“Never cry over spilt milk. It could’ve been whiskey.”

Maverick

How long is it since we last had a dram together? Too long is the answer, and the only thing that prompted me to write about it this week was my first taste of a new/old distillery in Glasgow. In the middle of a global pandemic, the Glasgow Distillery has had the insanity to launch a new malt - but they have form for craziness. In 2014, only six years after a global recession, they relaunched the Glasgow Distillery 100 years after it ceased production.

Whisky is a bit of a Marmite drink to be honest, but before the Scots haul me over Hadrian's Wall, it’s true. Offer a whisky or a wine to a room of people and way more will take their alcohol in the fruit rather than grain form. I've always been wary of anything that makes your burps flammable, but over the years, my taste buds have come to rather enjoy the occasional dram, but by heck it’s got to be smooth.

My first experience was in the Navy and it was a glass of a basic blended whisky, the type I'd seen cowboys gulp down in Hollywood films after a hot day riding their hoss and doing bondage stuff with their steers. I looked at this gold liquid and thought... yeah, let's do it cowboy style (the whisky folks, the whisky!). Big mistake. It was like a chemical attack on my palate, followed by a coughing fit, flushed face and then a strange noise in my ears, although the latter was my salty sailor comrades offering jovial support!

Needless to say, I didn't venture back for a few decades, by which time Id learned the art of sniffing, which generally indicates which ones go to my palate and which ones go into the composter... needless to say I have a garden full of migraine suffering worms.

What I decided was that I love anything that's aged in virgin oak and/or finished off in sherry casks, and that's what drew me to the Glasgow Distilleries 1770 Peated Rich and Smoky or their new malt for short. It sees more wood than the average porn star, and expensive wood at that. Virgin oak casks don't come cheap and the sherry ones its finished in are none other than those used to age our old friend, Pedro Ximineth, the darkest and most treacly of all.

So, the moral of this tale is simple: avoid the crap stuff. Awful wine can be spat out without much fanfare, awful whisky is just awful.

Recommendations:

East London and West Essex Guardian Series: Glasgow 1770 Peated Rich and SmokyGlasgow 1770 Peated Rich and Smoky

Glasgow 1770 Peated Rich and Smoky

Its a bit like that advert for Ronseal to be honest, as it says what it does on the label but there's so much more to this than rich, smoky and peated. The colour is amazing for a start but there's hints of caramelised sugar and spice and the finish is so long, I lost count. Seriously folks, snap it up at this price!

Glasgow Distillery online £49.00

Glengoyne 10 year old

I've never had a bad whisky from Glengoyne and as we’ve established that my delicate palate has a high entry standard for whisky, that says something. It’s got hints of citrus and toffee on the nose with a sweet nutty palate.

Master of Malt online £29.95