It’s an exciting one, this...

It’s not often that we get involved with Exclusive, Single-Cask bottlings direct from the distilleries themselves, as there’s generally much better value to be had from independent bottlings. We do lots of them instead. Lots and lots.

Every now and then though, something comes along that wouldn’t usually be available on the independent market.

This is one such bottling. A (very, very rare) Peated Balblair. Well, I say that – it’s actually a Balblair that’s been stored in a cask previously used to hold Peated Whisky. Sort of Peated through the medium of cheating. A Cheaty-Peaty whisky if you will.

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This morning I mentioned to Ben it was high time we posted something on the blog for this week, his suggestion:

“Something about whisky. We don’t do enough of that.”

To be fair, he has a point. We’ve been so caught up in the recent excitement of Christmas, making and launching new stuff, and my imminent emigration, that we’ve neglected that one little thing we’re here to write about first: Whisky!

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Yes, Day two of the Make it 2 Bushmills competition started early. Very early indeed.

As we prepared to roll out to the first event of the day (barrel rolling. See. Told you the jokes would get better) I had a chance to reflect on the competitors, all of whom I had a proper chat to last night, and am once again amazed at how all whisk(e)y competition winners seem to turn out to be the kind of people you'd be delighted to go out for a drink with socially. More...

Today we’re thrilled to announce the launch of Caskstrength.net’s first official whisky! Bottled to mark its 3rd Birthday, this is the first time any blog has released its own single malt, and we’re very proud to be the exclusive stockist!

Caskstrength.net was founded in 2008 by Neil and Joel, both formerly rival A&R men, working at Warner Bros and Island Records respectively. They formed the blog to share their love of whisky with friends and family, but since More...

Following our intrepid journey to Islay in May, we were invited back to brave the gale force winds and torrential rain to attend a very special event at the island’s youngest distillery.

We left early, and headed to Kilchoman for the launch of their new bottle, as well as a new limited edition, cask strength distillery-only number. More...

We hope you’ve had a wonderful Easter! It’s been a very eventful past couple of weeks for everyone, and we’ve certainly had more than our fair share of barbeques, cocktails and general revelry (there was some kind of wedding on at the weekend, apparently).

In other news, we have some new products to announce (for real this time, this isn’t another April Fool), and we’re sure they’ll be the topic of much enjoyment, discussion, and possibly even a little controversy.

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After a busy few days meeting the great and the good from the whisk(e)y world, we were invited up to the London Cocktail Club for an astonishing bourbon tasting, led by Preston Van Winkle. All in all, it was the perfect end to the week.

Before we began the tasting, Preston talked us through the history of Van Winkle...

The company was founded by Preston’s great grandfather, Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle Senior. During the late 19th Century, Pappy worked as an itinerant salesman for W.L. Weller & Sons (a whiskey company based in Louisville, Kentucky), selling bourbon from a horse and cart.

In 1910, he bought the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery (which made the whiskey for W.L. Weller), and with it he gained control of the W.L. Weller, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell and Cabin Still brands – the four horsemen More...

Last Thursday, a contingent from MoM visited the Hyatt Regency Hotel for a Laphroaig tasting, led by distillery manager, John Campbell.

Laphroaig is one of the world’s foremost distilleries, whose ubiquitous whisky’s popularity has not suffered one iota for being intensely peaty and utterly distinctive, and John talked us through just what makes such a powerful, muscular malt so well-loved the world over... He also let us in on a few rare treats (some of which have yet to hit shop shelves!). More...

Whilst Christmas may be long over, we’re still in the midst of winter here at MoM HQ, and in desperate need of a little warmth! We’ve hooked up with several cocktail/drinks experts to come up with the ultimate winter cocktails using our 8 Year Old Blend and our new cask-aged Whisky Bitters.

To kick-start this little mini-series we’re featuring a delightful concoction, created by Neil Ridley – whisky writer off of that CaskStrength.net, spirits and music buff, and all round dapper chap. 

[<--- Here's Neil in action] More...

Earlier this year we flew up to Glengoyne to help select a very special cask for bottling. The cask would be chosen by the great and the good from England’s whisky retailers, and we’ve been very excited to announce it is now in stock!

Sample after sample were tried until the very best cask was found - it’s a hard life, that of the whisky merchant ;-). Pleasingly, it’s a very, very dark little whisky, thanks mainly to the sherry hoggie it was matured in. The beautiful bottles arrived yesterday, and the packaging is rather handsome – wooden and very smart.

The whisky was distilled on the 17th June 1997, and, of course, it’s bottled at cask strength (bottled on the 20th May 2010 at 13 years of age). We uncorked a bottle to recount just how wonderful it is… More...