whiskey

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.

Method & Madness Amburana Finish

A brainchild of Midleton Distillery in Ireland, Method and Madness was started in 2017. It embodies the maverick persona within me, that I would pursue if I had the funds to start a distillery. The brand veers away from tradition, embracing experimentation in a way that resonates with my love for exploring flavours. For me, whisky is about the exploration of flavour, and Method and Madness delivers this in abundance.

As a whisky writer, I have the privilege of receiving invitations to a multitude of events, allowing me the opportunity to sample a wide variety of fine and rare whisky. While my passion for whisky would ideally lead to comprehensive articles for each event and whisky, the constraints of time render this impractical. Consequently, I will be introducing a column to provide succinct summaries of my impressions.

I have always had a fondness for the warm and complex flavour of Irish whiskey. The history of this beloved spirit is intertwined with the magical history of Ireland itself, from the ancient Celts to the modern day. I first encountered it in the 1990s with Bushmills Black and Green, which was served at the restaurant I was a sommelier in. 

Twice. The number of times I thought I had been to Dublin previously, but I was wrong. I have a habit of that. Having been a wine merchant and writer for many years, I am convinced the cranial sub-section of my brain containing memory has diminished over time. Does anyone else feel the same? I was telling a friend about my trip, and how it was only my second trip to Ireland when they reminded me of a wedding I had photographed there.

Midleton Very Rare Whiskey 2019 was launched at The Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin by Master Distiller Brian Nation. This superb whiskey combines only hand-selected single pot still and single grain Irish whiskeys of exceptional quality and rarity, from the Midleton inventory. Each whiskey has been matured exclusively in lightly charred ex-bourbon American oak barrels for between 13 and 34 years. 2019 marks the oldest collection of casks used to create a Midleton Very Rare.
Brian Nation explains: