Review of my whisky year - 2024

Firstly thanks to all of you who have read my blog (c296,000 up from 228,000 last year) and followed me on social media.

This blog has been going for 8 years now and this is the 759th blog post! In that time I've reviewed over 2,060 whiskies! Let's review 2024!

DrivenByDrams Arran & Glasgow Tour - Day 2 (Arran Distillery)

Day 2 and the DrivenByDrams gang's Arran & Glasgow trip had us leaving Glasgow and heading for the ferry to @Arranwhisky

#BTC41 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes and results from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 41st #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Billy @BillyCowan

Side by side: A Little Brown Dog Flight

@lbdspirits are an Indie bottler and micro distillery based in rural Aberdeenshire, founded in 2018.

To celebrate their 5th birthday this week they shared some drams with us!

#BTC24 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

 These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 24th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Mike @WhiskyWings

Sauternes - too sweet?

There are loads of different wine cask now used to mature whisky, red ones seem to be more prominent as they add a darker colour.

Rayne Vigneau Barrel Room

Here I try Sauternes, a very sweet white desert wine, matured whiskies.

Side by side: Five 10 year olds

There aren't a lot of distilleries sending out standard bottlings at 10 years of age, most leave it another couple of years for their entry level age statements.

In fact the Balvenie 10yo I'm trying here has been discontinued and replaced by a 12yo.

Whisky and water

How much water does it take to make a bottle of whisky? How much water should you add to your whisky? These and other difficult water related questions answered!

Let's dive in! 😉

Core Range : Arran

Continuing the series of posts showing a distillery's core range of bottlings.

This time looking at Arran

BTC10 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 10th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Sam @ReviewsWhisky and Mike @whiskyrover

Whisky 'machinery' - the Mash Tun

A new series looking at some of the 'machinery' used in a distillery to create whisky - this time the Mash Tun.

I've covered the basic process of creating whisky here, but I'm going to explore the machinery a little more in this series.

Side by side : The Fisherman's Retreat Edition 8

I've been reviewing @FishRetreat releases for a while now - Jim McEwan selected Bruichladdich and Arran single casks. - this time they've gone a little different and released a a white wine Arran as a 50% bottling as well as a Cask Strength version.

Let's see how the compare?

BTC7 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 7th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Gordon @gordonsmith63 and Scott @ScotchB78

Arran tasting with BCWS

Another Friday night and another @BlackCountryWS lockdown virtual tasting!.

This time is was with @Arranwhisky distillery.

BTC4 #BlindDrams Tasting Notes

 These are my tasting notes from the Blind Tasting Consortium's 4th #BlindDrams evening.

These drams were picked by Damian @newdramrising

Side by side : The Fisherman's Retreat

Nestled in Twine Valley at the edge of the Pennine hills, 3 miles east of the town of Ramsbottom and around 15 miles north of Manchester is a family owned and run restaurant pub called The Fisherman's Retreat. Other than food and beer they have the odd conference and a wedding or two but they have a couple of little secrets...

So what are the secrets you ask? Well if you promise not to tell anyone....?

Side by side : Three Arran Drams

On the west coast of Scotland between the mainland and Kintyre peninsula is the Isle Of Arran, home now to two distilleries. I've visited a couple of times and always come away with something interesting!

This time I trying three limited edition drams, lets see how they compare:

Scotch Whisky Advent Calendar

I was lucky enough to receive a whisky advent calendar from those lovely people at @DrinksByTheDram, it was their Scotch Whisky 2019 edition.

Each day during #Dramvent I opened a door and discovered what was inside!

Youtube clips

I've appeared in a few Youtube clips talking about whisky or doing reviews - here's an updated list of them!

The Whisky Family (Was Maltman Mike & Friends)

Glen Scotia Campbeltown 1832

Review of my whisky year - 2018

First of all thank you to all the people who have read my blog (c29,000 up from 16,500 last year) and followed me on Twitter (c1,680 up from 900 last year).

My highlights of 2018 were: