Finlaggan is no stranger to the liquor stores here in Holland, but somehow we always managed to ignore the expressions of this Islay Single Malt. Until we bought our very first Finlaggan, since then, you can always find several bottles in our collection.

If you are in love with Islay whisky, just like us, we think you need one or two Finlaggan on your shelves. The straightforward characters, the bold maturations/finishes and not to mention the fair prices make Finlaggan a worthy addition to your cabinet.

Obviously, this Finlaggan Red Wine Cask matured, bottled at 46%, was a no-brainer for just under 40 euros. As mentioned before in our feed, we think red wine maturations/finishes are often hit or miss, but a very long time ago we’d set an upper limit for taking a gamble. To be completely honest with you, our upper limit ascends to new heights every year, but maybe that’s a story for some other time.

Coming back to this beautiful looking bottle, this is definitely a gamble worth taking, here’s why:

What we wish to convey above all is that you don’t always have to go for the stuff you already know, have read about, or heard from ‘that expert’ in your neighbourhood. People always try to convince you to like this or that whisky. We’re trying to create an objective picture about the things we smell and taste. We don’t have to sell anything to you and we can only decide for ourselves whether we like a whisky or not.

What we’re really trying to say here is: If you have the money to take a gamble every once in a while, please do. We surely made some mistakes along the way, but some bottles will come to you while they’re coming to an end. We killed every bottle with a certain kind of sadness. And if you really dislike a whisky you recently bought, you can always share a dram with ‘that expert’. Cheers!