Douglas Laing is one of my absolute favourite indie whisky bottlers. And that’s saying a lot, because I’m a pretty big fan of indie bottlers, and there are quite a lot of them… (On that note, check out our other blog post about some favourite indie bottlers you’ve never heard of!) Picking the my favourites … Continue reading “My Favourite Douglas Laing Whiskies”

It’s no secret that we love independent whisky bottlers at The Dram Team. So much so that we’ve regularly featured them as part of our tasting boxes!  So as part of an ongoing exploration into the incredible indies in our tasting boxes, we’re also going to write about them on the blog. Our first feature … Continue reading “Douglas Laing Whisky: Everything You Need to Know!”

What is whisky made from? It’s an important question because it’s more than an issue of taste alone; it can also be a legal issue (boo lawyers!).  The core ingredients of whisky are water, yeast and a cereal grain. Water often comes from a natural spring, but it doesn’t have to. The yeast can be … Continue reading “What is whisky made from?”

Everyone needs a good workhorse whisky. You want the best everyday and affordable whiskies. Something you can depend on, stocked up cheaply and bring out whenever the fancy takes you. These are my suggestions

Have you ever worried that your scotch whisky might go off? Imagine you’ve finally bought your dream bottle of whisky. Not a whisky to collect. The whisky you’ve always wanted to crack open and enjoy. You’ve saved it for a special occasion, poured yourself a good measure and taken a sip.

It’s everything you dreamed it would be. So, you put the top back on and wait for another special occasion. But have you made a horrible mistake? What if you wait years before you try it again? Can whisky go off? Can your whisky go out of date? 

The reason for so many glen-something whiskies is because ‘glen’ means ‘valley’ in Gaelic.

There are a lot of hills in Scotland, so there are lots of glens. Distilleries are built in glens because:

1. You need a lot of water to make whisky, so the bottle of a valley is an excellent place to be.

2. It’s easier to build a distillery at the bottle of a hill than on top of one.

A lot of distilleries take their name from their location. It isn’t a surprise there are so many scotch whiskies that have glen in their name.

Ahh, Easter. Who doesn’t love Cream Egg season? At this time of year, there’s always a lot of chocolate around. It has us at The Dram Team thinking about why chocolate and whisky pair so well together. So, today we’re going to talk about pairing whisky and chocolate. One of the things that’s fascinating about … Continue reading “How to Pair Whisky and Chocolate”