Our third and final Fèis Ìle competition is the big one – a chance to not only win a full 50cl bottle of Caol Ila from That Boutique-y Whisky Company, but to be immortalised on their next cultish comic book style-label: a Laphroaig single malt!

We’ve heard on the grapevine that a Dr. E. Brown of Hill Valley sent out 12 messages in bottles, which are due to wash up on the shores of Islay in just a couple of days! Some crazy stuff on that grapevine, I can tell ya!

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Following on from Competition 1, it’s time to offer a little more detail on the second competition we’re running whilst on Islay. Let me introduce you to ‘Peaty’, our bold and feisty little friend. He’s also a toy dog.

Peaty’s hero is Shortie, the Ardbeg distillery dog, but he loves all Islay whisky equally and when we take him to visit the distilleries he often doesn’t want to leave! If you find him on your travels between 24th May and 2nd June, we’re offering a reward for his safe return to the Malt Mobile – a full 50cl bottle of our brand new That Boutique-y Whisky Company Caol Ila, worth £54.95! One good deed deserves another, after all.

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In just 7 days time a crack team of MoMers (MoMists? MoMians? Something that sounds less like a cult?) will be setting off in the direction of the Fèis Ìle whisky festival on Islay!

Excitingly, as mentioned in our earlier Islay blog post, we will be running 3 Competitions while we are out there! The time has now come to break it down even further with a little more detail on each competition starting with numero uno...

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Feis Ile is almost upon us once again and to celebrate our third visit to The Islay Whisky Festival, we will be running 3 Competitions (count ‘em) for all those souls lucky enough to be joining us on the Hebridean island between 24th May and 2nd June 2013!

We will also be releasing a brand new bottling from That Boutique-y Whisky Company: a Caol Ila! Schwiing! This new release will be up for grabs on Islay as well as other prizes. To see how you can get in on the action, read on...

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It’s that time of year again - the weather has given up the pretence of caring, the trees are shedding their leaves like a sinking ship sheds ballast, and the sun can’t summon the energy to stay in the sky for longer than is absolutely necessary. Thankfully all is not lost as Diageo are about to release their much anticipated Special Releases Range.

Diageo is a multi-national drinks company that owns twenty-eight working distilleries and the remaining stock of a number of closed ones, and every year they release a selection of limited releases from some of these distilleries.

With such a large portfolio to draw from these whiskies tend to be the cream of the crop and get us whisky geeks slathering at their merest mention [go on, find a whisky geek and mention it, watch it slather…].

So this evening we all trooped to London to taste these high-demand whiskies in the warm and, more importantly, dry confines of The Deck at the National Theatre. Last time I was in this theatre I watched Benedict Cumberbatch (that guy off of Sherlock) prance around the stage as Frankenstein’s monster with nothing but his self-esteem to cover his modesty. This time I came armed with a notebook and pen - ready to record my experience of facing this enormous tackle of whisky. 

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I’ll begin from the end and work backwards today as Balvenie has done a number on my brain and it’s the only way I can recollect the events preceding this moment.

I recall at half past six this morning, I watched as the Balvenie brand ambassadors drove away with the Malt Mobile. I apparently did not protest enough at the claim that ‘Ben said it was ok.’

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Last night played host to one of the biggest events in the whisky calendar: the launch of the Diageo Special Releases. This annually released selection showcases the very best whiskies in the global drinks giant’s unrivalled arsenal, including massive crowd pleasers like Lagavulin, Caol Ila, and the legendary Port Ellen.

Unlike Ben, who’s off doing some ‘real work’ in the form of running the Cocktail bar at the Movember Launch Party for 750 people, then doing a sampling of our new Movember Whisky until the small hours, I’ve been lucky enough to sit in a lovely warm room, with lovely warm people, drinking delicious and exclusive whiskies all evening. Also I spend too much on male grooming products and have a penchant for singing about my feelings. I’m also not very competent at sending through images by e-mail, and am currently asleep in my bed, like the weaksauce young man that I am, and hence uncontactable by phone so you’ll notice that the images herein are stock images from Diageo’s Powerpoint presentation. Sorry about that. This paragraph may or may not have been written by me. More...

We’ve been sitting on this one for a few days now, ever since the email from Diageo arrived. In fact, this has been under strict embargo until today! You guessed it folks, Diageo’s 2011 Special Releases!

Every year, the Special Releases mark a particular highlight for us, as the global drinks giant showcases the very crème de la crème of its extensive inventory. This year sees some sure-to-be-stunners, including a 21 year old Rosebank, a 20 year old Port Dundas, and a 40 year old Glenury Royal, not to mention crowd pleasers like the Caol Ila Unpeated, Port Ellen, Brora, and cask strength Lagavulin. Here’s a brief synopsis of what’s to come, starting with our favourite from last year, the Brora… More...

After a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, black pudding, white pudding and potato scones, we left the cottage for Bowmore. There were only 100 bottles of Bowmore’s official 2011 Feis Ile bottling, so we didn’t worry about turning up too early; there was literally no hope of picking one up. In fact, the die-hards had been camped out since the wee hours for a prized bottle. It begs the question why they didn’t simply make more. Oh well. More...

Well, as we write this post we’re basking in the warm glow of the candelabra, and the unforgiving light of a laptop screen, which is down to its last 20% of battery life. That’s right, there’s been a powercut. Just like the story of the optimist and the pessimist… The pessimist says: “this is terrible, it can’t possibly get any worse!” the optimist says: “oh yes it can…”

Right now it’s cold, dark, damp and miserable outside, but we’re soldiering on.

Today began promisingly, with Caol Ila’s open day, though the weather was not on our side. We parked on a grassy hill in force 10 gales, and were gracefully ushered to the distillery bus by what felt like a hurricane. We then drove down to the Caol Ila distillery, the most remote on the island.