Wally decides it’s his turn to try some outturn samples. This time it’s the Decadent Drinks Decadent Drams/Whiskyland April 2025 line up of Spirit of Yorkshire, Inchmurrin, Miltonduff & Imperial.

What do you take on holiday? Upon arrival in stormy Cornwall, Fergus thinks he might’ve brought the perfect Ardmore. Then the sun appears. Does it spoil things?

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.

Charlie digs out four somewhat forgotten blends from his cupboard to revisit them, all the while realising they all have a story - and a good reason for being there.

Following the inevitable arc of whisky discovery, Charlie arrives at the search for affordable bottles of amber history; malts from ghost distilleries. He dives into a vintage Imperial from Signatory.

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.

Murdo riffs off a recent Ainsley piece where he explored the concept of wax in whisky. After tracking down a bottle of Thompson Bros Dailuaine celebrated for ‘wax’, he feels ready to share.

In a somewhat confessional piece, Innes shares his thoughts on a pricey-but-delightful Adelphi Chichibu. While also addressing an interesting and relatable point about ageism in whisky.

Dougie returns from recent distractions to grab two seemingly unrelated - at first - malts for a Misty Isle twofer: A Thompson Bros Ardnamurchan & an Inchdairnie Finglassie from Lady of the Glen.

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.

Ainsley has tried enough decent Clynelish to know he loves that waxy character it can possess, so he determines to land a bottle. But that’s harder said than done. Did he manage with this 1992 18yo?

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’.

Ainsley recounts the splendour of the recent Independent Spirits Festival held in Leith. This is just the kind of recap to make sure we see another year of this, and a perfect Fib Whisky Whitlaw to match up.

While Innes gives a run through on some of the late 2024 Watt Whisky releases, Wally chimes in after catching the latest release from Blacksmith & Jones: a docuseries all about Indy Bottlers.

In sipping a curiously challenging Fragrant Drop Glen Grant 21yo, Wally asks an equally curiously challenging question - is malt whisky actually too cheap?

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…

Through an auction win, Earie is sucked into the fascinating history and story behind the great Silvano Samaroli, as he realises just how influential he was in the scotch story.