Have you ever wondered how much difference your choice of drinking vessel makes? It has often been a subject of debate amongst Whisky drinkers and one of our intrepid members (Sean) has added his thoughts. His observations on three of the main whisky tasting glasses is really interesting. See his table below.  Thanks for taking the time to do this Sean. Do you have a favourite glass? Add to the comments section below ..read more

​GUESS MY AGE For many years whisky distillers promoted their product using an age statement and we were told that older is better. 12 years old seemed to be the magical point where whisky became premium and became a ‘quality’ product. Increased demand for whisky in recent years has depleted distilleries stock and many are now struggling to maintain production of 'age statement' whiskies. We now have whisky marketing departments looking for alternate ways to promote such as by colour, or by different types of finish, or by selling single cask versions, or by use of catchy names. Unable to pro ..read more

​Peat, Peat, Re-peated   Alan hosted the online tasting this evening featuring peated whiskies. Alan is what we call a ‘sherry head’ and not the biggest fan of peated whiskies, so it was going to be interesting finding out what whiskies he would choose. As it turned out, it was a great selection, but more about that later. Peated whiskies can sometimes be a little challenging, especially for people in the early stages of their whisky journey. Peated whiskies came about because of the use of peat as a fuel used for drying the barley prior to distillation. This adds phenol compounds to the ..read more

​THE COTSWOLDS – SSWI (Site of special whisky interest)   This month was a very special tastîng with Dan Svor, the founder of the Cotswold distillery. Less than 30 miles away from SWC base, it is a distillery that we are very familiar with, and we have followed its development from initial conception, the first distillation in 2014, the inaugural release in 2017 to the multiple award-winning distillery it is today. Many of us invested some of our dosh giving us a prized bottle or two of the coveted first whisky to be released and an invite to the inaugural release party. Even though we ar ..read more

​Does Blending Whiskies Give Mixed Results?   For the uninitiated, the difference between a single malt, a single grain, a blended malt, and a blended whisky can be somewhat confusing. A single malt whisky, and a single grain whisky, are often a blend of whiskies from different casks, albeit from the same distillery.  A blended malt, sometimes called a vatted malt, is a blend of single malt whiskies from different distilleries. A blended whisky is a blend of grain whisky and malt whisky. How’s that for clarity? There is a common misconception that a single malt is better than a blend ..read more

​Kosher Whisky   Our get-together this month was a fascinating and informative online tasting led by Danny Saltman and Saul Taylor of DS Tayman Independent Bottlers introducing four of their current range of whiskies and a Speyside new make spirit. DS Tayman specialise in single cask, single malt Scotch whiskies. Each cask is specially selected for appearance, smell, and flavour before being finished in Israeli wine casks giving unique characteristics to their limited releases. All of their whiskies are Kosher.   New Make – Undisclosed Speyside Distillery: 63.5% ABV, £49 A bonus, bei ..read more

​​Approaching St Patrick’s day celebrations what else could we do but choose Irish whiskey as the tipple of choice for our March tasting?  Notice the spelling of whiskey (with an ‘e’) – this difference in spelling was introduced around 1890 and legend has it that the Irish wanted to differentiate their spirit from the Scottish whisky which was somewhat variable in quality at that time. The American distillers generally use whiskey as well – this could be the result of the large number of Irish immigrants to the USA setting up distilleries. As to whether it was the Scottish or the Irish wh ..read more

The Mystical East A lot of people are now familiar with whiskies from Japan; they’ve had a lot of publicity in recent years and the surge in their popularity has outstripped supply making some of them very hard to obtain and caused prices to rocket.  Whiskies from places like India and Taiwan, although not as well-known, are also starting to gain some recognition. The whiskies for this virtual meet were selected by Jo (Mrs Whiskipedia as some people have referred to her!) and supplied by a good friend of SWC - Arkwrights Whisky in Highworth, near Swindon. Well worth a visit when restricti ..read more

This month was one of our ever-popular blind tastings where we get to show our prowess (or, closer to the truth, total lack of prowess) in guessing where a whisky originates from. Some, foolishly, even try to guess the distillery and the bottling. We don’t set the bar too high and feel a certain amount of pride in at least getting the planet right. If we accidentally stumble on the right country that’s bragging rights. Occasionally someone will get the right distillery and be accorded the SWC Smart A*** of the month award. It doesn’t happen too often. The bottles were selected by Debbie, wife ..read more

​ ​  Traditionally, we have a get together in December each year and re-visit some of the whiskies we enjoyed over the previous twelve months. Sadly, the events of 2020 meant we had to find another way to have a festive get-together, so our first fully online tasting came to be. Taking advantage of Black Friday offers allowed us to push the boat out and buy a somewhat pricy bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label Ghost and Rare Port Ellen Edition. To expand the tasting, we also bought some much more reasonably priced Johnny Walker offerings, namely Black Label, Double Black, and Green Lab ..read more