It sounds glorious: hundreds of whiskies to sample (Scotch, bourbons, single malts, superior blends, cask strength, vatted malts… from all over the world), a full dinner buffet, whisky seminars, live music from the Bushmills Pipe and Drum Band amongst others, and chocolate and fudge pairing….

If that whets your appetite like it does mine, then snap up your tickets from the Whiskies Of The World Expo website now.

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This photobook focuses on the three remaining Lowland distilleries: Auchentoshan (on the outskirts of Glasgow), Bladnoch (in Galloway), and Glenkinchie (south-east of Edinburgh).

The book would make an excellent gift for someone who loves whisky, no matter what time of the year it is. But, since Christmas is approaching, how about buying the book for someone special and wrapping it up with a bottle of Auchentoshan, Bladnoch, or Glenkinchie (or all three!)?

Our whisky photobook page is now live, and the book is available for preview and purchase via Blurb.

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People have a very divided opinion over pairing food with whisky and most people find it hard to envisage a whisky and food match. Personally, I think a blended scotch whisky can match certain foods and dishes excellently and the array of flavours found in blended whisky can bring out and define a food’s taste.

Many articles about pairing whisky and food talk about single malts, however I like to remind people that blended whiskies offer a perfect alternative.

I feel that people have missed an opportunity not to drink blended whiskies with food mainly because it is something they never thought about trying before. The truth is that blended Scotch whisky when drunk neat or sometimes slightly “longer” than usual with water can make a great alternative to wine and really emphasise the flavours of certain foods and dishes.

Matching whisky with food takes some experimentation and experience to get it right. But if you stick to simple foods it can be a real eye opener.

In general, dishes with extreme flavours that generally do not match easily with some wines work well with blended whisky. Tapas, Asian dishes and particularly seafood combine well with some of the lighter less peaty blends such as Buchanan’s and J&B.

Desserts and after dinner courses work well with blended whisky too. Johnnie Walker Gold Label served “frozen” (at least 24 hours in the freezer please!) can give an indulgent taste sensation when served “straight” with dark chocolate desserts.

To finish off a meal a smoky, rich blend such as Johnnie Walker Black Label goes nicely with a cheese platter.

In the past I have experienced some unusual combinations of blended Scotch whisky and food – How many of you have attended a Burns Supper and saw people pouring some whisky over their Haggis? It just works!

So in many cases choosing foods to match blended Scotch whisky is very much down to personal preference and experimentation is the key. So keep educating your palate and have fun trying out new combinations. Enjoy!

More about Keith:
Master blender Keith Law began his career in the Scotch whisky industry in 1979 when he joined the Quality Control Laboratory at Caledonian Distillery in Edinburgh. Keith’s career began not in malt whisky but in grain whisky, where he worked closely alongside his father at this renowned grain distillery.

A sensory specialist in the whisky industry, Keith spent 12 years as part of the management team at Carsebridge Technical Centre, responsible for quality for all grain distilling and specialised areas of malt distilling. The primary focus of this role was around optimisation of distillery yields, flavour profiles and distillery performance; A large part of this role involved the nosing of new make spirit.

In 2007, with the formation of Diageo’s European Technical Centre, Diageo’s Master Blenders have joined together to become one team. Keith’s role within the technical centre as a Master Blender is varied. He is heavily involved in the development of new whisky products with end to end responsibility from cask selection through to overseeing production of pre-market launch bottlings.

Since joining Diageo, Keith has worked at each of Diageo’s 27 malt distilleries and 2 grain distilleries. His roles have been heavily focused on all aspects of sensory analysis allowing Keith to develop significant insights into flavour creation, blending and a deep understanding of the effects of oak on maturation, cask structure and wood physiology.

After nearly 30 years in the “land of whisky flavour”, Keith is often asked to use his experience by providing Spirit Mastery support to various mentoring programmes within Diageo and is an intrinsic part of a team of the most respected whisky blenders in the world.

Keith originally hails from Edinburgh in Scotland but now lives in the central region near Stirling. In his spare time he enjoys playing rugby, scuba diving and walking through the beautiful scenery of Scotland with his wife and two young daughters.

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On Saturday, whisky fans descended in their hordes on the distillery. And Auchentoshan responded with the warmth and ease of an accomplished and practised host – very impressive, given that this was their first whisky festival.

A whisky festival wouldn’t be a whisky festival without some drams to taste: besides Auchentoshan’s own whisky (boyohboy is the Three Wood yummy!), parent company Morrison Bowmore brought along supplies of Bowmore and Glen Garioch to share.

It’s been a long time since we had some Bowmore. Quite why so long, I’m really not sure, especially after renewing our acquaintance with it on Saturday. It’s good. And we shall be stocking up shortly!

Glen Garioch, on the other hand was completely new to us. Indeed, the Founders Reserve that they were allowing people to taste was new to everyone! I loved the taste. Not so keen on the aroma, though. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was that bothered me about it – all I could so eloquently come up with was “too perfumy” and “it’s affecting the wrong part of my nose”… you’d think that maybe these were the ramblings of a drunk person, but no, I was still completely sober at this point!

Also available to taste was Auchentoshan’s new range of ales – the lighter Summer Gold and the darker Triple Conditioned ale. I can’t comment personally on these as I don’t drink beer, but if the happy faces of my drinking companions were anything to go by, Auchentoshan’s head distiller Jeremy Stephens did a fine job!

In between tastings of various tipplings, we wandered round the farmers’ market, watched a chainsaw sculpture of a thistle take shape, and were enthralled by the cooperage demonstration (seriously, Jim Reilly should have his own TV show – he’s very entertaining with a great sense of humour!).

Despite Auchentoshan’s careful planning with repeats of events, we managed to miss both mixology demonstrations. Totally our fault. I think we were paying homage to the casks in the specially opened warehouse at the time.

And, we also didn’t avail ourselves of any of the master classes that were on, largely due to budgetary constraints (see the donate button below, people? We shamelessly but nicely beg of you to be generous so that we can do some of these next year. There is going to be a next year? Right? Auchentoshan? Pleaseohplease?).

All in all, even though we didn’t get to see and do everything, we saw and did a lot. Auchentoshan – you done good! Thank you!

If you’re curious to find out more about the distillery, visit our Auchentoshan page. And if you’d like to taste their whisky, you can buy a bottle of Auchentoshan here.

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That’s my take on it, anyway, and I’m sticking to it!

The distillery in question that completed our triumvirate of Lowlanders is Bladnoch, situated in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland’s picturesque south-western region.

Bladnoch Distillery itself was as pretty as promised, its beauty highlighted by the sun that came out to greet us as we arrived. Excellent timing, after what had been a slightly damp drive down.

The inside of the distillery is perhaps not as glitzy and sparkling as others, though rather than detract from Bladnoch’s charm, this adds to it. Sometimes distilleries tidy themselves up so much for the tourists that they lose some of their authenticity in the process.

A highlight, as with Auchentoshan, was getting a glimpse into Bladnoch’s warehouse, where Cask 001 sits patiently, doing its thing… like many other people, we’re looking forward to tasting some of that when Raymond Armstrong decides it’s ready!

In the meantime, we had to console ourselves with some of Bladnoch’s 7 year old, produced under Raymond Armstrong’s ownership, along with some of the distillery’s 16 year old and 18 year old, from Bladnoch’s earlier production.

For a young whisky, the 7 year old was surprisingly good. Much, much better than we expected, and better possibly than the 16 year old. This bodes very well indeed. Of all three, however, the 18 year old was our favourite – with a nutty, caramel-y, toffee-y flavour, how could we resist? A bottle now sits very comfortably in our collection, thank you very much!

If you, too, would like to taste some of Bladnoch’s whisky, you can buy a bottle here.

Visit our page on Bladnoch Distillery for more information on the history of this Lowlander.

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But then I got an email from a reader, asking me whether a still sealed bottle of Glenkinchie 10 year old had any collectable value, given that the distillery has replaced its standard bottling with a 12 year old.

Having absolutely no idea myself, I contacted Glenkinchie to see what they had to say. A very helpful gentleman informed me that it was indeed very possible that any remaining bottles of 10 year old out there would rise in value over the coming years.

Certainly, I learned that this pattern has been seen in the industry before, when distilleries change the age of their standard whisky. Talisker, for example, changed from an 8 year old to a 10 year old a few years back… and bottles of the 8 year old are now selling for up to £600. Now that’s some return – better than putting your money in the bank!

Currently, the Glenkinchie 10 year old is available for or £34.99 from The Whisky Exchange. If it follows in the footsteps of the Talisker 8 year old, it may be worth buying some stocks now!

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But sometimes, when the call of The Whisky is strong, such alien climes must be braved. And so, boldly we went, on Saturday morning to Auchentoshan Whisky Distillery, just outside Glasgow.

Auchentoshan itself is a very pretty oasis in the vast bleakness that is the outskirts of Glasgow. Let’s just say that the approach to the distillery, along the Great Western Road, is not so great in some parts, with its tower blocks and taped off crime scenes complete with a line of police solemnly combing a field for clues. By the time we got to our destination, we needed a dram or two.

We settled for coffee and muffins instead. At least to start with, since we had a bit of a wait until the next tour. Regular tours are offered on the hour every hour, but special group bookings can be made for larger parties. Two such groups came in and were whisked away while we waited. We were offered the opportunity to be include in this whisking so as to not have to wait, but such large crowds just aren’t our thing on guided tours. When our turn came, our group comprised six people. Much better than sixty, yes? Yes.

At the moment, Auchentoshan’s production has been halted for the regular summer maintenance and holiday period that many distilleries subscribe to. Our guide apologised profusely for the empty mash tun, but to us this was an unexpected bonus. We’ve seen them full before, but never empty, and so found our view of the internal workings fascinating.

Also fascinating was seeing the still room at Auchentoshan. Three beautiful gleaming copper stills, given that this is the only triple distilled whisky in Scotland. And yes, we can vouch for the smoothness of the result, both of the 10-year-old that we tasted at the end of the tour and the 12-year-old that we bought to bring home for liberal tastings. The younger whisky, which is apparently being replaced by the slightly older version, really needed no water added to it at all, it was so light. An excellent beginner’s dram. The 12-year-old, however, is slightly heavier (relatively, that is – still nowhere near the strength of an Islay whisky!), and it benefits from the addition of a drop or two (literally) of water.

Unlike many distilleries who keep their warehouses completely under lock and key or store their whisky barrels off-site, Auchentoshan’s warehouse is partly open to the public, giving visitors a beautiful view of the rows and rows of barrels maturing quietly in the coolth. According to one of the Auchentoshan employees, plans are afoot to open the warehouse fully to the public, and they are waiting on customs to give them the go ahead in this regard. Hmmm, waiting on a government department? Might be a while.

In the meantime, you can distract yourself by wandering through Auchentoshan’s gorgeous grounds, admiring the magnificence of their flower beds and trying to coax a Heilan Coo or two to come over and say hello. Saturday 29 August may be a good time to try this – Auchentoshan is having a whisky festival, including events such as cooking and mixology demonstrations, and cooperage displays. Visit Auchentoshan’s website for more information and to book your tickets online.

If you can’t make it to the festival, but want to taste some Auchentoshan whisky anyway, you can buy a bottle here.

We’re fuelled by whisky! If you enjoyed this article, please donate to our whisky fund to enable us to keep producing high quality content. All amounts gratefully received – thank you for your generosity!