I loved my whirlwind trip to the U.K. but I was in search of something I was struggling to find -…read morewhisky I could not buy in the U.S. I wanted to bring back a few bottles for my whisky loving friends and I didn't simply want something that was cheaper than I could get at home. If that was the objective I simply could go south to Oregon to buy cheaper alcohol. No, I wanted to find something unique. And I had a hard time finding it. While my friend bought expensive bottles easily enough I wanted something I could give easily without spending an arm and a leg. Yet everywhere we went I didn't find anything until I went here. The Whisky Shop lived up to its name and provided tons of whisky. On top of that they had small barrels that offered small bottles of whisky you could only buy there. I ended up buying quite a few bottles as I determined I also wanted some for myself! Everyone there was so helpful. After seeing how much I purchased they offered to store the bag while I continued my tour of the city. They offered me samples of everything I wanted to try and they provided great suggestions. I was immensely pleased. I would highly recommend the Whisky Shop!

Friendly and knowledgeable staff with a good selection of modern and traditional Scottish Whisky. I…read moreleft with two bottles and $200 poorer with a smile on my face.

i shouldn't really start with my (mis)adventures in this haddows. it sells the usual fags, beer and…read morecheap cider so was handy when plenty of those things were my forte. i regulalry used to fall out the phoenix or blackfriars into first the chippy and then haddows after an afternoon on the sauce, erm i mean shopping. memories

I stopped in here to kill some time while walking around the beautiful town of Ft. William…read more The selection wasn't too interesting vs. what you might find in Edinburgh. Still, I did see a few special single cask bottles from Highland Park that were hard to find. But the prices were predictably very high (£300 for Highland Park 19 YO single cask from one producer and £500 for Highland Park 19 YO from another producer). Otherwise, you could get just about any easy to find Scotch at the normal retail price.

Rather a smallish shop, but they got my business because they were one of only two shops (of any…read morekind) on High Street open before 9:30. Besides the usual suspects, I found some great small-scale specialty bottlings here. I purchased two 200ml bottles, one Arran and one Lochingar, but the prize was a 350ml Rosebank 1991 from the Signatory Vintage collection. Apparently some guy founded this company to buy up the existing stocks of distilleries which had gone out of business (whiskies which had been laid down but were not yet ready for bottling at the time of the business's dissolution). They then bottled the product in their own Signatory Vintage packaging and put them on the market. So when you buy one, you are getting a piece of the past, because once these whiskies are all consumed, there will be none left of them in the world. To me, that's really cool (and rather wistfully sad too). So of all the scotches (at least a dozen of various sizes) that I brought back to the U.S., this Rosebank is my most treasured. In fact, after a year and a half, I still haven't opened it. It deserves a truly special occasion. Oh, and I couldn't pass up a 3ml bottle of Dalmore which they had labelled "World's Smallest Bottle of Whisky." I wanted to make a Christmas tree ornament out of it, but I never got around to it.

Victoria Wines, another franchise, struggles to compete with Haddows being just down the road,…read moreespecially with Haddows being just a little closer to the town centre. Despite this, it seems to do a roaring trade, and like Haddows, always has very strong offers, although Victoria Wines tends to avoid the beers offers and sticks to the Spirits and Wines. The staff are always much friendlier in Victoria Wines than they are in Haddows or Oddbins, and will often let you know about offers on similar products if you haven't noticed them.