I love being able to try before you buy. It’s one of the reasons why places like the SMWS and other great whisky bars are some of my favourite places. You can have a dram of a whisky you’ve never tried from a distillery you like or even try a whisky from distillery you’ve never experienced.

The nice folks over at Master of Malt have added a range of sampling whiskies (available in 3cl bottles) for just this very purpose so before you invest in a full size bottle of whisky you can sit back, taste and decide whether it’s something you should be looking at going forward. More information on whisky samples can be found here.

Of the list I’ve had a quick look at (I’m in the office and having to surreptitiously type this without getting caught) the ones which catch the eye are:

• Glenfarclas Family Cask 1969 bottling – am drooling at the prospect of this one already and there is probably no way on earth I could ever afford a full bottle.
• 19 year old Tomatin – our review of this has been lost for ever due to technical difficulties (correction – we’ve now resurrected it) but I still think this is damn fine (and Stephen Fry agrees which is kinda cool)
• Renegade Rum – I’ve never tasted this rum and rum is only just behind whisky in terms of joy bestowing powers on my personal pleasure graph. So I’m going to have to rustle up a copy of this.

It does also mean that hopefully I can now afford to get some whiskies which I could never afford and use them as “research” for the blog. Can I put that on expenses? Sorry thought I was an MP there for a minute and got carried away with the whole idea of claiming anything on expenses.