Browsing Posts in: WHISKY & WHISKEY

Day 5 –there’s no way a Chinchilla can play drums like that…. After shaking the bed out to check for any errant sand fleas that might have escaped the heel of a brogue the night before,…

Day Four –  Shame, Sunsets and Sandfleas Today was all about Caol Ila.  After watching Newcastle and ‘Boro crash out from the Premiership on Sunday night we were in high spirits on the way up…

The weather had improved incredibly after Saturday’s wash out, so onwards to the Bruichladdich open day. Speaking to Jim McEwan the night before, the last 8 years of festivals have remained sunny for the distillery’s…

The 6.30 wake up call resonated through our ears like plates being dropped in a restaurant; initial shock followed by reluctant applause.  But you get on with enjoying your lot and pay your bill at…

Islay Day One Day 1- Well, this is it. Over 6 months of planning and many excited emails, the 22nd of May has arrived – our first day on the trek towards Islay and 2009’s…

Right, time is cracking on on Friday afternoon, so I’ll make this brief.  After a splendid tasting by Suntory at TWE Vinopolis on Wednesday night I was rather disappointed that the 12 year-old Hibiki (which…

I received an email from Angus Winchester’s mailing list today that has revolutionised my future tasting notes for this blog in a small but brilliant way. For those of you who haven’t heard of him,…

This just into my inbox: “To celebrate this year’s Islay Festival of Malt & Music on 23-30 May, Diageo is once again making available two special Festival editions of its Islay Single Malt Scotch Whiskies….

You never know what you’re going to get with Port Ellen – it’s remarkable how many different styles of malt the distillery was capable of.  I’ve tried long-aged austere, lemony beauties; young bourbon casks with enough delicate complexity…

Very exciting developments here at TWE Towers, as our sister company Speciality Drinks Ltd has launched a new range of Single Islay Malts! Here’s the press release: “The single malts of Islay are arguably Scotland’s…

I only got a small olfactory glimpse of this one as I had to share a sample with two fellow attendees at the Laphroaig tasting in Albannach I told you about on Monday.  Unfortunately, over-attendance at a previous…

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to a Laphroaig tasting held at Albannach (a posh whisky bar in Trafalgar Square in London).  I’m not often invited to this sort of event as…

To be honest, peating levels shouldn’t be a competition.  “My ppm is bigger than yours” sounds pretty ridiculous however you dress it up.  This sort of thing might be construed as macho willy-waving and not…

Okay, cutting it fine to get this out on time, but I’m determined – so here we go (this might look familiar to readers of the last post): Introducing (drum roll, please) Hanyu Distillery –…

Okay, I know it’s not like me to blog on consecutive days (or even twice in a week , let’s face it), but I made a promise yesterday and I’m going to try and be…

Gadzooks, has it really been so long since my last post?  Apologies, it has simply flown here at TWE towers, where I managed to take home my Supernova before doing my notes with water, then…

Sorry for the delay posting this, folks – you know what it’s like when you come back to work from holiday.  It’s taken me all week just to catch up on my regular TWE stuff. …

  TWE: Independent Spirits Retailer of the Year 2009 We’ve been saying it for a long time and now we’ve got proof!  At the Drinks Retailing Awards dinner on Tuesday night (in the Dorchester, no…