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…
Continue reading »Highland vs Speyside – a tale of two regions
Posted on 18 August 2017 by Stuart
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Beer trends – what I learned at London Beer City
Posted on 15 August 2017 by Billy
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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…
Continue reading »Cognac – perfect for summer!
Posted on 9 August 2017 by Rocky
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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…
Continue reading »Food Pairing Guide: Barbecue
Posted on 4 August 2017 by Billy
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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…
Continue reading »Whisky finishing – a recipe for success?
Posted on 2 August 2017 by Stuart
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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…
Continue reading »English whisky – beating the Scots at their own game?
Posted on 28 July 2017 by Billy
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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…
Continue reading »Five must-try Cognacs
Posted on 26 July 2017 by Leonora
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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…
Continue reading »What is eau-de-vie?
Posted on 21 July 2017 by Rocky
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One of the lesser-known spirit categories is eau-de-vie. Most people will have tried one, and often without realising as various countries’ national drinks are classified as eau-de-vie, such as raki from Turkey and European slivovitz….
Continue reading »Bourbon vs Scotch: what’s the difference?
Posted on 19 July 2017 by Stuart
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To non-whisky drinkers, Scotch and bourbon are the same thing. A dark spirit, made with the same ingredients and aged in the same barrels. Right? Wrong. The two drinks have a lot in common but…
Continue reading »Loch Lomond – thirteen styles of whisky, one distillery
Posted on 14 July 2017 by Billy
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Loch Lomond distillery can be found a mile or so to the south of the eponymous loch, and has been quietly making whisky since 1964. For most of its life, the distillery has focused on…
Continue reading »Time to take rum seriously
Posted on 7 July 2017 by TWE Admin
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Richard Seale, master distiller at Foursquare Distillery in Barbados, believes that the rum category needs clearer definitions so that the consumer knows exactly what they are buying. In this exclusive post for The Whisky Exchange, he…
Continue reading »A beginner’s guide to Canadian whisky
Posted on 29 June 2017 by Billy
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Oh Canada. You make lots of great whisky but haven’t sent much of it to Europe…until now. For years, the only Canadian whiskies you’ve been able to find in Europe are the really big names:…
Continue reading »Old whisky: drink it or sell it?
Posted on 23 June 2017 by Billy
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We get a lot of questions at The Whisky Exchange, but the most common is simple: ‘Should I drink this bottle or sell it?’ Several times a day, someone who’s found a bottle hidden in…
Continue reading »Surviving a wine tasting – 5 tips to make you look like a pro
Posted on 21 June 2017 by Stuart
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Our lovely head buyer Dawn Davies knows more about wine than 99% of people on the planet. She’s a Master of Wine (MW), a qualification so tough there are only 350 people in the world…
Continue reading »Our Favourite Gin Cocktails
Posted on 16 June 2017 by Billy
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When it comes to cocktails, gin is very much the spirit of choice at the moment. There’s a huge range of drinks and recipes out there, but here are three classics to get you started:…
Continue reading »Whisky and food pairing guide: cupcakes
Posted on 14 June 2017 by Leonora
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When you think of food and whisky pairings, cheese, chocolate and meat may come to mind, but cupcakes? Elements of Islay international brand ambassador Mariella Romano hosted a whisky and cupcake evening for our Covent…
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Recent Comments
Unfortunately, the answer is 'between 400g and 2000g per litre' :)
Posted on: 9 October 2024
What ratio of Sloe to gin is used, I see anything from 400 to 2000g of sloe to 1 litre of gin!
Posted on: 7 October 2024
What really makes Bob Harris' predicament in 'Lost In Translation' so absurdly funny is that he nailed it in one take, and the director just couldn't accept that.
Posted on: 11 January 2024
I'd say there's not a lot between them. I'd say that the techniques used to make the rum change the flavour more than the raw material between molasses and cane honey, so it'll be other factors that...
Posted on: 26 October 2023
Such a pity that the distillery was destroyed. I had the great luck to try one of these, to me almost magic, Karuizawas. It was a 1972/2008, 36y, #7290 with 65%. Since today I have memoriesof this...
Posted on: 17 October 2023