During the festive season the SMWS is releasing a new cask collection each week. That’s a lot of whisky! You are able to view all the releases in advance to make it easier to choose those special Christmas gifts for family and friends… or for yourself. Why not? Everyone deserves a little extravagance from time […]
This quick overview will help you navigate through the wide array of whiskies worldwide. There are differences between the core ingredients, production methods and ageing requirements, which all contribute to their unique flavours. You may have noticed that there are two spellings for whisky. Whiskey is preferred by Irish and Americans, whisky is used in Scotland, Canada, Japan […]
What if you could stay on an island right next to a distillery overlooking the magical Isle of Skye? Now you can literally do just that, but is the reality as good as the idea? I had to go and investigate. The wonderful Isle of Raasay lies off the west coast of Scotland in the […]
When you are new to whisky, it can be a minefield to choose ones suitable for a beginner’s palate. There’s always the fear of not liking something and ruining the whole experience at the first few yards. You want something easy sipping, nothing overly complex, but with still enough oomph to make you want to […]
I have teamed up with The Whisky Cellar to give away a bottle of their latest (very) limited edition single malt. The Whisky Cellar is a new Edinburgh-based independent bottler and their Private Cellars Selection is fully based on quality scoring rather than price point, age, colour or distillery name. They source unique casks from […]
Cleopatra’s bath time, Cerealism, Delicate masculinity, Drink me you swine!, Thatcher’s tea break, Umami heaven, Sassy lassie in a leather skirt… Like the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s many bottles, we are all unique and different, but united by our interest in whisky. I paid a visit to the SMWS’s latest members-only venue in Glasgow to […]
Too often I hear someone say they’re interested in getting into scotch whisky but find the whole category intimidating. There are too many things you need to take into consideration or just a lot of choice to know where to start. With this guide to scotch whisky I wanted to cover some basics to help […]
Irish whiskey production used to be bigger and better than its Scottish rivals. Made using both malted and unmalted barley and distilled in a pot still, it became the most popular spirit worldwide. The quality of Irish whiskey was consistently better than the Scotch whisky at the time, which led the Irish to add the […]
Highland Park distillery has been in (legitimate) operation since 1798 and has always remained in the original spot where Magnus Eunson, a direct descendant of the Vikings, ran his illicit distilling production. At one point, the distillery was called High Park due to its location, overlooking Kirkwall. High enough to see the taxman’s arrival! The […]