Dramathon. A week long Netflix binge of Emmy Award winning silver screen dramas? Nope. A 24 hour marathon session of whisky drinking? Not even Lukasz would attempt that. A series of long distance races along the Speyside Way culminating in a grandstand finish at Glenfiddich Distillery? You got it! Wait… what? At the beginning of [...]...

I’ve said before that Benriach is often referred to as ‘The Lab’ among company employees due to the varied production of spirit at the site, and the fact that almost every cask type can be found should you be lucky enough to go wandering in the warehouses. Nowhere is this more profound than in this [...]...

maj. The month of whisky festivals. World Whisky Day, the Whisky Stramash, and the Campbeltown Malts Festival are book-ended by the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival at the start of maj and Feis Ile at the end, to create a jam packed month of whisky heaven. To celebrate the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival and [...]...

It was a busy old start to month at Tamdhu, what with them releasing two new expressions within days of each other; the Dalbeallie Dram and 120th Anniversary Single Cask bottling. The Dalbeallie Dram was released to coincide with the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival whereas the 2002 single cask release was chosen by the [...]...

The Benriach distillery is affectionately known as ‘The Lab’ among its employees, and it’s not difficult to see why – a mixture of peated, unpeated, double distilled, and triple distilled spirit is produced before being matured in any and every (legal) type of cask you can imagine. The production of triple distilled spirit goes back [...]...

Tomorrow is Father’s Day. Oh, you didn’t know? Don’t worry; whether you’re passing through an airport today, live a short stroll from a specialist whisky shop, or simply want to order something online from the comfort of your armchair, have a read through our top 5 Father’s Day gifts and get yourself (and your dad) [...]...

You’ll have noticed we’re not the best at time keeping here at EWB. Meeting us for a pint at 7pm? We’ll be there at half past. Tasting starts at 8pm sharp? We’ll nonchalantly rock up at 8:05pm. Whisky festival begins at midday? See you at one-ish. In my defence, my most recent fashionably-late-to-the-party appearance is [...]...

It seems as though there’s a bit of a race happening in Edinburgh at the moment as to who can be the first open a Maltwhisky distillery in the capital. The Holyrood Park Distillery project has been chugging along for a wee while now, whilst plans for the Port of Leith Distillery, which would [...]...

Highland Park launched The Light a little while back, completing their two-part series which began with, you guessed it, The Dark. With the first expression being matured entirely in European Oak ex-sherry casks, this one has been matured exclusively in American Oak casks for 17 years. Highland Park The Light 17 years old 52.9% ABV [...]...

Well… would you? Let me be quite clear here. This, shockingly, isn’t a hypothetical question. I’m not talking about the very first five batches of a’bunadh; the un-numbered batches produced way back in single malt’s dark ages, the late ‘90s. No, I’m talking about the current batch, the next batch, and the batch after that. [...]...

Following swiftly on the heels of the second addition to Tullibardine’s Marquess Collection, The Murray 2005 (reviewed here), a third instalment has been announced. The first two expressions were both matured entirely in first fill ex-bourbon casks for around 12 years before being bottled at cask strength. This third expression has also been matured for [...]...

When Kilchoman launch a new whisky, there’s usually a lot of fan boy/girl posts on social media feting the new releases and a frenzied mob descending on every online retailer’s website as soon as the bottles are available. You might, therefore, be surprised to hear that a 10 year old cask strength expression called Kilchoman [...]...

In late mars I took part in The Glenlivet Hackathon, which was part of the activity surrounding the launch of the newest addition to Glenlivet’s no-cask-info-no-tasting-notes-no-nothing range, The Glenlivet Code. Following on from Alpha and Cipher (reviewed here and here), the challenge was to once again decode the tasting notes by selecting from various flavour [...]...

Last weekend amongst all the hubbub of a Royal Wedding, the FA Cup final, and World Whisky Day, a very exciting whisky was launched. I avoided all the aforementioned chaos with The Drinks Lady by escaping to the Scottish Borders to visit the Borders Distillery in Hawick (more on that soon), however this also meant [...]...

A few weeks ago I was invited to a very intimate gathering of whisky folks at The Scotch Maltwhisky Society Vaults in Leith, to be one of the first to sample Benriach’s new expression, Temporis 21yo. Led by Matt Chambers (off of that there excellent whisky website, www.whiskyforeveryone.com), we were guided through Benriach’s core [...]...

A new month, and some new whisky. Two new whiskies, actually. Kilchoman’s annual release of Loch Gorm is usually accompanied with a 100% Islay expression, but that has been shifted to an autumn launch and has made way for the second release of the highly regarded Port Cask Matured. First released in 2014 to much [...]...

Every few months since mid-2009, Glendronach have released a new batch of single cask bottlings. Each batch is more hotly anticipated than the last, given the distillery’s now-rock solid reputation for producing stellar heavily-sherried whiskies. Many fans were concerned, quite rightly, that a change in ownership from Billy Walker and co at the Benriach Distillery [...]...

A quick dram for you all this Easter Monday. Wemyss Malts, those single cask extraordinaires from Fife, have released a blended malt with a difference. Purportedly bursting with notes reminiscent of a ripe fruit grove, the whisky is aptly called Nectar Grove and is comprised exclusively of Highland malt whiskies which have been blended together [...]...

It’s quite a mouthful isn’t it? *That’s what she said* Yeah, yeah, very funny. In all seriousness though, what is this second batch of triple cask matured whisky from Benriach which has been bottled at cask strength? Let’s break it down. Triple cask matured: matured in three types of cask. D’uh. These are bourbon barrels, [...]...

A few weeks ago I took part in my first ever Facebook Live event – imagine a cross between a regular whisky tasting, where you physically turn up to a venue in person and speak to other real life human beings face to face, and a tweet tasting, where a bunch of whisky nerds get [...]...