Yesteryear was born from the 2011 founding of The London Distillery Company, crafted anew from the distillery’s LV-1767 Edition – the first new London whisky for over 100 years. We’ve revived this his...

Embarque is The London Distillery Company’s celebration of journeys – from the sun-drenched bodegas of Jerez to the historic docks of London. This single malt whisky captures the story of our capital’...

I had some time to kill in Glasgow a few months back and when that happens the one place you can bet your last fiver on me being is....Good Spirits Company (side node: On finding the link it seems they have a new website, go check it out especially the Our Own Bottling Section) When I visit, I am always asked if I am looking for anything in particular and the honest answer is always: no. I just browse the shelves and check the prices looking for something unusual, unexpected and priced cheap enough to stay under the radar on the joint account statement.

I had some time to kill in Glasgow a few months back and when that happens the one place you can bet your last fiver on me being is....Good Spirits Company (side node: On finding the link it seems they have a new website, go check it out especially the Our Own Bottling Section) When I visit, I am always asked if I am looking for anything in particular and the honest answer is always: no. I just browse the shelves and check the prices looking for something unusual, unexpected and priced cheap enough to stay under the radar on the joint account statement.

Keeping the theme going and looking at around cask finish from Lakes distillery. To avoid repeating myself it's probably an idea to check out the Wednesday post of you haven't already: The One – Colheita Cask That cask finish was a type of Port and Manzanilla is a type of Sherry. Specifically, its a Fino like sherry using the same production methods but comes from the Sanlucar de Barramed in the province of Cadiz in Andalusia. There is a bunch of different special varieties of Manzanilla which age in barrels for a long time even up to 30 years in some cases.

The Lakes distillery in England are now releasing their own whisky produced in their own distillery. However, originally to help fund the distillery and keep some cashflow churning through the company they produced a series of blended whiskies which are still going today. "The One" series are all blended whiskies which married and finished by the team at the Lakes and usually include some kind of cask finish or other hook to get you in. The first point of interest is to note that Scottish distilleries can't do this kind of marketing or product.

With my price conscious head on I have been buying more and more of these retailer brands which try to marry quality and value for money. The Seaweed& range is a Master of Malt own brand which has been around now for a good few years. The kind of Cards of Humanity style brands exist in a few sub categories but the first one was the Islay ones which I have here. There is a grain one and a few others which might have been discontinued now. These are all unnamed distillery single malts, some with age statements and some without.

Book reviews are like buses you wait for 2 years and then 2 come along at once. This 2007 publication of the book I bought from a fabulous second hand book store in Alnwick in Northumberland. If you are ever in the area you should definitely give it a go. Inside an old railway station the bookshop is vast and continues a very popular cafe. The name comes from the way the shop gets its stock, they only take in from the public and you don't sell your books, vinyl, sheet music or cd's for cash but for store credit.

I used to do book reviews quite regularly and I do enjoy a good read. I am not going to be the next BookTok influencer but you can't get drunk on paper. This book was published in 2005 by Gavin D Smith and was actually recommended to me by the tour guide during my visit to Caol Ila distillery. This was an awful long time ago and was a great visit from an excellent guide who had genuine interest and passion for the whisky, the distillery and the island. To read more about that visit when Mrs Malted was Soon-To-Be Mrs Malted then I hoped I would have written about it back in 2018 but it appears not.

I was gifted this bottle recently from a work colleague. If someone was to critique this blog and give feedback over the the obvious poor quality writing! It would be I am very Scotch centric. There is good reason for that obviously I live in the central belt of Scotland and its far easier to visit Glengoyne up the road from my house than fly to Ireland to talk about Irish whisky or the single malt distilleries of America or Japan. However, when someone gifts you a bottle from a bourbon distiller you haven't heard of because you can't buy it in the UK and it is a farm distillery who wins awards.

Not being made of money I don't have a lot of Mizunara sitting about the cupboard. In fact, up until very recently I didn't have any at all. I still remember a Bowmore Mizunara bottle came out in 2017 or so and at £250 or something it seemed more money than I could imagine spending on a bottle of whisky. Fast forward to today and it's over £1000 at auction. Still raging at my lack of foresight I saw this Kaiyo which is a brand I had never heard of at auction with a few hours to go sitting at a mere £20 so I snipped it up for £25 plus fees which is a steal for £100 bottle even if its trash its still worth the gamble.