RE: Supermarket whiskey
In the case of the stuff Aldi's selling, because the name on the bottle is not that of an actual distillery, you're taking more of a gamble than you would with a recognised distillery's own bottling under their name as you don't know where it comes from (which distillery produced it). As it's a single malt, it must have been produced by a distillery somewhere in Scotland, and, as was said in the article, the malt anoraks will have a fair idea. If you don't mind the idea of getting whisky by home delivery, there are recognised online sellers who (mostly) have a large whisky shop somewhere as well. If you want a list, the best person to speak with is probably Ralfy Mitchell at ralfy.com, or the guy who runs whiskywhiskwhisky.com. If you're looking for something from a supermarket, do a bit of online price comparison and you can find some good deals - stick to non-fancy finishes; some distilleries, such as Glenmorangie, do unusual finishes (port wood, madeira wood or wine casks) well, but many distilleries will finish an unbalanced or plain poor whisky in a weird cask type to mask the inferiority of the spirit.
EDIT: Apparently the mystery Aldi malt is a Speysider, and the description sounds typical of whiskies from that area in that they are matured in European oak (old sherry butts) and tend to be fruity, rich and deep in character. Typically of an older Speysider, the oak has influenced this malt heavily, hence references to oaky tannins, and the typical nosing/tasting notes for aged Speysiders of fruit cake, marmalade and, sometimes notes like aged leather, dusty bookcases, wood shavings etc. It sounds like a malt for winter evenings - hopefully it won't have too much E150a (caramel) added, being 40 years of age and shouldn't have been too heavily chill-filtered, as aggressive chill-filtration is a more recent abomination.