Last week Glenmorangie has launched the ninth edition in their Private Edition, The Glenmorangie Spios. Unlike previous years, this edition isn’t a wood finish but a full maturation release.

Glenmorangie Spìos (‘spice’ in Gaelic), was fully matured in casks that held rye whisky for 6 years. According to Dr. Bill Lumsden (Also known as Glenmorangie whisky boss), that whisky contained 95% rye so an educated guess would say those casks were sources from MGP Distillery (Indiana, USA), The casks were toasted, and following a lightly charred were filled with Glenmorangie new make that matured in the casks for 7-9 years.

Glenmorangie...

Last night we had our monthly local whisky club meeting which focused on Laphroaig whiskies. But in truth it was a tasting night centered around a bottle of Laphroaig 30 Year Old bottle we managed to get. But tasting only the 30 yo somewhat felt wrong and so we brought along some young and cheaper siblings as appetizers, among them the 1815 Legacy Edition which I didn’t get to review here yet and so it will be the subject of our review today.

Laphroaig The 1815 Legacy Edition was released in april 2017 to Travel Retail market but like many...

Celtic Whisky Company Fich a Haon (21) 16 year old 46%

Double distilled & first matured in a 1st fill bourbon cask for 14 years. Part of this cask was then re-casked in a specially commissioned 53 litre Pedro Ximenez sherry cask for over 2 years.

Cask 1899/ Dist: juli 2001 Btl: Sept 2017/ Tasted: Oct 2017

Nose: Burnt coffee and very herbal Oloroso. Chunky, deep and unfussy, but ultimately pretty simple.

Palate: A mouthful of grapey Oloroso with hints of dark chocolate, but predominantly dried grape.

Finish: A little drying, tannic and bitter, with, wait for it….. dried grape!...

Even those who dread clothes shopping will be instantly at ease upon entering the swanky Trunk Club New York Clubhouse on Madison Avenue. Rather than packed garment racks and sale signs, the first floor of this Nordstrom-owned clothier looks more like a spacious boutique hotel lobby, complete with a gleaming bar and cognac leather Chesterfield couches. “Would you like a beer or a Macallan?” offers custom sales manager Susannah Howard, adding, “All my guys drink Macallan.” Except, of course, those who instead choose Templeton Rye, Bulleit Bourbon , Brugal Añejo Rum, or a Moscow Mule served in a shiny copper mug....

Nicknamed the “Buddha of Bourbon,” Jimmy Russell’s presence has defined not only Wild Turkey , but also the best of bourbon culture for more than 60 years. His warm spirit, love for people, and passion for whiskey far surpass anything a slick marketer could hope to create. Russell is the only individual to attend every single WhiskyFest, no small feat, where he routinely sneaks off to have a beer with attendees.

His body of work includes Tradition, Tribute, Wild Turkey 17 year old for Japan, Rare Breed, American Spirit, Kentucky Spirit, and Russell’s Reserve, some of which he created with...

The life of Parker Beam, who passed away in 2017, was one of tremendous courage and perseverance.

After the Bardstown Heaven Hill Distillery burned down in 1996, Beam led the company’s whiskey comeback, never losing the great Heaven Hill quality and consistency people had come to know and love. Although Beam preferred the Bardstown facility to the Bernheim Distillery Heaven Hill later purchased, he kept the whiskey sound and mentored his son Craig just as his father Earl mentored him.

For most distillers, this leadership would be their most-prominent career story.

But for Beam, his brave ALS battle likely saved...

When Woodford Reserve launched as an upscale bourbon in 1996, it was a groundbreaking display of optimism from its creator, Lincoln Henderson.

At the turn of the Millennium, few brands gave a stronger lightning bolt to American whiskey than Woodford Reserve, and master distiller Henderson was the brand’s face and flavor.

The Cincinnati Enquirer called Henderson the “master of the good stuff” and said Woodford wasn’t ready until Henderson said so.

Henderson retired from a 40-year career at Brown-Forman, where he also developed Woodford, Gentleman Jack, and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel, but a great distiller never loses the whiskey-making itch....

Every American whiskey bottle embodies a distiller’s legacy. The names of Jack Daniel, Jim Beam, Evan Williams, and Henry McKenna are just a few you will find etched in glass and honored on labels. Their legacies are sealed for the ages, but we’ll never taste any whiskey they actually touched.

There are more recent American greats, with legacies just as strong. Although not always easy to find, their whiskeys still lurk behind the bar. To have a sip is the closest many of us will ever come to meeting an American distilling legend, to revel in their life’s work, created...

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Looking for a new whisky to pair with the chocolate you got for Valentine’s Day? Or perhaps you’re just in the mood for something different. There’s a lot to choose from in this week’s newest releases.

Glen Grant recently rolled out a 15 year old single malt exclusively for the U.S. market, stepping up the bottling proof to 50% ABV. The distillery’s presence in this country has been quiet in recent years, but global brand ambassador Robin Coupar recently told Whisky Advocate that Glen Grant’s parent company, Gruppo Campari , aims to establish the brand as a reputable, high-quality whisky....

Does anything go better with golf than a glass of scotch? After all, both the drink and the sport originated in Scotland, so it stands to reason that they would make a perfect pairing. And at golf’s most prestigious tournament, The Open , whisky lovers can now enjoy a variety of whiskies from Loch Lomond Distillery , which has been named the official spirit of The Open.

A five-year partnership between Loch Lomond and The Open, including the Ricoh Women’s British Open , will highlight the distillery’s core range of single malts: Loch Lomond Original , 12 year old ,...

Cognac maj be distilled from grapes rather than grain, but its similarities to whisky are hard to ignore. Like whisky, its popularity is booming and Cognac exports to North America jumped 14.2 percent in volume last year. Increasingly, Cognac makers are also expanding the French brandy’s stylistic boundaries. They’ve taken a page from the whisky playbook, making Cognacs with special finishes and adding numerical age statements. Small producers are releasing their own Cognac labels alongside the large, historic Cognac houses.

Cognac’s appellation of origin regulates everything, from which grapes can be used and where they’re grown to how they’re vinified,...

George T. Stagg master distiller Elmer T. Lee’s legendary career nearly ended before it began. His 1949 encounter with Col. Albert B. Blanton, the George T. Stagg president, concluded with, “Son, we’re not hiring…” Fortunately, distillery worker Orville Schupp insisted Lee ignore the company president and show up to work anyway.

Known for his kindness and humility, Lee rose from plant engineer to plant superintendent, then plant manager until earning the master distiller title. Lee’s crowning achievement was bringing the single barrel to the masses, a first for bourbon, in 1984, with Blanton’s.

He retired the next year and that’s...

In the cocktail world, it’s white rum that gets all the love: lightly flavoured and with no colour to muddy the other ingredients, it’s an ideal pick (most of the time). However, if you want to taste the rum in your drink, dark rum is the way to go. Here are some of my favourites that showcase dark rum as the king of cocktails.

Old Fashioned

We’ll kick off with both the simplest and (potentially) most complicated cocktail in the world: The Old Fashioned. At its core, it’s simple enough to barely be a cocktail: spirit, sugar, bitters. However, your...

It’s the middle of februari and our first big event of 2018 approaches – my favourite weekend of the year: The Whisky Show Old & Rare .

On 24 and 25 februari, we’ll be moving north to Glasgow and putting on a show. As the name suggests, it’s a showcase of old and rare whisky, focusing on the weird and wonderful bottles that we’ve become well known for finding over the years.

It’s a bit different to The Whisky Show in London , working instead like a big bar: we’ve got more than 460 whiskies confirmed, and they’ll all be...

Last month, I wrote a blog post about my most memorable whisky story – my first trip to Islay. It prompted several of you to share your own whisky stories, and here’s our favourite. Thank you to all of you who took the time to reply, and please keep sending your whisky stories to us – we’ll be publishing more of our favourites over the coming months.

by Edward I was backpacking in Asia with a good mate of mine. One night while walking the streets of Saigon, Vietnam, we decided to make it our mission to find a fancy...

Dr Bill Lumsden and Brendan McCarron introducing their latest creation – Glenmorangie Spios

Glenmorangie ‘s Dr Bill Lumsden – director of distillation and whisky creation – likes to experiment. While some of the distillery’s Private Edition releases – his yearly chance to showcase the whiskies he has been tinkering with over the past 20 years – have been weird and wonderful, some of the most successful have been based around a simple idea. The latest is definitely one of those: what happens if you use casks that used to hold American rye whiskey to mature Glenmorangie Original? The answer: Glenmorangie...

Valentine’s Day is not far away, and if you haven’t picked a romantic gift yet, don’t worry. Champagne is one of the safest options – I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t appreciate a glass of good fizz – and we have a great selection.

We’ll be covering the world of Champagne in more detail on the blog this year, with in-depth guides covering how Champagne is made, which foods to serve with it and much more – let us know if there’s anything in particular you want to know. In the meantime, take a look at our top tips below...

Champagne, according to Moët Hennessy ambassador Lucy Warren’s declaration at a recent Whisky Exchange tasting, is ‘wine that’s supposed to make you happy’. Funny, then, that it was also known as ‘the wine of the devil’, after Dom Pérignon discovered, time and time again, that 70% of his stock had exploded in the cellars. (As with all stories about the infamous DP, however, take that avec un petit pinch of salt…)

‘Zut alors! It’s going to explode!’ – Dom Pérignon

The notion of Champagne bringing happiness is certainly one many of us buy into around Valentine’s Day, normally while frantically...

If there’s a Diageo Special Releases tasting, then you know that whisky ambassador Colin Dunn will be involved. For our Whisky Exchange tasting in London, as well as pouring some fantastic drams, Colin passed on some of his substantial knowledge of the industry, shedding light on the lesser-known distilleries in Diageo’s portfolio and sharing 10 pearls of whisky wisdom:

1. ‘Before 1955, there were no American oak barrels in the UK. You could buy Talisker aged in sherry, Cognac, Armagnac or wine casks – but not bourbon’

2. ‘99% of Glen Elgin goes into our White Horse blend. It’s the...