Being trapped in quarantine doesn't mean you can't keep enjoying whisky. We've collated the best ways to continue enjoying whisky now that we can't go out shopping or hit the bars.
Getting Whisky
First things first you need to make sure you can maintain your access to whisky! While the supermarkets might be open, their variety is never going to match independent shops or whisky bars. You might be able to get by, but if you want to use some of your new-found free time at home to enjoy whisky, there are options out there.
Subscription websites
While there's a thrill in hunting down new whiskies and trying to find the best bargain, subscriptions services can offer whiskies you wouldn't otherwise be able to find and also help expand your horizons. Most subscription services are still operating and can provide an invaluable, and reliable, service when you can't go outside!
Photo courtesy of Flaviar
Flaviar
I've mentioned these guys before, but that's because I'm still a massive fan but that's because I love this service! With annual Flaviar membership, you can choose a bottle of whisky from a selection worth around £50 and a tasting set every three months. Some subscriptions sites charge you hefty monthly fees and provide little to no choice over what you will receive. Flaviar turns this upside down by providing a multitude of options and sample collections depending on your own tastes, so you never get anything you don't want. Click here to sign up and get and get an additional £50 credit to get your home bar started.
Whisky-me
Whisky-Me is a smaller British company that offers a much more affordable entry into whisky tasting, for as little as £7 a month. Run by the owners of the Black Rock Bar in London (you can find out review of them here) they founded Whisky-Me to try and make good whisky more accessible to everyone. They provide a large dram a month of different scotches, sending out the same whisky to all their members. They are also packed into pouches to reduce the cost and environmental impact, making their service as accessible as possible. If you check the past drams available, you can see that their selection is fantastic and includes single barrel bottlings (or should I say pouchings) you can't get anywhere else. Use referral code 4371 to get a complimentary pouch when you join.
Drinks By The Dram
Drinks By The Dram offer specific tasting sets, along with a subscription service. This means you can surrender your decision making to the experts at Drinks By The Dram, or select a custom tasting based around a specific theme. The company that runs Drinks By The Dram also run Masters of Malt where you can make your own custom tasting kits and order larger bottles when you find something you like.
Summerton Whisky Club
Summerton Whisky Club is another great whisky subscription service that's British based, but also ships to the entirety of the EU. Signing up to this subscription gives you one bottle of whisky shipped to your house every two months for £50 a bottle. Summerton prides itself on making careful selections of exceptional bottles and unique bottlings. They also promise that none of their whiskies will be ones that are easy to acquire from local shops or possible to buy cheaper than the subscription price. This guarantees both a discount and a great whisky.
Photo courtesy of Summerton Whisky Festival
Online Whisky Festivals
Many whisky providers, distilleries, influencers and magazines have recognised the void of not being able to taste whisky with the community and have set up online tastings with experts in their field and even festivals.
Summerton Whisky hosts a Whisky festival in the UK every year, for members and non-members alike. Due to coronavirus, they are hosting this year's festival online, at the end of this month. The festival will ship a wide and varied selection of whisky tasters, some mixers and festival snacks to your house in the week leading up to the festival. Distilleries that are set to appear include Bimber, Glen Scotia, Hinch, The Lakes Distillery, Lambay, Mackmyra, The Scalasaig and Wolfburn.
On the day, whisky experts will be hosting talks and lectures online including Q&A sessions and cocktail masterclasses. There will also be chat rooms set up after the event to engage with the other guests and have a chance to talk about whisky. Tickets are still on sale for May 30th; find out more here.
Independent and Specialty Shops
A lot of independent bars and whisky shops are definitely struggling with the impacts of COVID. Many are now (depending on where you live) offering local delivery services to stay in business. By searching online, you can easily see where in your area might be offering delivery now. This allows you to maintain your supply of fantastic whisky and also help local businesses stay afloat. If we want to enjoy their services when all this is over, now is the time to invest.
If you can't find anything in your local area, you can always try some of the more prominent companies such as Whisky Exchange, Masters of Malt or even Amazon. While these might be more convenient I would definitely recommend what local options you have as well.
Auction sites
Another option for buying whiskies online is auction sites. This allows you to hunt for rare and exciting whiskies you wouldn't usually find in the shops. They are especially great for whiskies that might not be officially sold where you live right now. For example, if you want to try a new distillery's bourbon but don't live in the U.S.
One of the top sites is https://www.whiskyauctioneer.com/. Although there are lots of crazy expensive whiskies on here, you can also find some quite cheap offers of obscure and hard to find whisky from as low as £15
Enjoying Whisky
When it comes to drinking, quarantine means the rules have changed; not quite airport rules, but close. That being said, you should, of course, always drink responsibly and not drink alone purely for the sake of drinking. There are lots of things you can do to enjoy whisky more mindfully, improve your knowledge, and have fun without drinking a whole bottle.
Do tastings online with your friends
Super easy, just jump onto Zoom/Whatsapp/Signal/your conference calling app of choice with your friends and all introduce a whisky of choice. While you can't all taste it, you can still talk about it. Even better if you have the same whiskies!
This is where subscriptions and online shops come in handy, Masters of Malt lets you order whisky tasters. You can all order the same tasters and drink them together. If you want to order some tastings but don't know where to start, we will be suggesting custom tasting packs you can order and providing additional background information on the whisky soon.
Do a blind tasting at home
Look through all the whisky you own. Can you actually tell them apart? Even I honestly don't know if I could with my collection and now is the time to find out. You don't need to do anything complicated or follow any official test conditions. Just pour a few whiskies into different glasses (or get someone else to) then sit down with them and try and work out which is which. You might tell your Islay apart from your Highland Scotch, but everyone should be impressed if you can tell your bourbon apart.
This will test how good you are at actually tasting whisky and help you understand the more nuanced flavours as you are forced to think about it more. Blind tastings like this are also what the professionals do. If the pros can do it, why can't we?
Improvise with what you have
There's a lot you can to do experiment with the whisky you have at home. Whether it's one that you've been saving for a special occasion or a suspect bottle you found at the back of the cupboard.
First, try serving it every way you can and see how its flavour changes. Different ways to try whisky include:
Neat. If you're unaccustomed to drinking whisky neat, now is your chance!
With a splash of water. Adding water can level out peat and spice, bringing out more floral flavours. This lets you control the intensity and make sure you get the strength to a level you are comfortable with. This is great to try with any whisky, but even better with cask-strength or anything over 50% abv, or 100 proof.
With a large amount of water. This is often how single malt whisky is enjoyed in Japan. Mixing whisky with soda water (1 part whisky to 4 parts soda water) again brings out the floral flavours and the aroma of the whisky.
Ice cubes. Bourbon on ice is a classic summer drink, but ice can go well with any whisky if done right. Using large ice cubes can also help cool the whisky while not overdiluting it.
Crushed ice. While this is typically used for cocktails, if you really struggle with the strength of neat whisky crushed ice is your way forward. The whisky will cool and dilute a lot faster, taking away a lot of the bite that might put you off trying whisky on its own.
Whisky stones. Ice is excellent for cooling down your drink but also does dilute the whisky at the same time. If you want to experiment with how the flavour of your whisky changes with heat, but don't want to dilute the whisky with water, stones are the way to go. They're exactly what they sound like: food-grade stones that are designed to go in the freezer, ready for when you want to cool your drink without dilution. They are also great for providing a refreshing drink you can enjoy slowly without worrying that the final sips will be almost entirely water.
Cocktails
There's obviously a whole load of great whisky cocktails our there, like the Old Fashioned, Mint Julep, Whiskey Sour and Manhattan. Learning how to make these is a great way to experiment which whisky and impress your friends when you can finally go out again.
There are also lots of other cocktails you can experiment with too such as:
Sazerac
Punch
Whisky Ginger
Hot Toddy
Whisky smash
Cooking
One thing that might start to become tedious when you're trapped at home is cooking. Adding a little bit of whisky to your ingredients is an easy way to uplift any dish. It's also a great way to experiment with new flavours. Whisky is a fantastic ingredient to cook with and offers a lot of variety. A few ways you can uplift a recipe include flembé whisky with your ingredients at the start of mixing in whisky with sauces to give them a more complex flavour.
Some great whisky pairings include:
Bourbon/Rye and maple syrup (perfect for pancakes or fried chicken)
Peaty whisky and smoked salmon (excellent in spaghetti)
Bourbon and Chilli Con Carne
Scotch or Bourbon and gravy sauces (Flembé the whisky when you have finished frying the onions or meat).
Learning about whisky
With all the new free time you have on your hands, there hasn't been a better opportunity to start reading up and learning more about whisky. Especially now there is so much information about whisky readily available. If you're not sure where to start:
Check out online whisky magazines (like ours). It's a great way to just expand your horizons and learn a little more.
Check out distilleries' websites. They often have a wealth of information about their history, the spirits they make and how they are made. Many also have detailed blogs and educational videos.
Order your favourite whisky book. Some writers have put serious effort into making the world of whisky so much easier to learn about. Some great books include:
Follow whisky personalities and distilleries on social media. Most distilleries now have a strong social media presence, particularly on Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. This can be a great way to learn more about your favourite whiskies as well as get breaking news first. Some examples to follow are:
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