Named after Glasgow’s local patron saint – and a brewer himself – in typical WEST style, this packs more flavour in than you might think while still sticking to all-important German 16th-century beer purity laws. The sub-title – pure heavenly – seems appropriate. This is refreshing, with a light bitterness on the finish, plus enough […]
Brewed to commemorate 250 years since the Jacobite revolution, Traquair’s Jacobite Ale is rich and malty, full of spiced dried fruits, and oodles of food matching potential. 8%
Scottish brewing success story, Innis & Gunn, is releasing its Original on draught for the first time. Light amber in colour, the smell transports you to the kitchen: aromas of rich honey and caramel from the brew’s time spent maturing in specially chosen oak barrels dominate. Banana splits, more honey and lightly caramelised malt on […]
Peter’s Well is the flagship beer of the Houston Brewing Company, and has a string of awards to its name, including SIBA Champion Best Bitter of Scotland, as well as taking third place in CAMRA’s 2011 Champion Beer of Scotland competition. It certainly looks the part, a dark gold colour with a good frothy head, which […]
This is a big braw* whisky, the one you’d want in your hip flask on a wintery walk. The first impression is of dry peat smoke, but that quickly gives way to lots of fruitcake character, along with a sophisticated woody note which seems as elegant as a fine cognac. Underlying all of these is […]
One of Scotland’s oldest distilleries Glen Garioch (pronounced Geery) has been re-born with a new pair of regular whiskies and the first of a selection of small-batch bottlings, the 1991. Founded in 1797, the distillery is located in the picturesque town of Oldmeldrum, north-west of Aberdeen. Shut in the late 1960s, new owners, Morrison Bowmore […]
Until as recently as 2003 there was no official standard bottling from Clynelish, and even now there are only three. The 14 Year Old is the most widely available. It is an elegant medium-bodied whisky, neither peaty nor overly malty, and thus a good all-rounder. When you nose the whisky at first, the elegance expresses […]
A classically light Laddie, with cereal and citrus notes and a subtle spiciness from the casks, this is the only organic whisky from Islay, and one of only two organic single malts. What’s more, we are told the names of the farms which produced the barley for this whisky, and even the names of the farmers. […]
Light, elegant, and clean, the Bruichladdich 12 Year Old combines delicacy and intensity. It’s pale looking beside other whiskies; no sherry casks here to darken the malt, just light, sweet ex-bourbon barrels. The nose is fairly complex, dominated by ripe fruity notes – we found a hint of peach – but with lighter touches of […]
Brora, a rare dram from a long closed distillery, is one of history’s happy accidents. The old, mothballed Clynelish – renamed Brora to avoid confusion with the newly rebuilt distillery – was brought back into service in 1969 making heavily peated whisky to bolster blends like Johnny Walker. Only after it was again closed in […]
