New Kids on the Block

New is the topic for this session. New distilleries, sure, but also new whiskies, new make and even how the word ‘new’ should actually be pronounced.

We cover environment and time and also wonder why Gordon can’t taste effervescence. Yet.

The Whisky Roads Less Travelled.

An eclectic discussion around trips and travels in the pursuit of whisky.

Gordon shares tales of sailing to Campbeltown while Roy heads there for the festival. All the while we share takes on dog training, island life and mixing our whiskies.

Buyer's Remorse.

What do you regret buying?

What do you regret not buying? Even better, what did you think you might regret buying, only for it to turn out to be a revelation?

Joining Gregor this time are Julie, Roy, Rob and Stuart.

As we share our trials, tribulations and regrets, we also touch upon branding successes and disasters before finishing on a quite remarkable (and impressive!) I Am A Distillery.

We do not manage to keep it under an hour.

Gregor & The Team

14 Scores, 12 Reviewers, 7 Batches…

Deep-diving into a deep-dive.

Joining Gregor this time are Julie, Roy, Rob and Scott.

We consider future contenders for the next mega-review thingy to test the patience of the editing team, while discussing how the last mega-review came about covering Springbank’s opinion-splitting 15yo.

The I Am A Distillery challenge comes from a Dramophone contributor and member Iain Bruce which puts our own recent efforts to shame.We also tease the cheese.

Gregor & The Team

“I Can’t Taste What Everyone Else Does!”

Inspired by a Dramophone comment

As usual we have a main topic; nosing, tasting and note-taking.

As per usual, we’re all over the place and it takes us a while to get there. But get there we do. We discuss nosing, tasting and note taking. Via peanut butter, Ruffle bars, chocolate and cheese.

Rob shares another killer auction steal, before breaking his mic, and then going on to break I Am A Distillery.

As usual, we leave it all in.

Gregor & The Team

www.Dramface.com

We're rusty.

In case it isn’t obvious

We forgot how to do things. We have a pre-meeting planning meeting to decide how to refine our intro, which we fumble, but decide just to leave it all in. Then we forget to bring a warm-up “bum” tune, so we leave it all out.

From there we kinda get it together and cover some great auction tips and reflect on a year of Dramface. It gets a little self-indulgent but only for a wee bit before Gordon brings a new word to us. This is therefore the “shunky” one.

We make a few excuses on why there’s not been much in the way of podcasting recently too.

Next release is already in the works!

Gregor & The Team

This was released early to Dramface Members

https://www.dramface.com/dramface-members

A Very Messy Christmas

Our Secret’s Out.

We try to record multiple episodes when we get together. We cue up guests and they appear without any idea of what the subject matter is. They’re asked to bring an optional dram along and that’s it. All good.

However, on nights where we‘ve all opted for the drams and we’re recording back-to-back, things become a little relaxed. Messy even.

Our editor said this was the most difficult to put together. I’ve had a listen through and there are very little clues left of the wheels continually falling off, so good job. Still, it remains our messiest to date, but we think you’ll be fine with that.

We begin with a topic of avoiding ‘dud’ Christmas gifts and it meanders all over the place from there. This was a lot of fun to record. It literally was the Dramface Podcast’s Christmas party.

This episode was released early to Dramface members. Thank you for your support!

We wish one and all a very Merry Christmas!

Gregor & The Team

'Tis The Season

In the first of our two Christmassy-themed sessions, we have a very easy time in the company of Jen and Rachel of The Grail.

This was a fun one. PG15 rated. (18 should you like to dram along!).

Gregor canvasses for boozy cocktail ideas and asks about the shifting of palates and preferences during different seasons. The Grail team tackle some whisky misinformation and stereotypes based on their time in retail and welcoming visitors to distilleries.

Links for this episode:

The Grail - https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrailTastings

This was released early to Dramface Members. Thank you for your support!

We had to encourage Wally to ‘have a word’ to get things moving again. Which would’ve been an interesting discussion to witness.

Anyway, something seems to have worked because this October recording is now good-to-go and ready for your ears. There is some more good news too; there are another two episodes to follow in December, so we’re playing catch up to get into your good books once more.

This one is perhaps the deepest dive Gregor has done on any one subject. With a drive to start to build his own whisky community around him locally, he invites Julie Hamilton to join and share everything about whisky clubs, events and festivals and she treats us with a real behind the scenes scenario for it all.

There’s a familiar voice from the Dramophone and of course, a close-out with an accessible “I am a Distillery”.

Links for this episode:

Glasgow’s Whisky Festival - https://glasgowswhiskyfestival.com/

Scotch 4 Dummies “Whiskygasm” 2017 episode - https://youtu.be/YfTyPZJbIfA

It’s still about whisky, but we speak more about the connections it affords us.  There is a little talking pish on this one (literally) and for that we’re sorry not sorry.

Gregor hosts regulars Roy, Rob and Scott as they look back on what has been enjoyed during the summer break. With various members of the team enjoying travels once more, many of them have been focused on rekindling their love of whisky experiences.

Earlier this year, many of the team were able to schedule things so that paths could cross. From Campbeltown to Islay during June, new connections and memories were made. Now that the dust has settled and we’ve recovered form some whisky over-saturation (some more than others) we look back and share our thoughts with you.

Whisky did this.

This was released early to Dramface Members. Thank you for your support!

Already a Dramface Member? Invite yourself into the podcast with the Dramophone and you could feature in a future podcast!

We’re not going out with a bang.

Because it’s not the last podcast, only the last for this season. We’ll be back later in the year, so consider this going out with a ‘pop’ instead. We invite Ben to join Gregor, Scotty, Rob and Roy for our real ‘edgy’ list of topics. Like our preferred method of making toast.

We do keep things very whisky focused though and quickly bring it back to cover whiskies that may take a little understanding, what whisky to pair with seafood, the effect of Scotland on whisky pilgrims, and how we might go about creating our own distillery.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the podcast so far. We’ve loved bringing it. Let us know how we landed on your ears during the first season and what we might change going forward. Longer? Shorter? Guests picks?

This was released early to Dramface Members. Thank you for your support!

Already a Dramface Member? Invite yourself into the podcast and win yourself a shirt from the Dramface Store. The first Dramophone comment we use on the upcoming recording of the next podcast will snag a shirt and size of their choice. Hit the record button!

Departing Editors, Making Tea, Dream Distilleries, Good Indies and The Devil’s Grain  

Tissues at the ready.* The penultimate session of this first season has some departing words from Jason, even although he’s not actually leaving, he will step down as editor.   

We also meander through our dream distillery locations, helping to choose the perfect indie bottling, our favourite whisky films and, bizarrely, how we prefer to enjoy our perfect cup of tea.  

The Dramophone is put to great use collecting departing wishes and thanks for Mr Mhor. Aye Dallas, no bad.  

*No tissues actually needed  

This was released early to Dramface Members. Thank you for your support!

To Buy Or Not To Buy

As the team find it more and more difficult to successfully find an evening where they’re all available, we’re eeking things out. We know we could do with sharing more of these, we hope you’ll accept some rather than none. We will try harder though, we really do enjoy it..

In this session we witness Roy’s red-faced inability to find the mute button as he lets his inner demon out, before venturing into chats about different kinds of sherry maturation, buying habits and palate progression. Gordon, after his record-breaking win last time, hosts the I Am A Distillery.

Jenny, Roy and Rob join host Gregor to discuss a varied range of topics that may occasionally be permitted to depart form whisky, such as what other drinks we enjoy. We also talk about the current state of travel retail with a few recommendations for those travelling this summer.

The odd area of resurrection and renaissance is also a theme. Gregor asks what distilleries are most exciting either because they’re new or enjoying a revival, but he also asks what - and who - might we resurrect for whisky enjoyment in future. It sounds odd, and it is.

We also celebrate our first community Dramophone dial in selection, and the Dramface Store shirt of choice goes to Hellen and Andy!

All four of us manage to keep our excitement in check .

As we look ahead to a work/leisure mesh trip to Campbeltown and Islay we cover batch variation, not for the first - or last - time in malt whisky as well as archiving and documenting the variation along the years.

We also look ahead to expectation from a few days of whisky travel to Scotland’s West Coast, to the whisky magnets that are Campbeltown and Islay.

This was released early to Dramface Members. Thank you for your support!

You know, we do try to keep things positive.

But things are sent to challenge that, constantly. There’s been so much news recently about pricing to demand, rebrands and nonsense that we occasionally just have to tackle it.

Regulars Jason and Roy join host Gregor alongside Gordon and the returning Julie to discuss these topics. Since there’s nothing they can do about any of it they’re really just prodding around in the dark and dreaming. So while they dream, what bottles would they resurrect - if they could?

This was released early to Dramface Members. Thank you for your support!

Star Wars. Speyside. Coals To Newcastle and How’s It All Going?

In this episode of the Dougie Crystal Fan Club we discover when not to visit Speyside, as well as chat Star Wars and whisky, what bottles to take along and find a moment to think about Dramface so far.

We also pledge to buy Bea a decent microphone, she joined us from ‘holiday’ this time and it does sound a little like she’s dialling in from space.

PS: When we refer to ‘the bible’ in this episode we mean the Malt Whisky Yearbook by Ingvar Ronde - the real whisky ‘bible’.

Already a Dramface Member? Invite yourself into the podcast and win yourself a shirt from the Dramface Store. The first Dramophone comment we use on the upcoming recording of the next podcast will snag a shirt and size of their choice. Hit the record button!

Music credit: That First Dram by Tom Good

Gregor is joined by Roy, Phil, Julie and Jenny to cover pilgrimages, PPMs, prohibited items and past bottles. It also ends with a killer I AM A DISTILLERY. Seriously.   

We’re Upgrading things!  

Dramface members access this early. We’re still working on other ways to reward them for their support of what we’re building, inspiration occasionally hits and we work out what could be of interest. How about recording a quick message and we use that in future podcasts?   Give it a try. An Ask-Us-Anything type format.  Or just give us feedback and suggestions. We’ll listen to them all! We're calling it the Dramophone and it's available under the early release posts under the website members section.   

Thank you for your support! We hope you love it! (Tell us what you think - hit the record button! )  Music credit: That First Dram by Tom Good

Faced with a diminished core team, Gregor pulls in Julie, Andy & Ryan to join him and Roy to discuss glassware habits and the friendships whisky can bring. 

Comments Remain Important To Us!

Yes, we had a curated list of community comments ready to respond to, but discussions about the perfect and not so perfect idea of whisky glassware  and where whisky has taken us and our friendships got us all distracted.  In trying to keep these close to or around an hour we forgot to use the prepared comments. Spoiler - we do the same next week too.

Please use the comments section throughout the Dramface site and we will reach in and grab those that catch our attention for future episodes!

As Dramface members you receive early access to our podcast through this members-only blog. Thank you for your support! We hope you love it, despite a somewhat replacement cast!

Gregor McWee tries his best to extract practical guidance from the Dramface team this week with questions on opening and re-opening. With things getting somewhat back to normal, Rob, Roy, Jason and Justine consider their experiences of distillery tours as they open a few nice bottles along the way. 

This Podcast was released to Dramface Members the week before public release.

Music credit: That First Dram by Tom Good

Trust us - this is still a Dramface podcast.

In Episode Three Gregor hosts Jason, Justine, Rob, Roy & Scotty to discuss video games, Zeitgeist, rising prices and British queueing culture. Wait, is this even about whisky? Oh yes… oh yes. All of it.

Except the games bit.

This Podcast was released to Dramface Members the week before public release.

Gregor is joined by Jason, Justine, Alex, Roy & Causeway Coast Whisky’s Phil as we discuss everything from FOMO to scoring, festivals to tasting notes, reader comments to what makes a dirty whisky, a grassy whisky or a bright whisky. There's some odd celebrations during the I am a Distillery quiz that we're very glad you can't see.

After our Launch podcast we had a lot of interest in releasing more of the same. We don’t know what we’re doing really, but we’re up for giving it a go.

In this session we talk about the recent craziness around the Springbank releases, the reception of Dramface post-launch and we take some comments from the community. We also finish on a new game called I’m a Distillery.

Please let us know what you think. We’ll shape it with your feedback.

This Podcast was released to Dramface Members a week ahead of public release. 

New face and new voices. And new games.

A bit late...

Of course there’s a huge apology due on this one because it was recorded way back after the Easter break. This means it’s the longest to-edit Dramface podcast yet. However, that record will only stand for a week or so, since we recorded Twenty Eight at the same time and it’s still being edited now.

We hope it’s worth the wait.

With the help of the amazing Gus, we cover chocolate malt, blind tasting and where those lactic notes come from. Before we diverge into wood types and maturation, Gregor pulls out a new game he came up with in collaboration with Jenny. We round out with much cheatery in I Am A Distillery.

DRAMFACE.

What’s it all about? — What is it? — Why bother? — How did it happen? — Who’s involved?

Gregor McWee hosted the team for a Q&A.

The Dramface Strikes Back. Again.

Covering all the topics we didn’t get to during Podcast Twenty Five.

Gregor asks the teams for some “drams of note” that we’ve encountered since we wrapped season two. From there we wander into The Jura Problem, the delightful surprises of the Dramface Top 40 and the sadness at the loss of Malt Review, before rounding off with another community-sourced IAAD.

See you back in a couple of weeks!

Gregor & The Team

The Dramface Strikes Back.

Self indulgence.

Well, a little self-indulgent. But these are mostly always just us hanging out and talking whisky and our own whisky lives, so they’re always a little indulgent. You don’t seem to mind.

We finally got to grips with where all the buttons were and hit record in time to hear some impromptu McWee karaoke before getting right into an XXL version of what was in our glasses.

This takes so long that we run out of time to cover our “drams of note” and “state of Dramface” segments which we push out to next time. Instead, we run through our highlights of whisky happenings since we lat powered up the mics, so planty more self-indulgence then. All-in-all a nice time was had.

We hope it’s okay for you too.

See you back in a couple of weeks.

Gregor & The Team

This was released early to Dramface Members first. Back to early access for the last two of the season following this.Thank you for your support!

Already a Dramface Member? Invite yourself into the podcast with the Dramophone and you could feature in a future podcast.

Music credit: That First Dram by Tom Good

Season finale. Dramface Fantasy Distillery Brackets & More.

Pick your top five, then a reserve five. Think you can keep ‘em?

Look, you’re not gonna hear from us for a while, so we left a lot in this one. More than usual? Yeah. Too much? Probably.

But we enjoyed the topics and thought you might too. We start off on annunciation and pronunciation before discussing what colour we taste in whisky. Gregor digs up some gold form Jen and Rachel on retail trends before there’s some disagreement on opening minds as people explore whisky.

All of this via chats around all whiskies ,whether planted or unpleated, before getting into an intensely fought battle for our five fantasy distilleries. If you want to play along, make your list of five plus five reserves, choose one or two players to go up against and see how many of yours stay intact.

You can see the results of the brackets below; one of the team clearly kicked it out of the park, but we’ll leave you guessing who while you listen along.

Of course, we round out with yet another I Am A Distillery, and it’s another geeky one.

Almost a Podcast.

Gregor wanted to ask us about our Almost a great whisky possibilities. You know, those releases, whiskie sor distilleries that could, with a wee bit of effort, be so much more enjoyed - even if it’s from the perspective of enthusiasts.

On the way there we enjoy Jen’s recipe for Jalapeño syrup, tales form Rachel about how the 1700’s propaganda blighted gin, preparing for festivals and teasing the brackets challenge for our next and final episode (for this season!).

So sit back, pour a dram and listen to us adjust our tighteny bits, brush away our furry things and toggle our floppy stuff.

Of course, we round out with yet another I Am A Distillery, and this one’s for the real geeks.

Strap in for the brackets in the final episode next time, list your own top 5 and play along. Remember to include one world whisky distillery.

The Cheesy Wan.

Or - Noobs Attempt Whisky and Cheese.

The team try their best to gather similar whiskies and similar cheese, but of course don’t quite get it right. Scatter-gunning the pairings, they work out there’s an art to things and while some pairings hit, others miss. Hard.

This is a self-indulgent podcast but we hope you find it as laid back and easy as we did recording it; a relaxed Friday night in, late-night vibe. With cheese.

So, as long as you’re not put off by chewing and lip-smacking, kick back with a cheese and whisky of your choosing and listen to Gregor admitting he gets the cheese sweats, Scott justifying never eating cheese after midnight and a general lack of cheese and whisky pairing skill.

We round out with Gordon’s I Am A Distillery.

Gregor & The Team

The cheese selections:

• Parmesan

• Blue Cheese

• Cheddar

• Brie

The Whisky selection:

• Bourbon-matured scotch

• Sherry-matured scotch

• A bourbon

• A peated scotch

This was released during the Dramface holiday break, and therefor the only pod not to be released early to Dramface Members first. Back to early access for the last two of the season following this.Thank you for your support!

Already a Dramface Member? Invite yourself into the podcast with the Dramophone and you could feature in a future podcast.

Music credit: That First Dram by Tom Good

The Twenty wan before the cheesy wan.

The prospect of cheese made some of us nervous.

It’s not a secret that these sessions are recorded in twos. This session is the one before the cheese pairing and most of us were already sat in front of cheese boards. Gregor insisted we wait. Therefore, this was recorded with the stench of all sorts of cheeses filling the air, and we couldn’t eat ‘em. That’s our excuse.

Gregor distracted us by discussing bottles that we should be grabbing now, before they’re gone. We then wandered into price versus age, Gordon’s insightful and revealing trip to Campbeltown and Roy’s magical trip up the Ardnamurchan peninsula.

We round out with yet another remarkable I Am A Distillery.

Gregor & The Team

This was released early to Dramface members, thank you for your support!

Music credit: That First Dram by Tom Good

The Colonials are serious.

Not only have they submitted their second episode within a remarkably prompt time window, there’s another hot on the heels of this. Good news if you enjoy it, we suppose.

Anyway, Gregor has suggested that, given the difficulties in scheduling, it’s acceptable to proffer the ‘B-team’ now and again. All the while he’s readied his response, and he’s promising power-ups. Of what style we’re not sure, but we wait excitedly to see the outcome. (Members have access already).

In the meantime enjoy Rob and the team sharing their thoughts on the length of a finish, an ingenious way to free up bottle space, availability of this year’s OSWA.co.uk nominations in the not-so-united states of America as well as proffering their own picks for the OSWAs Best Value category for 2024.

Enjoy!

Wally & The Team

It’s terrifying what happens while you sleep.

With the regular podcast team struggling to get time around a mic, despite genuine efforts, a vacuum has appeared. No podcast episode has been recorded or released since early August.

Into this vacuum, we suppose inevitably, a group of Dramface team members have stepped, under well-meaning , auspicious intentions. Claiming it’s all about timezones and variation of territory, they now have shared-control of our strategic recording studio.

Luckily, they don’t know what they’re doing.

Or do they?

You decide. Leave your feedback in the comments section below.

Enjoy!

Wally & The Team

Gregor will return!

500 Reviews & 500 More (The Video One) This is not a response to The Dramface Colonials Podcast.* To celebrate Dramface reaching its 1,000 reviews milestone we thought it'd be a good idea to attempt a video edit this time around. Our editor is work-shy, so he might decide this is a one off, we'll see. If you enjoy this new format then hop on with the words of encouragement for future episodes to feature our (Dram)faces. This episode is a little self-indulgent, given the milestone, but we wander off to discuss the challenges of scoring as well as celebrating where we're at in whisky right now, like, today After we pause to mark 1k reviews, we all fall out with Roy over the I Am A Distillery result. Shocking behaviour. *Totally a response to the Dramface Colonials Podcast.

Gregor asks the team to bring along their hottest drams, by ABV content before going on to ask for their ‘hot takes’ in whisky. Inevitably with these things some controversy ensues.

We hope you’re enjoying these video pods, of which we have another couple in the editing room queue. We also have more Colonials podcasts coming hot on the heels of this. Your feedback - as always - very welcome! Share far and wide and remember to subscribe to the YouTube channel.

The Colonials are patient.

They submitted this recording a while ago, it’s made it through the system and now, finally, it’s yours. This could be the extended version. There is some content within that has very little to do with whisky. Actually, nothing to do with whisky.

Perhaps it’ll let you understand the team a little more, but we’re not sure that’s a good thing. Anyway, our members didn't object to the off-colour discussion in this episode, so it goes public (we’re speaking specifically about the outro, where we left the mic on… those of you with a more sensitive constitution should perhaps kill the pod as the music fades).

Things begin earnestly enough, with discussion about how reviewers go about choosing what they review - and how they approach it. They talk at length about their thoughts and attitudes on scoring. Thereafter they share fascinating stats on Dramface scores and how they might relate to prices paid.

Then, after a decent I Am a Distillery, they talk about fantastical places to poop.

Yes, I think this is their best yet.

Culture comes in many forms.

Wally & The Team

[Edit: this was made as a video podcast and went out via our YouTube channel on Christmas Day. After your great feedback, we realise we should've included it here. Apologies. However, as this was edited as a video podcast - using AI no less - forgive us if it's not as 'tight' or listenable , we hope you enjoy!]

Recorded at the last minute, edited by AI and cobbled together for a Christmas Day release - our gift to you - Gregor pulls in the Grail Girls to explore pairing whisky with chocolate. Our other Christmas gifts to you include: - Some amateur ASMR - A discussion on our favourite branding - Peat vs Smoke - Jen’s Best Ever thing to pair with whisky - Our drams of 2024 - Dialling up the IAAD to 11

In the end you’ll discover the idea for the the last part in our 'pairing trilogy’; although you’ll need to commit to veganism. This was (mostly) edited by AI and as such isn’t as ‘tight’ as our usual edits. That said we hope you enjoy the upgrades in sound and video. As we had to get this out for Christmas, this wasn’t released early to members - everyone gets it on Christmas Day. That said - a huge thank you to our members, Dramface wouldn’t be here without you. Thank you for your support! Music credit: That First Dram by Tom Good

The Breakfast Episode The Colonials have the idea of gathering to discuss whiskies that pair with breakfast. Each of them prepare their own idea of a perfect breakfast and then try to pair it with whisky. Don't listen while hungry. This is the Colonials Podcast; the Splinter Cell. Do not make the mistake of calling it the 'American' podcast. This was made available to Dramface members early.

The Roads Less Travelled

(This is also released as a video podcast over on our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@dramfacewhisky )This is later than late. This was recorded last year.To the shame of, ahem, our editor; everything is backed up on the podcasts. Same for the Colonials recordings. Same editor bottleneck. We’d fire him and replace him, but there’s a problem in the fact that it’s me.No promises about the follow on pods, we’ll just say they’re in hand. The next colonials session is being cut at the moment and this session here today will leave you ready for Thirty Four - the long promised blending session. From what we remember about it, it was a fun one. If you want to participate in Thirty Four fully; have a bottle of Glenmo 10 (or 12!) alongside a Glenallachie Cask Strength and a Ledaig 10 for our blending session.In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the boys discussing travel tips, drams that remind us of places, a new use for nappies (‘diapers’ to our American friends) and dressing up as poo.Rage against the editor in the comments if you think it’ll help the next one drop any quicker.Thank you for your patience.

What the fudge? Our personal whisky rants.

This was an epic recording session by five of our Colonials: Rob, Stuart, Mike, Chuck and Gus.

In what started out as personal whisky rant catharsis, they meander through so many topics we’re certain this one will go down as a re-listenable classic.

With the canny insights of Gus on hand to keep things informed, the cover TAF (tired as fudge) casks, the current whisky loch, the challenges faced by today’s producers and asking the question: are whisky enthusiasts the problem? 

They then wade into even crunchier topics such as authenticity, homogenisation, the origins of sulfur and what distilleries excite them.

Mike hosts the I Am A Distillery at the end, but clearly needs to read his Malt Whisky Yearbook to get up to speed on our northern distilleries. Forgive him, he’s a lovely man, really.

Thank you for your amazing support! Enjoy!

Collections and selections...

…and bottles on life support.

Rob hosts Mike, Cleon, Chuck and Justin this time around as they discuss the scale and management of their collections/selections.

Some bottles are forgotten while others are nursed, to the point of being on ‘life support’.

After sharing their individual attitudes and the numbers of bottles they’re dealing with, they talk about spreadsheets and happening upon bottles that have been largely forgotten - but undeservedly so.

They then derail somewhat into a discussion about Octomore before Justin makes the faux pas of mentioning rum.

Rob hosts and entirely achievable I Am a Distillery.

Thanks for your patience and hope you enjoy!

Wally & The Team

PS: this was recorded at the end of 2024 - we’re sort of catching up…

Blend it like Beckham

We’re no longer late with these. We’re now retrieving long lost files…This, like the previous release, was recorded last year.You know where the fault lies. I’ll leave it at that. He’s been berated by us and has promised that things are now moving once more. It won’t hurt for you to berate a little too.This is a session where I tried to envisage a way where we could all blend the same ingredients together remotely - and anyone could potentially join in. We selected Glenmorangie’s 10yo (or the new 12yo) for the 'base' alongside a Ledaig 10 year old for peat and a bottle of Glenallachie’s Cask Strength for might and sherry spice. From these three, we tried to blend the best we could.Should you wish to participate and sip along, the ratios are as follows:Gregor: 10 parts Glenmorangie, 2 parts Glenallachie and 1 part Ledaig.Roy: 6 parts Glenmorangie, 3 parts Glenallachie and 1 part Ledaig.Gordon: Zero(!) parts Glenmorangie, 4 parts Glenallachie and 1 part Ledaig.Rob: 3 parts Glenmorangie, 3 parts Glenallachie and 1 part Ledaig.We had a lot of fun with this, on the build up and during the recording. Even the more seasoned of us were surprised with how much fun it could be. Give it a go.

This is Part two...

The Colonials Are Blind.

All of them.

As you’re all aware, we’re digging up recordings from the end of last year to catch up. With light at the end of the tunnel, we share what is the longest ever recording session from us. So long, in fact, we cut it into two episodes.

Imagine this a little like a Zoom call that we recorded to share with you all, fly-on-the-wall style.

At the end of 2024, seven Colonials sat down together with different exchanges of blind samples in an attempt to surprise each other. They most definitely succeeded; it build to such a crescendo of surprise that, over the final dram, you can actually hear everyone’s brain tick as they try to work out how to get their hands on a bottle.

On the way there they visit Ardnamurchan, Springbank, Tormore, Loch Lomond, Dickel, Lochlea, Westland, St George and Ardnahoe, amongst a few others.

Watch out for a tricky end to; an Part 2 I Am a Distillery entry from long term reader and supporter Tom O.

Thanks for your patience again and hope you enjoy!

Wally & The Team

PS: as mentioned - this was recorded at the end of 2024

The Colonials Are Blind.

All of them.

As you’re all aware, we’re digging up recordings from the end of last year to catch up. With light at the end of the tunnel, we share what is the longest ever recording session from us. So long, in fact, we cut it into two episodes.

Imagine this a little like a Zoom call that we recorded to share with you all, fly-on-the-wall style.

At the end of 2024, seven Colonials sat down together with different exchanges of blind samples in an attempt to surprise each other. They most definitely succeeded; it build to such a crescendo of surprise that, over the final dram, you can actually hear everyone’s brain tick as they try to work out how to get their hands on a bottle.

On the way there they visit Ardnamurchan, Springbank, Tormore, Loch Lomond, Dickel, Lochlea, Westland, St George and Ardnahoe, amongst a few others.

Watch out for a tricky end to; an Part 2 I Am a Distillery entry from long term reader and supporter Tom O.

Thanks for your patience again and hope you enjoy!

Wally & The Team

PS: as mentioned - this was recorded at the end of 2024

The Heels

In this banger of a knowledge bomb, Rob gathers Mike, Stuart, Justin and Gus to discuss collections, managing them and our individual attitudes towards keeping tabs on bottles, levels and inventories.

They’re also happy to take detours to cover flavour, sulphur and the oldest whiskies they’ve tried.

This one’s a cracker, Wally’s favourite to date. Gus is a gem. Our editor-in-chief is just annoyed they never stayed on brand and called the episode “The Dregs’.

Or 'The Coffee Wan'

It’s inevitable that whisky folk spend their time in more than one rabbit hole; it’s our inquisitive nature, perhaps. In the Dramface team we see a huge overlap, believe it or not, with coffee.

I don’t. I don’t really drink much coffee. But I get it. What really struck me is the synergies and parallels we can draw between coffee and whisky. This episode does actually talk about whisky too, but the coffee chat renders it an excellent Coffee 101 guide for beginners. 

And, to the delight of Rob, Stuart, Chuck, Adam and Cleon, it has an unexpected effect on the whisky too.

I’ll admit to almost spending far too much on a bag of beans and a grinder. A third listen may force it. A particularly revealing and insightful episode. 

Perhaps their most sober too.

The Glasgow Wan

We recorded this in summer. But our software lost half of one of the tracks. 

In a huff, we tried another software. It’s proven to be a better-the-devil-you-know scenario. This isn’t as ‘clean’ as usual and we think having all four of us on screen is a little distracting, but it’s recorded and we’re not trashing another - so we go. Hopefully, it’s still worthwhile, certainly should be acceptable as an audio podcast.

Anyway, in this one we decompress after the Glasgow Whisky Festival Weekend. It’s always about the people. But this is a good one for those who are still to attend such an event or perhaps feel they’re yet to master it. Some of us are longer in the tooth and have worked out the best ways to get through an entire weekend of festival events. Spoiler: slow down, be mindful, take it easy. Not rocket science right?

Anyway, the good news - Podcast Thirty Six is already recorded. The bad news - it was recorded the same way as this. Ah well, you’ll have it soon enough. 

We hope you enjoy this one!

The Introspective Crossover

In an effort to let everyone have a wee peek at just how messy things actually are at Dramface Towers, the Colonials request the presence of the messy clown at the helm. He’s eventually asked to explain why it takes six months from recording to release, which he fails to do. 

In the end, however, this introspective pod ends up being a very genial affair, with lots of chat about whisky and even more about Dramface itself; which nicely betrays the general positive vibes around the place. It’s whisky and it’s meant to be fun. Serious fun, but fun. 

TL;DR - everyone is happy and you get to see the Colonial on video for the first time.

Oh, and if you enjoy it let us know. We may release Colonials 11 on video too.

The State of the Collection

With half the team still struggling with colds and flu after the Glasgow shenanigans, they’re able to focus on topics that don’t require much sensory function, but it does place a tax on cerebral processing: what are the flavours of all the Monster Munch variants and what to do with our inevitable over-accumulation of bottles.

After an exercise to establish the tallest and shortest official scotch whisky bottles (they miss two of the shortest - see if you can catch them) we then go on to share how we organise our individual collections. As we do so, we realise they’ve evolved over the years, perhaps directly reflecting our palate evolution.

It’s worth dwelling on my point that - bottles aside - the real ‘collection’ is the people we’ve met along the way. Don’t worry, it doesn’t stay serious for long, we’re soon discussing sausage mastication after a quickly-guessed I Am a Distillery from Roy.

This is (we think) the last time we’ll use StreamYard for the recording. Back to the old-fathful software for cleaner edits next time. Thanks for indulging the long pauses, burps, farts and erms…

Remember we’re LIVE on YouTube, 9pm tomorrow - the 29th January. A first for the Dramface Podcast. Maybe the last. We’ll give it a go.