I owe a lot to Victor Porter of Southport Whisky Club as although my whisky journey started before I started attending, I’d never had exposure to such a large range of great whiskies. There’s only so much you can learn on your own and there is definitely a limit to the variety of whiskies you can buy from supermarkets.
The Southport Whisky Club is fantastic for everyone, whether just getting into whisky or a lifelong enthusiast; it gives you the opportunity to enjoy great whisky, meet like minded enthusiasts and ask the questions you’ve been pondering over, often to Brand Ambassadors from the distillery!
Another beauty of the club, is that you get the chance to try a whole range of drams from one distillery/range for a ticket price. This is often less than the cost of buying a tasting set or a load of samples from somewhere like Drinks by the Dram. It’s about much more than that though, the atmosphere at the club nights is great, it’s a real fraternity feel, everyone’s welcoming with a shared passion and interest; it makes it easy to ask questions that you may feel are daft, or haven’t had the opportunity to ask before.
One of the first nights I attended at the club is still one of my most memorable. Victor convinced Ibon Mendiguren, the Brand Ambassador for Loch Lomond, Glen Scotia & Littlemill Malts to travel down, all the way from Glasgow to come and do an introduction to their range of Campbeltown Malts from Glen Scotia at Remedy in Churchtown.
What a fantastic night, Ibon brought the entire core range of whiskies and talked us through them, describing each stage of the process and how the whisky gets its Campbeltown character. Included in the ticket price was a bottle of their Double Cask, which despite being a NAS entry level in their range is absolutely delicious. It’s been finished in a combination of first-fill bourbon barrels and Pedro Ximénez Sherry casks and was my first introduction to the beautiful flavour of their Campbeltown malts.
If you’d like to try some Glen Scotia whisky, buy from the link below and support me: