Mon Sherried Whisky: The Balvenie SIngle Barrel 15 Year Old and The Glenlivet Nadurra Oloroso Edition

There is something quite glorious about a summer’s day. To be honest, here in London, it isn’t quite summer just yet, but we are at the start of a rather warm snap which will, fingers cross, will last across the weekend.

In the UK, this is the sign for women to raid their wardrobe for flowery Laura Ashley dresses and for men to bare their legs; but when it comes to whisky, our thoughts turn from heavily peated numbers, to lighter whiskies (grains and blends), served up in a highball glass with ice, topped up with soda water and a slice of something zesty.

And herein lies the exact reason why we all need a cabinet of drinks: there is no one ‘cure all’ spirit for that moment when you want to pour yourself a dram or mix yourself a cocktail.

Our advice for putting together a basic drinks selection is to build up your cabinet from the basics, making sure you have a good quality gin and vodka in your freezer, with plenty of ice and some glasses, too (if you don’t have a lot of room, then make sure you have four Martini glasses at the very least). If you can store highball glasses too, then a top tip is to put a small amount of water in the bottom of each glass, so you have a natural layer of ice in each one; brilliant for G&T’s.

Moving from the freezer to the fridge, ensure you have some cans of tonic and soda water, as well just some filtered water too.

Topping all this off, a good drinks cabinet should contain a nice brandy (go Armagnac for better value than Cognac), a good rum (two if you can afford it- one for sipping, one for mixing), some Tequila and cocktail bitters (Angostura at the very least). And then some whisky.

You’ll notice here that, save for the rum where you can reach out over several varieties and Tequila / Mezcal where you might want a sipping option as well as a mixer, whisky is where the greatest variation is to be found. If we were being honest, you probably could do with having the following in stock:

A Smoky Whisky: Preferably a single malt with a good level of peat smoke. Example: Lagavulin 16.

A Sipping Whisky: Not everyone likes peat, so have a non-peated offering, too. Could be a blend, single malt, a bourbon, Irish or Japanese whisky. Example: The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Years Old.

A Sunshine Whisky: A grain whisky or blend helps for those summer days when you want a long drink. Example: Cutty Sark Original.

So, in a basic cabinet we’d look at three different whisk(e)y offerings; quite a lot more than the others, but all playing different roles in the team.

In this blog we focus on all styles of whisky, trying to review them with their purpose in mind. As became evident in our look at flavoured whiskies recently, you can’t review something like J&B Urban Honey in the same way that you would a 40 Year Old Brora. Equally, as with Dave Broom’s new book The Manual, you shouldn’t be ashamed of mixing a ‘sipping single malt’, either.

When it comes to these single malt sippers, there are more and more appearing on the market all the time; some brand new offerings from indie distillers, others being released from major distillery names as range extensions.

One distillery who is undertaking a re-jig of their more niche offerings, is The Balvenie who have recently launched a couple of new single barrel expressions. It was a year ago when we reviewed their ‘new’ 12 Year Old First Fill American Oak Single Barrel, and the time has come again for another release from them, this time a 15 Year Old Oloroso Sherry cask.

The Balvenie – 15 Year Old Sherry Cask – Single Barrel – Cask Number 4440 – 47.8% avb – each batch has no more than 650 bottles – RRP £79.99

NOTE: These tasting notes are for one specific cask release, no. 4440. Other casks may differ.

Nose: Certainly a sherry cask whisky, this gives ginger and honey up front, some dusty oak and golden syrup, this isn’t hiding its roots. There is a slight Piri-Piri sauce element which develops over time. Returning to the nose after a while, the key elements have died a little and the spirit remains, giving a punchy youthfulness to the dram, but always with that Oloroso backbone of sweet spices.

Palate: Fresh apricots drizzled in honey sit atop cinnamon spices, some over ripe banana and rum and raisin milk chocolate. It is powerful with a hint of complexity, and some spiritus elements. Mouthfilling, the wood influence shines through towards the back of the palate giving plum chutney and more raisins.

Finish: Lots of ginger, runny honey and spices, which develop into nutmeg and cardamom.

Overall: This is a very tasty dram, which packs in big flavours with a good ABV balace, too. My preference is with a splash of water, which opens up the dram to reveal red cherries and heather honey, giving a better example of the smooth Balvenie spirit for which it is famed.

Another giant of the Speyside distillery world, who is also expanding a diffusion range (if you will) with an Oloroso matured edition, is The Glenlivet who welcome the ‘Oloroso Matured’ batch to the already popular Nadurra line. This will be the first ever 100% sherry matured offering from the distillery, under their own label. At the moment this is only available in Global Travel Retail, is a No Age Statement and is bottled at 48% abv but, as with other Nadurra releases, will see a ‘full strength’ edition hit local markets in the future.

The Glenlivet – Nadurra Oloroso Matured (batch OLO314) – NAS - 48% abv RRP TBC

Nose: More tropical fruits than the Balveinie, which is focuses more on ginger and honey. This is a fresher dram (I’d wager a touch younger, but not by a lot) and gives peach melba, fruit cake, cardamom and mango on the nose. A hint more summery than the Balvenie.

Palate: Cinnamon and Cardamom come through with a sprinkling of nutmeg. Blood Orange and fresh mint are backed with cigar box and a distinctly meaty tone of well aged rare steak, slightly peppered. It sits well on the palate, with the pepper and sweet sherry partnering well together.

Finish: Bloody orange meets vanilla macaroons to give a hearty, sweet finish which is mouth watering with a back drop of gala melon.

Overall: Again, this really opens up with a drop of water, smoothing it out reflect the distillery character and would be my preference to serve with a splash of H2O. It is going to be interesting to see how this works at an even higher abv. Bring it on!

These two new expressions are both excellent and with a splash of water both reveal their true distillery characters, which is pleasing as it is easy to lose track of the true DNA of the base spirit once sherry casks are involved. Both are perfect examples of ‘sipping whiskies’ which make themselves available for team selection in your drinks cabinet. Now it is up to you to decide which you want to be part of your team...

  

Indie, Indie, Indie Part 2: Master of Malt DARKNESS! Collection

In our second look at some indie releases from retailers, it is the chaps over at Master of Malt who yet again throw their creative brains into a cask, add in a bunch of spirit and leave it to infuse.

Having stepped up their game in terms of their own bottlings (crowing their releases with a 60 Year Old earlier this year), some of the most memorable ones being an 18 year old Ardbeg last year and a very floral Bowmore before that, they have now released a new mini-series of whiskies which have all been additionally finished in a small, first fill sherry cask (50 litres).

The series, known as Darkness!, features spirit from Ardbeg, Macallan and Clynelish distilleries as well as two from Benrinnes.

Benrinnes 15 Years Old, Pedro Ximenez Cask Finish, 53.3% abv: A nose of rich fruits and oak, linseed oil and fresh leather. The palate gives a firm oak note, followed by dark cherries, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fruity and spicy. The finish is oaky and fruity with lasting spices. A big tasting dram.

Benrinnes 15 Years Old, Oloroso Cask Finish, 52.9% abv: A more subtle dram with less big oak and more fresh pine (as you would expect from the different style cask), raspberry and white chocolate. The palate is again more subtle with cherry pie and apricot jam. The finish gives sandalwood and old leather.

Macallan 15 Years Old, Pedro Ximenez Cask Finish, 52.3% abv: Ginger and mint, this is the most closed of the five samples we have but over time opens up to reveal vanilla and cream soda. The Palate is sweet and rounded, the most easy drinking of the bunch and feels a lot older in flavour, with a hint of sulphur and red apple. Finish plays with spent matches and meaty pulled pork.

Clynelish 16 Years Old, Oloroso Cask Finish, 54.9% abv: Wood polish/wax, butter beer, some sweet cure bacon and ghee on the nose. The palate is hazelnut praline, walnuts and crunchie bar. The finish is chopped chilli and milk chocolate.

Ardbeg 21 Years Old, Pedro Ximenez Cask Finish, 40.1% abv: Well, this shows that no matter what cask Ardbeg spirit has been sitting in, you always ‘come home’ to Ardbeg when you stick your nose in a glass of it. Classic Ardbeg smoke, this isn’t a meaty dram it is quite delicate for a PX casked whisky and at 21 years old comes from their lighter production period (in terms of volume) of the early 1990’s.  Apple pie with cinnamon and warm custard on the nose, followed by a palate of very delicate smoke, apple sours, some sour cherry, vanilla and lemongrass.  

Of these initial samples, the two Benrinnes showed up the best. The biggest curveball was the Ardbeg which we thought might end up somewhere in Lagavulin 16 territory but actually retains a huge amount of vanilla and green apple; a surprisingly easy dram to drink but not a ‘sherry monster’ like the others.

This range is due to spin off battings from other Scotch distilleries, including single grains (which we are personally looking forward to the most) and already has a North British, Dailuaine, two Aberlours, an Aultmore, a Glen Moray and a Tomintoul (all carrying age statements) in their stable. Obviously, coming from such a small cask, they are in 50cl bottles (the new ‘en vogue’ bottle size these days, don’t ya know) and bottled at cask strength.

   

Indie Indie Indie Part 1: The Whisky Exchange Exclusive Cask Selection

We love a good indie whisky release here at Caskstrength.net.  In fact, so keen are we on one-off interesting little gems, that they actually make up a rather large portion of our own cabinets. The issue with independent bottles is that unless you try it, you can’t quite be sure of what it is you’re gonna get. That’s the gamble.

The whole point of a proprietary bottling is consistency. When you buy a Glenfiddich 12 Year Old, you know you should be getting something very similar to the last bottle you bought. And the next bottle you buy.

Indie bottles are different, however. As the mavericks of the business, they can be totally leftfield from the norm. The Syd Barrett of bottlings: sometimes genius. Sometimes, erm, questionable.

But amid all the inconsistency that indie bottles can deliver, more often than not they uncover some real gems, as we saw recently with the liquid coming out from Cadenheads.

And it is retailers who seem to be taking a lead in either bottling their own expressions or working with other likeminded souls to release exclusive bottles of indie offerings.

A few weeks ago, The WhiskyExchange released eight new bottles; all independent bottlings, all exclusive to them. Of the eight, four are smoky, four are not. Let’s have a quick look at the latter four first:

Balmenach 1988 (25 years old), Hogshead #1132, Signatory Vintage, 55.6% abv: I think this is the first Balmenach we’ve ever reviewed on Caskstrength.net. A rich and creamy nose gives great flavours of watermelon and mint. The palate is oily and thick and gives oak spices, vanilla and tea tree oil. Takes water well to give a finish of strawberry coulis and cream.

Clynelish 1995 (17 years old), Refill Sherry Cask #12794, Signatory Vintage, 56.2% abv: The classic Clynelish nose of wax candles burning in the middle of a table where a steak dinner has just been served. This gives way to light summer fruits. On the palate, more meaty and waxy notes which are really quite delicious and provide a bold but rewarding flavour experience of plums and blackcurrants. The finish carries on in the fruity nature of the palate. Very tasty indeed.

Edradour 2006. Bottled 2013. Oloroso Cask #240. Bottled for The Whisky Exchange. 59.2% abv: A very oaky and woody nose, this is giving little more than ‘oak’ until the addition of water brings out the Oloroso notes, raspberry jam and cigar casing. The palate delivers more oak, dunnage warehouse flooring and some sulphur tones which linger into the finish, too.

Glentauchers 1997. Sherry Cask #5580, Gordon & Macphail for The Whisky Exchange. 54.3% abv: BBQ brisket, Mars Bar, chopped hazelnuts on the nose. The palate his a HUGE hit of sherry; so powerful yet with some grace and balance. But pretty much just sherry, backed with a hint of the BBQ brisket again. On the finish, coffee, coffee and more coffee. A big dram!

Of these four whiskies, the latter two were forward on the sherry front with the best of the bunch being the Clynelish which carried a great balance of flavours. A really quite fantastic dram.

On to the smoky offerings:

Ledaig 1997, Sherry Cask #465, Bottled by Gordon & Macpahil for The Whisky Exchange. 56.8% abv: Ahhh, we love a Ledaig here at Caskstrength.net and this is a great example of why. A rich nose of mince pie and smoke, sweet yet earthy. The palate gives smoked cream soda rapped with parma ham and figs and the finish... smoked brown sugar. A little dry, but aside from that a winning dram. Really very good indeed.

Kilchoman 2008. Bottled 2013. Bourbon Cask. Bottled for The Whisky Exchange. 61% abv: a whopping ABV here, I was expecting more smoke on the nose, but again this is classic Kilchoman, with smoked cheese, fresh vanilla pods and lilies on the nose, a hint of coal dust but more vanilla on the palate and more smoke an vanilla on the finish. 61%? You’d never guess it. Another brilliant, but disturbingly easy-to-drink, dram.

Caol Ila 1984 (29 Years Old), Refill Sherry Cask #2758. Signatory Vintage. 54.7% abv: Oooh, on the nose this is another corker. Rich balsamic notes mingle with air dried speck ham, cigar smoke and real ale. The palate gives real aged spirit, delicate oak balanced with smoke and cherry jam. The finish is a perfect mix of smoke and red berries. Delicious.

Laphroaig 1998 (15 Years Old), Refill Sherry Cask #700393. Signatory Vintage. 60.8% abv: Hummm... a very sweet nose, which works well with the smoke to give a Lapsang-Souchong-with-a-spoonful-of-sugar effect. The palate once again hides this massive abv with oak, varnish, antique shop, cinnamon spices and smoke. A finish of red fruits and more spice finish of this wonder.

So, that’s four fantastic peaty offerings from the good people at The Whisky Exchange. If I had to pick one... well, I’d go for the Kilchoman I think. No, the Laphroaig. No, wait... the Caol Ila! It is a very hard choice.

A nice step-change from your usual distillery bottlings, these showcase a different side of the distilleries on offer, in only a way that indie bottlers can do. Great stuff.

** A quick Amendment: The guys at TWE have informed us that the Edradour and Kilchoman bottlings are partnership releases with the distilleries, not indie releases. **

Singleton Of Dufftown - Single Malt Scotch Whisky Tailfire and Sunray

The newspapers in the UK are alive with stories of the British music scene from the mid-1990’s, when ‘Britpop’ lit up the world. British music has always been a major cultural export ever since Wings, only the band The Beatles could have been, released their debut album Wildlife in 1971. They got the ball rolling and it hasn’t stopped since...

From Punk, through to New Wave and beyond, it was through bands like Oxford’s Ride and London’s Lush that Britpop took shape, with highlights coming from Blur, Pulp, Suede, Oasis, Elastica, Ash, Supergrass, Radiohead and a few chosen others.

But, as with any cultural movement, there were a lot of people who jumped on the bandwagon, releasing music which never quite made it. Bands like Menswear, Northern Uproar, Rialto, These Animal Men, Whiteout, Sharkboy, Ultrasound, JJ72, King Adora, Seafood, The Llama Farmers, Sleeper, Marion, Heavy Stereo, Gene, Gaydad, Powder, Salad, 60ft Dolls and other acts whose CD’s and 7” releases when on to be filed under ‘indie landfill’.

The problem with these acts, the almost-rans, is that they didn’t provide any point of difference; nothing unique to make them stand out from the crowd.

The single malt whisky category is in danger of becoming like the Britpop-era music scene. At that time, you could pop into the Good Mixer pub in Camden and meet the lead singer of any band you wanted, good or bad. It was rammed with second hand clothes shop wearing indie hipsters, arguing over the merits of a cravat and brogues or tracksuit top and gazelles. Not much talk of the music was happening.

A similar situation occurs in whisky’s own ‘The Good Mixer’ today: The Whisky Exchange in London Bridge. The shelves are crammed with an ever expanding range of single malts, all vying for your attention and ‘share of throat’ as it is known in the business. But which expressions will win? Which will be the Blur and which the Marion?

Two new expressions which have recently been released by the folk over at Diageo are from the Singleton stable. Singleton is an interesting beast: in a niche of its own when it comes to the malleability of the liquid inside, having bottled single malts from Dufftown, Auchroisk, Glenn Ord and Glendullan so far.

The ‘standard’ release here in the UK is the Singleton of Dufftown 12 Year Old, a whisky which is designed to be easy to drink and doesn’t stray far from that objective. It has a 15 year old sister bottling which gives a little more depth of flavour, but doesn’t push any boundaries or ask any interesting questions.

They have now been joined by two more expression, Sunray and Tailfire (themselves sounding like Britpop almost-rans).

The Singleton of Dufftown – Sunray – NAS – 40% abv - £39.00

Nose:  A nice nose of apricot, honey, some fresh pine notes, a hint of tonic water, tinned pineapple and red apple.

Palate: A slight green veg note at first which develops into cream soda, dried apricots, peaches and pears. Not quite tropical fruit but it flirts with it. Easy and smooth.

Finish: An excellent finish of runny clear honey, more pineapple (chunks this time) and peach melba.

The Singleton of Dufftown – Tailfire – NAS – 40% abv £35.00

Nose: Much more earthy than the Sunray, this has a serried tone to it of dunnage warehouse floor and bung cloth. Fruitier than the Sunray, it has bigger elements of blackcurrant leaf, strawberry and blueberry.

Palate: A spicier palate which takes the red fruits from the nose and adds cinnamon and nutmeg. Some oak tones which add body and complexity to this palate, but do add a bitter overtone as well.

Finish: The nutmeg takes over and leaves a ‘used sherry’ impression at the end.

Overall: We both preferred Sunray, which gives a lighter, more palatable expression of the Singleton of Dufftown and, with a higher proportion of toasted ex-Bourbon casks, this way of maturation seems to be a more comfortable fit for the spirit from Dufftown. Tailfire, with a higher proportion of whisky from European oak casks, seems a little tired, a little too earthy for us. A clear winner at Caskstrength HQ was the Sunray edition. For under £40, this is actually a decent slug of single malt and, to be fair, the comparison between the two is an interesting exercise.

In the past we have discussed how we feel the Singleton of Dufftown at 12 Years Old is a little too underwhelming; an artist taking the popular bits of everyone’s songs and constructing a tune which hits the middle of target but with no personality or appeal. Coldplay, if you will.

However, these two new expressions do indeed show a different side of Dufftown’s output and the Sunray bursts through the clouds to really shine on their spirit; a good, solid release from this distillery. The Tailfire however feels like a bootlegged copy of a good album: lacking in a certain clarity. Ultimately, we are still waiting to see this distillery play live, to really excite us.

Whisky Flavour Profile: J&B Urban Honey, Ballantine's Brasil, Early Times Fire Eater

Life Imitating Art:

I’m Alan Partridge: A Room With An Alan. BBC TV, 1997.

Fictional radio DJ and TV presenter Alan Partridge meets the Head of BBC Programming, Tony Hayers to pitch ideas for some fourthcoming shows:

Alan Partridge:  ‘Shoestring’, ‘Taggart’, ‘Spender’, ‘Bergerac’, ‘Morse’. What does that say to you about regional detective series’?

Tony Hayers: There’s too many of them?

Alan: That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is, ‘people like them, let’s make some more of them’....

An alternative scene in a drinks company marketing department, c.2013:

Marketing Person 1: ‘Jim Beam Red Stag’, ‘Wild Turkey American Honey’, ‘Jack Daniel’s Honey’, ‘Dewar’s Honey’, ‘Evan Williams Honey’, ‘Bushmills Irish Honey’, ‘Fireball Cinnamon Canadian Whisky’, ‘Paddy Devil’s Apple’. What does that say to you about flavoured whiskies?

Marketing Person 2: There are too many of them?

Marketing Person 1: That’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is 'people like them, let’s make some more of them’...

And so here we are today, with a glut of flavoured whisky from both sides of the Atlantic. But what are these beasts which seem to have been unleashed on us and what are they for?

Well, the first thing to point out is that they are not ‘whisky’, something which is made clear on their labels with the use of the phrase ‘Spirit Drink’ in large letters (although on the Scotch products, the term ‘Scotch whisky’ does appear, which could lead to some light confusion for the consumer).

The reason these products, specifically the ones from Scotland, are not ‘Scotch whiskies’ is twofold: firstly, because they (more often than not) are under 40% abv, and secondly because they have been flavoured.

So what is the point of these remixed editions? Well, it certainly is not about sipping and savouring. If you want to find that, buy a ‘proper’ whisky. These products are more about making spirit drinks more accessible, hopefully in a positive ‘David Beckham-esque’ manner, not a ‘make-it-sweeter-so-teenage-drinkers-can-woolf-it-down-in-the-graveyard-after-dark’ stylee.

The versatility of whisky (and we’re talking ‘whisky’ again here now, not ‘spirit drinks’) has been focused on in a new book by the always fantastic whisky writer Dave Broom. Whisky: The Manual takes the reader on a journey of discovery, looking at different whiskies and how they work with mixers; everything from your classic Jack & Coke combo through to Macallan’s and Yamazaki 18 with coconut water, cola and green tea.

Scrabbling around the office, we managed to find a couple of the whiskies included in Broom’s book and try out his little exercises to see what whisky works with what mixer.

First up, a classic: Cutty Sark Original and Soda Water. Broom scores this a 5* (the highest rating in the book) calling it an ‘an instant, appetizing, moreish, lightly herbal drink where the crispness of the mixer plays off the sweetness, revealing perfume notes’.

This drink is a favourite in both the Ridley and Harrison households, with many a summer sundowner created with a light whisky (which Cutty is famed for) and a good slug of soda and ice. Test in the office, which was little needed to be honest, mirrored Broom’s notes, creating a vibrant and delicious drink perfect for a warm spring afternoon.

Casting the net from the other side of the boat, Broom kicks the hornets’ nest that is single malt and mixers, taking some reverenced  expressions such as The Macallan 18, Highland Park 18, Yamazaki 18, Talikser 10 and The Balvenie 12 Year Old Doublewood and trying them out with different partners.

Not all scored well (for example, the Yamazaki and Macallan 18’s were both regarded as being perfect ‘naked’ or with a drizzle of water, but not much else), where as the Bowmore 12 Years Old scored well with coconut water and the one we decided to try, Lagavulin 16 with coke, both coming in with a 5/5 score.

Lagavulin 16 with cola was a real surprise. Measured out in equal parts, the smoke kicks through the bold cola flavours and delivers something not too far off a smoky Dr. Pepper. I’d be interested to see where a cola syrup would take this (or even a cola cube in an Old Fashioned: ‘Smoke and Coke’, which sounds like a like a night out in 1980’s New York, anyone?) and how far this partnership could be pushed. Well worth a try at home.

Broom’s book is another step towards the idea of whisky (in ALL forms) as a mixer. Not to remove the halo that, say single malt Scotch has and force on a crown of thorns, whisky is just a drink and should be enjoyed. If enjoying it means mixing it, then by all means do so.

And this brings us back around to flavoured whisky: if used properly, they can provide a great entry point for the consumer into the world of whisky and a wonderful mixer to a cocktail. At their very bet, these ‘pop’ editions of whisky might even encourage their fans to seek out the real flavours behind the booze. But only if they’re good.

Of the new releases we have seen recently, few have taken well to our palate. Not for their over-sweetened ideal of what a cocktail ingredient should taste like, but their closeness to reality: how real do they taste.

One good example has been Jim Beam Red Stag, something we used a few years ago in a coffee cocktail, and it was excellent.

But recently there have been some new release, in the shape of J&B Urban Honey and Ballantine’s Brasil from Scotland and Early Times Fire Eater from the States.

Ballantine’s Brasil is bottled t 35% abv and is a Spirit Drink made from ‘Scotch whisky selectively cask steeped with Brazilian lime peel’. The result is a rather odd affair of sweetness and bitterness, delivering some oak-tones and a smoothness on the palate with a hint of lime coming through. Too much of a liqueur note about this for us, used as a mixer it added an additional layer of sweetness to most of the cocktails we tried it with. However, with soda and a lime wedge with wasn’t half bad.

Urban Honey sounds like a new album from Beyonce, but is actually the new expression from the age-old blended Scotch house J&B. The thing about this release is... it is actually really, really nice. On the nose, there is nothing but honey and whisky; no saccharine sweet notes. It doesn’t smell like a freshly cleaned diabetes ward, which a lot of these products can. The biggest surprise here is the taste, which is a brilliant balance of honey and whisky. Enough earthy tones from the oak matured spirit, this certainly has a ‘real’ feel to it. Again, this has been developed at 35% abv.

Early Times Fire Eater: this is a ‘hot cinnamon liqueur’ and is ‘a blend of fine spirits, Early Times whisky and cinnamon flavours’. Also at 35% abv, this is very sweet and full of cinnamon (as you would expect). I’m not quite sure what the point of this is or where one would best use it. Aside from the extreme sweetness, the flavour is good and it tastes real. I think this could work well with Ginger Beer... something for the backburner (if you excuse the pun), the results of which I’ll let you know about at some stage.

So there you have it, as the doors of ‘Club Whisky’ swing wider by the day, with grain whisky, flavoured offerings and books like Whisky: The Manual, opening the appeal of our beloved spirit to an even wider audience, we are seeing the dusty old members’ club become more of a drinking democracy. In the words of Woolf Smith: Power To The People.

Long Live The Whisky Popular Front.