Today we were greeted with a very exciting little parcel, containing a selection of samples of vintage Armagnacs from Domaine Boingnères.

Before we begin the tasting, here’s some brief history…

Founded by Jean Boingnères in 1807, the company is now run by the family’s sixth generation. In 1953, the house style changed when Léon Lafitte took the helm. Mr Lafitte enlarged the vineyards, and he began to sell the company’s Armagnac to some of France’s top restaurants, a move which increased Boingnères’ popularity massively.More...

Quite a big one this…

For as long as anyone can remember, (some) whisky companies have been using caramel colouring in their whiskies. The arguments for and against the use of caramel in whisky are well documented, but just in case, let’s imagine a discussion between a well-educated, handsome whisky consumer, and one of those nasty and ‘orrible whisky companies that make whisky packed full of yucky and horrible caramel (the b*stards).More...

You’re probably wondering what this post is about. If you suspected it was an announcement that we, the chaps at Master of Malt, have started running tasting sessions from the comfort and luxury of our town centre offices in Royal Tunbridge Wells, then you’d be correct.

Your questions may be:

1. “What will they involve?

2. “How does it affect me?”

3. “But I don't live in Tunbridge Wells!”

More...

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...

For a long time now, we here at Master of Malt have been boring anyone who cares to listen senseless about the importance of good quality glassware (both for whisky and other drinks). We’re also (as you may have noticed) more than a little pernickety about detail, and like to do things ‘properly’.

It’s very heartening therefore, to find another company who are as obsessive about quality, and even more heartening to find out that they’re going to be running a tasting masterclass open to the general public (previously we’ve only encountered the team from Riedel at trade events).

For those of you who don’t know about Riedel, they are a company that make glassware (primarily wine glasses, but some for spirits and whisky too – more on that later in the year) to a standard that has to be seen to be believed. Riedel manufacture dozens and dozens of wine-glass varieties, all of which are tailored specifically to a particular region or grape varietal and painstakingly engineered to deliver the perfect size, shape and even angle of palette delivery for each individual style of wine. More...

All you small batch bourbon fanatics are going to be in whiskey heaven with the hellz-a-poppin’ fun we have in store for you today...

We’ve just added some extraordinary whiskey samples to our Drinks by the Dram range, including a corking selection of American classics.

We thought we’d give you a quick rundown of highlights from the new additions...More...

World Exclusive: The Malt That Came in from the Cold

Yesterday, we received a mysterious email from Speyside’s own Glenfiddich distillery.

“We’re sending you something.”

And that was all... More...

One day we went on an expedition into our warehouse, looking to see what wonders and secrets it might hold. It’s a dark, ominous place, with towering piles of boxes, creaking noises all around, and a creature known only as “the thing” – it lives on malt and the occasional placement student…

Kitted out in leather jackets and fedora hats, we’d reached the farthest corner of the building (we’d only been this far once – when scaling the north face of Mount Talisker, a leaning tower of Island malt). Pushing a curtain of cobwebs aside with a bullwhip, our jaws dropped. Before us there stood a good-sized pile of our house champagne, Cattier Brut, covered in dust.More...

With some great new products in, we decided to a do a quick tasting. We now stock a couple of Jefferson's bourbons, and this morning we put the eponymous whiskies through their paces.

Both were Gold Medal winners at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and both are produced by small batch distiller McLain & Kyne (notable as one of few Americans distilleries to spell whisky in the Scottish style - sans the 'E').

Both are also available as 3cl samples too...More...

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...