Hamish's Whisky Blog

The fine folk at Loch Fyne Whiskies asked me to write about Octomore 7.1 - which has just hit the real and e-shelves of our wee store in Inveraray. Despite sounding like a bargain basement James Bond villain, there is huge excitement about this release from Bruichladdich, for two key reasons – a) it’s from Bruichladdich and b) it is...

As the recognised gateway to Islay, it’s fitting that our wee store in Inveraray has two very special - and limited -  releases to buy here online, both of which were launched recently at the world famous Islay whisky festival.   The first is Jura Tastival, an 18yo aged in sparkling wine casks and bottled at cask strength. Only 3970 bottles...

Rob Bruce talks about our exclusive launch competition, and talks us through two of Loch Fyne's own products, The Living Cask and The Living Cask 1745 I knew the fine folk at Loch Fyne Whiskies were a generous bunch, but I did not realise how generous until now. They’ve only gone and launched a competition to win free whisky for life. Yup...

  A very warm welcome to the new Loch Fyne Whiskies website, and my first blog for a wee village store in rural Scotland about to go global and become the Google of the whisky world! Or maybe not. The last thing the fine folk at Loch Fyne are interested in is world domination...! What they are keen to do is...

Auchentoshan distillery is located at the foot of the Kilpatrick hills on the outskirts of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire. It is one of six distilleries to be found in the Scottish Lowlands. It was built in 1800 and changed hands multiple times before being bought by Eadie Cairns in 1969, who completely rebuilt the distillery. In 1984 he sold the distillery...

Located 1,164 feet above sea level, within the picturesque moors of the Cairngorm National Park in the heart of the Scottish Highlands, lies the quaint Dalwhinnie Distillery; the highest distillery in Scotland! It is here that one of the lightest, cleanest single malt whisky’s we have ever tasted is passionately created; the Dalwhinnie 15 Year Old. Part of Diageo’s Classic Malt...

If you’re looking for an entry level single malt, that will introduce you to the delights of Islay whisky; look no further than the Bowmore 12 Year Old. Islay whisky is predominantly characterised by the smoky peat that grows rich across the island. Add to that the crashing salty waves that batter against the rocky coast and you can begin...

Last week we re-visited last year’s, 2013, expression of the Kilchoman Machir Bay. With each year the small Islay distillery continues the journey of this fantastic single malt by releasing a new bottling. Today we are blessed to be sat with this year’s bottling, the Kilchoman Machir Bay 2014. To re-cap, Kilchoman’s Machir Bay, the distilleries core expression, was first launched...

10 years ago if I had said the words “Kilchoman Distillery” you wouldn’t have had a clue what I was talking about. However, today Kilchoman Distillery, the first distillery to be established on the island of Islay in over 124 years, is kicking up quite the storm within the whisky world. The distillery itself, which is one of the smallest in...

It is with great excitement that I write this taste review as The Balvenie Single Barrel First Fill 12 Year Old was one of my favourite whisky discoveries of 2013. Today I have the great pleasure of tasting The Balvenie Single Barrel 15 Year Old Sherry Cask, and as first impressions go I am extremely impressed. As you would expect from a...