It’s cocktail Friday - a whisky review and a personal cocktail recipe from one of the team. Gilbert kicks off with a trip to the coast and his take on the Old Fashioned, with a coastal Ardnamurchan AD/ as the base.

The plastic stag of Dalmore 18yo is in the crosshairs as Charlie revisits an old friend, one from a time before he was sullied by ‘informed’ opinions, community ‘consensus’ and, well, possibly much better whiskies.

Over the years, Earie has taught himself what he likes and likes less. But with a dearth of Signatory Vintage’s 100º Proof Series in Belgium, he picks up a North British 15yo grain, and learns a lesson.

Wally sets aside a day to sit with a line up of Decadent Drinks releases. He uncovers some show stoppers and - remarkably - he can even afford one of them.

Is it snobbery to suggest cask-driven flavour isn’t desirable? Or to mention that some whiskies are ‘engineered’? Fergus tracks down a Signatory Glenlivet that is a no-holds-barred unapologetic sherry bomb.

Hamish has fallen down a Balmenach rabbit hole, which means he’s discovered a worm tub rabbit hole. Today, he shares four malts in a vertical line up looking into what the worm tub might be about.

Broddy tries to break Dramface with an epic assessment of ten banging modern blends. He recruits some local pals and covers them all - blind. Think you’re only into malt? This one’s a cracker.

Can a £28 blend satisfy the ever-curious Doog? Well, after scrutinising the packaging and sharing some interesting British supermarket nostalgia, this Leith Legacy leaves him truly surprised.

At first Ainsley wasn’t too enamoured with the ‘hype’ around Springbank’s Local Barley releases. It took 2025’s 8yo with heritage grain to switch all the lights on. It’s finally found him.

Fletcher is certain he doesn’t suffer from FOMO. He doesn’t have floors and shelves covered in bottles and he doesn’t always pick up at least one bottle when out and about. Like this Cadenhead’s Ord he couldn’t pass up.

We often ensure new Ardnamurchan is directed through our resident Amber Prism. Wally ships Doog the Mezcal and he serves it up alongside two single cask crackers.

Nothing in life is free. Murdo has a think about this as he considers who is the ‘product’ in any of our modern whisky day transactions, while sharing another Linkwood banger from Signatory.

In evangelising some friends, Hughie encounters all-too-common blend prejudice. To counter, he hunts for a good value, sherry cask sipper to help his pals embrace the B-word. Might this Old Perth be it?

Fletcher uses a quintet of quite different, independently released Ledaig expressions to try to fathom how Signatory Vintage arrived at its pricing for a recent Cask Strength 17yo single cask.

After something of an unintended hiatus, Drummond figures out it’s just where he’s at - no longer feeling the need to chase. Instead of FOMO, he’s embracing JOMO - and four cracking Kilkerrans.

Wally enjoys thinking about whisky accidents as he manages to secure a bottle of the Living Souls ‘accident’ where, we’re told, a splash of grain accidentally made its way into a vat of aged malt. Oops.

A lesser-seen malt, well-presented - and for a very good cause that flies uncomfortably close to all of us - resonates with Charlie. To the point he feels it needn’t be particularly splendid - or complex. It’s already a good ‘thing’.

After a ‘day-off’ yesterday, due to our AWOL editor, Innes gets us back into things with a study of five different Glentauchers bottlings over four decades, including one that really shouldn’t exist…

Did our challenging times during Lockdown actually offer us a few silver linings? Murdo offers a few possible examples which endure for him today, including discovering this knockout Cadenhead’s Linkwood.

Perhaps with St Valentine’s Day on his mind, Earie wonders what makes us fall in love with certain distilleries. He decides it’s less faff, more flavour and more indies. Some other stuff too.