BlindTastingOnTour : Campbeltown

The second annual #BlindTastingOnTour started with a 4.15am alarm clock, a 4.30am taxi and a 4.55am train from home to Carnforth to meet up with the rest of the gang who drove up from further south.

Side by side : Highland 46s

Highland drams seem to get a little ignored by reviewers with their big brothers from Islay or Speyside taking the limelight. This region produces nearly a quarter of all the whisky distilled in Scotland.

For this side by side I've selected 5 Highland drams all at the ABV sweet spot of 46% but with varying maturation, let see what they are like!

Lakes Distillery Initial Release - Whiskymaker's Reserve No. 1

I admit I've not been a huge fan of the whiskies coming out of my local distillery, The Lakes Distillery in Cumbria. I'm not a fan of unknown blends, expensive limited editions or dodgy marketing stories - just give me a good reasonably priced whisky to drink and I'll be happy.

The Whiskymaker's Reserve No.1 is their first 'real release' a single malt - let's see what it's like!

Whisky from...? Sweden

This year Sweden is celebrating 20 years of modern whisky distilling, it was 1998 when eight friends, on a skiing trip to the mountains, decided that Sweden needed its own distillery, the rest as they say is history!

The first spirit came off Mackmyra's stills in 1999, they've experimented with different ingredients, techniques and maturation types and today they produce a number of different styles of whisky.

#MiniTasting - Blind Comparison #2

Blind Comparison #2 - the #MiniTasting gang take on 3 blind drams for our 10th #MiniTasting.

#MiniTasting - Bartels 10th Anniversary

An invitation on twitter from @bartelswhisky_ allowed the #MiniTasting team to try their 10th Anniversary bottling of a 17yo blend.

Podcast re-visit - Glen Scotia Victoriana

As you may have heard on a recent @thisismydram podcast, Stu, Andy, John and myself had a little chat over a couple of glasses of @GlenScotiaMalts Victoriana. Listen here!

Excellent Photo : @jwbassman_

This is a robust, cask strength, lightly peated Campbeltown dram.

Irish Cask Strength

So what do you do when a mate from Ireland says "The distillery aren't sure whether to release a cask strength version of the 12yo, I've suggested a tasting, do you want to take part?"

Well as you can imagine it took me a couple of milliseconds to reply, a few days later 25 of us received a lovely packaged bottle in the post.