Advent Posts

TBWC Ben Nevis Batch 3

There's a part of me that is slightly disappointed that the Ben Nevis distillery is at the foot of Ben Nevis, rather than perched precariously on the top of our highest mountain. Ok, so it wouldn't be very practical and they might have a struggle getting the grain trucks all the way up there, ...

TBWC Islay Blended Malt No. 1 23 Year Old Batch 1

I have to confess to a small giggle of excitement on opening today's Advent calendar door. I'm a huge Islay fan (as you may have noticed!) and if this year's calendar has taught me anything, it's that the folks at That Boutique-y Whisky Company know a thing or two about how to create amazing ...

TBWC Glenburgie Batch 2

I have to confess that I've never come across Glenburgie before. Apparently owned by Pernod Ricard, much of it's production goes into Ballantine's - but other than that it seems to be a remarkably anonymous distillery. Still, many of the independent bottlers seem to extract a cask or two from the distillery which is ...

Ardmore 10 Year Old Batch 1

I have to admit that for quite a while, I'd assumed that Ardmore was one of those made-up distilleries that independent bottlers use when they're not allowed to admit where a whisky has come from. To my Islay-obsessed eyes, this was clearly a not-so-subtle nod to Ardbeg. Of course, the 'Ard' prefix crops up ...

TBWC Strathclyde 30 Year Old Batch 1

Although everybody tends to thinks of whisky - or at least scotch - as being malt, there's a lot of grain whisky made too. Much of it goes into blends, so it's rare to see it bottled as a 'single grain whisky' in its own right. It's probably also a sign of its ...

TBWC Blended Malt No. 2 Batch 2

I think if I had to pick my dream job, whisky blender would be firmly on the top 10 list. While I'm sure it's a hard job in reality, in my mind you'd just get to spend all day tasting the most phenomenal casks and putting them together in new and fun ways. (this ...

Tullibardine 9 Year Old Batch 2

I have to confess that until today I'd never even heard of Tullibardine. It turns out that when the distillery was founded in 1947 - by a Welshman, curiously enough - it was the first new distillery to be built in the 20th century. Probably. I can find at least two other distilleries ...

TBWC Clynelish 15 Year Old - Batch 3

Today sees another new distillery for me, in the form of Clynelish. Clynelish is in the Highlands, north of Inverness and further north in Scotland than I've yet been. It was built almost 200 years ago - although production has halted a couple of times over the years - and in the 1960s ...

TBWC English Whisky Company 5 Year Old Batch 1

After enthusing about getting try a whisky from India yesterday, I'm equally thrilled to be trying my first ever English whisky. In many ways it's surprising that there aren't more English whisky producers, given how long we've been drinking whisky and how close we are to both the countries that claim to have invented ...

Paul John Batch 1

I'm delighted to see that That Boutique-y Whisky Company doesn't just stick to Scotland, and here we have our first international whisky of the season - from India, of all places. Having previously been impressed by Paul John's whisky, I'm eager to see what TBWC can offer! Paul John Batch 1 is a marvellously dark dram, ...