Welcome to Dramface
Fiercely independent, daily whisky reviews, news and views.
LATEST FEATURE
After his epic Whisky & Wine 101 masterpiece, Ainsley swings in with the first chapter of his follow up on Malternatives: this is a whisky-lovers guide to rum!
Dramface drops a fresh review every weekday.
Scroll, search or browse our reviews.
Charlie digs out four somewhat forgotten blends from his cupboard to revisit them, all the while realising they all have a story - and a good reason for being there.
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.
Following the inevitable arc of whisky discovery, Charlie arrives at the search for affordable bottles of amber history; malts from ghost distilleries. He dives into a vintage Imperial from Signatory.
Over a glass of whisky that could well suffer the highest angel’s share anywhere - Milk & Honey’s Dead Sea - Fletcher reflects and reminds himself it’s always about the regular people.
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.
Whisky finds you. After years of avoiding an over-hyped and possibly over-priced eye-catcher, Ogilvie’s pal Lou comes in clutch. Now, this much-loved High West Rye needs to live up to expectation.
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?
The Glen Scotia ‘disco cow’ releases have become legendary, but unfortunately for their inconsistency. Charlie harks back to his Campbeltown childhood and shares where this 21yo lies.
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.
Murdo riffs off a recent Ainsley piece where he explored the concept of wax in whisky. After tracking down a bottle of Thompson Bros Dailuaine celebrated for ‘wax’, he feels ready to share.
In a somewhat confessional piece, Innes shares his thoughts on a pricey-but-delightful Adelphi Chichibu. While also addressing an interesting and relatable point about ageism in whisky.
Dougie returns from recent distractions to grab two seemingly unrelated - at first - malts for a Misty Isle twofer: A Thompson Bros Ardnamurchan & an Inchdairnie Finglassie from Lady of the Glen.
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.
Ainsley has tried enough decent Clynelish to know he loves that waxy character it can possess, so he determines to land a bottle. But that’s harder said than done. Did he manage with this 1992 18yo?
When considering how much whisky costs - and how much of it is actually affordable - Mason puts the case forward for ditching your mid-priced wine habit for some tasty Dutch Millstone single malt.
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.
Hughie ignores travel retail on his business trips. As such he embraces the serendipity of what he might find locally. Today, he’s found a rye so compelling, it forces him to agonise over scoring it.
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’.
Ainsley recounts the splendour of the recent Independent Spirits Festival held in Leith. This is just the kind of recap to make sure we see another year of this, and a perfect Fib Whisky Whitlaw to match up.
Fergus makes a case for the occasional entry-level bottle. Accepting his penchant for natural ‘enthusiast’ whiskies he find a comforting spot for an Aberlour 12 Double Cask, while watching 80’s movies, preferably.
Listen to Dramface
🎙
Catch up on the Dramface Podcast
🎙
Listen to Dramface 🎙 Catch up on the Dramface Podcast 🎙
Industry news, PR and shares from elsewhere. We share things that are interesting to us in the hope that they will be of interest to you. If we receive news that doesn’t interest us we may…um…not.

Fiercely independent,
supported by you
Dramface is free. Membership is optional. It's how you can support independent opinion here and encourage it to thrive. Less than the cost of a magazine. A magazine with no ads, no sponsorships and no paid promotions. Ever. Thank you for considering it.
We share our thoughts and insight into whisky, its larger landscape as well as the Dramface environment.
Innes spends a little time learning what makes the breathless Thompson Brothers tick, with a Q&A on Dornoch, Indy bottling, Struie and their new Mystery Malt project.
After his epic Whisky & Wine 101 masterpiece, Ainsley swings in with the first chapter of his follow up on Malternatives: this is a whisky-lovers guide to rum!
With the dynamics of whisky changing fast, and bulk whisky sales and opportunities suddenly on the cards, Fletcher sees some challenges ahead. He shares a few concerns for those tempted.
Arthur shares his fourth salvo in our series with the whisky makers. This time, he discusses whisky creation with our first indie; Euan Campbell of SMWS features in The Blender Files.
The team gather to put forward their stand-out whiskies of 2024 & it seems like they’ve covered most of the spectrum. Very personal, very individual, very fun and very typically Dramface. Happy Christmas!
Our Dramface hiatus is interrupted as Doog somehow manages to summon the energy to share why many of the team are ghosts after a legendary weekend.
Hailing from Paris and loving whisky AND wine, Ainsley gives us a barnstormer feature we all can benefit from; a deep yet succinct 101 cheat-sheet for all things wine-related in whisky.
After the devastating export figures issued recently by the SWA, scotch faces turbulent seas ahead. Fletcher asks hard questions about greed, strategy and the potential of a whisky ocean.