Ainsley wonders three things as he sips the 2023 Festival Blend from J&A Mitchell: is 2024 finally the year of the blend?, isn’t grain whisky basically vodka?, and why are people paying £180 for a cheap sipper?

In trying to understand why Ben Nevis is such a ‘connoisseur’s malt’ Ainsley assembles a trio of indies and pours them alongside each other for a cosy night hiding from the Parisian rain.

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.

Dove-tailing Doog’s review of the mass-market Aberfeldy 12yo, Ainsley finds an all-too-rare alternative, one more tailored for those of a geeky bent. Inexpensive too!

With hundreds of distilleries over there, it seems inexcusable that it’s taken two years of Dramface to feature a French malt. Here it is, and it needs to stop.

In his debut piece, Frenchman Ainsley tells us how an Ardbeg 10 and visit to an Edinburgh bar with his old man would set life-changing things in motion that are still playing out today.