Davetakes a look at the United Kingdom market and finds himself wondering if the glass is
half full or half empty
The middle of January, when this is being hacked out, is apparently the most depressing time of the year. While at no point wishing to conform to stereotypical behaviour patterns, I can see why. The bills are coming, the ground is sodden with endless rain, the days are still reluctant to lengthen, r...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 70 published on
In the second of three features asking ‘what is Irish whiskey? ’Dave Broom gets caught up in Cooley
Now, mind your head!” Just as well he said that. The roof beams could have delivered a nasty crack to the skull as we wander further into the gloom, the sonorous voice of the guide almost drowned out by the burbling of the steam engine which is now giving it mighty licks.
We emerge, blinking slight...
Irish Whiskey
from Issue 70 published on
Dave visits the new rebuilt Hanyu distillery and takes in some Japanese culture.
“Would you like some octopus balls?” “Never knew they had any...but yes, thank you.” As ever, Japan had caught me unaware. Maybe I was just distracted by the explosions which intially I believed might have been part of the Japan Defence Force’s much-publicised show of strength against perceived Nort...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 69 published on 18/01/2008
In part one of a three part series, Dave Broom looks at the changing face of Irish whiskey.
It used to be so simple. Irish whiskey, so we were told, was an unpeated, tripledistilled spirit. During the years, however, these certainties have been challenged. Today, Ireland has three distillers. All make Irish whiskey, yet they all do it differently. Blends, triple-distilled single malt, doub...
Irish Whiskey
from Issue 69 published on 18/01/2008
Dave has an epiphany while lion watching in the bush.
The audience said “Awwwwww”. It was a first, I’ll give you that. In this game you learn to cope with most eventualities.
Hecklers, fire alarms, technical breakdowns, singing (thanks Glasgow), snoring (thanks Tokyo), snogging (hello Moscow) even having your whisky being hijacked (thanks Joburg), but...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 68 published on 07/12/2007
Dave Broom gives us his tips on places to go when in Japan.
The rise of Japanese whisky has been one of the most heartening aspects of the global whisky boom.
Here’s the second part to our guide bars and retail outlets to make the planning a little easier. These days most whisky lovers will have tried at least one example and whisky tourists are beginning t...
Visitor Guides
from Issue 68 published on 07/12/2007
Whisky Live Paris rekindles some fond memories for Dave,and sparks a few thoughts about pricing
Eating spaghetti with old whores in the cheapest restaurant we could find. Packing in sufficient fuel for the next round of wandering. Searching for a leather jacket in the flea market, scrawling orders on the table cloths, trying to be blasé about the great dazzling expanse of Paris. Carousing thro...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 67 published on 01/11/2007
Dave Broom concludes his two part investigation into the impact of climate change on whisky
production by examining how the industry is meeting the challenge.
As last month’s issue showed, the whisky industry will be directly affected by the consequences of climate change. Shifting weather patterns, drought, sea level rise, sea temperature change, coastal erosion, flood plain damage, increased incidence of flooding, all will have an impact on industry inf...
Whisky Focus
from Issue 67 published on 01/11/2007
Dave Broom gives us his tips on places to go when in Japan.
The rise of Japanese whisky has been one of the most heartening aspects of the global whisky boom.These days most whisky lovers will have tried at least one example and whisky tourists are beginning to make the long pilgrimage to the country.
Whether you are visiting Japan on business, for sport or...
Visitor Guides
from Issue 67 published on 01/11/2007
Dave lets us in on part of his tasting regime
His voice is slightly awry. Strong, yet fragile, it possesses a flawed purity, giving it a welcome honesty. It allows the words to come across more as timeless narratives, nakedly emotional, binding myth and reality. Alasdair Roberts makes the old ballads sound new and therefore stranger than they a...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 66 published on 25/09/2007
In the two-part investigation Dave Broom examines the potential effects of global warming on the scotch whisky industry. Part 1 looks at the potential scenario for whisky production by the end of the century
The world is heating up. Carbon levels in the atmosphere are now higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years.
The 20th century was the warmest in the last millennium and the 1990s was the warmest decade for the previous 100 years. In the United Kingdom, we witnessed the warmest weather since...
Whisky concerns
from Issue 66 published on 25/09/2007
Dave delves into a glamourous world of Highland gatherings,fast drams and racy women
She sits, swathed in silks, crosslegged showing a surprising amount of leg. Her hair is styled in what I believe is called a pixie cut. In her lips is a cigarette holder which looks at least 18 inches long. Awisp of smoke wreathes around her tantalising smile. A saucy minx is Mademoiselle Spinelly. ...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 65 published on 20/07/2007
The recent World Whiskies Conference had its share of twists and turns.Dave gives his take on some of them
It only took five minutes into Vijay Rekhi’s speech for the ghost of old Karl to start whispering in my ear. You know, the old adage that history repeats itself first as tragedy the second as farce. I couldn’t quite work out however if this occasion represented the first or second repetition. That t...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 64 published on 01/06/2007
Dave Broom looks at the story behind this new Japanese whisky company which is upping the anté
There was a gasp around the room. It didn’t dawn on me immediately why the announcement of the World Whiskies Awards Best Japanese whisky under 12 years was so shocking. Memo to self: when in Japan stop coming at things from a Scottish perspective. In Scotch, and bourbon for that matter, awards are ...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 64 published on 01/06/2007
Are we coming in to another golden period for whisky – Dave gives his views on the latest news
I used to stand, cold and shivering, in Hope Street (never was a thoroughfare so appropriately named) waiting for the No.3 bus to carry me home. Often this would be so prolonged that I’d seek refuge in Eadie Cairn’s pub next to the stop. Positioning myself by the window with an Auchentoshan (Eadie o...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 63 published on 20/04/2007
Dave uses four whiskies,the Washington cityscape and some stunning photography on a Celtic heritage trail
“Ah want to thank you, sir.” He has clearly enjoyed himself. “Ah never enjoyed Scotch before tonight - very much a bourbon man [‘brrrbn’ was barked in the correct American fashion] – but now ah do; and sir ah would like to offer you a job.” This takes me aback somewhat.
Few people have ever offered...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 62 published on 01/03/2007
Dave finds whisky and hip hop go well together in the Rainbow Nation
It has been a year of confounded expectations, (this, it must be said at the outset, is A Good Thing). Case in point.
Benriach, which came out of nowhere with a series of remarkable whiskies. The result was a complete reappraisal of a distillery I’d overlooked (or, on the strength of the old Seagra...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 61 published on 19/01/2007
Dave gives us his thoughts on the latest crop of new whisky
Another month, another ‘innovation’. Whose turn is it?
William Grant! Step up please and amaze us with the new thing you’ve done to whisky. I see... using roasted barley in the mash for a new limited edition 14yo Balvenie. Michty me! Whatever next? You may accuse me of undue cynicism, but you tend ...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 60 published on 10/11/2006
Dave takes us on a walk through the Glasgow
of his childhood
Where is home? The place of your birth, the place you live in now, somewhere else where you feel the most content? When people ask me where I am from, I say Glasgow even though I’ve been clinging to the south coast of England for 17 years. Glasgow is home.
Yet any time I return it is not a home I r...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 59 published on 11/10/2006
Dave Broom gives us his guide to staying ,eating,drinking and visiting in Japan
Japan is disorienting, bewildering, exciting and, occasionally, a little alarming. No matter how many times you visit the country, no matter how much you think you can more or less understand how it works, you can be guaranteed that it will throw you some sort of cultural curveball.
It could be foo...
Visitor Guides
from Issue 59 published on 11/10/2006
Dave finds a high flying attitude to malt whisky at altitude
He was about to walk past me when he paused and offered me some bread. “And may I have some wine as well please?” I asked. He was holding the very bottle I wanted to try.
“This is from the Languedoc, sir,” he replied.
“Yes, thank you, I’d like to try it if I may.” “I have a Bordeaux sir. It is th...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 58 published on 30/08/2006
Dave Broom is writing a book on distillery-related walks. Here he confronts Goat Fell
Arran is a compression of an already compressed country.
Scotland distilled.
Its northern hills are the equal of the best of the Highlands, its southern grasslands as gentle as those of the Ayrshire countryside only a few miles away across the Firth of Clyde.
This day was to take in both. Euan Mi...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 58 published on 30/08/2006
Dave enjoys a spot of midsummer madness in Orkney
It helps to have luminous balls. This is as true a maxim as any I’ve heard tonight. Imagine the uses! Life would somehow be so much easier, especially if one is playing golf at midnight... as I was.
Before you jump to conclusions, despite my Scottish heritage, I am not a golfer ~ or as now been pro...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
For this issue’s round table we hand over to Dave Broom, who recently hosted a live debate in Japan with representatives of three leading companies. This is his summary of that event
You probably know that the Japanese whisky industry is somewhat different to the Scottish. Given a business culture which is highly focused on loyalty to the company there is little chance of Japanese distillers exchanging stock, staff and information as their colleagues in Scotland do.
This autono...
Whisky debate
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
Gotemba Distillery enjoys special status in Japan. Dave Broom visited it
It is hard for any westerner to understand the role which Mount Fuji has within the Japanese psyche.
The highest mountain in Japan, it is the archetype of what a mountain should look like, rising from a plain in a perfect cone. Yet Fuji is about more than just aesthetics. It is a sacred mountain, ...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
The small illegal stills of Speyside have been romanticised time and time again. But what was distilling really like way back when? Jim Cryle of Chivas Brothers decided to find out, and Dave Broom joined him
The thin trail of smoke was the giveaway. No matter how well the bothy was hidden, there was always the smoke. He’d heard of some who had built chimneys to draw it some distance from the bothy, others led it through peat stacks, or, like him, filtered it with the smoke from the farm itself.
Smith w...
Whisky Experience
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
Dave Broom has a hairy experience in Moscow
Tatiana looked concerned. That in itself was not surprising. She had a spirits competition to organise, foreign guests to herd, dinners to arrange, tastings to mastermind. But that wasn’t what was on her mind.
“Did you hear about the letter?” she said.
“Any particular letter?” I replied.
“About y...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 56 published on 01/06/2006
Dave Broom on why whisky needs to broaden out
Verviers Live consisted of an extraordinary journey through malt whisky’s upper reaches: a 1966 Bowmore which sat delicately on the tongue and slowly expanded across the palate; a 1959 Highland Park that spoke of the last gasp before whisky became lighter; and a superlative Springbank which had both...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 55 published on 14/04/2006
Whisky Live Tokyo has just taken place.Dave Broom tries to make sense of it all
Day 1: Being allowed into Japan isn’t like gaining entry to the United States where you get the notion that there’s an orange jump suit in your size under the immigration officer’s desk. A quick change at the hotel as I’ve to go straight to Inter FM’s studio. The phone rings.
“Ready?”
“Sure am.”
...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 54 published on 03/03/2006
South Africa provided Dave Broom with a whisky magic triple whammy
It is hard to define what constitutes a great whisky moment.
They just sneak up on you. Suddenly the drink in your hand isn’t just an accompaniment, rather everything flows from it. It is place, people, mood and liquid in harmony.
Not surprisingly, they tend not to come along very often, which sho...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 53 published on 12/01/2006
Louisville,home of bourbon,is under threat from the globalisers. Its quirkiness needs defending
Every time I go to Louisville (which isn’t frequently enough now that the editor has discovered bourbon) I try and go to EarX-tacy, one of the finest record stores in the world.
There’s always some new find. This time it was a black tshirt with the legend: ‘Keep Louisville Weird’.
Amusing enough I...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 52 published on 30/11/2005
Compass Box's new product is a cracker. But will it upset the traditionalists?
A few weeks back, John Glaser took me on an oak hunt round the more obscure parts of Kew Gardens. It rained. Hard. Like a good Boy Scout he was prepared and put on an emergency poncho.
The walk in the woods was to talk about his latest baby, The Spice Tree, a vatted malt, part of which has been giv...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 51 published on 07/10/2005
Karuizawa is one of Japan’s smaller and lesser known distilleries.But as Dave Broom found out, it’s producing some fine and unusual whisky
The landscape is strobing past the train window. The concrete of the city has been left behind and we’re climbing.
House:tunnel:field:tunnel:orchard:tunnel: cliff:tunnel:bridge:tunnel:river:space.The sudden change from cluttered urban plain to mountain takes you by surprise. Part of this is down to...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 51 published on 07/10/2005
Talisker is an icon malt and it's celebrating its 175th anniversary. Dave Broom takes a walk on its wildside.
The Wild Spirit.
Saturday night on Scotland’s utter northwest coast. I was staying with a friend who was working on a fish farm and we were heading to a ceilidh in Ullapool.
Fortification for the journey came in the form of my first-ever malt. The first swig blasted strange new flavours of smoke a...
Whisky Trends
from Issue 51 published on 07/10/2005
Dave Broom on the demise and eventual death of Allied Domecq
So, farewell Allied-Domecq.
You were the No.2 drinks firm in the world.
But no-one knew what brands you had.
Someone said to me you didn’t either.
So you didn’t fare as well as you could have.
[with apologies to E. J. Thribb]
As far as these things go, the take-over of Allied by Pernod- Ricard (Ch...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 50 published on 09/09/2005
Yellow submarines, talking horses – par for the course really
It had, apparently, broken loose from a naval vessel and was drifting aimlessly in the sea off the Mull of Oa. It was easily enough spotted though, the fishermen said, being bright yellow and all that. They’d hauled it back to Port Ellen alerting their friends by singing a highly appropriate Beatles...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 49 published on 15/07/2005
Dave Broomon the worrying trend towards ruthless discounting
On occasion, I have been known to hum a ditty by Bertolt Brecht and Hans Eisler called Supply and Demand*. Acharacter, just known as ‘the businessman’, sings about rice and how he can maximise the return on his investment. The chorus goes:
“What is rice, actually?
Do I know, do you know
what’s this...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 48 published on 10/06/2005
Allied is rolling out its quarter cask range after the success of Laphroaig Quarter Cask. Dave Broom was given a sneak preview
THE LAST TIME Whisky Magazine encountered Allied Domecq’s master blender Robert Hicks he was still laughing at the ridiculousness of the experiment – and the fact that his hunch had paid off.
The Laphroaig Quarter Cask is now a cult. But even on that day there were hints that there were other thing...
Whisky Trends
from Issue 48 published on 10/06/2005
Dave Broom considers the case for clear, characterless, grappa-like whisky...
My three and a half year old won’t eat chicken... or pasta. To be honest, she won’t eat lots of things. “I don’t like it,” she says, to which we reply “but if you’ve never tried it how do you know?”
This argument carries no clout. She turns up her nose, pushes the plate away and asks for chips. Whi...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 47 published on 05/04/2005
Tokyo you expect the unexpected - most of the time
Scene: A shopping mall somewhere in Tokyo. Time: Night. The stores are filled with gangs of Japanese teenagers. Each store is playing a different soundtrack. Neon, eye-aching bright lights, the highpitched bleeping of multiple texting.
In to this walks the cream of Scottish distilling, a 20- strong...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 46 published on 10/3/2005
The basic process of making whisky is similar throughout the world. But there are always some who have to be different. Dave Broom meets the misfits
There is something about the misfit which attracts me. Iconoclasts, outsiders, people who challenge the norm, look at it from an original, if skewed, perspective and who by doing so, make the field wider.
This questioning nature is at the heart of distillation. It’s part of a whisky distiller’s job...
Whisky Interview
from Issue 46 published on 10/3/2005
Is the globalisation of drinks causing a rejection of regionalised products?
At least George Dubouef had managed to do what Napoleon so famously failed to do – get through to St Petersburg. A Beaujolais Nouveau party? In Russia? Are you mad? I might be. It was hard to tell. I was on my second bottle by then and had already come to realise that in this magnificent city you sh...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 45 published on 21/1/2005
A writer in every port or a port in every writer? Davie Broom visits Cape Town
Apparently the surf was sick, which means good in the same way as bad used to. So there you go. Travel broadens one’s linguistic skills as well as one’s mind.
I gamely resisted plunging in – for starters the ocean’s temperature was the same as the Clyde and anyway glasses and surf are a bad combina...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 44 published on 25/11/2004
Being Scottish isn't being depressed, you know. Not all the time, anyway
There was an intriguing story on the radio recently. A man claiming to be suffering from depression had been baffling psychiatrists, none of whom could work out what the root cause of his condition was. Eventually one shrink arrived at the correct diagnosis.
“You’re not depressed,” he opined. “You’...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 43 published on 23/10/2004
Dave Broom travels to the Sendai Distillery near Tokyo
We all have our obsessions. Some have more than others. One of mine is always carrying a number of books, no matter how short the trip. They’re not necessarily read, but they act as a sort of comfort blanket.
The selection usually comprises a novel, some non-fiction and a volume of poetry. Somethin...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 43 published on 23/10/2004
Dave Broom launches the resistance against the whisky terroiristes
Apparently supermarket lighting is engineered to make us blink less frequently, inducing a trancelike state which makes us more amenable to
suggestions. I suspect a similar thing goes on in airports.
Being in transit makes you do one of three things: sit in silence in the bar, fall asleep or start ...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 42 published on 3/9/2004
Dave ‘The Brush’ Broom on potting, pirates and promotions
If the truth be told, I’ve never been particularly good at snooker. The myopia doesn’t help. Neither does the fact that I usually only end up playing it at the end of what has already been an extremely long night.
Who am I kidding? It’s down to a total inability to work out the angles.
I was never...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 41 published on 16/7/2004
At Yamazaki the distillery and church stand next to each other in harmony. Dave Broom witnesses whisky making at its noblest
Jet-lag does weird things to the brain, makes it seem as if you are existing in some dream state.
Though you’re screaming with tiredness, you’re wide awake. The mind is subtly dislocated from reality, making it seem as though you have slipped into a familiar but totally alien world.
I felt like a ...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 41 published on 16/7/2004
Dave Broom gets all nostalgic while visiting the gents
So there I was in Rothesay, gazing at Zavaroni’s (as in Lena) fish and chip bar. For those of you who haven’t heard of the town, Rothesay is the capital of the Isle of Bute, though like most Glaswegians it was years before I discovered that it wasn’t the name of the whole island. As far as we were c...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 40 published on 4/6/2004
Dave Broom talks music with seminal 60s band and whisky drinkers, Love.
Brighton 2003. We don’t quite know what to expect. I mean, Arthur Lee and Love are about to play Forever Changes, in total, with horns and strings, something which is scarcely believable for those of us who take the view that Love’s third album is one of the great records, a touchstone of west-coast...
Whisky Trends
from Issue 40 published on 4/6/2004
Dave Broom wryly observes the surreal lovefest that Whisky Live has become
Depressed? Down in the dumps? Visit Whisky Live and bring a smile back to your face! For sheer entertainment it is the best show in town,
attracting such a diverse bunch of people.
There were hippies (who else would be worshipping the roots of a tree while wrapping his arms round its trunk? stunt m...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 39 published on 1/5/2004
Dave Broomon why all that’ s old isn’t necessarily good
A trifling 420 million years ago a millipede crawled out of the North Sea onto Stonehaven beach. No doubt its poor wee teeth were chattering. Have you ever had a dip in the North Sea?
As far as I can work out, the discovery of its fossilised remains – the oldest remains of any air breathing animal ...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 38 published on 7/4/2004
Dave Broom on good times and bad times with whisky
Mixed emotions on the way to Tokyo this year. I’d just heard of Elliot Smith’s suicide and one of the lines in his song Miss Misery: “I’ll fake it
through the day with some help from Johnnie Walker Red” kept looping through my mind.
To be honest it had been nagging away for some months as part of m...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 37 published on 23/2/2004
Dave Broom launches a campaign for clear labelling
Initially, the trade appeared to take the Cardhu/dow switch with remarkable equanimity. Maybe it just took a long time for the penny to drop, for now we have “Outraged of Speyside” protesting long and loud about the whole affair.
The British nationals have even got hold of it. Knew fine well that ...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 36 published on 28/12/2003
Dave Broomdiscovers life on the ocean waves
That’s more like it.” Had I really said that? The bosun’s jaw dropped.
It takes a lot to render him speechless. Then he grinned – a more common occurrence. “Did you hear that? We have a convert.”
I’d blurted it out unconsciously, but had meant it. We were underway, the Kings of Leon were on the st...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 35 published on 17/11/2003
As crazy ideas go, pillaging malts on Islay for charity is pretty crazy. Dave Broomtracked down some of the guilty parties and asked them exactly what they thought they were doing
He remembered the barrel roll. The laughs they’d had, the too-late night on Jura and the push up the hill at Port Askaig the next morning with thick ringing heads. The way the island came together, the distilleries working together, the roar of the staves on the road. Something similar was needed.
...
Whisky Events
from Issue 35 published on 17/11/2003
Frank McHardy has given his life to whisky. He’s now installed in the newest distillery in Scotland and he’s a proud man. Dave Broom spoke to him about his exceptional career
It’s hard to recall what it once looked like. The last time. When it was just a vast empty barn with no windows and a thick layer of pigeon guano.
Now we walk on a clanging metal floor hanging high above the floor heading towards the pair of stills framed at the end of this mezzanine platform.
He ...
Whisky Profile
from Issue 35 published on 17/11/2003
Innovation in the world of whisky? It’s all over the place, argues Dave Broom
There I was, reclining in my whisky chair squirting a dram into my tumbler filled with ‘Whisky Rocks’, musing on what a remarkably innovative
industry this has become. An entire subset of firms has sprung up offering novel and even useful accessories.
It started with glasses, then there were sporra...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 34 published on 5/10/2003
Dave Broomtries to discover the secret of Nikka by visiting its North Japanese Yoichi distillery
There’s a difference to the light. Clear, sharp. The sky is blue but it is a chill blue. The trees on the roadside hills are thin-trunked, their ranches making fine tracings on the sky.
The ground seems thin. There are spruce and fir covered mountains in the distance, and a cold sea beside us as we...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 34 published on 5/10/2003
In the latest in an occasional series of matching whisky with food, Dave Broom compares and contrasts some sushi-whisky combinations
Scene I
An almighty shout had stopped us in our tracks. None of the diners seemed at all fazed by the entire staff of the restaurant stopping work to
bellow at a group of people walking through the door.
As we were to find out, this was perfectly normal behaviour at Nobu. Everyone is greeted like t...
Whisky and Food
from Issue 34 published on 5/10/2003
When is a Cardhu not a Cardhu? Dave Broom investigates
Say you have the fastest-growing single malt in the world, but that distillery is at full capacity. How do you continue to increase the brand’s sales and not change its age statement?
That’s the dilemma faced by Diageo with Cardhu. It could have built a new still house, but would still have needed ...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 33 published on 25/9/2003
Dave Broomembraces a rock ’n’ roll lifestyle in Speyside’s hippest town
Things were going well. The VIP room was suitably dim – indeed it seemed to be suffused with that strange orange light last seen in the freak-out sections of 1960s films.
I was holding, pinkie raised, a glass of Chivas Manhattan (25ml Chivas Regal 12-year-old, 12.5ml each of dry and sweet vermouth,...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 32 published on 13/7/2003
Dave Broomconsiders a request to define how long a ‘long’ finish is
Tell me,” he said, looking at me gravely. “How long is a long finish?” I must have looked bemused. This isn’t unusual. He tried again. “How many seconds is a long finish?” There was a slight tone of irritation in his voice. I laughed, thinking that this was quite a witty thing to say. He looked at m...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 31 published on 9/6/2003
Dave Broom considers what kind of innovation is good for whisky
The terror of the blank page has gripped me. That’s the trouble with new editors. They always crack the whip in their first few issues and put we poor hacks under ridiculous pressure over such irrelevancies as deadlines. I can’t work under these conditions, so I grab a chunky tumbler, some ice and p...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 30 published on 7/4/2003
Tequila, Italian death drinks, replica pubs and bad country and western …
Dave Broom discovers the surreal side of Japan
Do you eat many potatoes in Scotlando?” As a conversation opener it was up there with the very best. The fact that it came from a geiko who had just christened me Antonio and was now ordering a round of tequilas just elevated everything to new surreal heights. To cap it all, the soundtrack to this ...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 29 published on 24/3/2003
Dave Broom considers some unprecedented parallels between Scotland and Jamaica, and how drink is the key to exploring new cultures
The still bore the name Forsyth’s. Rain was falling on the stillhouse roof. Business as usual. Well, not quite. The rain was warm; and the racket it was making on the corrugated iron roof was rendering any conversation impossible. The distiller and I smiled at each other and gestured. I pointed to t...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 28 published on 16/1/2003
Dave Broom exposes the shady side of the antique, collectable whisky market
It was over two years ago when the rumours began that slightly dubious bottles of old whiskies were beginning to appear at auction and were being offered to private collectors. These claims weren’t being made by one individual but by many, unconnected people. Archivists,
ex-industry executives, reta...
Whisky Fakes
from Issue 28 published on 16/1/2003
Dave Broom considers the reasons for whisky's lack of popularity among young people in norhern Europe, and what should be done about it
It was in Jerez where it was brought home to me. We’d been out for a meal and a few bottles of fino had been dispatched, leading us on to a nightcap … or three, which is how I came to be standing in a bar talking to a girl from Logroño about the difference between northern and
southern cultures. Thi...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 27 published on 16/11/2002
Dave Broom and company survived a hike up the Paps of Jra to tell the tale. Just
Sheltering from the rain and the wind in the doorway at 7am, I was already wondering if this was such a great idea. The storm had been blowing for most of the previous two days, the wind had groaned against the house for most of the night, waves were being blasted across the
Port Charlotte pier, yet...
Whisky Travel
from Issue 27 published on 16/11/2002
Dave Broom speculate on the fate of the smaller whisky brands faced with today's globalised marketplace
The whisky industry is always rife with rumour, most of which is to be disbelieved. After a few drams, two and two often makes 25. Rival
firms are in regular contact due to blending requirements, and just because two people lunch together, it doesn’t mean an evil plan is being hatched. That said, th...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 26 published on 16/10/2002
Dave Broom reports on the challenges facing a determined new breed of independent bottle-distillers
Question: What do you buy the independent bottler who has it all? Answer? A distillery. Signatory’s recent acquisition of Edradour is the latest
in a series of purchases by independent bottlers. Gordon & MacPhail had Benromach, Murray McDavid snapped up Bruichladdich, while Springbank – always a fir...
Independent Bottlers
from Issue 26 published on 16/10/2002
Dave Broom talks to Davied Stewar, the unassuming yet innovative force shaping the Wiliam Grant's portfolio, and long-term colleague, Whisky Records controller Eric Robertson
Glasgow in the early ‘60s. An industrial city, its buildings soiled by the grime from the chimneys, a city with starlings blackening its skies every dusk, a place where ships still crowded the Clyde, unloading cargoes, taking on passengers, being built. Acity of slums and genteel suburbs, of parks a...
Whisky Hero
from Issue 26 published on 16/10/2002
Dave Broom takes a deep breath and plunges headlong into the wonders of Islay
If you stand long enough in an Islay bar the whole world will eventually come and stand next to you. The thought strikes me one night (or was it one week) at the Lochindaal Hotel. Archie McAllister’s band is playing away. His fiddling was impressive enough earlier at the Bruichladdich open day when ...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 25 published on 16/8/2002
Dave Broom sticks up for the overlooked 'oddball' of the whisky world, with some expert help
It was halfway through the tasting for the last issue that it struck me that no-one really understands what a vatted malt is: it’s the poor relation of the whisky industry, not quite a blend, not quite a malt either. Vatted malts are so … marginal. The idea – a ‘blend’ of single malts – is simple en...
Vatted malts
from Issue 25 published on 16/8/2002
Dave Broom talks to John Glaser, the man exploring the boundaries of whisky
There's three things I look for when I make my whiskies," John Glaser is saying to me. "Flavour, creativity and pleasure: by which I mean moreishness and drinkability." There's 10 glasses in a circle between us precariously balanced on a table consisting of two boxes of Asyla and the end of an old c...
Whisky Interview
from Issue 25 published on 16/8/2002
Drink writer of the year Dave Broom investigates what exactly makes up a blend- and how blenders are steering away from old-school terminology to describe their art
It all started at a distillery (names don’t really matter here, as we will see). A discussion that was meant to be about whether we can talk terroir in whisky had, in the way of these things, ended up with a discussion of how important specific malts are to certain blends.
God, I have an exciting ...
Whisky Production
from Issue 24 published on 16/7/2002
Dave Broom decides it’s high time for Inver House Distillers to spill the beans
When you think of whisky distilling, Airdrie doesn’t spring to mind.
Situated in the industrial belt that runs between between Glasgow and Edinburgh it’s a tough, working class town which has struggled ever since Scotland’s industrial base was decimated. Ships are no longer built on the Clyde, the ...
Whisky Production
from Issue 23 published on 16/6/2002
Dave Broom joins the rank and file as a late, late discussion reveals hidden treasures about life, the universe and where to find Iggy pop chez Broom
One of the hazards of this job is waking up in the morning to find a scrap of paper – sometimes it’s a napkin, occasionally a beer mat – next to the bed with vaguely familiar writing on it. Somewhere in the fugged up recesses of memory is the recollection of that last conversation the night before,...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 21 published on 16/2/2002
Dave Broom takes you through the possible pitfalls, the complications and the cons of many a whisky lover's dream- buying a cask
At one time, most distilleries offered private customers the chance to own a cask of whisky. It was a link with whisky’s origins as a spirit made by farmers for their local communities. These days the private casks may be few and far between, but there is still considerable demand. Let’s face it, o...
Buying a cask
from Issue 21 published on 16/2/2002
Dave Broom mulls over recent world events, the stereotypes that influence first impressions and the ties that bind us all. The world to rights over a glass....
Even now it’s like a dream, the feeling you’ve been sucked into a film set. Then the papers come and reality thunders in. They reinforce the old saying that one of the first victims of war is truth. The second is the simplistic demonisation of the enemy, in this case anyone who dissents or belongs t...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 20 published on 16/12/2001
Dave Broom considers the merits of the Flying Lure when fishing for bass and one-dimensional, ole-fashioned whisky advertising
...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 19 published on 16/11/2001
"It's only through flavour that we'll understand whisky and maybe it's only by walking the country that we'll understand flavour," says Dave Broom after climbing Ben Rinnes and Lochnagar with distinguished company
Those moments of un-thinking bravado happen to us all. A year or so ago I was sitting with Alan Winchester in his leather-bound office at Aberlour talking casually about hill walking when he said: “I’ve always wanted to write about the great hills you can climb from distilleries.”
“Okay,” say I tak...
Whisky walks
from Issue 19 published on 16/11/2001
Dave Broom considers why Scotch has become the chosen tipple for British soap opera characters hell-bent on self-destruction
Admission: I love soaps. I pretend it’s because I like the serious examination of the major themes of human existence, but really I’m just a shallow old gossip eavesdropping on other people’s lives.
I love these self-contained universes. The fact that no-one buys wine from an off-licence but always...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 17 published on 16/7/2001
Dave Broom follows JBB’s Richard Paterson on a typical working day and learns much about blending, showbiz and living life at full pelt
It’s 7.30am and I’m heading into the centre of Glasgow, towards JBB’s offices which are close enough to my old school to cause a nervy shudder. The modern building sits on the cusp between old and new Glasgow, sandwiched between the motorway and Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s finest church. Glasgow’s a...
Whisky Interview
from Issue 17 published on 16/7/2001
Dave Broom considers the implications of the industry's dog-eat-dog corporate strategy upon whisky's future
Getting out of drinks in favour of showbiz and sewage (now there’s a natural synergy) has allowed Pernod Ricard to become the third biggest whisky firm, while Diageo (which took the wine side) just keeps expanding like the drinks industry equivalent of Monty Python’s Mr Creosote.
Is it good news fo...
A dram with Dave Broom
from Issue 16 published on 16/6/2001
Dave Broom catches up with Jim Mcewan, the country-hopping Brand Ambassador whose life is dedicated to whisky and telling the world about the people who spent their working lives making it.
It all began in 1990 on the back of a banana. There was an altogether weird malt whisky seminar at Bowmore in which retailers, writers and producers attempted to thrash out a workable plan for communicating about whisky. After a few drams, the option of being towed around the loch on the back of an ...
Whisky Interview
from Issue 13 published on 16/12/2000
Dave Broom visits Aberlour Distillery, built in a magical location that's home to some of the most knowledgable whisky folk in the world.
Aberlour Distillery’s colourful history began in 1826 when it was built by the laird of Aberlour. He was the very man who gave John Smith, Glenlivet’s founder, the pair of pistols used to great effect when repelling disgruntled smugglers. The distillery then passed through a number of hands, as dist...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 13 published on 16/12/2000
Dave Broom visits Orkney, the home of Highland Park, and discovers that there is more to this timeless island than exceptional whisky
Orkney is mystical and beautiful. Made up of distinctive flat discs of green, the islands sit in a watery silver light to form a northern floating world - a magical place where the past almost encroaches on the present.
It is simultaneously familiar and strange: you can stand at a Neolithic burial ...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 12 published on 16/11/2000
What makes Lagavulin great? Dave Broom goes in search of answers at the home of one the world's most elusive malts.
The first sight you get of Lagavulin from the rolling road from Port Ellen is of a place which looks more like an austere, whitewashed Scottish baronial castle than a distillery; the sort that the writer R.L.Stevenson would have one of his heroes face some dreadful peril in.
There is something eni...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 11 published on 16/9/2000
The spirit of innovation has always been a part of distilling at Glenlivet. Dave Broom charts ahistory shot through with passion, rebellion and imagination.
And in the Highlands the A939, Cockbridge to Tomintoul, is blocked. This was the way that the onset of winter was traditionally announced in Scotland.
Travel this road and you can see why this would be the first place to be snowbound. The pine forests and fast running waters of gentle Deeside have...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 10 published on 16/6/2000
Whisky is rock's decadent badge of credibility. Dave Broom rhapsodises about the bohemians whose primal screams reveal an inspired but tortured relationship with the bottle.
We’re at a party following a Primal Scream gig in Brighton. A friend presents guitarist Robert Young with a token of his appreciation, a 40oz bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Robert proceeds to spend the rest of the evening/morning dispensing huge draughts from his bottle to anyone foolish enough to empty t...
Whisky and Music
from Issue 9 published on 16/4/2000
Dave Broom retraces an old smuggling trail and discovers why so many brigands got away with pedalling their illicit hooch.
I once killed a horse with whisky.” It was the casual way that John Christie, former blacksmith of Glenlivet, dropped this nugget of information into the conversation that made it so disturbing. The fact that he was eyeing up Starsky and Katie our two Highland ponies while divulging it just heighten...
Smuggling
from Issue 7 published on 16/12/1999
The Big Apple has some star whisky bars as tried and tasted by Dave Broom
Not surprisingly, rock singer Jim Morrison’s refrain: "Show me the way to the next whisky bar" kept raging in my head as I tramped the streets of New York searching for that very thing. Actually, it's a ridiculously
easy task.
Trying to find the best whisky bars in Kabul would be a test, but New Y...
Great whisky bars
from Issue 6 published on 16/10/1999
Making whisky is all about rolling up your sleeves and getting down among the peat as Dave Broom found out at Bowmore distillery
6 o'clock in the morning! God knows when I last went to work at the same time as the sparrows are breaking wind in the trees. Still, whisky doesn't wait for lazy journalists, so it was down the road into a bright Bowmore dawn.
I've been round my fair share of distilleries, seen their workings and ...
Distillery Focus
from Issue 6 published on 16/10/1999
Sixty per cent of the flavour of malt whisky comes from the wood in which it is aged, says Dave Broom-but what does American oak do that European oak doesn't? And what real effects does a fino cask have?
Virtually every malt distiller, these days, sends some whisky to finishing school. This takes the form of giving it a final polish in barrels made of a particular sort of wood. The influence of these different types of wood on a malt’s flavour is a recognized fact; but it wasn’t always so. For centu...
Whisky Production
from Issue 2 published on 16/3/1999
The character of Speyside malts has been forged by geography and geology. Dave Broom looks at how remote glens and freezing water combined to produce consistent quality moonshine.
Speyside is familiar territory. The names of the distilleries trip off the tongue with ease; we think of Dufftown, Rothes and Keith as if they were just up the road. The mind’s image is one not just of countryside, but of familiar, cosy countryside, within easy reach. Yet as anyone who has driven no...
Whisky Production
from Issue 1 published on 12/1/1999
