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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Something this way mysterious came…and went! If you’ve been paying attention to whisky news, you’ll have heard about The Glenlivet’s new release: The Glenlivet Alpha.

This Single Malt Scotch Whisky was bottled with the minimum legal information allowed in order to encourage whisky drinkers to “master their senses” and not be influenced by age statements, the colour of the whisky, or any other characteristics.

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Hot on the heels of Talisker Storm comes another no age statement whisky from the very same distillery: Talisker Port Ruighe.

So, what’s the story with Port Ruighe? Wouldn’t you like to know? Well, it’s pronounced Portree, as in the largest town on the Isle of Skye, with ‘Port Ruighe’ being an old Gaelic spelling. The town is based around a large natural harbour, which has been key for business and trade for centuries and latterly has featured some of them there brightly coloured buildings made infamous by a certain children’s television programme. The other thing you need to know is that they have their own top flight (see what I did there) Quidditch team, the Prides, that compete in the British and Irish Quidditch League.

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The second World Whisky Day^™, organised by Aberdeen University student Blair Bowman, is just around the corner. A new date of Saturday 18th May has been chosen for this year’s celebrations, a date that Blair hopes one day could even become a national holiday in Scotland.

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You may have already heard the exciting news that The Glenlivet have launched a brand new expression without revealing any tasting notes or cask details – even the bottle is blacked out so that you can’t see the whisky until you first pour some out into your chosen glass! It’s a totally blind release, the first of its kind and it will take a chap of steel to unravel its mysteries.

The Glenlivet Alpha is available now from Master of Malt, and with only 3,350 available worldwide (600 in the UK), make sure to grab one before it’s too late – we expect these to sell at a colossal velocity. Once you have your bottle you can begin The Glenlivet’s interactive sensory journey to discover its secrets, testing yourself or learning more about Single Malt Scotch Whisky along the way.

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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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On Wednesday, the Isle of Skye’s only distillery celebrated the launch of Talisker Storm by bringing the Isle’s weather, in the form of a 25 foot high interactive storm, to the banks of the Thames.

Some people were saying that a certain meteorological legend would be in attendance... So, off I scampered to bear witness as “all of the elements” of Skye’s rugged weather descended upon London: “wind, rain, lightning, fog and thunder”...

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After poring over the entries from our recent caption competition, wherein the winner was promised a full bottle of Clynelish whisky from That Boutique-y Whisky Company, we were a bit stumped (or chimped).

We struggled to choose just one entry; there were so many outrageous images to choose from (some more so than others)! We finally caved and decided that though there can only be one champion, there were a few entries that deserved honourable mentions (and drams). Still, there can only be one, and there was one that was truly more evolved (wink!) than the rest.

So, without further ado...

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Just before we officially launched ‘That Boutique-y Whisky Company’ in the UK (and beyond), we packed up the Mini Malt Mobile (aka Ben's car, complete with boxes upon boxes of Scotch whisky, suitcases, and a ukulele), piled in, and took to the motorways and Channel to get to Maltstock, a yearly whisky festival in the Netherlands.

Pitched as "the relaxed whisky weekend" it is—indeed—"relaxing". Akin to a summer camp for whisky enthusiasts, the weekend is packed with music, bonfires, whisky masterclasses, whisky-themed games, a whisky quiz, and a veritable overdose (if that can be said) of food and friends. This was our third year in attendance, and believe me, it lives up to the hype. By the end, we were all a bit like newborn fawns: blinking in the sun and staggering gingerly about the place. We've got a flock of photos below to give you, dear reader, a taste of some of the activities to be had. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say…

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As Ian McCulloch certainly didn’t say:

We've been up to Filliers terrace,

And we did like the taste!

The Filliers family have been making jenever near Deinze, not far from Ghent, for more than five generations dating back to the 19th century. More recently, they became the producers of the first double still Belgian whisky, and even more recently, Master of Malt made their fine products available in the UK retail market for the first time ever!

Zonder dank. (That’s Flemish for you’re welcome.)

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