When we love whisky so much, it’s hard to be brutal about some of the obvious negatives. Yet sometimes, when things are clearly wrong, we just have to call it out. This decision was not taken lightly.

Fletch is trying hard to find a nice, special occasion whisky but, in another fit of disappointment, he’s reminded instead of a childhood movie that still haunts him today.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. It’s one of Fletch’s favourites; Deanston. Looking for something that the Tequila cask has imparted, he compares it to a similarly insipid Tequila cask blend.

Fletcher finds himself pondering this Blended Malt and, feeling like he’s being forced to make cocktails with it, he stubbornly judges it neat. Redemption? Erm… no.

Itching to get his curious whisky face back on, Dougie heads to his local purveyor of whisky dreams. Running on nothing more than excitement and seat-of-his-pants selection, we’d like to tell you he lucked out, but, alas, no.

How can Wally admit to loving a bottle and yet score it 3/10? It’s complex, but in this case he thinks Diageo have made it a big, confusing, opaque and cynical mess - for retailers and punters.

The appeal of a lesser-seen and budget Islay official single malt is too much for Hamish to resist. His experience of Kilchoman’s core ranges has him excited, but the Loch Gruinart leaves him wanting.

Taking a broad view of the rapidly expanding Australian whisky scene, Tyree delivers a snapshot with four Aussie single malts, and almost uses the full gamut of our scoring to do so.

After giving Ardbeg’s latest Committee Release a kicking, Tyree reached out to Adamh, who kicked it harder. The bonus review refocusses on positivity but Ardbeg need to do better than this for £120

Everyone is going to need to get a whole lot more discerning.

An understandable favourite, but lacks depth and character

Some whisky just never clicks with us

Whisky ‘bargains’ come at a price

Perfect bottle design. Watery, inert whisky.

PX runs rampant with kitchen spices over an immature spirit.

Punk’s not dead, but Ardcore is.

A distant, hugely disappointing descendent of greatness.

More interesting than the core range, but we need more.

Looks fantastic, sounds fantastic, is very much not fantastic

A young and vibrant Glen Elgin that, while enjoyable, could have done with longer in the cask