Billy's Booze Blog

A question that noone has ever asked me, but I like to preemptively ask myself, is “Where do you get your ideas?” It’s an awful question and I dream of one day having to sigh and come up with an answer to tell the star-struck questioner, like the various writers and directors have had to [...]

One of the good things about my move into the booze industry is that, surprisingly, the amount of booze I buy has gone down. Unfortunately, along with that the average price of things I buy has gone up. That said, looking for bargains has also become a bit of an obsession, which has led to [...]

I’ve been much remiss when it comes to writing about Sipsmith, in as much as I haven’t really done so yet. I first realised that they existed when they supplied a stack of gin and vodka to the Blaggers’ Banquet, back in November 2009, the event that inspired me to start writing this blog. Since [...]

Before my recent trip to Hungary I did the requisite research: I looked up the important holiday words (Please, Thankyou, Hospital, Bail, Embassy) and, most importantly, what the local speciality spirits were. Two popped up – Palinka and Unicum. Palinka has various descriptions ranging, depending on the opinions of the person doing the describing, from [...]

Well overdue with this, so here is a not so quick list of quickish descriptions: The MacPhail Collection 1969 Glenrothes. I grabbed a tiny taste of this at Hawksmoor while I was visiting to try out the ice ball machine. 39 years old and a recent acquisition, it’s much loved by the bar staff and [...]

I don’t travel much, being afraid of places were I don’t speak the language as I am, but my comfort zone was well and truly kicked in 2008 when I ended up in Bulgaria for a friend’s wedding. In standard fashion I used the opportunity to sample the local booze and other than some fairly [...]