Birming-Dram

Last week I was idly browsing the spirits section of my local Morrisons (as I do on a semi-regular basis) when I spotted this little fella. I must confess to having never noticed it before. It was on offer at £16! I looked closer and saw that this was allegedly a single malt. Yes, that's right...a single malt for £16!!! I just had to take a closer look. What's the worst that could happen?!?! So first thought. Crabbies, don't they do the ginger beers and the likes? What do they know about whisky? Well, quite a lot as it turns out! Back in the day they were well known for their blended whiskies and were once part of the Glenmorangie Group! Nowadays they are owned by Halewood International who own brands such as Whitley Neil, Red Square vodka and of course, Lambrini! Halewood International are going for whisky in a big way. They have a range of aged single malts under the Crabbies brand from various unnamed distilleries from around Scotland, they recently completed the...

Hello Folks! So for my third and final installment from the TWE Whisky Show it's time for something completely different...a brand new distillery! What was great about the show this year was the large area dedicated to newer distilleries. There is so much exciting innovation in whisky at the moment and it was great to go and find all of this in one place. One exhibitor in particular caught our eye. The wonderful Ncn'ean! Pronounced "Nc-knee-anne", which according to their Facebook page is "an abbreviation of Neachneohain who was the “Queen of Spirits” in Gaelic legend. Neachneohain was a huntress, strong, independent and never afraid to walk her own path. She was also a fierce protector of nature". So, who are they? The brainchild of Annabel Thomas, they are the first certified fully organic Scottish Whisky Distillery. Situated on the Morvern Peninsula of Western Scotland. Whilst they are on the mainland, they sure are out of the way! They are c...

So, as promised I said it wouldn't be as long until my next entry and I have lots to tell you about over the next few blogs! A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the TWE Whisky Show in London and I thought I'd take a bit of time today to tell you about it. For those of you who are unacquainted with the show, it's the largest whisky show in the UK. This year there were somewhere in the region of 150 exhibitors there from the world of whisky plus a few extras from complementary industries such as salmon and cheese! Basically anyone who is anyone to do with making whisky is in attendance from distilleries to independent bottlers. It's a great opportunity for anyone to come along and try something they haven't tried before either because they haven't had the chance or moreover because it's new. There are over 600 whiskies to choose from. Pretty good, right? The show has been greatly expanded this year and there is now a whole ...

First off, i really must apologise. It's been months since I last wrote anything on here. It's been a busy few months but I am determined to get back into the swing of things. So let's kick things back off with a recent trip to Fettercairn distillery. Fettercairn is a cute little distillery quite out of the way from most others (the nearest is the tiny Glencadam). It is situated near the town of Laurencekirk roughly halfway between Dundee and Aberdeen so it sits within the “Highland” region of malts. The village of Fettercairn itself is really cute with a couple of pubs and shops and contains the most exuberant and over-sized memorial archway erected to commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria. You pass through the centre for about half a mile and then you come across the distillery. Now here was where I made my first mistake. Be warned that the distillery is only open during the summer months. I tried to visit last winter and was thoroughly disappointed to find it all...

OK, so I have been looking for quite some time for a whisky under £40 that truly blew me away. For a long while I was left wanting...until now! This whisky is simply sublime! Benromach first launched their wood finish range back in 2014 with initial bottlings finished in Hermitage and Chateau Cissac wine casks. I missed out on this first batch, but fear not, they are back and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a bottle of the latest Chateau Cissac bottling at The Whisky Show earlier this year. Now, as readers to my blog will no doubt be aware, I am a sucker for red wine and port finishes. Especially on young whiskies as I really feel like the combination of immature whisky and big red wine / port flavours creates the perfect mix. I was on to a winner here before I even began! Chateau Cissac is a winery in the Haut-Médoc area of the Bordeaux wine region of France and produces some particularly fine wines. You can find out more about it here: http://www.chateau-cissa...

I love Tobermory!  Everything about this distillery is great. I know it's not producing at the moment as they are renovating  but I have heard nasty rumours that renovations = mothballed. I really, really hope not! I visited Tobermory back in November during my last distillery visiting trip north of Hadrian's Wall. It was a very, very wet day when we set off from our base on Loch Awe to Oban then on the ferry to Mull. Mull is an amazing place...very beautiful, with stunning countryside which looked amazing even in the November rain! We headed straight up to Tobermory as time was limited and it wasn't quite birdwatching weather! After an epic pizza with goat's cheese and haggis at The Mishnish pub (highly recommended) we headed off for our tour! Tobermory distillery is tiny! I can't quite believe how they manage to fit all that kit in there! The distillery has shrunk since its heyday as some of the warehousing was sold off for apartments.  The ma...

This week my blog is all about Deanston. A little known and underrated distillery that produces great and varied highland malts. It all started a few weeks ago, I was staying up at Gleneagles and had some time to kill. I thought, how am I best using this time whilst is Scotland? Well, there's only one possible answer...visit a distillery! I started with Tullibarine, which is only a stones throw from the hotel but I missed the tour and they didn't seem keen on showing me much or letting me taste much. They did however suggest that a trip to Deanston was perfectly doable in the hour I had left until closing time. So, I bombed it down the A9 and across country to Doune, the pretty little town in which Deanston is located. Deanston are part of the Burn Stuart Group who also own Bunnahabhain and Tobermory. So now I can say I have a full house of their 3 distilleries having already visited the other two! I don't know what it is about Burn Stuart distilleries but ever...