¡Atención, por favor!;  something amazing has just happened in the wonderful world of tequila, something so momentous you are simply going to have to cancel that vitally important life-saving heart surgery and give this announcement your full, undivided concentration.

Leading tequila producer Ocho has devised a new way of producing Mexico’s favourite way of getting tourists to star in humiliating photographs featuring giant sombreros. It’s called Ocho Curado and Master of Malt has got the first bottles to hit the UK, and as yet we’re the sole retailer to hold any.  More...

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...

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...

This competition has now closed. Click here to find out the winner!
 

I spent most of the last week interviewing for our Online Editor’s job (more on that soon folks). A reasonable part of the interview process is the effective management of people’s expectations with regard to the ‘glamour’ of the job. In fact, I’d even got a bit of patter I could do on autopilot memorised. It went “You know – for every fantastic, 60 year old whisky that you’ll get to taste, there are another 100 less exciting ones, and probably 50 vodkas too”.

The events of this morning have somewhat stepped on my point, as on arriving at the office I was greeted by a little package containing a sample of the most recent über-premium bottling from Gordon and Macphail – the somewhat tongue-twistingly named Glen Grant 60 Years old Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee (1952-2012).

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The buzz around Highland Park’s latest whisky, Thor, has been sensational. For all intents and purposes it sounds to be a fantastic whisky – a 16 year old, cask-strength Highland Park packaged in a handsome Viking long ship-inspired case. This morning, however, it all became a lot more mysterious…

We received a little box with a bow on top (see below): (nice to have a bow) More...

Note how careful I was with the punctuation there. It’s not that our online editor is wanted, but rather that we want an online editor.

If Mike - our current online editor- was wanted, it might at least go some way towards explaining his decision to move from the sunny, safe, really rather delightful climes of Royal Tunbridge Wells, to Perth. Nope, not that Perth (the sensible Perth, the Perth that’s within just a few miles of a load of great distilleries), the other Perth. The one in Australia. More...

Good morning folks, it’s announcement time! If you can cast your minds back through the booze and turkey-induced haze of Christmas you may remember we ran a little competition on our site.

To enter all you had to do was purchase any bottle of Heaven Hill whiskey from us before Christmas day, and the prize was pretty staggering: three incredible “ultra-premium” American whiskeys including Rittenhouse 25, Evan Williams 23 and Elijah Craig 18, all signed by the bourbon legends Craig and Parker Beam! More...

At this point last year, I was hobbling around the office on a crutch (that’s not a misprint - the mean, mean Osteopath at the hospital would only give me one) following what can only be described as the least impressive injury in the history of man.

Sit back Children, and I shall tell you a tale of Christmas Past, Present and Future(1):

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Last Tuesday evening, I was invited to the salubrious surroundings of the Four Seasons hotel on Park Lane, to sample the re-invention of a classic Dalmore Dram. This whisky provoked more controversy through its ousting and subsequent reinvention a couple of years ago than perhaps any other spirit, save perhaps that which we do not mention:

I’m talking of course, about The Dalmore Cigar Malt.

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It all began last month, when I was invited by the founders of the London Cocktail Society to go up to London and present our range of bitters to their members. Throughout the course of our conversation it became clear that we could potentially do even more than this, and turn the event into a bitters blending competition.

Throughout the course of another couple of conversations (and over a few lovely cocktails with The Cocktail Geek at the superb Shaker and Company), it became clear that not only was it our moral duty to bottle and release the winning bitters, but that more research at the bar was required as to which cocktails exactly contained bitters, and what were cocktails again, and who are you and why am I here? Ah. Cocktails.

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