Cask to Glass

“Whiskies are made to be opened; to be enjoyed; and to be shared about,” insists Hamish Malcolm, aka The Dram Caddy, who provides whisky and golfing tours across the east and north-east of Scotland. "They’re not meant to be stored on a shelf.”

We first spoke to Hamish back in July 2025 about how he pairs whisky tastings with rounds of golf. But what value for money whiskies does he recommend his guests should be drinking?

He’s picked out six “bang for buck” whiskies, while John’s picked out three he just loves.

John’s Favourite Picks

1. The Famous Grouse
What do expect from a former Scotland rugby international? For years Famous Grouse sponsored Scotland rugby. “I just like it," he says. "It’s got everything you want in a blend.”

2. Loch Lomond 10 Year Old
If you caught our fourth ever podcast way back in 2025, you’d know Loch Lomond was Captain Haddock’s favourite whisky, long before Loch Lomond came along. “I just like Loch Lomond. Single malt 10-year-old whisky,” John admits. “This is really apple, vanilla. I think it’s been three different types of American oak casks. It’s just got so much going on.”

3. Bunnahabhain 10 Year Old
If you’re a regular listener, you’ll know John’s a big fan of Islay. “This,” he admits, “is my go-to whisky. I don’t know why. I just love it. It’s a sherry bomb. Loads of sherry. Really fruity. Caramelly. Vanellish. It’s very nutty. It just gives you that whack.”

Hamish’s 6 “Bang for Buck” Whiskies

1. Glenmorangie 12 Year Old
“Glen Mo 12, if you’re shopping around, you can still get for £30,” he says. “A mixture of sherry and bourbon casks, it’s a great light whisky to kick off a tasting.”

2. Symington’s 10 Year Old Blended Scotch Whisky
“If you’re not in the whisky world, maybe Symington’s name wouldn’t immediately jump off a supermarket shelf. But if you are, you know what you know. And Andrew’s name on a bottle is pretty important.” 46% ABV. £35. “It’s a mixture of Edradour, Ben Nevis and a Pedro Ximenes cask, so quite sweet, and it’s also a bit of grain whisky from North British Distillery.”

3. Signatory Vintage Speyside (M) 17 Year Old
This 17-year-old from Andrew Symington’s Signatory range is from first fill Oloroso sherry butts. 57% ABV. £85. But thing is – Hamish is really cryptic here – there’s no distillery mentioned… Just a mysterious “M”.

“In most cases in independent bottling, it’ll tell you what distillery it’s from,” Hamish explains. “This one simply says ‘Speyside open brackets M closed brackets.’ So some people, John, some people assume this is a Macallan.”

Is it? “I couldn’t confirm or deny that. Get Andrew back on,” Hamish says with a wink.

4. Springbank 10 Year Old
Springbank 10-year-old, “lightly peated in a rugged style” from Campbelltown; 46% ABV. “£55 maybe £65,” Hamish says. “This was a really sought-after whisky. You could buy it on a Monday and double your money on a Thursday online.” Which, he adds, is why some retailers restrict it to one bottle per customer.

5. Ardnamurchan AD Cask Strength
Lightly peated, cask strength. High 50s ABV. £57. “A lot of whisky for your money”. A QR code on the back, Hamish explains, tells you “what type of barley was used, what farm the barley came from… and what members of staff were on duty and put it in the cask.”

6. Thompson Brothers 18 Year Old Highland Single Malt
Another independent bottling. 48.5% ABV. £65. “There’s no clue obvious on here which distillery this is from,” Hamish teases, “but it does say on the back, ‘to park your expectations’ of what this whisky might be.” Highland Park? Hamish won’t say.

Slàinte!
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Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes
Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)
Vocals: Andrea Cunningham
Guitars: John Beattie
Bass: Alasdair Vann
Drums: Alan Hamilton
Bagpipes: Calum McColl
Accordion: Gary Innes
Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie
Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up to 70% of a whisky’s flavour comes from the wood. But what actually happens inside the barrel to create world-class whisky? Legendary Master Distiller Billy Walker unpacks the exact science of oak maturation, cask chemistry, and why age still matters.

In this episode of Cask to Glass, John sits down with legendary master distiller and blender Billy Walker from The GlenAllachie Distillery to explore the chemistry, craft, and science behind Scotch whisky.

With over 50 years of industry experience taking in many famous names including Hiram Walker, BenRiach, GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh, Billy

➡️breaks down how wood selection & oak chemistry shape profile & flavour
➡️explains why maturation dynamics matter
➡️reveals the truth about age statements
➡️explores his philosophy on single malts
➡️ makes a passionate defence of blended whisky
➡️and implores colleagues not to go down the route of cocktails

Slàinte!
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Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes
Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)
Vocals: Andrea Cunningham
Guitars: John Beattie
Bass: Alasdair Vann
Drums: Alan Hamilton
Bagpipes: Calum McColl
Accordion: Gary Innes
Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie
Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Scotch Whisky "unfairly" taxed in the UK compared to other drinks?

Yes, says Mark Kent, CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association. "72% of the cost of an average bottle of Scotch goes on tax of one form or another," he says.

And it's sometimes cheaper to buy whisky shipped to other countries than to buy it in Scotland because the UK has the fourth highest level of excise duty on spirits in Europe, and the highest in the G7 group of nations.

"Scotch falls under spirits," he says, "and 70% of all spirits made in the UK are made in Scotland." Consequently excise duty on Scotch per litre of alcohol per unit is three times that on beer or cider. "It's simply unfair on consumers, producers and the supply chain," he concludes.

"Would the French do that with Champagne or with other national drinks?" he asks.

And it’s counter-productive.

”The curves are clear that the more you tax, especially premium products, the less you get back,” he says. “And every time we’ve seen a freeze or a cut, we’ve had a couple of cuts over time, that’s led to more revenue to the Treasury.”

However, it's not all gloom and doom, Mark says, despite "the job losses, the pauses in investment and the day-to-day difficulties of distillers."

"We've got the potential to get back to that long-term curve that we saw before COVID," he says.

The India free trade agreement has brought down the import tariffs into India, the largest whisky market in the world, from 150% to 75%. US tariffs on whisky have been removed. And tariffs in China have been reduced from 10% to 5%.

"But," he warns, "it's not plain sailing by any means. The state of the industry is still very delicate. There's a lot of domestic headwinds."

"As we speak," Mark concludes, "You're seeing job losses, you're seeing pauses in investment, you're seeing day-to-day difficulties of distillers which are then reflected in the wider supply chain. [But] if we get that Government support in the here and now, to support us, to fan the embers of what could be a recovery and a return to long-term growth, then I think the potential will be fulfilled and Scotch will be back."

🎧Tune in as John and Mark discuss:

➡️the fragile state of the Scotch Whisky industry
➡️how the UK tax & excise system makes it cheaper to buy Scotch Whisky in other countries rather than in Scotland
➡️how evidence suggests that when tax on whisky is reduced, the Treasury makes more money
➡️how Scotch is part of the UK's soft power abroad
➡️how global markets are opening up to Scotch Whisky

Slàinte!
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Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes
Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)
Vocals: Andrea Cunningham
Guitars: John Beattie
Bass: Alasdair Vann
Drums: Alan Hamilton
Bagpipes: Calum McColl
Accordion: Gary Innes
Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie
Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"If you take away the cooper, you take away the cooperage, you take away the barrels, then you don't get whisky," says Ray Prosser, Sales & Operations Manager at Oakwood Cooperage, the largest independent cooperage in the UK. Not just because Scotch Whisky must by law be matured in oak casks for a minimum of three years, but because, Ray says, 70% of whisky's flavour comes from the wood.

Ray's been a cooper for 36 years.

“I always had a fascination with wood, even from my days at school,” he tells John Beattie. “It was one of those things. I used to go to my old auntie’s down in Partick, and the neighbour used to come in and help her with the groceries and stuff like that. And they came in one Sunday and said, would I be interested in being an apprentice cooper.

“I didn’t know what a cooper was at the time. Obviously these were the days before internet… So I found out more about it, and I haven’t looked back.”

In this episode he takes John inside the cooperage, where the "unsung heroes" of the whisky industry apply passion, skill and tradition to rejuvenate, repair and restore the casks that give whisky its exceptional flavour, whether they're "your sherry casks, your wine casks, your Bourbons, or your virgin oak".

Join John as Ray reveals:

➡️the 60-to-100-year lifespan of a barrel;
➡️how casks are decharred, recharred and rejuvenated to start all over again;
➡️tips on how to identify what type of barrel a whisky was matured in, even if the label doesn't say;
➡️how coopers will resize casks to get a more wood to spirit ratio to speed up maturation;
➡️and provides a step-by-step walkthrough of barrel repair, hoop driving, and testing.

Slàinte!
-------
Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes
Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)
Vocals: Andrea Cunningham
Guitars: John Beattie
Bass: Alasdair Vann
Drums: Alan Hamilton
Bagpipes: Calum McColl
Accordion: Gary Innes
Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie
Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you take your whisky? On a Brazilian beach, with coconut water obviously. Or better still coconut water ice. In 2025 Brazil was the joint-fifth largest market for Scotch whisky by volume - 54 million bottles. But with a population of some 200 million people, Brazil's still an untapped market. So how do you crack it?

In this episode of Cask to Glass, we sit down with industry veteran Andre de Almeida (Founder of Inside the Cask and former Export Director for Loch Lomond Group). Born in Brazil and now based in Scotland, Andre offers a rare insider look at one of the world's most dynamic and challenging spirits markets.

We dive deep into:

➡️The unique drinking culture of Brazil - from beachside standard blends to premium single malts.
➡️The role duty free stores on Brazil's many border crossings play in getting whisky to consumers.
➡️Common mistakes international brands make when entering South America.
➡️The story behind the official Brazilian tartan.
➡️How a Brazilian born Scot taught Brazil how to play football.
➡️The exciting rise of domestic Brazilian single malts like Union and Lamas.

Whether you're in the drinks industry looking to expand into Latin America or simply a whisky enthusiast curious about global drinking cultures, this conversation is packed with actionable insights and fascinating stories.
#whisky #scotchwhisky #podcast #interview #WhiskyPodcast #madetobemeasured

Slàinte!
-------
Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes
Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)
Vocals: Andrea Cunningham
Guitars: John Beattie
Bass: Alasdair Vann
Drums: Alan Hamilton
Bagpipes: Calum McColl
Accordion: Gary Innes
Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie
Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.