When it comes to active summertime pursuits, your favorite whisky glass has one fatal flaw—it’s glass. After all, nothing brings an outdoor party to a literal standstill faster than the sound of a smashing glass. These durable whisky vessels are perfectly suited to summer fun. So pour yourself a favorite whisky, majbe topped off with ice and soda, and kick off those shoes with confidence, knowing that your crystal whisky glasses are at home in the cupboard, enjoying a well-deserved vacation of their own.

An Unbreakable Vessel For Every Summer Setting

If you’re at a garden party:  Copper Tumbler, $20...

Burgers are an American summertime staple for good reason. They’re simple to make, quick to cook, and represent a beefy blank canvas for creative grillmasters, especially when armed with a palette of colorful whisky flavors.

Chef Shane McBride offers a Whisky Burger at New York City restaurant augustiine , caramelizing onions, deglazing them with Laphroaig 10 year old , and then finishing them with butter and another quick hit of Laphroaig. “I’m a scotch drinker,” he says. “My intention was to add some smokiness without having [actual] smoke.” The Whisky Burger comes topped with aged Comté cheese and a shot...

Scotland is about to get two “new” distilleries. Multinational drinks company Diageo —which owns 28 malt distilleries and one grain distillery in the country—announced that it will invest £35 million (about $46.1 million) to reopen Port Ellen Distillery on Islay and Brora Distillery on the east coast of the northern Highlands. The two single malt distilleries closed in 1983, during a period of decline for the scotch industry. The process of reopening—which includes planning, design, and construction work for both distilleries—will take up to three years. Distilling is slated to begin no later than 2020.

According to Dr. Nick Morgan,...

Arouse your senses and prepare to deconstruct the flavors found in your whisky glass. Tasting Lesson is a drink hack to help anyone identify common whisky flavors and their origin.

Vanilla is America’s most popular ice cream flavor. It’s familiar and imminently likeable, and its appearance in bourbon and other whiskies ranges from vanilla buttercream frosting to the intense flavor of the tiny, granular seeds scraped from a dark, wrinkled vanilla pod.

Vanilla pod flavors vary according to the pod’s origin, whether from Tahiti, the island of Bourbon, or Mexico. Vanilla can be simultaneously smoky, sweet, floral, or fruity, but...

It’s that time again: the day when Jim Murray reveals his favourite whiskies in the world. The results of his Whisky Bible 2018 have just been announced, and the winner of the top prize hails from the USA:

Jim Murray’s 2018 World Whisky of the year – Colonel Eh Taylor Four Grain Bourbon

Jim’s not a man to mince words, with his press release hailing the whiskey’s ‘sheer undiluted beauty’:

‘Nothing could match the astonishing beauty of its surprisingly delicate weight and complexity combined. It was though time stood still in the tasting room; I just knew…’

The Colonel EH...

Glendronach brand ambassador Stewart Buchanan led a great masterclass at this year’s Whisky Exchange Whisky Show in which he delved into the distillery’s past and showed various drams from yesteryear as well as more modern bottlings. This is what he had to say:

Stewart Buchanan, brand ambassador for Glendronach, Benriach and Glenglassaugh

‘Anyone who knows Glendronach will say it’s “sherry, sherry, sherry, sherry, sherry, sherry”, but it wasn’t always that way – we used to use bourbon barrels, too ’

‘We were the last coal-fired distillery in Scotland – we removed the coal fires in 2005’

‘Glendronach means “valley of...

Ardbeg An Oa is named after the Mull of Oa on the Kildalton coast in the south west of Islay. In the summer of 2017 it was the first addition to Ardbeg’s core range in the last decade.

The recipe is based on a combination of seven different types of casks : Pedro Ximénez casks, heavily charred virgin oak and first-fill bourbon casks are the most important. These have been married in a large French oak vat housed in The Gathering Room at the distillery.

Ardbeg An Oa is designed to be the entry point in to the range, sitting...

Last week I reviewed the Clynelish 21 Years ‘Art of Whisky’  and Glenrothes 27 Years ‘Art of Whisky’ and said there would be a seventh undisclosed bottling in this series. This was revealed at The Whisky Show in London: a Springbank 24 Year Old .

Update: they’re now available from TWE .

Springbank 24 yo (51,7%, Elixir Distillers 2017, 160 btl.)

Nose: a bit special, not a wham-bam Springbank. Quite waxy (aromatic candles, wax paper) with some lemon oil, leather and sour dough. Autumn leaves, classy hints of verveine. Rhubarb and crisp Granny Smith. Wet chalk and gingerbread...

Oban 14 Year Old is one of the last Classic Malts we hadn’t reviewed. It has been around since the late 1980s, it has long been the only regular expression and not much has changed in the core range since then.

Oban 14 yo (43%, OB +/- 2017)

Nose: I like this. It’s rather delicate but shows nicely fresh, fruity aromas (apples, mirabelles, oranges), held back a little by some mineral notes and leather. The lightest hint of smoke. Seaweed. Hay. Something of lipstick as well – a fragrant waxiness I often get in Ben Nevis for instance....

Springbank Local Barley 10 Years (2017)

The upcoming 2017 edition of Springbank Local Barley is just 10 years old (so far they’re only getting younger). Made with Belgravia barley from West Backs farm, this 2007 distillation will be bottled at 57,3% ABV, and 9000 bottles will be available of this third release.

Benromach 1977 single cask #1268

Benromach continues to expand its impressive single cask collection, now with this Benromach 1977 single cask #1268 , an American refill hogshead matured for 39 years. A book about the distillery accompanies the whisky. It is bottled at 56% ABV and...

Following the 2007 and 2008 vintages, Kilchoman just released the Kilchoman 2009 Vintage which – strangely enough – contains whisky from 2009 ex-bourbon barrels but also three 2008 Oloroso butts. A two-year vintage?

Previous editions of the vintage release were always exclusively matured in bourbon casks.

Kilchoman 8 yo 2009 vintage (46%, OB 2017)

Nose: quite citrusy, with bright and zesty lemon. Then warmer hints of vanilla and harbour ropes. Medium peat smoke. Just a little oil paint and subtle notes of raisins and toffee in the background. Mouth: same feeling of medium strength and slightly acrid peat...