Andrew Derbidge pulls up a seat at a very prestigious Ardbeg meal
Imagine you’re an Ardbeg fan. Imagine you’d spent years wanting to taste all the rare, highly collectible vintage bottlings but their scarcity and cost put them beyond your reach. Now imagine there was an event where all these ultra-rare bottlings would be set out on the table for you to taste and c...
By Rob Allanson
from Issue 66 published on 25/09/2007
Gavin D Smithlooks at the comeback of a Speyside classic
Optimism abounds in the world of Scotch whisky right now. The apparently endless potential of markets such as China and India is causing analysts to predict a future shortage of spirit and consequent price rises. Faced with a likely dearth of whisky, distillers throughout Scotland are cranking up pr...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 66 published on 25/09/2007
Whisky and sailing goes well together,as Rob Allanson found out when he took to the high seas with the Bunnahabhain crew
I didn’t really have to be press ganged on to the boat, this big, white, lovely looking thing moored at Rhu on the Firth of Clyde.
Who would not jump at the opportunity to watch the World Centennial 8m Sailing Championships from the comfort of a luxury yacht with some great company and some crackin...
By Rob Allanson
from Issue 66 published on 25/09/2007
Behind the scenes at one of Scotland’s biggest independent bottling companies some of the world’s rarest whiskies are stored. Our man joined Duncan Taylor Scotch’s managing director Euan Shand in a bid to unearth some gems
Duncan Taylor’s new shop premises in Huntley are the real deal. It’s packed with wonderful whiskies that will have any whisky enthusiast salivating and reaching for the credit card.
But there’s another story to tell here, too. For behind the scenes old casks are crammed in to the company’s warehous...
By
from Issue 64 published on 01/06/2007
A unique occasion in the history of Irish whiskey took place recently – an old distillery came back to life
–our man was on the spot for the first drops of spirit
My last visit to Kilbeggan was in the summer of 2006 when tourists were making their way around the old mash tuns, machinery and giant pot stills – all silent and ghostly reminders of Irish whiskey’s glorious past.
This time things were different and the contrast could not have been more marked.
T...
By
from Issue 64 published on 01/06/2007
Naren Young packs his library card and is welcomed to one of New York’s newest centres of higher learning
Sure this is no Julliard or NYU, but if you have any interest at all in learning more about many of the world’s great spirits, then there are few places on earth that boast the range of liquor and the staff that know about them in detail like the Brandy Library.
Located in the rather staid Tribeca,...
By Naren Young
from Issue 63 published on 20/04/2007
Iorwerth Griffiths finds a comfortable seat at one of Dublin’s great whisky havens
Ayoung Scotsman learns about whisky in the Channel Islands, establishes a whisky collection in a plush Dublin bar in the face of an initially sceptical management and the bar becomes the first Irish entry into Whisky Magazine’s Great Whisky Bars of the World.
Atall tale you might think but, in a nu...
By Iorweth Griffiths
from Issue 62 published on 01/03/2007
Gordon & McPhail is something of a ‘one stop shop’f or whisky enthusiasts. As it celebrates 10 years as
a distillery owner our man looks at why it continues to surprise and delight
The old saying about familiarity breeding contempt has a resonance in the world of whisky.
While some iconic names enjoy adulation at every turn, others such as Glenfiddich and Glenmorangie are dismissed airily no matter how well they shine with releases such as the Solera or Ancient Reserve in the...
By
from Issue 62 published on 01/03/2007
London’s newest gastro-pub has created a relaxing,home from home atmosphere where drinkers can
feel comfortable experimenting with whisky,as Kate Ennis discovers
Walk past newly opened Bumpkin, a stylishly rustic looking bar and restaurant in London’s fashionable Notting Hill area, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just another one of those identikit gastro-pubs for trendy types.
It’s certainly not where you would expect to find a hand-picked selectio...
By Kate Ennis
from Issue 61 published on 19/01/2007
Ian Buxton uncovers some of the less heard whisky quotes
On publication of his novel, The Hippopotamus, people kept giving Stephen Fry toy hippos.
“It is really very kind of them,” said Fry, “but I have decided that my next book will be called 18 Year Old Malt Whisky.” And that got me to thinking…what else had folk to say about whisky?
As you might expe...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 61 published on 19/01/2007
Ian Buxton gets his taste buds tickled with the latest releases
Cult Islay distillers Bruichladdich has announced the release of a staggering eight new expressions.
Top of the heap is the Bruichladdich 125th Anniversary, commemorating the distillery’s 1881 founding. This is based on a 1970 Bruichladdich finished in Alsace Pinot Grigot casks, said to be among th...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 59 published on 11/10/2006
Just when you thought you’d heard the end of whisky investment scams, Ian Buxton says the true story will be in the drinking
Iwas reminded of this old adage when browsing around eBay recently. There I saw what looked like a real bargain – a hogshead of 10 year old single malt starting at offers of more than £200!
Out came the calculator. Assuming normal evaporation, that should be enough whisky for 36 cases of 12 bottle...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 58 published on 30/08/2006
Dublin’s Celtic Whiskey Shop is driving an interest in Irish whiskeys but Scotch is benefiting too. Iorweth Griffiths reports
I’m in the heart of Georgian Dublin and I can see plenty of wine but no whisky – am I really in Dublin’s Celtic Whiskey Shop? I step outside to double check. Yes, I’m in the right place.
The Celtic Whiskey Shop is actually two shops in one with a connecting passage – with the whisky taking up one s...
By Iorweth Griffiths
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
The Harris Whisky Company is the latest company to bring quality whisky to the English market. Dominic Roskrow reports
If the key to success is making the most of the opportunities presented to you, then Mark Harris has a glittering future to look forward to.
In his career he’s been faced with two golden opportunities, and he’s grabbed them with both hands.
The first came when he started work as general manager at...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
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 ...
By Richard Jones
from Issue 57 published on 21/07/2006
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...
By Richard Jones
from Issue 56 published on 01/06/2006
Gillian Howell is a rarity – a female whisky distiller.Another example of how Welsh distillery Penderyn is different. Richard Woodard reports
I don’t think it’s stretching the truth to suggest that whisky tends to be a maledominated world.
You don’t need to be Germaine Greer to see that women are, shall we say, rather underrepresented in the higher echelons of the distilling business. Marketing? Sure. But the sharp end at the distillery?...
By Richard Woodard
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 ...
By Richard Jones
from Issue 56 published on 01/06/2006
Piers Morgan is one of Britain’s leading media personalities and he’s promoting whisky. Dominic Roskrow met him
On the day I am to meet Piers Morgan, a row has erupted in the press between pop impressario Louie Walsh and singer Ronan Keating.
Keating has apparently criticised Walsh in an interview. And Walsh’s response?
To withdraw all co-operation with the journalist who had the audacity to report Keating’...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 55 published on 14/04/2006
The Whisky Shop is bringing whisky to a new market by mixing High Street marketing techniques with outstanding whisky. Dominic Roskrow spoke to Ian Bankier
It’s a wet day out of season in the English tourist city of York. There are few people out and about but at The Whisky Shop, nestling in the city centre next to the Jorvic Centre, there is a steady stream of people.
I’m chatting to Ian Bankier when he spots an ageing weather-worn couple who seem a ...
By Dominic Roskrow
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...
By Richard Jones
from Issue 55 published on 14/04/2006
Aberko is a small independent bottler, Ian Buxton investigates...
The life of the independent bottler seems all but ideal: stroll round a few of the more interesting distilleries tasting their whiskies, select a particularly fine cask, develop your own distinctive packaging, get it bottled, persuade some discerning retailer it’s what they need to grace their shelv...
By Ian Buxton
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...
By Richard Jones
from Issue 54 published on 03/03/2006
Glengorm Castle is becoming a remote whisky paradise. Rob Allanson visited it
There are several elements that go in to making a memorable night in a whisky bar – but Glengorm Castle is just a little bit more special.
Whether it is the romantic, windswept landscape, the dramatic castle, log fire and comfy leather armchair surroundings or just the owners’ down to earth hospita...
By Rob Allanson
from Issue 54 published on 03/03/2006
Glencairn Crystal is playing a major role in promoting dedicated whisky glasses. But as Dominic Roskrow reports, there is more to the company than that
Question:What do British actor Leslie Grantham, American superstar Kelsey Grammer and the folk behind Glencairn Crystal got in common?
Answer: They have all been very successful, and they have all been victims of their own success. So well known has their best creation been that they have struggled...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 53 published on 12/01/2006
Tullamore Dew is reasserting its Irishness and it’s paying dividends. Dominic Roskrow reports
The Irish have a canny knack of turning their history to their advantage. When Irish Distillers needed to expand and moved to a new purpose-built distillery in Cork the company didn’t knock the old one down – it turned it in to one of the best visitor centres in the world.
And the business folk beh...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 52 published on 30/11/2005
Jack and Jean Oswald have turned their passion in to a hobby and business. Dominic Roskrow reports
They say film-makers and photographers make their own luck.
It’s not so much a case of being in the right place at the right time, but knowing to be in the right place at the right time.
So for American whisky lover Jack Oswald, capturing Mickey Mouse as he arrived at Bunnahabhain during the Islay...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 52 published on 30/11/2005
The Isle of Arran Distillery is 10 years old. Dominic Roskrow joined the celebrations
When a majestic eagle rose up from the hills behind the Isle of Arran Distillery at precisely the time that it reached its 10th birthday it was either a remarkable coincidence or the result of some very clever marketing.
The symbolism was lost on nobody. Exactly a decade earlier two of the great hu...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 51 published on 07/10/2005
They fought the law,and they won. Dominic Roskrow visits Drumchork Lodge
Some time next year, after just less than nine years at Drumchork Lodge, John Clotworthy and Frances Oates will fulfil a dream.
They will officially become distillers.
Not just any old distillers, either: distillers in charge of Britain’s smallest legal distillery and the only one kept in a garage...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 51 published on 07/10/2005
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...
By Richard Jones
from Issue 50 published on 09/09/2005
The Irish Heather is a whisky mecca in downtown Vancouver. Brigid James visited it
Tucked away in a corner of Vancouver’s historic Gastown, amongst trendy restaurants and gift shops, is an establishment that offers a sense of permanence in this young and restless city. The Irish Heather is a pub that really looks like one, feels like one and allegedly serves the best pint of Guinn...
By Brigid James
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...
By Richard Jones
from Issue 49 published on 15/07/2005
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...
By Richard Jones
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 ...
By Richard Jones
from Issue 46 published on 10/3/2005
The Cluny Bank Hotel is working within the community of Forres to give whisky fans the perfect Scottish break. Dominic Roskrow stayed there
They say that Inverness is now the fastest expanding town in Europe. Whether that’s true or not, there can be absolutely no doubt that the development of its airport has helped drive tourist trade in
the area.
And it’s had a more fundamental psychological effect on the region, too. For the Speyside...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 45 published on 21/1/2005
Louisville’s Heaven Hill have taken visitor centres in to a new dimension. Charles K. Cowdery went to the opening
Long a staple of the Scottish travel experience, distillery visitor centres have finally begun to catch on in America’s whiskey heartland.
The latest such venture to open its doors may also be the greatest, the Heaven Hill Distillery’s Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown, Kentucky. An impressive a...
By Charles K. Cowdery
from Issue 45 published on 21/1/2005
Just miniatures does exactly what it says on the tin - sells just miniatures.
Many distillers will tell you that small stills make the finest whisky, and what is it they say about the way mighty oaks from little acorns grow? I could go on, but I’m sure you can see where we’re heading in an article devoted to the retailing of whisky miniatures.
For brothers Justin and Gavin ...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 43 published on 23/10/2004
Switzerland might not seem an obvious place to find a good whisky bar, but the Widder Bar is just that. Jefferson Chase reports
Zurich is one of those places you go when you want to pretend to be James Bond for a while. Set against a fantastic backdrop of shimmering lake waters and snow covered Alpine peaks, the city still exudes the same coolly understated, hedonistic style it did in the late ‘60s, when 007 cruised around S...
By Jefferson Chase
from Issue 42 published on 3/9/2004
Chivas billed it as the great Glenlivet Tasting Showdown. Our man Ian Buxton popped along to see what it was all about
The idea seemed simple enough – but there was a twist. A panel of seven expert tasters would assess five expressions of The Glenlivet and compare notes. However, to spice things up, each of the five would be tasted blind, in random order, and the seven experts would be whisky novices.
Drawn from th...
By Ian Buxton
from Issue 41 published on 16/7/2004
Recent issues have reported on two micro distillery projects being launched this year. On this page Terry Williams writes about the Loch Ewe Distillery at Drumchork Lodge, Wester Ross
Their licence to run a small, private distillery gives Frances Oates and John Clotworthy several more superlatives to add to The Drumchork’s existing list: Top malt whisky bar of the year in 2001, one of the largest collections of malt whiskies in the world, and the most northerly collection of sing...
By Terry Williams
from Issue 40 published on 4/6/2004
Luvian’s Bottle Shop has built a reputation for fine drinks products. Gavin Smith looks at its whisky offering
The historic university town of St Andrews in north-east Fife is renowned the world over as the home of golf. Recently, however, it has also been attracting attention because one of its current undergraduates is Prince William.
The chances are that if His Royal Highness requires a drop of Château M...
By Gavin D. Smith
from Issue 39 published on 1/5/2004
Salt is the first of a new trend – High Street whisky bars. In the first of a new review series
Dominic Roskrow visits it
Let’s face it, these days the main streets of most major cities aren’t the most welcoming places when it comes to going out for a drink.
You have three basic choices; the fashion bars, full of people who make you feel old if you’re over 23, drinking concoctions that are often alcoholic fruit drinks...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 38 published on 7/4/2004
The Lonsdale in London recently hosted a Whisky Magazine cocktail challenge. Dominic Roskrow spoke to general manager Henry Besant.
If you’re of the view that whisky doesn’t have a place in the most stylish and fashionable city centre bars, you ought to have a word with Henry Besant.
It’s fair to say that Henry has been around a bit. He’s currently running the trendy Lonsdale at the heart of London’s fashionable Notting Hill an...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 34 published on 5/10/2003
An extended tasting area and showroom at London’s Vintage House reflect how malt whisky is evolving as customers demand more choice. Dominic Roskrow reports
If you ever need proof that the whisky market is evolving fast, look no further than The Vintage House in London’s fashionable West End.
It was featured in the very first issue of Whisky Magazine some five years ago – and the differences between then and now couldn’t be more marked.
In 1998 owner ...
By Dominic Roskrow
from Issue 33 published on 25/9/2003
