My whisky journey started the best part of 20 years ago, Glenmorangie 10 year old as it was known then. It was a fine dram, easy drinking and usually used as an extra to a round. I played it safe for about 10 years, flitting back and forward between 5 or 6 standard distillery bottles, one from each region. Then something changed, still to this day I am unsure exactly what it was, but something definitely changed. I started frequenting different bars and would try something new from their usually meagre whisky selection, this progressed into visiting more specialist bars where whisky was placed as a quality drink as opposed to “old man fodder”, from there the love affair was truly cultivated and more and more time was spent trying different malts, grains and blends, the visits to festivals and distilleries followed quickly and I’ve never looked back.

The next step along my whisky path took me to my local pub where the landlord had run out of ideas of how to promote his ever increasing whisky stock. I suggested to him setting up a whisky club and within 1 month, the first meeting was held. I was elected Chairman and took the monthly meetings myself, presenting a vast array of whiskies from Scotland and beyond. The club grew in size and within a year over 50 different people had been to at least 2 meetings, with a core of about 20 every meeting. The club began to take up a lot more of my energy and it was time to get a co-runner, luckily Kirsty Clarke had started coming to the club a few months earlier and she was the obvious choice to help run the club, due to her vast knowledge and killer tasting notes.

We then turned our attentions to the twitter account and have worked hard to gain followers, from the new to whisky, to bloggers, industry insiders and distilleries and distillery managers themselves.

We attended some great festivals, whisky tasting clubs and some wonderful industry events.

Wanting to turn our passion into something a little more, Kirsty had a great conversation with the very lovely Alwynne (best known as Miss Whisky) who took time out of her very busy schedule to give her some invaluable help and advice, and after a long chat with Kirsty, we decided to start our own blog!

So here it is, our blog, we will review whiskies, hopefully attend more whisky events or tweet tastings, share any whisky knowledge we have along the way, and no doubt learn so much more than I thought possible, but most importantly have fun!

Whisky is there to be enjoyed, you can become a whisky buff or just someone who enjoys a dram. Whatever you do, try as many single malts, blends, grains etc. as you can and see what “your” style is.

Sláinte

Twitter: @StewartCraigon – @WhiskyCorner

Facebook: Whisky Corner