Islay Whisky: The Island of Smoke, Salt and Investment Grade Peat
Islay is nine miles wide and twenty-five miles long. It sits in the southern Hebrides, battered by Atlantic weather, softened by the Gulf Stream, and defined by a landscape of bog, peat, and coastal rock. Eight working distilleries currently operate on the island. A ninth — Port Ellen — remains closed, its stocks among the […]
Ardbeg: The Peatiest Dram on Islay — and a Serious Collector’s Distillery
Ardbeg occupies a headland on Islay’s southern coast — An Àird Bheag in Gaelic, “the small headland” — where it has produced whisky, with interruptions, since 1815. The interruptions matter to investors: Ardbeg was silent from 1981 to 1989, and again from 1996 to 1997 when Glenmorangie acquired it and began restoring the distillery. Spirit […]
Ben Nevis: Highland Whisky at the Foot of Britain’s Highest Mountain
Ben Nevis distillery sits in Lochy Bridge in the Lochaber area of the Scottish Highlands, in the shadow of Britain’s highest mountain. Water from the Allt a’ Mhuilinn burn, fed by snowmelt from the Ben Nevis massif, gives the spirit a mineral clarity that defines its character. A Distillery With Unusual Ownership Ben Nevis has […]
Laphroaig: The World’s Most Divisive — and Most Collectible — Whisky
Laphroaig (pronounced “la-froyg”) has been described as tasting of bandages, seaweed, and hospital corridors. Its admirers consider this a compliment. There is no whisky more immediately recognisable on the nose, and none that more completely divides opinion — which, counterintuitively, is part of its investment strength. The Distillery Founded in 1815 on Islay’s southern coast, […]
Highland Park: Viking Whisky from Britain’s Most Remote Distillery
Highland Park sits on the edge of Kirkwall on Mainland Orkney — the most northerly of Scotland’s distilleries, and arguably its most dramatic in setting. The Viking heritage of Orkney runs through the distillery’s identity: the Norse gods Odin, Loki, Valkyrie, and Valknut have all given their names to expressions, and the runic aesthetic of […]
The Glenrothes: The Distillery That Kept Its Secret
Glenrothes occupies a curious position in Speyside’s geography — its distillery is hidden within the town of Rothes itself, behind walls that give no indication of what lies within. For much of its history, it maintained a similarly low public profile, directing the bulk of its production toward blends while building a small but devoted […]
The Macallan: The Benchmark of Single Malt Investment
If there is a single name that has come to define premium Scotch whisky investment, it is The Macallan. Not because it is the oldest, or even necessarily the finest in absolute terms, but because of the extraordinary convergence of quality, prestige, and collector demand that has made it the benchmark against which all other […]
Dalmore: The Jewel of the Northern Highlands
Dalmore stands on the northern shore of the Cromarty Firth, within sight of the Black Isle, in a landscape of extraordinary Highland beauty. It is one of the larger distilleries in the Highlands — a fact that has rarely prevented it from producing whisky of genuinely exceptional quality, particularly in its aged and single cask […]
Speyside: Scotland’s Whisky Heartland
Speyside is the most prolific whisky-producing region in Scotland — and the world. The area between Inverness and Banff, centred on the River Spey and its tributaries, contains more distilleries per square mile than anywhere else on earth. Over half of Scotland’s active distilleries operate within the Speyside region, producing a style of whisky that […]
The Origins of Whisky Distilling in Scotland
The Origins of Whisky Distilling in Scotland An Ode to Whiskey (Scots Gaelic) – by JSTOR Daily Whisky. Where, When and How Why is whisky called whisky? The term is actually an anglicisation of a Gaelic language word: ”uisge beatha” or ”usquebaugh”. This is, in turn, a Gaelic take on the latin term ”Aqua vitae” […]