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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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. ...
By 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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By 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...
By 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...
By 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 ...
By 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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By 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...
By 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.”
...
By 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...
By 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...
By 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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By 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...
By 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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By 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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By 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...
By 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’...
By Dave Broom
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 ...
By 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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By 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 ...
By 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...
By 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 ...
By 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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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 ...
By 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,...
By 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...
By 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...
By 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 ...
By 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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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 ...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 25 published on 16/8/2002
Dave Broom brings a little sunshine to the world of whisky. Next issue
The news that Angostura is intending to buy Burn Stewart may strike many whisky drinkers as surprising. People forget Angostura is a huge rum distiller and its parent, CL Financial, is a Caribbean-based conglomerate whose interests include not just major rum producers (Angostura, Todhunter / Cruzan)...
By
from Issue 24 published on 16/7/2002
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,...
By Dave Broom
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...
By 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
...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
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...
By Dave Broom
from Issue 16 published on 16/6/2001
