We don't know much about whisky, and what we do know is about American whiskey, which many would argue isn't even close. Since we were in Oxford for a few days before heading to Scotland, and since my sister-in-law works at Lincoln college across the road, the Whisky Shop was our obvious choice to get some information and be prepared for our trip north.
I didn't catch the employee's name who helped us, but he was great. He took the time to patiently explain everything, telling us which distillieries to be on the lookout for on our trip, which ones are smoky and peated, which ones we could get outside the UK, what is unique about their own line of whiskys, and more.
We ended up with a good sized bottle of The Old Malt Cask, where the company visits the major respected distilleries (ours is from Scapa) and buys a cask or two from them that they age longer and then put into bottles without adding any flavor or coloring.
We also got some of the 4 packs of small bottles from Ben Riach, since they had peated and non-peated of relatively the same stuff, giving us a great way to understand the difference of flavor and style, particularly since Ben Riach is a speyside whisky, with inherently different style than the island whiskys we tried.
My sister-in-law also went back for us when our train was delayed to buy some additional items, including a medium sized bottle of one of their Whisky Shop labels that we plan to set aside for when our sons are old enough to enjoy it with us. She mentioned that the guy was just as helpful and thorough in dealing with her.
In short, if you want to learn a lot about all types of Whisky, this is a great place to stop. read more