Imagine a world where you could try a glass of a whisky, or rum, tequila, even vodka for that matter, without having to buy the bottle first. A world with 100% customer satisfaction, and an end to buyer’s remorse! To literally try before you buy…
If you’ve got a little stash of whisky, you’ve also almost certainly got “that one bottle” (maybe even more than one) that just wasn’t quite what you expected, or wanted. Maybe it was too peaty, too sweet, or light, or rich, or maybe it just wasn’t that good.
If you’d had the chance to try it first, that bottle wouldn’t be sitting on your shelf, staring at you with its beady, liquorous eyes (and mocking you with the same accent Alan Rickman had in Die Hard).
There have been so many whiskies we wanted to try but weren’t quite sure whether to buy a bottle or not, and ended up missing out on something delicious, or spending hard-earned (we’re hard working, honest) cash on something we weren’t that keen on!
Of course there are miniatures – which are great – but there are two problems with whisky miniatures: firstly; They’re slightly larger than samples need to be (meaning you end up paying for a larger amount of whisky, when all you need to taste something is a wee dram) and secondly; distilleries and brands just don’t put out that many miniatures because of the inherent cost of doing it.
Ambitious as always (we like to think of ourselves as the whisky world’s enfants terrible) we came up with a plan: we would divide up bottles of whisky and other spirits into samples (or drams as we call them) and, naturally, we would price them so they cost just a fraction of the price of a bottle.
We call these samples “Drinks by the Dram”…
Each sample (or dram should we say) is 3cl (30ml) – just larger than a single measure, and the perfect amount to try a whisky out – or even just to sit down and enjoy. Remember, it’s all about keeping costs to a minimum, so you only pay for what you need.
They’re just a fraction of the cost of a whole bottle, so now you can sample a three hundred pound scotch whisky and pay about £15 for the privilege! On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve also bottled the everyday drams, and the prices for these start at £1.95 – there really is something for everyone.
After patting ourselves on back for a bit, we got on the phone to a few of our whisky friends, starting with Glenfarclas (we had dreams of getting samples for the Family Cask range, as well as the brand new 40 year old) and they readily agreed. We also quickly set to doing samples of our own range, and our merry band grew in number as Signatory got on board, and Murray McDavid, Renegade Rum, Alchemist, Bruichladdich, Edradour and The Vintage Malt Whisky Company.
We’ll also be adding samples of special “one off” releases, and some pretty rare stuff too for you connoisseurs out there.
We’ve been expanding the range at a rate of knots, adding more almost every day, so keep checking back!
Sounds good eh?
– The Chaps at Master of Malt –
Denise Heslin 
Customer Service @ Master of Malt