Edinburgh has a wealth of fantastic bars serving great whisky, and multiple well-established people already hosting whisky tastings of a high calibre that I strongly recommend you seek out and support. Indeed, should I be fully booked or the times not prove suitable for your schedule let me know and I’ll happily pass you onto these other great tasting hosts.

Sadly I feel the city also has a lot of venues that merely seek to profit from the steady stream of tourists, offering at best a mediocre experience, and some of the established names tend to focus largely on a regular, local clientele which can make it hard for a visitor to get a ticket to attend. It is my hope to be a bridge somewhere in-between these worlds. Since moving away from full-time management in mid-2016 I have focused on tastings, with a goal to offer quality tastings to local and tourist equally.

Instead of a pre-scripted tasting that you could Google in a few minutes I offered a free-form discussion based on the group’s current knowledge. Bringing a background of Bio-Chemistry and Pharmacology to those really wanting to get into the finer details of distillation, through to a more anecdotal history of whisky where it was called for. That is still true today.

My ultimate focus though is on “Experience”. The aroma, the taste, the texture, the lingering sensations and even the memories they evoke. Combined with a little Chemistry, a touch of Food Science and even food-pairing you can quickly learn how to understand the major flavours and key profiles. In turn this will make your whisky tasting knowledge increase vastly. After the tasting you’ll gain access to the “Resource Vault” where you can read up on additional materials I post to help deepen and solidify that understanding.

In 2023 I am proud to be teaming up with local independant bars offering daily tastings that will cover entry level, through to higher end Scotch whisky. they will kindly host us, and I’ll guide you through your tasting. As I believe in an honest and open attitude, I’m happy to answer all your questions however obscure, and share my knowledge freely. Distillation, cask types, abv strength, chill filtration, availability internationally, pricing, starting/selling a collection, auctions, you name it.

Meanwhile these bars hosts a fantastic range of traditional cask ale, kegged ale, lager, spirits, one of the city’s largest and multi-award winning cider collections (2.30pm tasting venue), have a full restaurant serving meals all day (5.30pm tasting venue), and of course an extensive whisky selection should you wish to continue your journey after the tasting finishes.

Whilst I host the tastings as a sole individual, I do not work entirely alone. My assistants are invaluable in many key points of preparation and research.

Talisker (left) is responsible for sniffing out new whiskies, sampling them as often as he can, and always gets to the bottom of things, especially whisky cartons!

Laphroaig (right) is in charge of customer relations and HR, honestly all he does is sleep all day, so if you don’t get an immediate reply to an email bear with us and I’ll get back to you instead just as soon as I can.

slainte