Review : 100 Pipers 12 Years Old

A friend of mine had recently travelled to the US on business, and had got me a bottle of Bushmills 10 YO for my review. While making a trip nearby, he thought of handing over the bottle instead of me having to do the travel. I had recently changed jobs and the meet turned out…

Review : The Glenmorangie Original

It’s surprising how the mind and the many plethora of human senses  perceive an event that takes you back a few decades. In this specific instance, it was the scent of dust as it gets lifted off the earth with every drop of rain hitting the arid, seared soil. So much did this sound of…

Review : Vat 69 Black

Every once in a while you stumble across something that stays camouflaged in the background but just for that instance gets caught in your field of vision. And though it might not always be a high dollar spirit, the act of discovery itself manifests an interest that draws you to pour yourself a dram and…

Review : McDowell’s Single Malt

Whiskies are so much of an unexplored and unappreciated lot that it took me over a decade to realize what I was really missing. The outlook the world over has matured and continues to do so with more and more people appreciating the drink; not to mention distillers going beyond just age and ingredient in…

Review : Teacher’s Highland Cream

It all started in the early 1830s when William Teacher began making blends and selling them at his grocery store. After he was granted a license in 1856, he opened a ‘dram shop’ and with time, the number of such establishments grew to eighteen. Although there were several of his blends sold over the counter,…

Review : Cutty Sark Blended Scotch Whisky

A lot can happen over coffee they say…and in the case of the Cutty Sark, it happened over lunch between Francis Berry, Hugh Rudd (partners of Berry Bros. & Rudd) and James McBey. The idea was to introduce a whisky that could be mixed into a cocktail or sipped as an aperitif, a move from…

Review : Glenlivet 12 YO

At a time when liquor was produced illegally and the need to push against all the competition meant licensing the means to produce spirits – George Smith an illicit distiller formed the first licensed Distillery in the parish of Glenlivet, the year being 1824. The Glenlivet is one of the few that survived the Great…

Review : Black Dog ‘Centenary’ Black Reserve

The Centenary, the youngest expression from the Black Dog family has had some stage presence in India for quite a while and though distilled and aged in Scotland, it is imported and then bottled locally. This effectively brings down the import customs considerably making them not only pocket friendly but also enabling cash registers to…

Review : The Famous Grouse

The ‘Famous Grouse’ came to life in 1905, and was known as the ‘Grouse Blend’ prior to being renamed. Much of the blends existence can be attributed to almost a century ago in 1800, when Matthew Gloag, a native of Perth, Scotland started his establishment, ‘Matthew Gloag & Son’. A grocer and a wine merchant…

Review : Chivas Regal Extra

The weekend came with a surprise, in the shape of a nice shiny red box – The Chivas Regal Extra; thanks to a friend of mine who got hold of it at the Duty Free Store. Its absence at the local liquor stores tells me that it’s still being exclusively sold at the airports and…

To etch or not to etch…

Two brands, two different prices, how must you decide? Certainly not one of those instances where you would leave the decision to a game of “Eeny meeny miny moe…” Consider a situation where you’re in a predicament and you need to single out a phone for yourself. Do you set your eyes on the latest…

Review : Whyte & Mackay Special

The first time I had caught wind of the Whyte & Mackay portfolio was while browsing the internet and stumbling across a couple of YouTube Videos of their Master Distiller, Richard Paterson; a very passionate, enthusiastic and hands-on person. Probably one of a handful of Master Distillers who love devoting ‘on screen’ presence spreading whisky…

Whisky – Gulf & all that’s in between!

Deep reservoirs of oil, the need for building infrastructure and an open door trade policy to the outside world meant the possibility for a wide variety of global brands to identify prospects in the sand clad lands of the gulf. And for a region that only three generations back was inhabited mostly by nomadic tribesman…

Review : Black & White Blended Whisky

December and Christmas is when I make a run down south to the lands of backwaters, plush green estates, rubber, banana and coconut plantations. Kerala is where my folks reside and is my home away from home. And this time, while tidying up a few shelves and scrubbing up a few nooks and corners I…

Review : Jameson’s Original

With Christmas and the New Year nearing by, I certainly didn’t want to pen a review on the usual Scotch or Bourbon. And it was then that I had realised something rather dumbfounded and to be quite honest …stupid! I kept telling myself how could I be so daft that I happened to overlook one…

Review : Old Smuggler Blended Scotch

Hidden behind dark silhouettes, held gently by a few cobwebs and sprinkled with dust from the years of abandonment, was this nostalgic bulbous bottle with clear antiquated fonts. And if it was not for the lighting and the resulting hint of gold that caught my eyes, chances are this bottle might not have seen the…

The Wood in Whisky

Every once in a while at the liquor store, I get stumped each time I come across whiskies that are tagged with sometimes mind numbing phrases such as being Solera Vatted, or matured in Triple Casks, PX or Select Casks.  And I’m sure other novice drinkers like me do find themselves in the same predicament…