That strange whirring noise you can hear is old Scots stillmen spinning in their graves. A Japanese whisky has been named Malt Whisky of the Year by Whisky magazine. Yoichi 20 year old from Hokkaido succeeded last year’s winner Talisker 18 year old to become the first ever overseas winner. It’s £150 a bottle so [...]

I’m taking a little detour from my Islay survey to venture into Mike’s territory. Blair Atholl village is situated in the rolling hills of Perthshire. There is a famous castle and the village contains an old water powered grain mill. Along with Dunkeld, Pitlochry (which is actually where the distillery is) and the Pass of [...]

In the course of research for my new Scottish Books website I came across a forthcoming book that’s likely to be of interest to many readers of this blog and particularly the Islay drinkers. Whisky Dream is the story of the resurrection and development of Bruichladdich distillery and the impending revival of the long-closed Port Charlotte. [...]

Less well known than some of the other Islay malts, probably because of the intimidating (to some) Gaelic name as much as the distinctive taste. The labelling is redolent of the sea; an ever present feature of Islay life. This one I tasted in an Edinburgh bar, a good one. The barman seemed surprised to [...]

This is a quick post to say cheers to the guys from the angels’ share and from Bowmore for a fun night last night. WE had a graet little tasting of the Bowmore 12 year old, the Bowmore 15 year old and the Bowmore 18 year old. Each of these was appealing to everyone - [...]

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had been exposed to a mature Laphroaig at way too tender an age when my taste buds were incapable of appreciating it. Since then I’ve only rarely gone back to this revered Islay malt and never in a suitable environment where I could observe it in peace [...]

Recently Bowmore launched their new website, www.thebowmoreway.co.uk, it’s looking fun. I still don’t fully get the concept behind it. That said there are some cool little bits and pieces on it. the Bowmore videos are interesting. Video From the Bowmore Way Well I was going to embed some movies from the bowmore way on this page - [...]

Given that one respected whisky writer considers this distillery’s produce to be so good that he has to artificially handicap it in his tasting scores, this one has a lot to live up to. Ardbeg 10 year old, 46% A new bottle; always interesting to open a bottle for the first time and get the first impression. [...]

I was reading today at the Scotch Blog about the whisky glasses from Glencairn crystal. I don’t have any of these but am going to have to go and get some asap. But it got me thinking about whether there is a real benefit to using a whisky tasting glass against using a traditional “tumbler” (a [...]

Due to the joys of our local council I’ve been without a web connection for about ten days at home - someone cut a cable and being with Virgin Media that causes us some problems. Duly we’re a little behind in terms of posting schedule. So just to let everyone know we’ll have everything back [...]