I wonder if Dr. Bill Lumsden, Director of Distilling and Whisky Creation at Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, has been to the US recently. Known for taking inspiration from anything and everything from the Brazilian football team (see Ardbeg Auriverdes) to previously-thought-to-be-extinct strains of barley (see Glenmorangie Tùsail) it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s used a recent [...]...

I remember going to a Talisker sponsored Burn’s night a few years ago, and it being pointed out to me how hard headed and driven the founders of Talisker were. To build a distillery on Skye, which at the time had no bridge, and wasn’t the easiest place to make whisky, meant that Talisker distillery [...]...

The last episode of Friends. David Beckham’s final game. Zayn Malik’s departure from One Direction. Ummm… majbe not the last one, actually. Nevertheless, humans, as a species, are creatures of habit who have a tendency to avoid change. We take comfort in the familiar, and enjoy our day-to-day routines. When something suddenly ends, no matter [...]...

The self proclaimed “progressive Hebridean distillers”, Bruichladdich, have released the newest addition to their super peaty Octomore range, and this time it’s a ‘.4’. Previously, we’ve seen .1 (ex-bourbon casks maturations), .2 (ex-wine cask maturation) and .3 (made from local barley) releases and so the first .4 release steps into the generally unchartered territory, in [...]...

Lady of the Glen, the Fife-based independent bottlers, have been up to their usual tricks again; releasing single cask whiskies from some pretty cool distilleries. Previously, I’ve really enjoyed their offerings from Littlemill, Caperdonich and Bunnahabhain amongst others. The most recent bottling is from Tobermory, the sole distillery on the Isle of Mull in the [...]...

Blended whisky. A product for the people. High volume fodder for the masses. The bread and butter of the industry accounting for in excess of 90% of all Scotch whisky sales, but looked down upon by single malt fanatics as something for the proletariat. Common. Bland tasting. Only good for mixing with Coke. I’ll never [...]...

“A smoky Highland whisky… what?” or a phrase to that effect is usually exclaimed when I first introduce people to fairly-under-the-radar Ardmore distillery. Up to now, there has been only one expression in the core range, Ardmore Legacy, which goes some way to explaining why a substantial number of people have not encountered it before. [...]...

Girvan Grain distillery was founded in the early 1960′s. At the time, it was seen as a pretty big move from William Grant & Sons, to invest in such a big grain distillery. This investment secured grain whisky to blend into Grant’s Blended whisky, as well as being able to sell grain whisky to the [...]...

It’s been well over half a century since Scotland first marketed single malt Scotch whisky to the world. Prior to that, the category didn’t really exist and although you could purchase bottles of single Maltwhisky quite freely, blended whisky completely and utterly dominated (it still does to an extent, but not nearly as much [...]...

1985 is an important year. Super Mario was born. The first Wrestlemania took place. I was born. But it was also smack bang in the middle of a whisky crisis in Scotland. Unlike today, whisky value was going down. People were interested in other booze. Mix this with a difficult economic time, and you have [...]...

This is a project with layers (like an ogre, or an onion). Hardwork, development and collaboration between two drinks makers I respect. The first leg of the project was Beavertown Brewery developing an excellent Imperial Stout that they aged in Jameson 18 Casks. I thought it was spot on. The second leg of the project [...]...

I think all these years of drinks tasting has got me addicted to extreme flavours. I can still enjoy the balanced and the quiet dram/beer/wine, but the ones I really wax lyrical about are the crazy drinks. Balcones Brimstone for example; intensely smokey, with heaps of BBQ and meaty notes. Or some double IPA infused [...]...

There’s been a lot of chat about Scapa over the past wee while; they’ve recently opened their visitor’s centre and they’ve now released a new non-age statement whisky to sit alongside the 16yo. Rumour has it on the Twitterbook that this NAS bottling will become the new entry level, the current 16yo will be replaced [...]...

#EastMeetsWest That hashtag was how I was first introduced to Bowmore Mizunara Cask Finish. A teasing Japanese Himitsu Bako puzzle box arrived on my desk, with a note to share a photo of the box on Instagram or Twitter using #EastMeetsWest in order to receive instructions on how to open it. Cue a frantic search [...]...

For me, there are 2 or 3 gems in the Midleton range, that I think are truly special. Redbreast 12, Jameson 18, and one or two of the Midelton Rare bottlings I have tried. After these gems, I would say that the rest of the Jameson blends are strong. I haven’t been convinced by Powers [...]...

I’m a huge fan of Japanese whisky. I always have been ever since I first tasted Yamazaki 12yo a few years ago. Having moved from there on to various Hanyus, Hakushus, Chichibus, Yoichis and Miyagikyos and even the odd Karuizawa, my eyes were rapidly opened to the world of Japanese whisky, and world whisky at [...]...

Visiting a new distillery is one of my favourite things to do. By and large, distilleries are located in some of the most beautiful areas of Scotland – the glens and valleys of Speyside, the rugged west coast, the rolling hills of the Highlands, the iconic south shore of Islay and many, many other places [...]...

Jura Tastival comes but once a year… and when it does Jura usually release something rather unique. Tastival is Jura’s equivalent of Islay’s Feis Ile, whereby the distillery hosts a two day extravaganza at the end of maj. Following on from last year’s festival bottling which saw seven (yes, seven!) different finishes, this year they’ve [...]...

I have been meaning to write an article about anCnoc for quite a while, so Edinburgh Whisky Blog running the #anCnocAWeek competition has definitely acted as motivation to finally getting this written up. A good long while ago, I went to visit anCnoc, and got to taste some interesting drams. The people As someone who is passionate [...]...

This tasting was a while ago, but it was so fantastic, that I had to write about it. For those of you who don’t know, Whisky Auctioneer is a whisky auction website that was set up by Iain McClune, a friend and ex colleague of mine.  It is good to see people making use of their [...]...