Coldorak's whisky blog.
It’s time for another instalment in our Ardbeg Feis Ìle series, with Ardcore, Heavy Vapours and Spectacular. This will mark the end for a while, as I skipped the 2025 release and remain unsure about this year’s edition. For now, though, we dive into the Ardcore and Heavy Vapours Committee releases, alongside the General Release Spectacular.
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We’ve already tried a few of the releases from the running Signatory Vintage 100 Proof series, but since they continue releasing many of those, let’s review seven out of the eight latest expressions in these series, with all the editions #70 to #77, with the exception of the #74 I couldn’t source. In our glasses today are whiskies from Caol Ila, Highland Park, Linkwood, Mortlach, Ben Nevis, Ledaig and Clynelish. We’ll go in release numbers ascending, so I guess I’ll need a pause in between some drams when going from potentially peated to unpeated!
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There’s something especially moving about opening two cognacs like these side-by-side. Jean-Luc Pasquet’s Le Cognac d’André L.68/72 from Fins Bois and Le Cognac de Joël L.88/82 from Grande Champagne cru are not just old bottles to taste and compare — they are pieces of family history, shaped by growers, seasons, and places that still matter deeply in Cognac. One comes from the softer, more immediately charming register of Fins Bois, the other from the finesse and depth of Grande Champagne, and together they make a beautiful conversation in the glass.
They also arrive at a difficult moment for the category, especially for the latest one released this year. Cognac is going through a serious crisis, with exports falling, inventories piling up, and the industry forced to cut yields, uproot vines, and rethink its future under pressure from trade tensions and weaker demand in its key markets. That makes bottles like these feel even more precious: reminders of a slower, more human Cognac, made before the market became so strained.
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