I seem to be a rarity amongst both my circle of friends, but also most of the women I have met in my life. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a glass of wine, a gin and tonic, heck even an ale. But there is only one drink that really tickles my taste buds and can make me part with over £50 a bottle…whisky. On a trip to London recently, Pippa took me to a Mecca for someone like me, the Royal Mile Whisky shop in London. Truthfully, it was a carrot for me to take her to the British Museum, but I am more than OK with that.

You walk in and the shelves are full of whiskies, from every distillery, from every country. I’ll be honest though, I am pretty narrow minded when it comes to my whisky. It has to be pretty heavily peated for me to be interested which generally narrows things down to a few Scottish Islands.

The first, and the bottle on the left, is Port Charlotte from what is considered my ‘safety island’ Islay. They are know for their bold flavours and this one lives up to the Islands hype. It is smokey, salty but finishes really creamy. I take my whisky with a single ice cube, left to melt in for a few minutes, and it really brings this one alive. It also comes in a pretty but aggressive dark black bottle. Everyone likes a bad boy.

The second whisky was a surprise and a recommendation from the man in the shop. I tasted about 5 different recommendations (technically closer to 10 tots of whisky as the man kept pouring for Pippa who swiftly passed them onto me) and this really stood out. It is distilled on the Isle of Mull but really gives the Islay boys a run for power! It is medium bodied, rich with a moorish charred oak finish. I am not sure I have seen it on the shelves of many pubs, but I will certainly look out for it more, knowing that if I fail, there is one safely nestled on my drinks trolley.

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