Reviews

For peat’s sake! Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? The beautiful whisky mecca of Islay is home to eight operational distilleries, with another one in development at Ardnahoe, and the island is renowned for its peaty, smoky drams. While not all Islay drams fall into the smoky category, there is one that goes above and beyond...

Douro Valley: a sprawling majestic wilderness in the northern provinces of Portugal. Campbeltown: a fishing town on the Kintyre peninsula of Scotland. What do they have in common? Both are dedicated to the production of a quality beverage that can’t be produced anywhere else in the world. For Campbeltown we know, of course, of the great history of the Victorian...

Ah it’s that wonderful time of year again! The birds are singing, the flowers are in bloom, that huge, mysterious fireball has been sighted in the sky over Scotland, and the shop is flooded with pilgrims on their way to the magical isle of Islay. The annual Islay Festival of Music and Malt got underway at the tail-end of last...

The Orkney single malt takes its name from the legendary creatures that would descend from the heavens on horseback to comb the battlefields for the bravest of the fallen warriors, taking the worthy few to enter Valhalla, the hall of Norse god, Odin. The whisky celebrates Highland Park’s Nordic ancestry, with Orkney once forming part of the vast Viking kingdom...

I love nothing more than a wee courie up with a good book and a great dram. I have to admit that my 1999 New Year’s resolution to read more of ‘the classics’ hasn’t made as much progress as I’d hoped – War & Peace stands out as a major culprit – but I keep trying all the same. And...

We like to remind our Islay-loving customers that Inveraray is often described as the Gateway to Islay, and our Living Cask 1745 pays tribute to that title with an award-winning blend of Islay malts. Otherwise known as the Queen of the Hebrides, Islay is famous among whisky drinkers for its intensely peaty flavours, but there’s one distillery that is known...

Normally I'm the one to have a sip of the amber nectar and share my thoughts with you, but on the occasion of the Springbank 1992 21 Year Old, I'll begrudgingly step aside for this nice lad at YouTube channel, Whisky Wednesday, to tell you what he thinks of this limited single cask release from the Campbeltown distillery.

"Welcome once again to Hamish’s Hints, my series of regular whisky reviews made for the modern whisky lover and those new to this amazing and wondrous world (where life size wooden statues can talk, taste and provide drinking tips it seems!)  As you know, whisky is my life, is my passion. It has to be when you are stuck outside...

Our own Rob Bruce gives us some build up on the long awaited Balvenie Tun 1509 Batch 2, that has just hit our shelves in Loch Fyne... So it has finally arrived. The follow up to the hugely successful cult classic that was Balvenie Tun 1401 is here. But this time the ‘The Tun’, as it is lovingly known, (Ok, I...

Hamish's hints on Haig Club - What's it like? "As you know, whisky is my life, is my passion. It has to be when you are stuck outside a shop, forced to watch nothing but gorgeous lovely whisky pass you by day after day after day……. Not that I’m complaining mind. Because I can’t. Because I’m made of wood, and...