If some ski resorts are about efficiency, Gastein is about atmosphere. The skiing is excellent, but what stays with you is the feeling of the place. Steam rising from thermal water, steep-sided mountains closing in around you, and a valley that leans as much into restoration as it does into adrenaline.
I recently joined Indri for dinner in London to taste its Diwali Collector’s Edition 2026. This year’s release is a single malt matured in Ruby Port casks from Portugal, bottled at a substantial 58.5% ABV.
It is the fourth whisky in the annual collection, through which master blender Surrinder Kumar explores cask influences beyond Indri’s regular range. Just 180 individually numbered bottles have been allocated to the UK, priced at £200 each. That puts it firmly into special occasion territory, with elaborate presentation to match.
Why Adaaran Select Meedhupparu Wins Gold for Care
I’ll tell you where Meedhupparu is in a minute. First, let me tell you why you should go.
I was recently in Paris for the launch of Aberlour’s new 21 and 25 Year Old whiskies, the oldest expressions in its permanent collection. Tasting them together revealed two quite different characters, shaped by more than two decades of maturation and the individual casks selected for each release. Both had plenty to offer, but I was particularly drawn to the perfume and fruit of the 21 Year Old.
Havana Club Unión: Cuba Comes to Dinner in Paris
Havana Club’s latest release, Icónica Unión, completes its collection of six prestige rums. Drawing on reserves maintained by successive generations of rum masters, it brings together the producer’s approach to blending and ageing in a rum intended to accompany fine food. I travelled to Paris for the launch, where I had the opportunity to taste it alongside one of Havana Club’s Maestros del Ron Cubano.
There are restaurants you walk into, and there are restaurants you make an entrance at. Quaglino's has always been firmly the latter. Pause at the top of that sweeping staircase, look down across the room, and you understand at once why this place has drawn royalty, writers, film stars and London's café society since 1929.
My family comes from Northern Ireland, so returning here has always carried a certain familiarity for me. Even when visiting somewhere I have never been before, the names, accents, landscapes and of course, the craic, somehow feel totally recognisable. However, this time, there was another purpose to be here. Golf.
L'art De L'emballage
Unboxing the Osmo 360 II is a treat. Everything is so beautifully wrapped, with the care of a Parisian pâtissier boxing up a tarte au citron, and the products themselves are of obvious quality, each with a reassuring heft and finish. It is quite exciting revealing them one by one.
It’s a concept that remains as practical and innovative as it was when Vagabond Wines opened their first outlet in Fulham back in 2010: giving guests the freedom to tap and pour at their own leisure from a selection of 100+ wines by the glass, so you can seek out your new personal favourites at your own pace.
Independent bottlings themed around the cosmos can easily risk leaning into gimmickry, yet the ambition behind The Whisky Exchange Zodiac Series has always been rooted in cask curation rather than mere novelty. Rolled out across three four bottle instalments, the twelve bottle project sets out to match the traditional archetypes of astrological signs with distinct flavour profiles from across Scotland.
