Browsing Posts by Author: Billy

Absinthe is a drink surrounded by stories and misconceptions. From tales of murderous rampages under its influences to decades of being banned across Europe, its reputation is fearsome and almost entirely undeserved. It’s time to…

It’s the middle of February and our first big event of 2018 approaches – my favourite weekend of the year: The Whisky Show Old & Rare. On 24 and 25 February, we’ll be moving north…

In the cocktail world, it’s white rum that gets all the love: lightly flavoured and with no colour to muddy the other ingredients, it’s an ideal pick (most of the time). However, if you want…

Glenmorangie‘s Dr Bill Lumsden – director of distillation and whisky creation – likes to experiment. While some of the distillery’s Private Edition releases – his yearly chance to showcase the whiskies he has been tinkering…

Karuizawa is an almost unobtainable whisky. I’m incredibly lucky in getting to try it from time to time, but I hold a strange opinion that gets me strange looks from whisky fans: I think bourbon-cask-matured…

Burns Night is upon us. Expect the internet to be filled with pictures of steaming haggises, triple tartan outfits and more kilts than you can wave a sgian-dubh at. Here on The Whisky Exchange blog,…

When it comes to revivals, Glenglassaugh has had one of the more impressive crawls back from the dead in recent years. A decade of stuttering resurrection has been rewarded with the dawning of a new…

Blending whisky is hard. It takes master blenders years to hone their skills, working up slowly through the ranks to take on the creation of new whiskies. However, that shouldn’t stop you having a go…

It was a busy year, 2017. Lots of new things to drink, lots of tastings to attend and lots of new posts on the blog. So, before we properly commit to 2018 (it’s only a…

Brendan McCarron is Head of Maturing Whisky Stocks for The Glenmorangie Company – makers of Ardbeg and Glenmorangie – and heir apparent to the company’s whisky creator, Dr Bill Lumsden. We spoke to him at…

One summer, years ago, in the early days of my obsession with drinks, I went away for a long weekend in Portugal and came back a changed man: a few summery days in Porto are…

Dan Szor is the founder of Cotswolds Distillery. He left behind a career in finance to follow his love of whisky and build the first distillery in the area. After years of development and hard…

Whether you’re a whisky collector or a drinker, a whisky’s looks are important. Beyond its colour and how it looks in the glass, there’s the packaging. While we are focused on finding whiskies that taste…

While there are hundreds of lost distilleries dotting the countryside north of the border, it’s rare to find whisky from any that closed before the 1980s. And if you do, it’s often more a collector’s…

Ever since the early days of whisky production, distilleries have appeared and disappeared. Some failed, some merged, some literally exploded, and the Scottish landscape is littered with the remains of historical distilling. However, October was…

When it comes to tasting whiskies, there is a huge range of things to distract you. The room you’re in, other people around you, rogue pets, your roommate’s bad taste in music, next door’s obsession…

It’s that time again: the day when Jim Murray reveals his favourite whiskies in the world. The results of his Whisky Bible 2018 have just been announced, and the winner of the top prize hails…

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…