Burns Night has always been about more than reciting poetry and piping in the haggis. At its heart, it is a celebration of place, identity, and shared experience. Whisky sits naturally at the centre of that table, not as a luxury flourish, but as a cultural companion. I have selected some of my favourite recommendations below for you to celebrate with this Saturday January 25th:-
The day began much like any other - damp, grey and fairly miserable. But things soon brightened when I spotted the Land Rover Defender sitting on the drive. It’s difficult not to smile at the sight of it because the Defender has that rare, reassuring dependability you’d associate with something 17th-century and timber-framed. Solid. Unfazed. Unmoved by the weather or the world.
When I stood on the first tee at Basingstoke Golf Club, I realised that I’m not just about to play a round of golf, far from it in fact. I’m actually about to club my way into the next chapter of a century-old North Hampshire story. The green rolls gently upland, the fairways stretch out like ribbons of green velvet and somewhere behind the tee box, the low hum of conversation drifts from the clubhouse terrace, where I hope the promise of lunch and a few boasts (or laughs) at my performance awaits.
At Bertie’s Whisky Bar within The Fife Arms, guests can now taste the oldest and most significant collection of House of Hazelwood Scotch whisky ever made available in a single venue. Spanning more than four centuries of Scotch whisky heritage, and comprising nine exceptionally rare expressions aged between 33 and 57 years, this is the most ambitious whisky programme Bertie’s has ever presented and the most comprehensive House of Hazelwood offering available anywhere in the world.
They do it so well. The Italians that is. Such imagination and such refinement in best utilising their impossible precipices and improbable shapes and angles.
For I had come to Lake Iseo, an hour from Milan’s Linate airport and called Sebino from the Latin for ‘double-hooked’ and divided between Bergamo and Brescia. It’s wonderfully punctuated with a dozen towns, some medieval.
The Thurlestone Hotel boasts a rich and fascinating history, one that elegantly interweaves a celebrated local dynasty, the Grose family, with the golden age of the British seaside holiday.
The Negroni is often described as a drink of absolutes. Equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth; stirred, never shaken; garnished with orange. Yet beneath its rigid structure lies extraordinary flexibility. Change one ingredient — particularly the vermouth — and the drink’s personality shifts entirely.
A Proper Festive Audi SQ6 SUV Test, Puddings Included
A Magical Walk Through Winchester Christmas Market
The festive season invites a certain grandeur—moments when the table gleams a little brighter, the conversation stretches a little longer, and the wines deserve to be every bit as memorable as the occasion itself. This year’s selection brings together bottles of genuine distinction: wines shaped by exceptional vintages, meticulous craftsmanship, and the quiet confidence that comes only from producers at the top of their game.
