By Richard Thomas Rating: F Shortly after moving to Portugal, I threw my first murder party and invited a mix of my wife’s English-speaking friends and some of the teachers from the English school I was working for at the time. The boyfriend of one of my fellow teachers brought me a present, a bottle of Highland Clan scotch. I’m ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B William Grant & Sons founded the Balvenie distillery in Speyside, Scotland in 1892. The company now owns a host of distilleries, including the Glenfiddich distillery, but the best scotch distilled under the William Grant & Sons banner remains the Balvenie. For more than a century, the Balvenie has grown its own barley on a 1,000-acre ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Glenlivet is the best-selling malt whiskey in the United States, and the label’s Moray, Scotland distillery has been in almost continuous operation since its founding in 1824. The oldest whiskey-maker in Moray, Glenlivet closed only for the Second World War. Glenlivet’s product is generally known for it’s lightness, and it’s 15 Year scotch is no ...

by Richard Thomas Rating: C The green bottle and yellow label of Justerini and Brooks is one of the world’s most iconic mass-market scotch labels, with the big red “J&B” at least as well-known as the strolling, top-hatted gentleman of Johnny Walker. However, J&B has nothing like Johnny Walker’s high-end (albeit still blended) line of scotch, and its 15 Year ...