The crisp white wall of the distillery buildings and the signature name etched along the foreshore stands firm and concrete. I wandered down to the foreshore and skipped stones into the sea, smelt the freshness of the ocean and thought to myself, some things find a way to survive so long as they are loved.
Category: Drink
Tasting notes, stories and experiences.
With Love, From Mea (Culpa)
We used to say if on a bad day you ended up at Mea Culpa and on a good day you started there, then everything was going to be okay.
The Mother of (Japanese) Whisky
The Taketsuru Pure Malt (a non-age statement version). And here’s to drinking to a legend and a woman behind the bottle who loved and persevered. Happy Mother’s Day, Rita. Thanks for the malt.
The Joy of Independent Bottlings: Glendullan 1993
When I first started drinking whisky, it was simpler. I wanted to try everything I could lay my hands on but that wasn’t a vast range. Most of it was major brands that were instantly recognisable. As with most things though, over time your understanding deepens and you start to see with better eyes. I began to labels that were nearly written in code, with colours, maps and distillery names I’d barely heard of.
Indulgence: The GlenDronach 1972, Cask 706.
And then, there are the unicorn bottles. Sometimes you know something is precious and within your grasp so you make a plan to have it. I am the determined type of girl that usually finds a way to achieve her goals.
Campbeltown Malts Tasting
I dip my hands in the salty, brittle ocean and smell the sea. With my eyes, I see what I imagined when I first tasted that remarkable Springbank malt. A hard place, touched by economic struggle but with a strong spirit. A place that makes beautiful things from what they have in their hand.
Jack Daniels Tasting
It’s a Thursday night and I’ve just finished my first day back in the office after a month overseas. I’ve been landed for just over 24 hours. If you don’t need a whisky then, I don’t know when you do. Except tonight, I’m not drinking whisky, I’m drinking whiskey.
Ballechin, 10 year old (from Edradour)
Edradour is a typically unpeated malt, so interesting things always happen when you take something standard and mess around with it. The name ‘Ballechin’ is from another distillery from the same area as Edradour, Pitlochry in Perthshire. It’s nice to not lose these names entirely to history.
Dailuaine, 9 years old, Cask #10742
A rare whisky that I had to both research and go back for seconds of, because if you like Piña Coladas or getting caught in the rain – this whisky is one of a kind.
The GlenDronach, Cask Strength & Sherried
I remember, 5 o’clock sherry, the awful, cheap, puckering kind. In the lounge room of his house with half-completed wallpaper and an old boxset television, he would pour a glass of sherry from the sideboard . And then he’d look sideways at me, at all of twelve years old and say, ‘Want a little?’