This week, through thick snow and in the picturesque undulations of Northamptonshire, the Warner Edwards team has been busily bottling up their brand new Harrington Dry Gin – a debut spirit from old Uni pals Sion Edwards and Tom Warner. We’re going to give the gin a road-test shortly, but first some history and background…

Sion and Tom met at university and became good friends from the very beginning, bonding over a love of rugby and the fact they both came from family farms. After graduating, they took on steady jobs and a few years later, feeling slightly bored, decided it was time to embark on a project together, utilising their farming backgrounds.

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Prepare your faces for glee and/or delight, for we bring glad tidings all the way from Caithness (the north-eastern tip of the Scottish mainland – presumably very wet and cold). We’ve had word from the Old Pulteney distillery that today (well, 11pm last night, to be precise, but today for most of us) we can, at last, announce the launch of the oldest official single malt the distillery has ever produced…

Earlier in the year, Pulteney 21 year old was named World Whisky of the Year in Jim Murray’s 2012 Whisky Bible. It’s a pretty astonishing single malt, all things considered, but what else would you expect from the northernmost distillery on the Scottish mainland. That far north, the weather and the terroir play a huge part in the flavour of maturing spirit; a windswept seafront seasons the whisky and gives it real provenance. There’s also the effect of the unusually shaped spirit still, the U-shape and bulbous neck of which account for a particularly oily spirit. Dave Broom calls Old Pulteney “eccentric”, and I think we’re inclined to agree...

We are soon approaching that quadrennial day in which we un-married men must hide fearfully from our other halves in case they try to enslave us in a life of penury and servitude. That's right – the 29th February. I have already prepared for myself the finest secret cellar this side of Austria, and plan on sequestering myself away in it for the duration of the day.

Marriage-related terror aside, the idea of gaining an extra day is rather novel, and so we've set about creating a very special something by means of celebration – the Secret Leap Year Cocktail (OK - naming things isn't our strong suit). We're also giving away a pretty exciting prize too…More...

Happy Friday one and all! I didn't think we'd make it, but a-whole-nother week has passed and here we all are. On Monday, Ben promised one of you a dram of the recent Glen Grant 60 Year Old Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee (1952-2012) whisky (it's a concise and sensible name for a whisky) – the 15ml sample of which is worth about £200. Yup.

All you had to do to win it was submit the best joke to us here!

Today we are very excited to announce the winner. More...

Thursday/Thorsday last week was the day the Runes foretold, their arrival marked by the noise of the door buzzer as the DHL man arrived – just like the days of yore. They spoke of the coming of something that would require valour, and bravery (check and check), though sadly due to "the way of things", the Runes didn't arrive daily as a lead up to Thorsday. One arrived on Tuesday, the rest, on Wednesday. It was still quite dramatic though (let's just say it didn't Rune the surprise), even if they did come in either a fake felt pouch or a mauve mesh-bag-thing that a small girl would keep her jewellery in.More...

In our last caption contest, I posted a doctored still from the movie Scarface. I was pushing my luck a little, particularly as it involved editing out a machine gun and replacing it with a bottle of Bathtub Gin and a Martini. Ben let me get away with it.

This time, I think I may be in for a telling off, but it’ll be funny while it lasts, and delicious for all as the best three caption suggestions will each win a 3cl sample of the staggeringly good Lagavulin Feis Ile 2011, a whisky that we just loved when we first tried it on Islay last year (in a little cottage in a powercut in the middle of a ferocious storm no less!). More...

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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Every year on the 5th of November here in the UK we set off fireworks and burn an effigy of a man who tried to overthrow a king who enforced religious oppression against Catholics living in England. To an outsider, Guy Fawkes night looks like an insane, cult-like pagan ritual, but really it’s just about merriment, the partaking of yummy winter cocktails, and watching fireworks in awe and wonderment with their loud noises and pretty colours (we’re easily amused).

For the unofficial Master of Malt 2011 Firework More...

Finally we’ve arrived at the halfway milestone; that point in Movember when our upper lips no longer look lazy and unkempt, but instead play host to genuine moustache excellence. The chaps at Master of Malt are now fully fledged mo-wearers, and could proudly play the lead role in the upcoming biopic of Tom Selleck that I’m secretly writing when Ben’s not looking. That is, aside from one of the new “placement stiaowdents” and our MD, Justin, both of whom now must cope with ridicule and social ostracism for their inability to develop anything more than a shadow under their noses. They live with their shame.

Onto the really important stuff, so far, just halfway through Movember 2011, we’ve raised £5,135! Cripes! We’ve done this by selling our marvellous Movember whisky – a stunning 9 year old Glenfarclas drawn from two casks. We’re selling the bottle for £39.95 and you can read full tasting notes here. More...

Every year people everywhere wait excitedly for one jolly fat man to come.

…and this year we’re proud to announce one of the finest Christmas gifts ever to grace our humble shelves. That’s right folks, a Ron de Jeremy special offer! Hurrah and huzzah!

The offer is this: buy a bottle of Ron de Jeremy (just £28.95) and get a handsome Ron de Jeremy T-Shirt absolutely free! (worth £14.95) Oh my crivvens!More...