The Whisky Shop, Inverness

The Whisky Shop is the UK's largest specialist whisky retailing chain. The company currently has 14 stores in Scotland and England. The Scottish stores are located in Callander, Fort William, Glasgow, Inverness, Oban and three in Edinburgh, including the newest store at the new Ocean Terminal centre. The stores in England can be found in London, Norwich, Oxford, York and the Lakeside and Metro shopping centres. The Whisky Shop also has most of its stock available for online ordering and worldwide shipping. For more details, take a look at www.whiskyshop.com. We visited the chain's Inverness branch on our recent visit to the Speyside region in Scotland.

The Whisky Shop was founded in 1992 with the first store opening in Edinburgh. The number of stores grew in Scotland until the group was purchased in 2004 by Ian Bankier, a top corporate lawyer and former Managing Director of Burn Stewart Distillers who own the Bunnahabhain, Deanston and Tobermory distilleries. He saw the opportunity to consolidate the stores in Scotland and expand The Whisky Shop chain south of the border. There are now six shops located in England.

The Whisky Shop chain currently stocks over 700 whiskies across the company, including 450 different single malts and one of the widest selections of miniatures available. They also bottle their own range of whiskies named Glenkeir Treasures. These come in two forms. The first is the cask strength single cask limited edition releases that have been selected and purchased from distilleries, some of which have been closed or mothballed. The second form is bottled in the stores by the staff. The whiskies are bought from the distilleries and then put in to temporary casks in each of the stops. The Glenkeir Treasures sit at the centre of The Whisky Shop's range and offer something different for new whisky drinkers and connoisseurs alike.

The Whisky Shop in Inverness is a great shop that offers almost 500 different whiskies to choose from. We were looked after by Scott and Neil and sampled a couple of new whiskies from the local area - the Tomatin 15 and 18 years old - we will be reviewed shortly. The shop also stock all manner of other whisky and Scottish related items such as hipflasks, quaichs, shortbread, confectionary, sweets, books, maps, glassware and other souvenirs. The shop is located in Bridge Street, very close to the River Ness, and is definitely worth a visit if you are in the capital of the Highlands or nearby in the Speyside region.