Whisky Posts

That Boutique-y Whisky Company Caol Ila Batch 1

There's something very self-consciously 'cool' about That Boutique-y Whisky Company (henceforth to be known as TBWC, or "te-ba-wuk"). From the funky name to the "cultish graphic novel-style" labels, it all makes the craft beer movement look staid and veers dangerously close to hipsterism. All this would normally leave me cynically expecting it to be ...

Banoch Brae

Banoch Brae is a blended scotch produced as an 'own label' whisky for Nisa. Nisa is an association of small independent retailers, a national 'brand' for your local corner shop, as it were. They have been around since 1977, but I must admit that I've only really become aware of them in the last decade ...

Teeling Whiskey

The Teeling family has been involved in Irish Whiskey for over 200 years; in 1782, Walter Teeling set up a distillery in Dublin and began a family tradition that continues to this day. The current generation of Teelings – brothers Jack and Stephen – founded the Teeling Whiskey Company in 2012, having both learned the ...

Jura Tastival 2014

Jura is a distillery I've always struggled to love. This is frustrating because in general I love island distilleries, and being right next to the whisky heaven of Islay, it should be a perfect match. Then again, it's possible that those very expectations are what cause me such trouble. Jura isn't Islay, and it ...

Waitrose Highland 16 Year Old Single Malt

After something of a delay, I've finally reached the last of three own-label single malts from Waitrose. At 16 years old, this is the oldest and, potentially, the best value bottle of the range, currently priced at £32. Once again, the distillery is a mystery although the smart money (including comments from my earlier posts ...

Master Of Malt 60 Year Old Speyside

I assumed, years ago, that I had reached the sort of age where I would never again get to drink a whisky that was older than me, but thanks to Master Of Malt it turns out I was wrong. Earlier this year, they released an almost unbelievable dram; not only is it 60 years ...

Johnnie & Ginger

Whisky is a tricky thing to introduce people to, for a couple of reasons. At the age when most people start exploring alcohol, palates tend to prefer the sweeter and more approachable tipples, and wallets don't easily reach beyond the harsher end of the market. Whisky producers know this, of course, and always seek ...

Whisky Weekender Twitter Tasting

Today's Twitter Tasting, hosted as ever by the wonderful folk at The Whisky Wire, is a little bit different. Firstly, rather than being focused on an individual distillery it's a celebration of next weekend's London Whisky Weekender – a festival of dram-spanking goodness put together by The Whisky Lounge. Three days of whisky in oh-so-trendy ...

The Lost Distilleries Blend – Batch 4

Blended whisky has a bit of an image problem. Thanks to some brilliant marketing over the decades by the Scotch Whisky Association and others, consumers have "learned" that the really good whisky is the pure single malt (the older, obviously, the better) and that blended whisky is really only good for the servants. This is, ...

Waitrose Islay 12 Year Old Single Malt

I shall never understand why own-label bottlings are so often deliberately vague about who actually produced the whisky. I assume it's a restriction imposed by the distillery, but I've never been able to work out why they feel the need for secrecy. This is particularly puzzling, because the bottlings nearly always come with heavy hints ...