Opinions

Ardbeg Rollercoaster Review

As Ardbeg Rollercoaster is about to go on sale in an hour or so (Monday, 9am), we give you a line or two of very subjective review. Euan Martin and Chris Hoban sampled the whisky on Thursday and came up with their own tasting notes and opinions without consulting each other on the night!
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Euan: Firstly, [...]

Where is the love?

Nose: Leather wax, ski wax, all wax. Really mature Camembert or melted Raclette. Hot tyres, Play-Doh, old chewing gum. All wrapped in sharp tones of sweet over-ripe pear, fantastically out of place, like a pinball machine in a church.
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I just got home from the ‘bloggers tasting’ at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. They organise one [...]

Get your whisky cheaper!

To some of you it won’t come as a surprise that we are now tightening our bond with Master of Malt, an excellent online whisky retailer. It is run by generally rather cool guys (apart from the fact they are mostly English) and we get on with them very well. The results of this international [...]

Shackleton didn’t want his whisky. Do you?

Something significant happened today. Scotch whisky made it to the headlines of news services worldwide. And not because Tiger Woods bought a nice bottle for his wife in the way of apology.
Kiwi snow-and-frost-lovers found and unearthed some MacKinlay’s blend from underneath Ernest Shackleton’s hut built and used by him in Antarctica during his failed South [...]

Why exactly is Smokehead so dear?

As I would imagine somebody will be quick enough to point out, this isn’t really a post with a point. It’s more of a musing, maybe a push for some discussion. I was looking at the price of Smokehead 18 year old yesterday and was struck by just how expensive it really is. In case [...]

Whisky Odyssey 2110

The hangover
I woke up this morning with very unpleasant symptoms; uncrunchable thirst, slight headache, dry skin, dodgy gut and garlic sauce aftertaste in my mouth to name but a few. I grew out of the I’m-never-drinking-again-style lines long time ago, so all I could say to myself when I opened one eye to confirm my [...]

Glenlivet Faemussach. To drink or not to drink?

We got this wee cutie from Chivas Malts for our birthday last month (thanks very much). We appreciate how rare and collectable this bottle is. But we’ve always said that whisky is for drinking. Nice whisky, like this one, kept sealed in a dark cupboard is like a beautiful girl kept away from the world [...]

Someone got pissed off?

Persons with heart conditions and those who are currently within a granade-haul-distance from Downing Street in London (and happen to have a granade on them) are advised not to read this post.
Ever-reliable scotchwhisky.net reported that The Edrington Group’s chairman, Sir Ian Good got well pissed off when he found out that Gordon Brown had said [...]

More rules? Wohoo, we’ll drink to that!

… And the voice from heavens struck upon us - All Scotch whisky must now be bottled in Scotland. And no column stills shall be used for making single malt. Oh, I almost forgot, and the phrase ‘pure malt’ is now banned from the labels too. So say we all.
What better way to celebrate the [...]

Extreme Makeovers: Tamdhu Edition

Why do you mothball a distillery? Because of the recession? No. Because you have too much stock? No. Because you can’t predict the demand? No.
You mothball a distillery because the bloody whisky doesn’t sell.
Please notice it is not The Macallan or Highland Park Edrington Group are axing. Those are strong revenue generators, why would you [...]