Sharing some things about the Isle of Skye that are both expected and unexpected, Dougie Crystal finds parallels in a glass of his, thus far ignored, local libation: Talisker.

When some of the Dramface reviews are for limited outturns, mostly from indies, Earie wonders; What’s the point? Then he finds something like this. That’s the point.

Dougie, deliberately, seeks out the distillery that everyone has told him is terrible, he pulls the trigger on a bargain to discover “Jura is well worth the chase. Jura is magic whisky. Jura is hugely enjoyable and fun.” 😳

Earie places a popular bang-for-buck Ledaig against a very similarly profiled indie release, only to have him wondering why there isn’t an official cask strength from Mull’s in vogue peat monster.

Batch variation is real and as enthusiasts we learn to enjoy it, providing it always meets a baseline minimum quality. Broddy and Aengus team up to see if that’s true of Tobermory’s under-the-radar 12yo.

Looks fantastic, tastes fantastic, is fantastic. Spoilers. But it’s a Dougie review and we’re in it for more than just the TL;DR. So, is the £30 premium just to know that the barley came from down the road worth it?

In early August, Doog reviewed an Ardnamurchan and made a decision to uproot his family and move to their beloved west coast. Today, he concludes that journey, settling on Skye, with his review of The Hearach from Harris. Incredible. A new dawn indeed.

Suddenly faced with inevitable doubts ahead of upheaval and a grand move ‘out west’, Dougie salves himself with catharsis through family, friendship, heel-slaying, another trip to Skye and a glass of surprisingly good Lowland Lagg.

Isle of Raasay reached out to share a bottle of their Manzanilla-matured Distillery Exclusive, we arranged that it went to the Doog for analysis and (a particularly pleasing) photographic study. This is how we manage donated bottles.

Full-flavoured, characterful, and impressive even at a young age.

Coastal, dark tobacco toffee vibes. What’s not to like?

An Orkney that needs a dose of water to put out the fire

Do we taste salt in whisky?

Port casks and celebrating those who get it right.

Flashes of fantasia but fails to harmonise.

A bitter, less robust 10, but that’s not a bad thing.

A really enjoyable whisky, despite the tinkering

Quality over quantity if you please

A very interesting, competent, enjoyably youthful whisky

Don’t ‘mull’ over these malts, they’re belters!