Scotch Malt Whisky Society. This society's home page covers everything from tasting notes, distillery details and how to make your own whiskey!
Baileys. Welcome to the Pleasure Dome! This site has everything from cocktail recipies, a "mood tester", news and a Baileys shop.
Vodka can be produced from a variety of plants and grains, including wheat, rye, potatoes, molasses and beets. Vodka is made predominantly in Eastern Europe, with Russian vodka made from wheat and Polish vodka made from rye mash.
Tia Maria Home Page.
Excellent Tequila page. Includes a bit of history, facts and tasting.
Brandy is basically made by fermenting fruit juice and pulps. However, it can be divided into three main classes:
Gin is a white, grain based spirit that is flavoured with juniper berries and a variety of spices and herbs such as anise, cinnamon, corriander and cassia bark. Gin is distilled through column stills, and thus retains very little congeners resulting in a product with very little flavour. The three types of gin are:Scotch Whisky.
Islay Whisky. A page dedicated purely to Islay malts, such as Laphroaig and Bowmore. There are 7 distilleries on Islay, which is only 25 miles long!
Malt Advocate. The Whiskey Pages, including Distilled News, a buyers guide, and links to Irish and American whiskeys.
Edinburgh Malt Whisky Tour. More tasting notes and historical guides.
Distillery List:
Baileys.
Vodka.
Vodka is distilled in one of two ways; by a "pot" or a "column. The choice used does affect the character of the vodka produced. Although all vodka is a clear, still liquid, vodka produced from a pot still (the same method as that used for Cognac and Scotch) contains more flavour and aromas from the original mash it was produced from. The column still is much more efficient than the pot still, but produces a vodka with much more neutral character. Unlike some other spirits, there is no "hard and fast" method of classification of vodkas. Russian exported vodka is usually labelled "osobaya" and that labelled "krepkaya" is a longer distilled vodka of at least 56% ABV. Poland labels vodka depending upon its purity; the standard is "zwykly", the premium is "wyborowy" and the deluxe is "luksusowy". As far as the drinker is concerned, however, there are many flavours and fortifying agents that may be mixed with vodka, and this is perhaps the best way of classifying most of them.
Flavoured vodka is much more varied in Russia and Poland, and includes:
Starka - literally means "old" and is flavoured with anything from leaves, fruit, other spirits, and oak casks.
Absolut Vodka.
TiaMaria.
Tequila.
Tequila Home Page. (By Elvis...)
Brandy.
France produces the most and, arguably, the best brandies in the world. The most famous of these is Cognac. Cognac is simply the area of France in which the brandy is made, and is situated just north of Bordeaux. The region is further divided into six regions; Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Bois Ordinaries, Borderies, Fins Bois and Bons Bois. The "Champagne" regions produce the best Cognac. Almost all Cognac is made from three grape varieties - Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche and Colombard. The Cognac is double distilled and aged in oak casks. Almost all Cognac is a blend of brandies from different vintages and regions. This effectively means it is difficult to date brandy, hence an agreed set of terms is used.
VS, VSP, Three Star.
These are Very Superior, Very Superior Pale. The brandy is aged at least two years in the cask.
VSOP.
Very Superior Old Pale. The youngest brandy in the blend is at least four years in cask, although most are aged between ten and fifteen years.
XO, Luxury.
Extra Old. This brandy has a minimum aged mix of six years, with many as old as twenty years. They are the best Cognacs a house will produce.
Another well known French brandy, and probably the oldest, is Armagnac. Again, the name is due to the region of production, situated in southwest France in the province of Gascony. It is divided up into three zones; Bas-Armagnac, Haut Armagnac and Tenareze. The grape varieties are the same as used in Cognac, but the process uses a type of still called an Armagnacais. The resulting brandy does still need cask ageing, which is usually done in oak casks.
Gin.