whisky in the broadest sense, not a Scotch day, not a bourbon day, not a single malt day. Bars and retailers will run tastings and promotions, distilleries will host events, and your social feeds will be full of Glencairn glasses by noon. If you've been sitting on a bottle you haven't opened, this is the excuse. If you've been meaning to try something outside your usual rotation, this is the push.

My take: I like what World Whisky Day represents even if the day itself is mostly a social media event. The whisky world can feel gatekept — age statements, cask types, region debates, price tags — and a day that just says "pour something and enjoy it" is a good reset. If you're reading this newsletter you probably don't need the push, but it's a good excuse to pour something for someone who's never had a proper dram. That's how most of us got here.

That’s it for this week.

If you know someone who'd be into this, forward it their way. More people on the list means better deals, better content, and more leverage when I go knocking on doors for exclusive offers.

Shoot me an email if you made it this far, especially if you grabbed one of the bottles or ordered a map.

And if you're not already, come hang out on Instagram and TikTok — that's where I post the stuff that doesn't make it into the newsletter.

— Tim