Browsing Yearly Archives for 2017

It’s The Whisky Exchange Whisky Show this weekend and it’s shaping up to be our best show yet. With more than 650 whiskies confirmed from around the world, incredible masterclasses, loads of free talks and…

Next week sees the return of London Cocktail Week, the world’s biggest cocktail festival with more than 300 partnering bars opening their doors and offering £6 cocktails to those with a Festival Pass. This year, the festival…

David Stewart is malt master at The Balvenie, and has worked in the Scotch whisky industry for more than 50 years. We spoke to him about his career and his latest whisky, Balvenie 2002 Peat…

Autumn is almost here and the Diageo Special Releases 2017 are here. It’s an exciting group of whiskies this year: along with the regular Port Ellen, Brora, Caol Ila and Lagavulin, there’s also the oldest…

Here at The Whisky Exchange we like to choose special bottles – we have a wide range of exclusive whiskies and other spirits already, and we add more each month. One of the common questions…

Some drinks are simply synonymous with a big-screen moment and with the person drinking them. The freshly poured, ice-cold Martini for James Bond. The Dude’s White Russian in The Big Lebowski and the stain it leaves on…

The launch of the 2017 edition of the Diageo Special Releases is imminent. While they’re one of the biggest and most prestigious annual whisky launches, every year we receive the same question: what are they?…

Brian Kinsman is malt master for Glenfiddich, and also looks after the Grant’s range of blended whiskies and works with his mentor David Stewart on the Balvenie range. I caught up with Brian a while…

We’ve got great weather forecasts here in London, so it feels like time to whip up some drinks with the most tropical of spirits: rum. Here are five of my favourite rum cocktails to keep…

This week saw the inaugural Whisky Exchange Whisky Quiz of the Year. Five intrepid teams gathered in our Covent Garden shop to do battle for the honour of being crowned as the first champions. Across…

Our latest monthly focus is all about the Highland and Speyside regions: the two key whisky areas in Scotland. A lot of whisky guides talk about them having their own distinct style, but we think…

Last week was London Beer City, a week-long celebration of beer in the capital. Purely for research reasons, I threw myself wholeheartedly into the festivities, stopping in at the London Craft Beer Festival for a…

Last month, I finally got the chance to visit the Cognac region in France. My destination? Hine. Although I’d seen pictures of this tiny part of south-west France before, nothing prepared me for the beauty of Jarnac, the…

When it comes to pairing a meal with drinks, wine and beer are still winning. However, one corner of the culinary world has had a long connection with spirits: American barbecue. While the stereotypical image…

Our latest TWE shop tasting featured Irish whiskey producer Teeling, a distiller known for its skill in maturing and ‘finishing’ its whiskey in a variety of casks – some well known, some more obscure. What…

Britain is positively awash with whisky. While most distilleries are located north of the border, and Wales’s Penderyn has been making waves for years, England is now rapidly filling up with whisky makers. Back in…

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the big four Cognac houses – Martell, Rémy Martin, Hennessy and Courvoisier – but what about the other 271? With so much diversity on offer, Cognac is the perfect…