Browsing Posts by Author: Billy

Fettercairn isn’t a well-known whisky. One of Whyte & Mackay’s single malts – along with Dalmore, Jura, Tamnavulin and Invergordon – it’s not received much love from the owners over the past few years. However,…

The past four years have been interesting for Mortlach. Once a little-known Speysider with a single official bottling and occasional independent releases, it was a whisky fan’s whisky. But back in early 2014, the Mortlach…

Our latest exclusive whisky releases are here! This time it’s a showcase of one our favourite styles of whisky: the fruit bomb. We’ve teamed up with German indie bottler The Whisky Agency to bring you a…

Happy Daiquiri Day! The humble Daiquiri is a classic rum cocktail and maybe the simplest one to make at home. But there’s much more to it than there might seem… What is a Daiquiri? At…

Rum is often seen as a party drink. Drunk in cocktails, over ice, from a coconut, with Coke, on fire, with a slice of lime, from a plastic cup or while wearing a silly hat….

Football. The beautiful game. Or so I am told. I know nothing about sport, and the current World Cup fever has so far passed me by. However, I seem to be winning The Whisky Exchange…

[This is the continuation of an old series. Here are the previous instalments if you’d like to catch up – What was a sherry cask, What is a sherry cask and What goes into a…

We like working with Signatory Vintage. They’re well-known for having frankly ridiculous warehouses, packed with some of the best whisky in Scotland, and we’re always happy when they let us have a look at what…

It’s that time of year again: World Gin Day is almost upon us. I’m a big fan already (any excuse to drink gin is a good thing, in my opinion) but this year things are…

This week is the Islay Festival of Music and Malt, aka Feis Ile. For eight days, the small, southern Hebridean island doubles its population with an influx of people from around the world, almost all…

As someone who spends a lot of time writing tasting notes for whisky on his own, I sometimes forget that the true joy of a dram is sharing it with someone. Father’s Day is just…

Announcing our latest Whisky Exchange exclusive – a rare chance to try one of Loch Lomond’s wide range of single malts that don’t usually see the light of day as single malts. Introducing our brand…

With The Cognac Show starting tomorrow, there’s one final step in my Cognac education I need to share: how to drink the stuff… Fortunately, I’ve had expert tuition from Whisky Exchange buyer Dawn Davies MW…

The Cognac business is a strange one. It is dominated by the Big Four – Hennessy, Rémy Martin, Martell and Courvoisier – but there are hundreds of producers in the region. Cognac is built around…

The launch of the annual Diageo Special Releases is one of the big whisky events of the year. Whether you want to buy them or not, the discussion that’s generated online and the fight for…

Every year, there are a few drinks that bartenders and writers fall in love with. Folks like me run around telling everyone how great they are and sometimes, unfortunately, people listen – we’re still apologising…

With The Cognac Show rapidly approaching, we’re digging further into the world of Cognac. While there are hundreds of producers in the region – we have more than 80 in our A-Z of Cognac –…

With The Cognac Show just around the corner, we’ve been investigating France’s most famous spirit. But what is Cognac, where is it made and how do they make it? The region Cognac is the name…