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...

Know someone who loves their whisky? Not sure what to buy them for Christmas and have a limited budget to spend? Here are my top budget whisky picks for the festive season! Around £30 Aberlour 10 You can pick this little gem up for £25 without too much trouble. If you want a good all-rounder that everyone can enjoy, you can't go too wrong with this dram. It's a classic Speysider! Lot's of sweet ripe fruit and toffee notes in here with a healthy dab of woodiness thrown in for good measure. Well balanced with the mix of finishes (ex-bourbon and sherry) creating a very mature and fulfilling dram for the price point. Should be on every whisky-lover's shelf! Laphroaig 10 Do you know someone who loves peated whisky and you don't know where to start? Take it from me that every peat lover would be delighted to receive a bottle of Laphroaig 10. For most people this is their entry into the world of peat and it still stands up well against the rest. Again, 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...

Hello Again Folks! As promised, I am back with one of my two special blogs, diving deeper into a few of the drams I tried at the TWE Whisky Show. This week it's Jura! So, let's start with some context. Jura completely overhauled its range in April of this year on what the company described as "The biggest launch in its history!" The new range brings with it a completely new flavour profile for the brand. Out goes the much loved Origin, Superstition, Diurach’s Own 16 Year Old and Prophecy and in comes Journey, 10 Year Old, 12 Year Old, Seven Wood and 18 Year Old. This is a clear move by Jura away from no age statement whiskies and back towards the years on the bottle being the benchmark for quality. But has it worked? The Whisky Show seemed like the perfect opportunity to find out! We worked our way up the range, starting with Journey and finishing with the 18 Year Old. Here are my tasting notes... Journey (40% ABV / RRP: £33.00) NAS, matured in American oak ex...

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...first can I start by saying I am a massive Ardbeg fan. If it wasn't for Ardbeg 10 I doubt very much I would be a peated whisky obsessive. And Uigeadail has to be in my top 5 whiskies of all time. I feel like I should get that out of the way before I launch into this. You, can't win them all... Ardbeg An Oa was released last month to much fanfare (as everything Ardbeg always is). It is a very important dram as it is the first new addition to Ardbeg's core range for over a decade (they have been having a fine old time with excellent, if expensive special releases over the last few years). It is clearly a statement of intent from the guys here to add something different to their range. For me though, in doing that I feel it lacks a bit of what makes Ardbeg great. OK, before I launch into my opinions on this one, let's start with some facts... The name An Oa comes from the Mull of Oa – the most southerly point of Islay. It's bottled at 46.6% ABV with an RRP...

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...

So for my latest blog entry I fancied something snappy on a topic close to my heart - the wonderful whisky island of Islay! Join me for a quick trip around all 8 Islay distilleries with a handy guide on what to expect from each - particularly useful as a quick intro if you are unfamiliar with Islay. There's notes on the 'house style' of each (although of course each distillery produces a variety of expressions), and I have also added in some recommended drams that shouldn’t break the bank and should be relatively easy to get hold of, intended to give you a great example of what each distillery does really well. So here goes... The Unpeated One - Bunnahabhain House style - Fresh and salty It often surprises people that Islay produces a non-peated malt and whilst Bunnahabhain do produce a smoky dram or two, by far the majority of their output is of the unpeated kind. But overlook these guys at your peril. They produce some great whiskies, especia...