Today we’re thrilled to announce the launch of Caskstrength.net’s first official whisky! Bottled to mark its 3rd Birthday, this is the first time any blog has released its own single malt, and we’re very proud to be the exclusive stockist!

Caskstrength.net was founded in 2008 by Neil and Joel, both formerly rival A&R men, working at Warner Bros and Island Records respectively. They formed the blog to share their love of whisky with friends and family, but since More...

On Monday we took the train up to London for an event we’d been looking forward to for some time. London in summer is quite possibly the best combination of city and season the world has to offer, it has to be said. So we were in high spirits as we arrived at the Saatchi Gallery for a Suntory tasting entitled “The Art of Japanese Whisky”. More...

Sadly, due to the sheer number of brilliant whisky blogs out there, we could only invite ten to participate in our Bloggers’ Blend competition. We felt simply awful about limiting it in this way; it was like we’d discovered utopia but, due to out-dated licensing laws, were forced to allow just 10 people in.

In response to this, some bloggers sent us tear-stained letters, one fled to Nepal and now makes and sells terracotta pots, and, in protest, one has pledged to talk exclusively through a Kazoo. More...

A couple of weeks back, a contingent of Chaps from Master of Malt attended the brand new Boisdale over at Canary Wharf, for an extra special Old Pulteney tasting.

The tasting was led by Lucas of Edinburgh Whisky Blog fame and now brand ambassador for Inver House.

First off, the venue was fantastic. The Boisdale over at Victoria is superb, but the new one, right in the heart of Canary Wharf, is astonishing. On the 2nd floor (the whisky bar/jazz club) is an enormous window that spans one side of the room entirely, and it overlooks the Credit Suisse building, and beyond that, the Thames. It was an idyllic setting as we sat at the bar enjoying a couple of G&Ts prior to the tasting. More...

Sadly, when we awoke on Saturday, we discovered that there had been “poorly defined ferry issues”. This meant we couldn’t attend Ardbeg’s distillery day, and instead we had to pack our things and race across the island to reach the morning boat. You can imagine our chagrin. It looked to be a great day and the weather was splendid, complete with blue skies and, for the first time in over a week, we were thrilled to see our tired bodies were casting shadows on the ground. This felt like a good omen for our Lord of the Rings-style quest home (in this case, back to the Shire). More...

For the first time ever, one of France’s big Cognac houses has started putting age statements on its products. Courvoisier have begun labelling Cognacs just like we do in the whisky industry, where the number reflects the age of the youngest spirit in the bottle.

The new age statement releases give a real insight into Cognac, and it’s particularly interesting that Courvoisier should take this route, as the previous designations were very vague indeed. In fact, if you were to ask the average spirits drinker what the difference between a More...

Friday was Bunnahabhain’s distillery day...

As far as Islay distilleries go, Bunnahabhain is perhaps the least talked about among the Scotch cognoscenti, and whilst this is entirely unfair (due to the quality of the spirit), it is unsurprising in many ways. For a start the whisky isn’t particularly peaty, nor is not subject to any wild experimentation during production or maturation, and overall, well, it’s decidedly gentle. More...

Crikey, a lot happens whilst you’re away for a few days doesn’t it? Turn your back, and all of a sudden the recent uber-releases from Dalmore, Macallan, and Aisla T’Orten ain’t no thang – it’s all about the Isabella’s Islay… Released a week or so ago, this extraordinary piece of work is being billed as the world’s most expensive whisky, at $6,200,000: More...

It all began a few weeks ago…

We received a brochure through the door at MoM towers from Adnams Brewery, advertising the range of wines they sell under their own label. More often than not, generic marketing materials such as this would end up swiftly filed under ‘B’, but in this instance, we had a quick flick through as Adnams are a pretty superb brewery, making one of our absolute favourite beers ‘Broadside’ - a 4.7% abv bitter that’s arguably one of the best on the market in the UK. It was only upon turning to the centre page of the brochure however, that we came across something that made us do a double-take. A chuffing great Carl Still sitting in front of a huge window looking out over the beautiful seaside town of Southwold. More...

We hope you’ve had a wonderful Easter! It’s been a very eventful past couple of weeks for everyone, and we’ve certainly had more than our fair share of barbeques, cocktails and general revelry (there was some kind of wedding on at the weekend, apparently).

In other news, we have some new products to announce (for real this time, this isn’t another April Fool), and we’re sure they’ll be the topic of much enjoyment, discussion, and possibly even a little controversy.

More...