Following on from our most-read and silliest stories of the year, it’s time for our top ten favourite posts from 2022. This might not be the most popular but they were the ones we had the most fun reading and writing.
Well, that’s pretty much it for 2022. The final task for the hard-working editorial badgers here at Master of Malt is to choose some of our favourite posts of the year. There’s everything here from articles that reveal things the whisky industry would rather you didn’t know to an explanation of why worm tubs get single malt lovers so excited. So without further ado, here are our top ten favourite posts from 2022!

Dungeness Snack Shack – Alex Badescu’s favourite place for a leisurely lunch
The best pubs and restaurants for a leisurely lunch
If you think things look bleak today, they were worse a year ago with the country still under lockdown. So last January we thought we’d try and cheer everyone up and do our bit for the hospitality industry by asking the MoM team to select their favourite places for a leisurely lunch. There are not only some great recommendations here but some great writing too from people in different bits of the company.

Conor McGregor, he’s controversial
Celebrity spirits: the good, the bad and the embarrassing
We all love a Clooney-endorsed Tequila, mmmm that rich smooth Casamigos taste, or a Ryan Reynolds gin. These are the gold standard for celeb/ booze collaborations. But what happens when things don’t go quite so smoothly? Lucy Shaw looks at the good, bad, and the just plain embarrassing in the world of celebrity spirits.

Oysters and Islay malt? Yes, please!
This is a topic that our customers are really interested in, it comes up time and time again. So we thought we would commission award-winning spirits and food lover Millie Milliken to take a closer look at the topic. She came up with such delicious-sounding pairings, like Bowmore and oysters, that we started our own series on the blog called Matches Made in Heaven.

Two examples of how much wood makes an impact
Such as oak, Irish whiskey’s maturation opportunity
Regulations in whiskey sound like a dry topic but it produces some of the most heated debate among producers and fans. In this article, our in-house Irish whiskey expert examined how Ireland’s more relaxed rules allow for woods ‘such as oak’, rather than just oak as is allowed in Scotland, and how this presents a huge opportunity for this rapidly growing industry.

Detail from a forged Macallan label courtesy of Rare Whisky 101
Fake Whisky: how can you protect yourself?
Fake whisky, whisky scams and dodgy cask investments are all perennially interesting topics for Master of Malt customers. In this article, Lauren Eads looks at when buying old whisky and how you can protect yourself so you don’t end up spending thousands of pounds on something worthless.

The team at Circumstance in Bristol who left the English Whisky Guild
How do you Define English Whisky
English whisky is going through some growing pains with disagreements in the new English Whisky Guild as to what methods should and shouldn’t be allowed. So much so that Circumstance in Bristol decided to leave the organisation. It’s a fascinating and fast-changing topic but the good news is that overall quality is extremely high, even if the producers don’t always agree on anything.

The worm tub at Talisker Distillery
Whisky, nostalgia and worm tubs
We were delighted to have Dr Whisky himself, Sam Simmons, writing for the blog this year. He is head of whisky at Atoms Brands, our sister company but as well as knowing one end of a cask from the other, he’s also a very funny writer. Here he is explaining what it is about worm tubs that gets whisky fans so excited.

Ian Buxton with Hungary’s finest piper
Whisky Prices, the upwards spiral
The big story of 2022 was the ever-increasing price of everything but especially the in-demand single malts like Talisker 18 year old. Industry veteran Ian Buxton took a look at what is driving these increases and, in an out-of-character move, suggests it’s not all doom and gloom. We also picked some of Buxton’s Bargains for those looking to drink high-quality whisky on a reduced budget.

Sherry maturing at Bodegas Estevez – casks like this are very rarely used for ageing whisky
Here’s another one that got a lot of attention from whisky amateurs and professionals alike. Former Mommer and now freelance drinks gun for hire, the aptly-named Kristy Sherry delved into the murky world of sherry casks and found out that many casks labelled as such will not have contained any genuine sherry.

‘Pure Malt’. Two words that caused all the problems. Image from The Whisky Vault
Cardhu Pure Malt and other ill-advised whisky reformulations
One word can make a big difference. When Diageo changed Cardhu from a single malt into a pure malt, it caused a furore in the Scotch whisky industry that still reverberates to this day. This is the second part of Dr Nick Morgan’s look at ill-advised reformulations. You should read the first part on Gordon’s dropping its alcohol to 37.5%. Jane McQuitty from The Times was not happy!