For most of us, so-called premium whiskies remain firmly in the realms of fantasy, whisky jewels to be enjoyed vicariously through shop brochures, product images and tasting notes. But who buys these bottles, and who, if anyone, actually drinks them? Richard Jones finds out more.
It was perhaps an apocryphal tale, a mythical story handed down between generations of Oddbins store staff. The kind of thing that would happily wile away a quiet Monday morning or, on occasion, provide a source of comfort in the face of dreary wages and the daily working hours.
Around the turn of ...
Whisky issues
from Issue 68 published on 07/12/2007
Can the shape and quality of the glass really make a difference to the enjoyment of whisky? And will whisky
follow the example of the wine industry with increasing numbers of glasses designed to complement different
styles of dram? Richard Jones reports.
If you accosted a number of random strangers in the street and asked them to describe a whisky glass the chances are, after making sure you weren’t after their mobile phone, that they would come up with something that broadly resembles the traditional whisky tumbler. With its straight sides, wide ri...
Whisky issues
from Issue 66 published on 25/09/2007
Richard Jones surfs the ‘net to find some of the more interesting sites of whisky comment and debate
Educated bees may not have cottoned onto to the idea yet, but every other man and his dog seems to be engaged in blogging at the moment. 60 million of us host blogs according to internet search engine Technorati and many multiples more spend time posting or reading their entries. To the uninitiated,...
Whisky Online
from Issue 64 published on 01/06/2007
The name might suggest a certain French flavour but La Zouch is a quintessentially English restaurant
selling some rather exceptional whiskies. Richard Jones pulls up a chair.
Call me a philistine but until recently I’d never given much consideration to the strangely Gallic sounding name of Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire.
It transpires that the origins are disappointingly straightforward, if rather ancient.
This market town was known simply as ‘Ashby’ until it beca...
Spotlight
from Issue 60 published on 10/11/2006
There are numerous financial risks involved in establishing a new malt whisky distillery. But how do you make sure the whisky you produce is any good? Richard Jones reports
It’s not the most expensive mistake you could make in life, but it certainly doesn’t come cheap.
The economics of setting up a new malt whisky distillery alone are pretty terrifying.
About £800,000 for a small distillery of reasonable quality according to Dr Harry Riffkin, managing director of con...
Whisky Trends
from Issue 58 published on 30/08/2006
The Pilgrim Fathers who left the area for North America via Holland may or may have approved, but the East Midlands is now home to a thriving whisky shop. Richard Jones reports
Adversity is the first path to truth,” wrote Lord Byron “and especially if that path leads to your own whisky shop,” he might well have added.
It’s fair to say that Christmas 2004 in the Henfield household wasn’t the jolliest on record. After spending most of his working life in Further and Higher ...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
The Star in the East is beginning to rise.And if the markets of China,India and Russia perform anywhere near to their potential,they could change the world of whisky forever.Richard Jones reports
It’s hardly front page news that the economy in China is doing pretty well at the moment.
Well actually it is. On the 19th April 2006 The Independent reported the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington with the headline ‘America meets the new superpower’. Inside the same newspaper comme...
Whisky Trends
from Issue 56 published on 01/06/2006
Justifiably famous for its range of Irish whiskies, the Pot Still in Gloucester is also a haven for lovers of single malts, unusual spirits, liqueurs and bottled beers. Richard Jones reports
When Chauncey Olcott and George Graff wrote the lyrics to When Irish Eyes Are Smiling in 1912 they left the world in little doubt that the ‘sweet lilting laughter’ of anyone of Emerald persuasion is a truly wondrous thing. But how is such merriment achieved?
Success at the Cheltenham Horse Racing F...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 56 published on 01/06/2006
Anyone who read Issue 53 on Great Whisky Bars of The World will know that Whisky Magazine rates The Highlander Inn in Craigellachie pretty highly. Richard Jones discovers what makes this humble looking bar such a haven for whisky lovers
‘There can be only one!’ declared Christopher Lambert in the cult 1986 film Highlander, somewhat misleadingly given the subsequent sequels (three) and television series (two).
Perhaps if you were born in the Scottish Highlands in 1518 and forced to fight other immortals in New York City nearly 500 ...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 56 published on 01/06/2006
No whisky company has taken the field of malt whisky and food matching more seriously than Diageo. Richard Jones uncovers the company’s latest ideas and thinking.
The document is 119 pages long. It is A4 portrait in size and produced in glorious Technicolour.
The chapters include: ‘Around The World With Malts, Some Winning Combinations with Regional Foods’; ‘The Nature of Taste and Smell’; and ‘Byrne’s Night: The Ultimate Whisky Dinner’.
There are no fewer ...
Whisky and Food
from Issue 55 published on 14/04/2006
How do you guarantee customers will love your whisky? Get them to do the selection for you,
that’s how.Richard Jones joins the Earl Grey Whisky Committee in Leek, Staffordshire, for a night
of conversation, whisky and dubious decor.
Committees don’t enjoy the best of reputations. In little more than 30 seconds on the internet I managed to come up with following musings on the subject: “Committee - a group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done”; “A committee is a cul-de-sac down wh...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 55 published on 14/04/2006
It may be ‘compact, cosy and bijou’ , but The Lincoln Whisky Shop is now packed to bursting with unusual and exciting whiskies. Richard Jones reports
You should see it during the Lincoln Christmas market period, there’ll be 40 people inside the shop jostling for space. We have to put someone on the door, not for security, but for crowd control,” begins Norman Horton, owner of The Lincoln Whisky Shop.
Speaking in January during the post festive m...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 54 published on 03/03/2006
If you visit Islay you have to try the cooking of Mary McKecknie and the outstanding visitor centre at Ardbeg Distillery. Richard Jones reports
A visit to a whisky distillery anywhere is always a memorable experience, but there are some that are more anticipated than most.
In many cases, it is the quality of the whisky that arouses the expectation, the opportunity to learn more about your favourite dram and taste it in situ; in others it m...
Whisky and Food
from Issue 53 published on 12/01/2006
Innovation in whisky is alive and well in the historic market town of Leek,Staffordshire. Richard Jones reports
For someone who has managed to create one of the country’s most innovative and interesting whisky ranges, it’s perhaps surprising that the parting words of the previous owner still occasionally haunt David Wood.
“He told me that I’d never be able to sell whisky above £30 a bottle,” he recalls. “Tha...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 50 published on 09/09/2005
Does the art of blending vary with the size of the operation? Richard Jones talks to John Glaser of Compass Box and John Ramsay of The Famous Grouse
They may share a common name, but the contrast between the two Johns could barely be greater.
The first, John Ramsay, is master blender for the Famous Grouse: the world’s seventh largest selling whisky, the most popular Scotch whisky in Scotland and a brand with a heritage stretching back to 1896; ...
Whisky Production
from Issue 49 published on 15/07/2005
The Byrne family has been selling whisky for generations. Richard Jones looks at the Lancashire-based business
Whisky isn’t just a passion for the Byrne family of D Byrne & Co, Clitheroe, Lancashire, it’s in their genes.
Andrew Byrne is the fourth generation in a family firm that’s been around for the best part of 126 years and, when I visited him recently, he proudly showed me a clipping from a 1999 editio...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 49 published on 15/07/2005
A few issues back we looked at the best whisky company websites. Here Richard Jones hunts down other whisky information sites
Since the advent of the internet, anyone with a personal computer, a modicum of literacy and ‘a mate who knows something about computers’ can set up a website and become an authority on whisky.
Today, there are hundreds of different whisky websites, with the numbers continuing to grow apace. Reflec...
Whisky Online
from Issue 48 published on 10/06/2005
David Gardener of Nickolls and Perks in Stourbridge has big plans for whisky. Richard Jones reports
There’s history and there’s history. Many retailers can boast of an illustrious past but when Nickolls and Perks first opened for business in 1797, the Bank of England had just issued its first one pound note, Horatio Nelson had lost an arm fighting the Spanish and John Adams was about to succeed Ge...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 48 published on 10/06/2005
The Wright Wine Company doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin. Richard Jones investigates
You could be forgiven for thinking the shop didn’t actually sell whisky at all. Situated on the outskirts of the historic North Yorkshire market town of Skipton, the self-styled ‘Gateway to the Yorkshire Dales’, the signage above the main door announces the store rather inadequately as, ‘The Wright ...
Whisky Spotlight
from Issue 46 published on 10/3/2005
He’s here, he’s there... it’s not easy to pinpoint what Duncan Buie does. But Richard Jones has a go
Before I interviewed Duncan Buie, mashman and stillman at Isle of Jura distillery, I was told, “Yes, he’s more than happy to speak to you, but he doesn’t really think there is a typical day in his working life to talk about.” He wasn’t kidding.
“My work at the distillery is my main job,” Duncan beg...
A day in the life
from Issue 46 published on 10/3/2005
New technology is being adopted by whisky companies. Richard Jones goes surfing
Here are a few facts I bet you didn’t know from the world of whisky: there are five washbacks at Springbank distillery, each made from boatskin larch and with a capacity of 21,000 litres; the grist mill at Laphroaig is nicknamed ‘Red Bob’ and is one of the oldest Porteus Mills in the business; Denis...
Whisky Trends
from Issue 45 published on 21/1/2005
In the latest in his series Richard Jones talks to Bob Pass marketing and technical manager, animal feeds for Diageo
There’s not really a pattern to my job,” begins Bob Pass, marketing and technical manager for animal feeds at Diageo. One day I might have a meeting with government representatives on legal
matters, the next I could be visiting one of our grain drying plants to discuss process improvements. Today I’...
A day in the life
from Issue 45 published on 21/1/2005
In the latest in his series, Richard Jones talks to Mary O’Shea, who is a whisky consultant at Heathrow Airport
My day varies according to the time of year and the different flights that are scheduled at the airport,” begins Mary O’Shea, whisky consultant at Heathrow Airport.
“At the moment my shift starts at six o’clock because we have some early morning flights to Norway, then throughout the day we have p...
A day in the life
from Issue 44 published on 25/11/2004
Colin Dunn is business develoment executive at Morrison Bowmore. So what does he do? Richard Jones reports
It depends on what time I got in from the night before, but I’ll usually start my day at around 7.30am,” begins Colin Dunn of Morrison Bowmore distillers.
“I’ll switch on the computer, try to clear my senses, and remember first, who I was talking to last night; and second, what I said I’d take care...
A day in the life
from Issue 43 published on 23/10/2004
How many of us have thought about giving it all up and starting afresh as a worker in the world of whisky? Richard Jones speaks to some people who have done just that
Go on, admit it, the thought has crossed your mind. There you were after a distillery tour, one dram safely inside you and another in your hand, quietly soaking up the atmosphere, the history, the general wonderfulness of the place.
Or perhaps you were enjoying a formal tasting, even a Masterclass ...
Whisky Trends
from Issue 42 published on 3/9/2004
In a new series looking at different distillery careers, Richard Jones talks to Hilary Lamont – distillery gardener at Linkwood
There’s really no such thing as a typical day,” begins Hilary Lamont, gardener at Linkwood distillery. “As any gardener will tell you, your work is dictated by the season and the weather. You might have a plan for a particular day, but then the heavens open and you have to change what you were going...
A day in the life
from Issue 42 published on 3/9/2004
Is whisky produced today as good as it used to be? Richard Jones hosts this months’ philosophical debate
Ultimately, it all boils down to a question mark. One of the liveliest and most contentious debates in the world of Scotch whisky divided by the
Riddler’s favourite grammatical symbol.
On the surface everything might appear tranquil, but delve beneath and it’s right up there with caramel, chill fil...
Whisky Trends
from Issue 37 published on 23/2/2004
What is it with whisky and clichéd images of Scotland? Richard Jones starts the fightback…
In a previous life I had the dubious pleasure of judging the monthly Scotch malt whisky competition for a national supermarket chain.
The competition required entrants to buy a bottle of the featured malt, answer a simple question about the distillery and then complete a tie-breaker in less than 15...
Whisky image
from Issue 33 published on 25/9/2003
What do professional tasters drink for pleasure? Richard Jones finds out what the whisky makers’ whiskies are
They have some of the most finelytuned palates in the business. Distillery manager, master blender, production or operations director; their titles might be different, but they all have one thing in common – the ability not only to recognise a great malt whisky when they find one, but to appreciate ...
Whisky Interview
from Issue 31 published on 9/6/2003
Richard Jones reveals the terrible truth: the ‘auld enemy’ may have been involved in the production of your treasured dram
In the beginning, God created the earth. On the second day, while he was making his countries, God discovered a small island off a continent he’d decided to christen ‘Europe’.
“I know,” thought God, “I shall make this land an area of outstanding natural beauty. I shall bless it with lochs and glens...
Whisky Production
from Issue 31 published on 9/6/2003
