A 41-year-old man has been arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police following an alleged attempt to sell hundreds of thousands of pounds of counterfeit spirits at auction, in an operation ‘never seen on such a scale before’. A police raid of a residential address unearthed a ‘significant’ rare spirits collection, alongside a ‘sophisticated’ bottling operation that […]
Three Premium Tequilas And What To Pair Them With:
Tequila isn’t just that swill to regret on a Monday morning. The rise of tequila bars, artisan brands and pairing lists are cementing the drink as a serious spirit. Sadly, the most common experience with tequila is as a glass of cheap yellow pain masked by lime and salt. Such tequilas use only 51% of the distilled agave […]
Rare Whisky Investment Has a Bumper Year in 2016!
The rare whisky market world-wide experienced an ‘exceptional’ year in 2016, with sales of collectible single malt Scotch whiskies reaching $25million AUD, according to analyst and UK based broker Rare Whisky 101 (RW101). Sales of single malts on the secondary market in the UK are booming, with full-year figures showing a 48.64% jump from just under $20million […]
Pappy Van Winkle 25 Year Old? Really??
Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery have announced they will release a one-time bottling of Van Winkle bourbon at 25 years old in April 2017 for $USD1,800 for a 750 ml bottle. Only 11 barrels comprise this very small batch bourbon, making the 710 bottles especially rare. Obviously, this will be much harder to find than […]
Buffalo Trace Single Oak Bourbon Experiment
Over the a period of four years from 2011 to 2015, Buffalo Trace Distillery has been incrementally releasing 192 different bottlings of a Single Oak Project Bourbon and asking whiskey enthusiasts to vote on their favourite at www.singleoakproject.com. The ambitious goal of this research was to create the perfect bourbon, based on feedback from bourbon drinkers. […]
Is Irish Whiskey Making a Resurgence?
In 1835, Ireland boasted a peak ninety-three distilleries. In 2013, there were four. 2017 has seen that unfortunate four grow to a promising sixteen, as well as drinks giant Diageo’s reinvestment in Irish whiskey two years after dropping Bushmills. While this increase may represent the return of Ireland to its glory days of distillation, a few drops does not […]
Bottled in Bond…Do You Know What it Really Means?
To understand the term Bottled in Bond or BIB, you have to understand the way whiskey worked in the Wild West. In the old West and across the US in the 1800s, no law stood to protect imbibers from buying dodgy or dangerous alcohol. Sly saloon owners and snake-oil salesmen sold bottles of mixed booze browned with […]
New Release: Johnny Drum Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Born in the heart of Bourbon country in Bardstown Kentucky, Johnny Drum is a superb sour mash whiskey. Rumour has it the name is a tribute to Johnny Drum who, like many men his age in that era, attempted to join the Confederate army before he was of the legal age to fight. Being under […]