Billy's Booze Blog

One of the things that people always said to me before I started working in the world of whisky was that everyone was friendly. Since I have started I’ve found that pretty much holds – the world of whisky is full of many lovely people. I met a bunch of them at Maltstock last year, [...]

When planning my train heavy trip around the Highlands there were a few distilleries that quickly went to the top of the list. First amongst those was the distillery I currently, when pushed to make a choice, list as my favourite – Clynelish. It’s in the town of Brora which in turn is carefully positioned [...]

Hello. I’m in Scotland, surrounded by snow and equipped with inadequate footwear, a combination of facts that should make post(s) later this week a beacon for schadenfreude tinged enjoyment. Anyways, as whisky distilleries treat weekends in February with appropriate level of contempt (they’re working but don’t open for tourists, as there are only four of [...]

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 [...]

January has now drawn to a close and with it came another Whisky Squad session. It’s hard work writing up two of these a month, it barely gives me any time to sit on my arse and obsessively watch The West Wing. Only two episodes watched this evening. And yes, this is two Squad posts [...]

With two Whisky Squad sessions per month and my current reduced rate of bloggage the site does seem to be turning into a Squad record site, which ain’t no bad thing (I love double negatives). However, #28 is a session that is close to my heart, as it was my first foray into leading a [...]

I don’t get sent many samples of whisky, especially now that I work for a whisky retailer, so I was very pleased to get a parcel before Christmas containing something a little bit more special than the average whisky – a pair of drams from Highland Park’s Orcadian Vintages range. I encountered these for the [...]

A quick note before I start my normal rambling – Whisky Squad numbering. You may notice that my last Whisky Squad post was about #25, which implies that I’ve missed a session – I can safely say that I haven’t, but that I won’t be writing about #26, Whisky Surprise. It was an excellent session, [...]

Part of my Christmas break always involves time on a train and due to a singular lack of easily readable books under the tree this year I am instead resorting to taking up more than my fair share of the communal table with my laptop to do a bit of catching up with the bits [...]

It’s the end of the year and it seems that buying booze is towards the top of people’s minds. As such I’ve been hidden away at TWE Towers, poking the website, processing orders, picking bottles and generally running around like the famed blue arse fly of proverb. So, now that I’m sat on the sofa [...]