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.

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.

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.

The Glen Scotia ‘disco cow’ releases have become legendary, but unfortunately for their inconsistency. Charlie harks back to his Campbeltown childhood and shares where this 21yo lies.

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.

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?

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.

Fergus makes a case for the occasional entry-level bottle. Accepting his penchant for natural ‘enthusiast’ whiskies he find a comforting spot for an Aberlour 12 Double Cask, while watching 80’s movies, preferably.

Nostalgia remains very much part of whisky enjoyment long-term. In this review of a 1991 official Knockando, Broddy shares his own take on whisky nostalgia, while using a handy bell-curve to send it home.

Spoiler: As Earie sings high praises for Springbank’s wonderfully alluring 10yo, he has to admit that it was not love at first sight. He wonders if there’s such a thing as a whisky that’s not for beginners?

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.

Doog discovers that Lindores has finally cracked the code on Single Malt with this vibrant, neon-red, Fife Festival Exclusive Tawny Port Single Cask.

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…

In grabbing an anticipated Batch 2 of Ardnamurchan’s Madeira Cask release, Wally decides to compare it to something that you might not expect. Building Lego. Specifically; post-2004 Lego.