I was always crap at origami.  Every creation from my fingertipes has ended up a torn, skewed interpretation of what could have been delicate and graceful – a bull with miniscule front legs that make a T-Rex guffaw with superiority, or a swan that looked like it had been thrown down a stairwell.  A subtle, measured craft of which a true master displays the confluence of practice, talent, and patience.
To inexpertly superimpose the metaphor (indeed, a metaphorical paper giraffe with massive legs, a tiny neck and 8 antlers), Balvenie Malt …

Since the year 2000, the Compass Box Whisky Company have been carving out a name for themselves with their innovative portfolio of blended whisky – and their combination of approach, attitude, and commitment to releasing high quality product at affordable prices has seen them win over a large and appreciative audience.
We had the good fortune of having Chris Maybin presenting a Whisky Squad session back in March 2011 which introduced us to the core Compass Box range – and when the opportunity came up to visit their headquarters to participate …

Seeing as I’m on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to usual, and the opportunity presented itself, I thought it might make sense to break with tradition and do a little bit of a bourbon whiskey tasting instead of focusing on scotch whisky.  You know, broaden the horizons, and all that…
Via the highly excellent organ of information called NYC Whisky I learned that there was a Bulleit tasting going on at Union Square Wines, so it took very little motivation to get on down there and see what was …

A few weeks ago my learned colleague Billy “The Traffic Cone Marauder” Abbott and I got together, under the watchful supervision of Liz, and commenced an act of civil disobedience.   You see, the splendid folk over at Master of Malt Towers had launched a highly excellent Bloggers’ Blend challenge – whereupon whisky bloggers were called upon to create their own blended whisky out of a provided set of ingredients – and it seemed that we had been missed from the list of entrants!
Well, not being invited has never proven reasonable …

If you go down to Covent Garden today, you’re in for a… errm… trip to Covent Garden.  However if you’re there between 1pm and 8pm you can also pop in to number 34 Tavistock Street and visit The Balvenie Whisky Den: a new interactive space being put together by the Balvenie team.
The idea is that the Den is an evolving space – when we arrived 3 days after the opening date – there was the beginnings of a bar, and several decorative pieces around the room made from barrel staves. …

In an effort to get politics off the Headline position and steer this blog back to its usual direction, a quick summary of the impromptu vertical whisky tasting that Liz & I did on Saturday afternoon.
When I won that massive pile of whisky from the superlative chaps (and chapettes) at Master of Malt back in December, the random assortment of tiny bottles yielded the possibility of one or 2 decent “vertical tastings”, or what normal people would call “multiple whiskies from the same distillery”.  There were a couple of Mortlachs, …

I suspect this is entirely too late to be of any use to anyone, but it was awesome, so it seems like the sort of thing one ought to mention…
In early November I was extremely fortunate to be invited to a whisky tasting dinner at the exceptional and renowned Quilon restaurant in Buckingham Gate.  The purpose was threefold – to sample some of the delightful progressive west-coast Indian menu creations by Chef Sriram Aylur (and find out just what sort of tucker attracts a Michelin star), to sample a brace of …

The way we’d usually run a Whisky Squad session would be to pick a theme, and then select a few whiskies connected with that theme to sample for the evening.  Caught up as we were with preparation for the end of year Christmas Dinner, however, we didn’t realise that there would be such demand for the regular Thursday night session as well, and so to keep things interesting we craftily decided that “Whisky Surprise” would make an excellent theme – participants could bring along their own bottle to share, be …

Drinking whisky is excellent.  The more different types of whisky, the better, as far as I’m concerned.  The problem however comes about with the acquisition of many different types of whisky – bottles of the stuff are expensive, often in the range between “slightly” and “perilously” so.  Many of the higher-end or more accommodating whisky shops (for example the excellent Berry Brothers & Rudd on St James’s Street) will allow you to sample their bottlings before committing to a purchase, however this is only useful if you’re considering buying one …

It’s not often when your first post-breakfast decision to make is, “Now, which whisky should I start with?”.  If you’re an attendee at The Whisky Show however – and provided you’ve had a late enough breakfast – it’s more than likely going to be the case.
Following an excellent Bar Solo breakfast, Liz & I bee-lined to The Brewery function centre near The Barbican for the shining highlight of the London whisky enthusiast’s calendar.  Eagerly clutching our tasting glasses and palming our Ultra Premium Dram tokens expectantly we rounded the corner …