Billy Abbott

They’re definitely worth seeking them out, especially the peated.

Laizhou distillery and the rise of Chinese whisky : Whisky and Spirits Guides Chinese whisky is breaking into the international market, with distillers like IWSC-award-winning Laizhou leading the way and setting the standards.

I wrote some words about the lovely folks at Laizhou and their whisky. Tasted both the Finest Reserve and Peated Bourbon Cask again to write notes for the article, and was just as impressed as when I tried them at the distillery.

I definitely get some cherry lips/Haribo. I suspect that's the wood interacting with the rye as I didn't get it in my old bourbon-cask samples #TLDCWhisky

When trying these three next to each other, you get a load of similarity. #3 Yesteryear. Nose: Sweet pastry and Playdoh, custard tarts and soft spice. Palate: Cinnamon-spiced pastry and mint imperials. Finish: More mints and cinnamon toast #TLDCWhisky

Despite Bluesky failing to work, time for #2: Embarque. Nose: more custardy notes, as well as well-done-but-not-burnt toast, cherry jam, Mr Kipling Country Slices. Palate: Dark, singed raisins and char, soft spice, dark chocolate and minty hints. Finish: minty dark choc and char #TLDCWhisky

I was rather surprised by the limey note #TLDCWhisky

Kicking off with Ten Times Round the Sun. Only been waiting about 12 years for this... Nose: Custard tarts, a hint of lime, cinnamon toast and brown sugar. Palate: Loads of brown sugar (almost US rye-like) bready grain and hints of mint choc. Finish: Minty with more chocolate #TLDCWhisky

Tonight, we’ll be sharing, sipping and savouring London’s sipping finest in the order of:

1. TLDC Ten Times Around the Sun
2. TLDC Embarque
3. TLDC Yesteryear

#TLDCWhisky #London #Whisky #BePartOfTheDramfotainment

...and so it begins #tldcwhisky

This Friday, a decade of patience comes full circle. Ten Times Around the Sun, matured in cask #007 through closure and revival, finally arrives - London’s first 10-year-old single malt and a defining moment for The London Distillery Company.

#TLDCWhisky

The New Hotness - Whisky Squad After the new year lull, a time of hibernation when the whisky industry sleeps off its Christmas excesses, comes a time of thawing and shiny whisky bottles: it is time for the new hotness. Join us for...

For London booze folks, March's Whisky Squad tasting tickets are live. This time: The New Hotness – a selection of 2026's tastiest things so far.

Who's buying London's gold bars? Plus: When will it stop raining, is Labour giving up on one of London's boroughs, and the Hampstead property where Marie Antoinette would feel at home.

For more on the "it's rained every day this year" fun stories, it's the first story in today's @londoncentric.media:
www.londoncentric.media/p/london-gol...

Johnnie Walker Blue Vs. Chivas Regal 18—Which Is Best? Two award-winning blended scotch whiskies with very different price points. I asked two experts to help you decide which premium dram is worth your money.

In a fit of 'Billy talks about an unexpected whisky', I'm quoted talking about Chivas Regal 18yo over on Forbes today...
www.forbes.com/sites/markli...

First paragraph of the launch press release :)

They were launched at Davos, iirc...

Aberargie Distillery launches its first single malt whisky The Perthshire-based Aberargie Distillery has announced the launch of its inaugural single malt, marking the Morrison family’s long-awaited return to distilling and introducing a barley-to-bottle r…

Aberargie Distillery launches its first single malt whisky: thewhiskywire.com/2026/02/11/a... #Scotch #Whisky #News

I just got an ad for a Google app that you can hum tunes to. I am now finally feeling justified in my third-year-at-university confidence. 26 years later.

For a long time I’ve felt a bit foolish for telling him we couldn’t do it.

I’ve been told he went on to found Shazam.

26 years ago, during my work placement during my computing degree, a guy came in to our recommendation engine startup, and asked if we could make a system where he could hum a tune, and it’s tell him what the song was. We said no and talked a lot about Fast Fourier Transforms…

The Whisky Trail: a new old name from Elixir Distillers – Spirited Matters The Whisky Trail is a new series from Elixir Distillers, part of a range of curated spirits from around the world: The Elixir Trails.

I wrote a blog post. On my own blog. For the first time in 3.5 years. About new tasty things released by my old boss...
spiritedmatters.com/2026/02/whis...

What is this? 21:15 S02E01 Back February 23 2001

Tonight’s late realisation: Springbank 5yo pairs very well with jamon. No picture, as I ate all the jamon.

From reading their T&Cs, they shouldn’t be recommending booze pages…so, consistent?

I mentioned whisky – Facebook don’t like it when you do that.

I read your piece first, of course :)

Melania: will Bezos-bankrolled documentary be a flop? – The Latest Jeff Bezos’s Amazon MGM Studios is due to release its feature-length documentary about Melania Trump. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian film critic Catherine Shoard

The Guardian's daily podacast talked about it on Tuesday morning – they seemed to have looked at a few cinemas: www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

And now I feel part of the gang.

Hiding it away makes it at least feel like they're putting in some effort to make your life more difficult. Making it entirely automatic suggests they've just given up :)

I find it mildly depressing that LNER give ‘easy delay repay’ as the number one reason to book directly with them – that’s an excellent bit of assumption of shit service…

Choosing a seat is my #1