Royal Birkdale is back. So is Loch Lomond.
The 154th Open Championship returns to the Southport links this summer, and Loch Lomond has marked the occasion with something worth paying attention to: a 19-year-old single malt distilled in 2006, finished in hand-selected Tawny Port casks, and limited to just 3,000 bottles worldwide.
This is the Open Course Collection 2026. It’s not a standard commemorative bottling. It’s a properly aged whisky that happened to find its moment.
Why straight neck stills matter for this release
Loch Lomond runs one of the most unusual still houses in Scotland. Their Straight Neck pot stills produce a heavier, more complex spirit than the traditional swan-neck design more copper contact, more congeners, more character. The Open Course Collection is made exclusively from spirit off those stills.
That choice shapes everything downstream. A heavier new-make spirit can carry 19 years of wood influence without getting lost in it. You end up with a whisky that reads as genuinely old rather than just barrel-forward.
The base maturation was American Oak. Then came the Tawny Port finish, done with hand-selected casks from Loch Lomond’s own cooperage. Port finishes can go wrong easily too sweet, too jammy, masking whatever the distillery was trying to say. Here, the tasting notes suggest it worked differently.
What’s in the glass
Nose: Toasted oak, apple, ginger, and vanilla. The American Oak years come through cleanly before anything else.
Palate: Toffee, pineapple, lemon, and cinnamon spice up front, then the Port finish arrives red berries and dried fruits layering in without taking over.
Finish: Long, with warming oak spice, dried fruit sweetness, and the signature soft smoke Loch Lomond builds into everything they make.
Bottled at 46.9%, non-chill filtered, natural colour. All the right choices for a whisky of this age and complexity chill filtration would have stripped texture, and artificial colouring would have told you nothing about what’s actually in the bottle.
3,000 Bottles. That’s it.
This is a genuinely limited release in a way that actually means something. 3,000 bottles globally. At £195, it’s positioned as a collector’s piece and a drinking whisky simultaneously aged enough to justify the price, allocated tightly enough to make it worth deciding on quickly.
Each purchase comes with a free commemorative poster, which is a small touch but a fitting one for a release tied to one of sport’s oldest and most storied events.
The Loch Lomond and the open connection
Loch Lomond has been the Official Whisky of The Open Championship for several years now, and the Course Collection series is the marquee expression of that partnership. Each release is tied to a specific course this year Royal Birkdale, one of England’s most celebrated links courses, known for its punishing rough and its history of defining moments in major championship golf.
The pairing isn’t arbitrary. Birkdale has hosted 10 Opens, producing some of the most memorable finishes in the Championship’s history. A 19-year-old whisky that’s been developing quietly since 2006 feels like a natural companion to a course with that kind of accumulated weight.
Who this is for
If you follow The Open and you drink whisky, this is an obvious one. If you collect limited single malts, it’s worth considering on the strength of the production details alone the still type, the age, the cooperage provenance.
If you’re looking for a gift that lands precisely for someone who cares about golf, whisky, or both, 3,000 bottles don’t go far when the tournament draws a global audience.
Drink responsibly. For the facts about alcohol, visit drinkaware.co.uk.
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