Sometimes we place unrealistic expectations on things, based on our own dreams and memories, building up inevitable ‘failure’. The return of Arran’s 14yo has Wally wondering if we’re all just after a ‘hot take’.

Broddy gathers seven bottles of SMOS Reserve Cask Small Batch releases in a single mega review. He justifies his scoring for each while dropping a bombshell of heresy about oatcakes.

Kindred spirits Archie and Charlie collab on one of their favourites: Torabhaig. This time it’s all about their new Taigh core release and the meaning of home, with summery pics of California and Scotland.

The new year and corporate environs has Hughie thinking about how the dreaded annual performance reviews could be applied to whisky. He cracks an Indy Arran 10 for comparison to the OB.

Browsing an auction, Earie spots something that has completely passed him by - an all-natural OB Jura, at cask strength. He’s left to wonder whether they were shy about it or was it that he just wasn’t looking hard enough?

In a wonderfully warm and personal piece, Murdo shares what he was up to when this Chapter 7 Ledaig 1995 was distilled. For him it was a pivotal year and one that would set aspects of his life trajectory.

Charlie has some agonising to do over his accumulated open bottles. He dives in to cull some off which, happily, brings this Arran 18yo to the fore, and he discovers it’s the first time we’ve reviewed it.

Ally shares the concept of ‘bus drams’. This is a known practice and there are protocols and potential for social faux pas. But there are ways around it. Bring ‘interesting’ drams. Like this 19yo Jura from Milroys.

After a mini-gathering at Whisky Live Paris, Hughie and Ainsley buddy up for a short resumé of events over a Cadenhead’s Ledaig 14yo, as well as a campaign for us all to join them in Paris in future.

In order to admit you might have been wrong about something, you need humility - and time. A sample from the archive stash helps too. Broddy revisits an affordable and over-performing Highland Park.

Fergus reflects on the solidifying of his whisky exploration through trips and sharing, but also the understanding of new concepts, such as independent bottling, like this month’s Decadent Drinks outturn.

A summer penchant for craft beers led Fergus astray. He was tempted into buying himself a Diageo SR from 2022 based on a heavy discount. No one’s immune to a bargain. How did it work out?

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.

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.

Determined not to succumb to snobbery, Fergus takes an active step to try a less-footered with Jura, this time a natural 46% Hunter Laing 8yo.

Wally takes some time with Torabhaig’s latest in the Legacy Series; the sherry cask influenced Cnoc Na Moine. While he’s at it he dips into a little Scots Gaelic revival history.

Ramsay and Fergus buddy up for a wander through the most recent outturn from Watt Whisky. Exploring a grain, a blend, two malts and a Guyana rum, they actually find some consensus!

Sharing some things about the Isle of Skye that are both expected and unexpected, Dougie Crystal finds parallels in a glass of his, thus far ignored, local libation: Talisker.

When some of the Dramface reviews are for limited outturns, mostly from indies, Earie wonders; What’s the point? Then he finds something like this. That’s the point.

Dougie, deliberately, seeks out the distillery that everyone has told him is terrible, he pulls the trigger on a bargain to discover “Jura is well worth the chase. Jura is magic whisky. Jura is hugely enjoyable and fun.” 😳