The most recent addition to our single cask selection is a 30 Year Old Caol Ila, distilled in 1980.

It was aged in a refill hogshead, and is of a release including just 154 bottles, all of which are non chill-filtered and bottled at natural cask strength (which was 57.4%).

Having never tried a Caol Ila of this age that wasn’t delicious, we’re looking forward to getting our lips around this one… More...

Bushmills recently launched brand new packaging for their standard range. We caught up with Helen MulHolland, the Master Blender at Bushmills…

MoM: First off, let’s talk about the new packaging for the range, we must say it looks stunning, what was the thinking behind the revamp…

HM: Thanks – I think that it looks stunning too! At BUSHMILLS we are always looking to stay with the times and refine both our product and our offering. We felt that it was time to refresh our look and focus on the future of this fantastic brand, while at the same time celebrating the heritage and quality that is integral to BUSHMILLS.

MoM: Will there be any other redesigns/revamps going on at the Bushmills camp?

HM: Well, we’ve have just renewed our entire range, so no immediate plans for other revampsMore...

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...

Okay, so just a teaser at this stage, but you all remember the Glengoyne ‘Scottish Merchants’ Choice’ that was released last year?

Yep – you’ve got it - the English Merchants’ Choice is coming soon!!!

A full report will follow, but suffice it to say that Master of Malt were sequestered in the Glengoyne sample room with four of England’s greatest (other) whisky merchants earlier this year, and at great, great length selected a cask of which we are all supremely proud. More...

I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a delivery driver so amused.

Literally the second the new bottling of the Noh Karuizawa Whisky walked through the door, the office broke out into a frenzy – photographers snapping, directors grabbing tasting glasses and falling upon the beautiful decanters like they contained the elixir of eternal life.

Such is the sense of anticipation and wonderment that surround all whiskies bottled by the Number one drinks company. This particular release is a 32yo Karuizawa from 1977 (Karuizawas before 1981 are revered as somewhat special because of their intense Umami-rich flavour), and it’s spectacular. It’s by no means a gentle giant at 32 years of age – we’d describe it more like being kicked in the face by an angry bosozoku than the peaceful tranquillity brought by Hanami (ed - d’you like that? Bit of Kulcha and that)…

Anywhoo, enough rambling, here are our tasting notes:

Nose: This dram opens with an olfactory delight of walnuts, chestnuts roasting in New York, pineapple and maple syrup. As it sits in the glass the nose develops stewed fruits in mulled wine, a slight note of autumnal bonfire and orange peel element and finishes on glacé cherries

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Glenfarclas added a 40 year old to their core range this year. A bold move like this is testament to Glenfarclas’ incredible stocks, and most distilleries would struggle to maintain production of a core range 40 year old bottling.

It was set apart from the year’s other high end releases by two factors. One was quality; we’ve sung its praises before so we won’t go into too much detail, but suffice to say it’s a stunner! The second factor was price; most whiskies in this age range (particularly from stalwart premium distilleries like Glenfarclas) retail at a minimum of a grand. Amazingly, you can find Glenfarclas 40 at just £289 (from us of course!). More...

We made a pact… To boldly offer samples of what no online retailer has ever offered samples of before. We started with some old favourites, and had some pretty exciting stuff on offer (including some show-stopping Glenfarclas Family Casks), but we never had anything quite like this…

We’re proud to announce a fantastic foray into the world of ultra premium spirits. Now you can try 3cl samples of mindboggling whisky that, until now, very few people have had the great privilege to try.More...

12 New Samples!

Just a quick post to let you know which samples we’ll be adding to the site today. We’ve been adding loads and loads and the range is starting to get pretty big! Click here to see all the drams.

Today we’ve got a very interesting selection for you; in fact we’ve only just got most of these in a week ago!

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The Next Batch of Whisky Samples

The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the birds are just about to start getting on our nerves. But times are good, and after launching Drinks by the Dram – our whisky sample service – the Master of Malt offices have become organized chaos.

The samples are flying off the shelves and we’ve been flooded with emails and phone calls from you all, telling us how much you like them.

We’ve made a solemn pledge to keep adding loads and loads of new samples to the site every day, so this morning we gathered around the board table (sat in a huddle on the lawn) and came up with the day’s batch of whiskies to “dram” (turn into samples). More...

Alchemy is one of Science’s earliest precursors; it is the tool the ancients used in the search of the three most desirable treasures known to mankind: gold, eternal life, and infinite knowledge.

The early Arab chemists - more conjurers and cooks than scientists - were obsessed with Alchemy’s elusive rewards, but they remained unattainable. They did, however, make one great discovery: alcohol – without which there’d be no whisky!More...