This time around it’s Charlie’s turn to armour up and attempt a game of whisky guesswork. It’s the Thompson Brothers’ Mystery Malts Series 6 in the glass this time - two of them. How does our Chic do?

Continuing his series, this time Charlie visits Balvenie. While the outcome might be - for us - expected, it lights his interest in yet another distillate that is usually otherwise obscured from us. A bonus from Kininvie appears too.

When times are tougher and the purse strings are pulled tighter on the whisky budget, Drummond is pleased to benefit a little from the Dramface Deflection System. Six from Adelphi in the hopper today!

In Charlie’s distillery deep-dives and comparisons, the indies have always won out. However, could a naturally coloured official Glenrothes turn that around? He tries two of them alongside two Cadenhead’s releases..

Having never climbed Ben Rinnes, Charlie decides to clamber through three - make that four(ish) - expressions of the Benrinnes spirit to see what it’s all about. Official vs Indy once more!

It turns out Murdo is an anxious traveller. He reaches for a pre-flight dram - one that he hoped would be a nice replacement for his loved Glendronach 15yo. Did the Tamdhu 15yo do the trick?

In railing against the addition of colour and chill-filtering, Mason is tripped up by a bargain-basement Glen Moray Classic. He’s forced to apply some pragmatism and just appreciate what it is.

Six - yes six - from Cut Your Wolf Loose today. In a remarkably candid piece, our LA resident Archie reflects on a tumultuous professional path to date, all to explain his love for art - and independence.

Charlie continues his dive into official releases versus indies. In exploring Cardhu, he places two official bottles against a James Eadie - can we already guess which is best?

In his continued pursuit of everything he’s not yet tried, Charlie lands upon Glentauchers. In the absence of an interesting - or available - official release, he compares two indies from auction.

Wally ‘forgets’ to forward on the set from Decadent Drams showcasing their June outturn. Luckily, there are some quite spectacular treats inside, including a 52yo Glen Garioch.

North America hosts the World Cup and the USA finds itself once more distracted by this odd sport that fascinates the rest of planet Earth. CA based Archie drinks it all in with two recent bottles from Fragrant Drops.

Charlie manages to attend only the very last day of this year’s Campbeltown Malts Festival, but still feels like it was very worth while - especially after picking up two Little Brown Dog bangers!

Sometimes, we don’t get exactly what we expect. That’s when an open mind and patience can deliver a decent experience regardless, as Earie and Fergie discover on this Signatory Mortlach.

In a wonderfully candid and personal piece, Archie shares his transition into trusting independent bottlers and how he decided to start with Murray McDavid. It’s not what you might think.

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.

Charlie continues his deep dive into new distilleries (to him), this time uncovering the two ‘Glens’ of Ord and ‘Dullan, then comparing two Special releases to indies from James Eadie and the Thompson Bros.

On a trek, Archie is tempted into breaking his own rules when he uncovers a gem of a waterfall. It makes the prettiest of backdrops for a gem of a Balmenach from Living Souls.

In a hurry to get to funner places, Wally phoned one in. This time it’s a limited edition Macallan, and there’s nothing - yet somehow everything - wrong with it.

Earie uses some Big Words to describe reviewing decent, earnest whiskies in an independent way. This time it’s another flight of Dram Mòr releases from spring 2026. Including a sneaky malternative.