Can a £28 blend satisfy the ever-curious Doog? Well, after scrutinising the packaging and sharing some interesting British supermarket nostalgia, this Leith Legacy leaves him truly surprised.

At first Ainsley wasn’t too enamoured with the ‘hype’ around Springbank’s Local Barley releases. It took 2025’s 8yo with heritage grain to switch all the lights on. It’s finally found him.

Fletcher is certain he doesn’t suffer from FOMO. He doesn’t have floors and shelves covered in bottles and he doesn’t always pick up at least one bottle when out and about. Like this Cadenhead’s Ord he couldn’t pass up.

We often ensure new Ardnamurchan is directed through our resident Amber Prism. Wally ships Doog the Mezcal and he serves it up alongside two single cask crackers.

Nothing in life is free. Murdo has a think about this as he considers who is the ‘product’ in any of our modern whisky day transactions, while sharing another Linkwood banger from Signatory.

In evangelising some friends, Hughie encounters all-too-common blend prejudice. To counter, he hunts for a good value, sherry cask sipper to help his pals embrace the B-word. Might this Old Perth be it?

Fletcher uses a quintet of quite different, independently released Ledaig expressions to try to fathom how Signatory Vintage arrived at its pricing for a recent Cask Strength 17yo single cask.

After something of an unintended hiatus, Drummond figures out it’s just where he’s at - no longer feeling the need to chase. Instead of FOMO, he’s embracing JOMO - and four cracking Kilkerrans.

Wally enjoys thinking about whisky accidents as he manages to secure a bottle of the Living Souls ‘accident’ where, we’re told, a splash of grain accidentally made its way into a vat of aged malt. Oops.

A lesser-seen malt, well-presented - and for a very good cause that flies uncomfortably close to all of us - resonates with Charlie. To the point he feels it needn’t be particularly splendid - or complex. It’s already a good ‘thing’.

After a ‘day-off’ yesterday, due to our AWOL editor, Innes gets us back into things with a study of five different Glentauchers bottlings over four decades, including one that really shouldn’t exist…

Did our challenging times during Lockdown actually offer us a few silver linings? Murdo offers a few possible examples which endure for him today, including discovering this knockout Cadenhead’s Linkwood.

Perhaps with St Valentine’s Day on his mind, Earie wonders what makes us fall in love with certain distilleries. He decides it’s less faff, more flavour and more indies. Some other stuff too.

Whisky brings solace and escapism in challenging times. After some fatigue, Earie finds his love of whisky geekery sparked once more. A very good indie Islay from Elixir’s Elements helps out.

Anyone in for some Dry January? Thought not. Drummond has his own ideas and while he shares them, he does so over a high strength Isle of Arran; their Sherry Cask.

Wally falls into a time-travelling dream where he imagines uncovering something whisky-precious, before waves of full-on 2024’s Springbank 12 Cask Strength snaps him back to the very real present.

As a firm fan of Glenfarclas, Murdo is frustrated by weak and unreliable official bottles - despite good prices. In today’s comparison of two fully natural releases, he makes an enthusiast’s plea.

Despite appearances, we don’t put real effort into giving Macallan a hard time at Dramface, the truth is, they’re taking care of things themselves. Nick throws a huff at The Harmony Rich Cacao.

Wally kicks things off for 2025 with Ardnahoe’s core range Infinite Loch & exclusive Society bottling and hopes that they are harbingers of what could follow in whisky’s New Year.

It’s been weeks since Murdo joined the fun in Glasgow, but he’s still buzzing about all the fun; and the people who have become friends since. He reminisces over two Springbank Cage prizes.