For the past 5 years, drinks writers (and now whisky bottlers!) Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley have hosted an awards ceremony intended to turn the whisky judging world on its head—or at least put it poolside with a drink in its hand. Jeil (or Noel, as they are affectionately referred to at MoM HQ) designed their Best in Glass Awards to celebrate whiskies that are accessible, delicious, and newly released. The annual Best in Glass Awards were held on 12^th December 2012 at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in London. After a gruelling afternoon of a two-course luncheon (wink!) and blind tasting of ten whiskies, one whisky emerged victorious from the collection to be dubbed the champion of the Best in Glass Awards 2012!

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We at MoM Towers love whisky. Can’t get enough it. We also love the USA (yes, it’s true!), and we have a special place in our collective, malty heart for Craft Distillers. So, when we first heard about an American, whisky-producing craft distillery, our minds were blown. Blown, I tells ya! This was well before we even had a chance to behold the amazing beards of Chip Tate, Head Distiller at Balcones, and Jared Himstedt, the Production Manager at the Distillery. Once we saw what these chaps were sporting and making, we knew we would be hooked.

Chip Tate started up Balcones in 2008 and snatched the glory of producing the very first Texas whisky. Balcones is named for the fault line that runs through the south-western part of the state through Waco, Texas where the distillery is located. A dramatic illustrated interpretation of the Balcones Fault can be found in the logo and is truly representative of some of the flavour profiles found in their whiskies: ground-breaking and earth-quaking.

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If there was ever a word so god damn awful it’s guaranteed to send a shudder down your spine it is the dreaded p-word – prohibition *a wolf howls in the background and you get the feeling you are being followed by a man with an axe*. 

This was the boozeless condition that afflicted the United States of America for thirteen parched years thanks to the tireless campaigning of the American Temperance Movement. 

The Movement advocated the ‘Noble Experiment’ to save society from the horrors of alcohol abuse throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and they succeeded in 1920 with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and the Volstead Act which completely banned the sale of alcohol in the U.S.A. 

This led to a decade and three years of corruption and violence across America as mobsters and moonshiners sought to bring alcohol illicitly to the understandably thirsty public before the Amendment was finally repealed in 1933. 

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It’s that time of year again - the weather has given up the pretence of caring, the trees are shedding their leaves like a sinking ship sheds ballast, and the sun can’t summon the energy to stay in the sky for longer than is absolutely necessary. Thankfully all is not lost as Diageo are about to release their much anticipated Special Releases Range.

Diageo is a multi-national drinks company that owns twenty-eight working distilleries and the remaining stock of a number of closed ones, and every year they release a selection of limited releases from some of these distilleries.

With such a large portfolio to draw from these whiskies tend to be the cream of the crop and get us whisky geeks slathering at their merest mention [go on, find a whisky geek and mention it, watch it slather…].

So this evening we all trooped to London to taste these high-demand whiskies in the warm and, more importantly, dry confines of The Deck at the National Theatre. Last time I was in this theatre I watched Benedict Cumberbatch (that guy off of Sherlock) prance around the stage as Frankenstein’s monster with nothing but his self-esteem to cover his modesty. This time I came armed with a notebook and pen - ready to record my experience of facing this enormous tackle of whisky. 

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That Boutique-y Whisky Company's first four releases

Those of you who inhabit the twittersphere may have noticed that we’ve copped a bit of flak recently from the hardcore whisky community out there. The reason? Well – we keep releasing products (steady yourself dear reader) other than whisky.

Gin, Absinthe, Summer Fruit Cups and the like are all well and good, but, well, they’re not whisky. So – in a twin-pronged attack designed to 1) make my life easier whenever I meet ‘whisky people’, and 2) do something almost unspeakably cool – we’re launching a whole brand-spanking new independent bottling label.

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Fans of Bushmills and rough sleeping may want to head over to the brand's Facebook page where you can bag a ticket to an exclusive whiskey-orientated music festival.

Bushmills Live, as the name implies, will be based around watching live music while drinking Bushmills; there are definitely worse ways to spend a June weekend.

Held at the Bushmills distillery in Northern Ireland, bands will perform in the distillery buildings themselves, which is a good thing as being Ireland in June it will almost definitely rain. 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...

I’ve long held up Bushmills 10yo as one of my all-time favourite Irish Whiskeys, predominantly because it has such an incredibly clear and obvious flavour component within it, that of Nectarine.

In fact, I can be more specific than that. It’s the taste of the little pieces of Nectarine that are present in yoghurt. I can go further than that, too if you like – it was the standard range of Safeways (before they got eaten by Morrisons) yoghurts available in the late 1980s. Only available as a 4-pack with Strawberry, Peach Melba, and Vanilla I believe (seriously - who eats vanilla yoghurt?). More...

After a busy few days meeting the great and the good from the whisk(e)y world, we were invited up to the London Cocktail Club for an astonishing bourbon tasting, led by Preston Van Winkle. All in all, it was the perfect end to the week.

Before we began the tasting, Preston talked us through the history of Van Winkle...

The company was founded by Preston’s great grandfather, Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle Senior. During the late 19th Century, Pappy worked as an itinerant salesman for W.L. Weller & Sons (a whiskey company based in Louisville, Kentucky), selling bourbon from a horse and cart.

In 1910, he bought the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery (which made the whiskey for W.L. Weller), and with it he gained control of the W.L. Weller, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell and Cabin Still brands – the four horsemen 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...