Review - Clydeside New Make Spirit

This new make spirit is the first ever product to be released from the Clydeside distillery in Glasgow. The distillery is located on the banks of the River Clyde about 1.5 miles from the centre of the city and is housed in the old pump house which opened a long dismantled swing bridge in the Queen's Dock for over 90 years. The old pump house was originally built in 1877 and was decommissioned in 1969 when Glasgow's ship building finally ground to a halt. The renovation and conversion began in August 2016 and the first distillate was produced in November 2017. The new make is made using 100% malted barley and will mature to become Clydeside single malt in time. It was first bottled and released in January 2018.

Review - Jura 12 years old

This whisky forms part of the core range from the island distillery of Jura. The range was revamped in 2018 and this 12 years old is joined by other age statements at 10, 18 and 21 years old plus three other 'no age statement' expressions - the French Oak, Journey and Seven Wood. The whiskies involved in the 12 years old have followed two different paths - regular unpeated spirit has matured in ex-bourbon casks before a period of finishing in ex-Oloroso sherry barrels, while rarer peated spirit (which is only made for one month each year) has been matured solely in ex-bourbon casks. The two pockets of stock have then been married together to produce the final whisky.

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (May 1, 2020)

Welcome to Inbox, our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information.

Allotment Dram - Smokehead

For those of you that follow us on Instagram (if you're not, why not? - click the tab at the top of the right hand column), you will know that we regularly post pictures of our 'allotment dram' - the whisky we are enjoying whenever we visit our allotment in North London to do some work or gardening. In these strange times, we have decided to bring this to life and record a brief tasting of each one, along with an update on the allotment's progress.

For this episode, Matt is visiting and working at the allotment on a much more traditional 'April Showers' type of day than we have experienced recently. He has picked an 'allotment dram' to suit the colder and damper conditions - Smokehead, an Islay single malt whisky that packs a peaty punch. Enjoy.

#allotmentdram

Review - Filey Bay Moscatel Finish

This bottling is the latest limited edition single malt from the English whisky producer Spirit of Yorkshire. The Filey Bay Moscatel Finish has been filled to American oak ex-bourbon barrels back in the Summer of 2016 before then being transferred for a finishing period to ex-Moscatel hogsheads that were sourced from Spain. Filey Bay is named after the beach and holiday resort that is located a few miles from the distillery. There are just 6,000 bottles available and these are currently for sale exclusively via the distillery website at www.spiritofyorkshire.com. It joins the original Filey Bay release from Autumn 2019 and a series of six preview bottlings under the Maturing Malts Distillery Projects label.

Review - Smokehead

Smokehead is an Islay single malt brand that is owned and bottled by Iain Macleod Distillers. The company also own the Glengoyne and Tamdhu single malt distilleries, and are currently renovating the fabled Rosebank distillery after almost 30 years of closure. Smokehead was first released in 2006 and stirred up the whisky category at the time with its then unconventional look and contemporary packaging. This has since had a revamp a couple of years ago. This whisky carries no age statement and is from an un-named distillery on the famous whisky island of Islay. There is much speculation as to which distillery it may be - tap it in to a search engine if you do not believe us.

Back to School with Edinburgh Whisky Academy - Part 1

In these times of lockdown and quarantine it seems that people have been going back to basics to fill their time. Maybe revisiting an old hobby or learning a new skill that they have always wanted to do. It could be one of the positive things to come out of the global pandemic as the world we knew and the way we operate in our lives, both socially and professionally, seems to be changing for ever.

Therefore, I decided to do the same but wait for the correct inspirational opportunity to arise. Then I saw that the Edinburgh Whisky Academy were offering a 30% discount on their courses for a short period as people were unable to physically attend their classes. Having heard good things about them I decided to sign up and go 'back to school'.

Allotment Dram - Jack Daniel's Rye

For those of you that follow us on Instagram (if you're not, why not? - click the tab at the top of the right hand column), you will know that we regularly post pictures of our 'allotment dram' - the whisky we are enjoying whenever we visit our allotment in North London to do some work or gardening. In these strange times, we have decided to bring this to life and record a brief tasting of each one, along with an update on the allotment's progress.

Matt visits the allotment again as we experience an unseasonably warm spell of April weather and this time he has selected the Jack Daniel's Rye, a fairly recent addition to the famous Tennessee distillery's range of whiskeys, as his 'allotment dram'. We hope you enjoy.

#allotmentdram 

Inbox - The Week's Whisky News (April 24, 2020)

Welcome to Inbox, our weekly round up of whisky news and PR material that has found its way in to our WFE email. It was created as we cannot write full articles or do justice to every piece received. It features items from around the world of whisky and is published by us each Friday. Within Inbox we aim to write a few lines detailing each press release/piece of news/PR event that we have received and provide links, where possible, for you to find out further information.

Allotment Dram - Glenlivet Captain's Reserve

For those of you that follow us on Instagram (if you're not, why not? - click the tab at the top of the right hand column), you will know that we regularly post pictures of our 'allotment dram' - the whisky we are enjoying whenever we visit our allotment in North London to do some work or gardening. In these strange times, we have decided to bring this to life and record a brief tasting of each one, along with an update on the allotment's progress.

On Matt's latest visit he samples the Glenlivet Captain's Reserve on a sunny but blustery afternoon. Find out who the whisky is named after and what the influence of rare ex-Cognac casks does to the aroma and flavour of this single malt.

#allotmentdram