The Niche Whisky Fringe Festival at Edinburgh

Edinburgh Whisky Fringe is in its sixteenth year now. Over time it has gained the reputation of being one of the most remarkable attractions in the list of global whisky events. The tickets for the three day festival are limited to four hundred and fifty each day. This allows only a significantly small number of lucky people, to experience the beauty and grandeur of Mansfield Traquair, and sample two hundred and fifty whiskies spread over twenty eight stands.

The exhibitors almost always know what people want and bring to the table some exceptional ‘half-time orange’ treat drams. A speciality of the festival, the list features rare whisky like Dalmore Quintessence, Springbank 21-year-old, Ardbeg Dark Cove, and Linkwood 1998 Cote Rotie from Gordon & MacPhail. This practise of making select whisky available for all, sets apart the Ediburgh Whiskey Fringe from other whisky festivals that happen across the globe.

Scotland’s smallest distillery, Strathearn distillery from Perthshire, was conceived one Fringe festival day and six years later, now they are back as exhibitors. Strathearn matures its spirit, both peated and non-peated, in small octave-sized casks, so that each batch of their whisky is unique. The first bottle from this micro-distillery was sold at £4,150 through a whisky auction platform.

Royal Mile Whiskies' annual Whisky Fringe manages to draw people from all over the world to Edinburgh’s historic Old Town. An essential part of their success is the spirit of the people who come to attend it, and the passion they share for all things whisky.

Country Roads, Take Me Down the Bourbon Trail

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough,” Mark Twain once noted.

Japan’s Tryst with Whisky: Yamazaki Distillery

Established in 1932 at Shimamoto, Yamazaki is the first ever commercial whisky distillery built in Japan. The ‘Whisky Library’ it is known for, has seven thousand unblended bottles on display. Soaring remarks by visitors from across the world earned the place the prestigious ‘Whisky Visitor Attraction of the Year’ title at icons of Whisky, 2015.

Glancing at Glen Grant, Moray's Pride

A small village named Rothes in Moray, situated by the river Spey has been home to Glen Grant since 1840. Brothers James and John Grant, founder of Glen Grant spent years smuggling and distilling whisky illegally, before acquiring a license. It was not hard for the brothers to find an ideal location, since Rothes offered almost all. The sea, the port of Garmouth, the river with acres of barley growing by its plains, Rothes was bountiful in all the basic ingredients that make malt whisky.