George, our Master of Malt, takes us to the very tip of Scotland for our October Malt of the Month.
Highland Park distillery located in Orkney is the Northernmost Distillery in Scotland, situated as it is just South of the Arctic Circle.

Highland Park Distillery Pagoda (Photo credit: Wikipedia

Highland Park is one of only a few distilleries that still use the expensive and physically demanding task of turning its own barley by hand during the drying process. About 20% of the barley used in Highland Park is actually produced on Orkney; the remainder is supplied from a Malting Company in the Scottish Borders.
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This month The Wild Boar’s Master of Malt, George Hutton, is back  closer to home exploring an all-malt whisky from Scotland for his ‘Malt of the Month’ in July 2014. 
Laphroaig 10 Year Old is an all-malt Scotch Whisky from the remote island of Islay in the Western Isles of Scotland. Laphroaig, pronounced ‘La-froyg’, is a Gaelic word meaning “the beautiful hollow by the broad bay”. In making Laphroaig, malted barley is dried over a peat fire. The smoke from this peat, found only on Islay, gives Laphroaig its particularly rich flavour. (more…)

The following guest post has been written by Gavin and Penny. Both are hoteliers and Whisky experts, Penny being the Director of Speyside Whisky Festival…
It was a damp Tuesday in November a couple of years ago and we stumbled into the bar of the Wild Boar Inn at Crook.
It was warm, had a welcoming log fire, a good range of real Ales and an impressive collection of Malt Whisky. On that basis alone it was considered the place to stay that night!
We settled in and made our way back to the bar only to discover that Tuesday night was Malt Whisky night!
This was going to be interesting, on so many fronts! (more…)