5 Loch Lomond Glenshiel Inchmurrin Decadent Drinks

5 Loch Lomond: Glenshiel / Inchmurrin / Decadent Drinks

Loch Lomond is one of those wonderfully odd distilleries whose output resists neat boxes and tidy categories, and this line‑up leans straight into that eccentricity. On the table we have an old Glenshiel ‘pure malt’ from the days when blended malt labelling was still happily opaque, alongside four Inchmurrin bottlings: two official expressions and two from Decadent Drinks, with the latter, in fact, being a deliberate vatting of Loch Lomond and Inchmurrin rather than a single‑stream malt.

This tasting is less about ticking off labels and more about mapping the distillery’s multiple personalities – how the lighter, fruit‑forward Inchmurrin style plays against the denser, more heterodox Loch Lomond profile, and how an older, nameless‑by‑design Glenshiel fits into that picture. By placing official bottlings next to independent vattings, we can get a clearer sense of what is ‘house character’ and what is the blender’s choice, and perhaps also understand why Loch Lomond remains both underappreciated and quietly fascinating for those willing to chase down its more obscure releases.

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SMWS Global Gathering 2022 sample package

SMWS Global Gathering 2022

Yesterday 30th of September was the Scotch Malt Whisky Society Global Gathering 2022 event. It’s virtual tasting with John McCheyne, SMWS’s global brand ambassador, and he was joined by five people who were part of the selection of the five drams of the night. Each dram was selected by a tasting panel from a specific country, and chose a name for it in their own language. Then, each dram’s tasting was led by the local brand ambassador, starting… in his or her native language. As it started with the whisky selected by the French panel, some people who joined a bit late were quite surprised to hear the tasting in French, before realising it would switch back in English a few minutes later. Obviously, I had ordered a tasting pack in order to join, so let’s go review those five whiskies chosen for the SMWS Global Gathering 2022.

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