The second dram behind the closed door of the Cask Explorers Ruby Edition advent calendar is an 18-year-old bottling of Balblair. I take some time to find the perfect pairing from my personal collection and land on a non-age statement from Glenfarclas, bottled for their 185th anniversary. I could have picked another 18-year-old from the […]
So the other day I cracked open one of my advent calendars from Cask Explorers and was immediately reminded of how much I enjoyed that entire journey. Today I’m following that up, but doing something a little different. Instead of going for the second dram in the box, I’m popping open the first dram from […]
I have been thinking about this concept which I call “a favourite on hold“. It’s when you find a favourite composer, author, or, in this case, a producer of whisky, then you invest in it, buying other albums, books, or bottles, and set them aside, knowing that you will definitely love them in that special […]
Today I’m trying out two of Lagavulin’s excellent expressions – the staple 16-year-old which you may find on nearly every menu, and its younger, but more distinctive sibling, the 12-year-old from the 2021 Special releases set by Diageo.
Today, or rather over the course of a couple of days, I set upon a blind tasting of six drams, courtesy of The Spirits Embassy. Given that each sample is indeed only about 30ml, I do not intend to consume all of this alcohol in one sitting. I mean, of course, I can, but I […]
Today I was thinking about the difference between drinking and tasting and the particular approach that comes with enjoying the whisky when it comes to the latter experience. I find that for tasting, I must be in a specific mood, setting, and time, whereas for drinking, well… any time and place will do. It’s very […]
Today’s side by side sip is courtesy of another [paid for] tasting I participated in this past Monday at Soho’s Milroy’s. In this case, “rare find” is not a playful description of some uncovering that I have partaken in, but rather a name of an actual independent bottler’s range, literally called Rare Find Whisky. It’s […]
I finally took a complete stock of my current whisky collection, and as it stands, I have somewhere 50+ bottles that are _open_. Yes, the total count is somewhere north of 150 [not counting the bottles I am storing at a warehouse, following my auction wins], and on about a third of them, I’ve popped […]
Today’s tasting is brought to you courtesy of The Langham in London. Okay, they didn’t really bring you [or me] anything. I was just walking around, stopped by, sat at a bar, and ordered two drams. They happened to have both at exactly the same price, and so I figured that it was a great […]
It’s interesting to compare one distillery against the other. Especially when I pick bottlings of equal age, style, ABV and most importantly, their maturation process. It’s only then the slightest notes of one begin to possibly outshine the shadows of the other. But what about bottlings from the same distillery of different ages, ABV and […]
Two Drams A Day 