A round-up of the hottest new whiskies stocked at Master of Malt this month including a very nice 25 year old release from Cutty Sark, which has packaging adorned with scenes from the Rabbie Burns poem - Tam o’ Shanter - and comes with a book of more than 50 illustrations by the late Alexander Goudie.

Also a blended Scotch released to mark World Whisky Day 2013 which is coming up on 18th May and a tranche of new indie bottlings from Old Malt Cask, Connoisseurs Choice and Berry Brothers & Rudd.

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The storm clouds are gathering in the north and the winds carry the battle cry of the norsemen, it can mean only one thing... Highland Park have a new release.

Elsewhere in this months staff picks things are a little more relaxed with an old fashioned blended scotch, a beautiful Japanese malt and a superb scottish grain whisky.

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Waiting for a flight to board can be seriously tedious business so browsing the duty free shop for fine spirits is often a welcomed distraction. Its made all the more interesting (for us whisky geeks) when you come across something that's exclusive to travel retail. At the very least, if these off piste whiskies don't tickle your fancy, you'll be impressed by the manliness of the 1 litre bottles.

Highland Park have announced a new range of whiskies entitled 'The Warrior Series' which draw on the Orkney distillery's strong Norse heritage. They’ve named each of the bottlings after infamous Viking Earls who once presided over the remote islands. The first three in the series being Svein, Einar and the notorious Harald retailing at €40, €53 and €75 respectively.

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It's time again for us here at Whisky Marketplace to offer a few of our recent favourites for your consideration.  It's another eclectic group this month!

Aside from that we have one of Bruichladdich's many "aced" (extra matured etc) releases, a new and well anticipated release from Springbank's recently introduced Rundlets & Kilderkins line and a recently issued bottling from our old friend Clynelish in the form of a 15 year old distilled in 1997. Enjoy!

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With literally thousands of new whiskies released each year it’s often difficult to keep track of new bottlings as they become available. Add to this the fact that many limited release whiskies are snapped up by eager collectors across the world and it’s probably fair to say that some great whiskies are passing you by undetected.

Luckily for you we scour the internet monitoring the latest releases from all the top whisky retailers, which makes finding new, exciting whiskies that little bit easier. For the first in a new series of roundups, which we’ll entitle “What’s hot”, we take a look at the best new releases on The Whisky Exchange and recommend our best buys.

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Hello readers, you may have noticed that things have been a little quieter than normal over here, that's because we're in the process of moving our blog within the Whisky Marketplace site!

For various technical reasons (which we're not going to bore you with) we needed to relocate the blog; and so it now lives in the /journal folder. If you are one of the fab people who link to us from your own blog it would be really great if you could update the url.

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The ever-innovative folks at Master of Malt have announced details of a new Blended Whisky, conceived in conjunction with Athlete bassist and long time whisky lover Carey Willets, in celebration of his side-project ‘Boxes’.

Mr Willets’ introduction to Master of Malt and involvment in the whisky world may be relatively recent, but whisky itself has been a long running passion for the bassist. “Whisky’s always been a big part of my musical history—they both enhance each other. Enjoying whisky and music together is a life-affirming experience.”

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Whilst sipping a lovely Bladnoch over the festive break I was struck by just how much depth was cloaked in the spirit’s initially understated personality. This drew me to the much revisited topic of Whisky awards, and to considering which releases win them and ultimately, why? It seems quite difficult to find a Scotch that hasn’t attained gold before at least one set of “learned judges”, but more importantly, what of those awards that still hold merit amongst the sea of the somewhat dubious? The Malt Manic Awards, Cask Strength’s Best in Glass or Whisky Magazine’s annual awards are a few that maintain a level of trust, but just what is it that makes a winning malt?

It seems to me that one theme runs deep as you look back over the bottles that have found themselves graced with top honours. Big whisky, powerful either by way of sherry, peat, active oak or a distinctly forceful character tends to steal the show. Indeed The Malt Maniacs are well known for their penchant for old, heavily sherried releases and last year’s awards did nothing to shake that view as another (admittedly lovely) Glendronach stood out above the rest. In the Best in Glass awards it was a forceful dram from Balcones and in The Whisky Magazine’s round up it was the similarly bold Yamazaki 25 year old. “Delicate whiskies find themselves lost in the crowd, outshone by the whisky equivalent of attention-hungry exhibitionists.”

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It’s the first review of 2013 (whoop etc) and as is customary here at the WhiskyMarketplace blog, that will do nicely as a excuse to feature a rather special dram from one of our favourite distilleries. Glenfarclas whiskies are perhaps best known and appreciated in the form of old, well-sherried bottlings and indeed, as a result of the distillery’s continued family ownership, for its enviable stock of such casks. This release, from what is now the oldest vintage left slumbering in their warehouses, was released last year and predictably caused quite a stir. With the likes of our good friend Serge Valentin involved in the selection of this cask, the liquid was sure to be excellent.

Glenfarclas is best known for its relative focus on “drinkers” Whisky and though admittedly the older vintages within the disillery’s Family Casks series are anything but cheap, comparatively speaking they are far from the dizzying prices we are coming to expect from the world of old, “ultra-premium collectors” malt. With that in mind, this release came as something of a departure, being bottled for Polish investment firm Wealth Solutions and presented in a rather fetching, beautifully crafted oak box. Happily, the Whisky was well distributed to interested parties so at least a number have been lucky enough to taste this, the oldest Glenfarclas yet bottled.

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As the memory of cold turkey, sore heads and family arguments fade the new year kicks off and as the long nights slowly loosen their grip, we Whisky lovers have something else to look forward to. If the Christmas and New Year consumption simply wasn’t enough for you dear friends, then let us look to Burn’s Night! Scotland’s own foremost man of letters left a great legacy for both his homeland and indeed the world, therefore it seems only fitting that a night be dedicated to his memory and indeed that another of Scotland’s great exports plays its part.

With that in mind we felt it timely to offer a few suggestions for those of you feeling inclined towards staging a little Burn’s Night tasting of your own (and we thoroughly suggest you do). Below are some ideas to get you started; namely three complete flights of 5 whiskies starting at the affordable, easy-going end of the spectrum and proceeding on from there. Feel free to mix different costs together of course but try if you can to keep a good spread of flavour profiles and consider setting up your tasting blind (simply wrap up the bottles or have everything poured before your guests arrive), that should offer a few surprises!

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