Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013

Named by Jim Murray as the "World Whisky of the Year" in his 2015 Whisky Bible and subsequently reaching massively lofty heights in the £££ stakes at auction, we pretty much anticipated this was a whisky we would never taste. And then a chance retweet meant we won a bottle from the kind folks at The Whisky Exchange. A couple of weeks of do-we-drink-it-or-do-we-cash-in followed, before we realised that was a stupid argument, we'd paid nothing for it, we didn't need the money and besides, we actually wanted to know what it tasted like. Also, CHRISTMAS YOLO. Christmas 2014 was a good day...

We've since savoured this dram, always treating it as a "special occasion" kinda whisky, and so World Whisky Day seemed like the perfect time to polish it off. Here are our thoughts.

Colour: Indulgent mahogany.

Nose: Walnuts, raisins, plum pudding, deep dark wood and bags of demerara sugar, with some allspice and cinnamon thrown in for good measure. The sherry influence is hugely apparent and creates an opulent and enticing aroma.

Palate: Rounded and robust. Hints of black forest gateau with cherry liqueur and dark chocolate both identifiable. Dried fruits and rich sugars follow through from the nose. It's suffered somewhat from being open for such a long time, gaining a slight astringency, and in hindsight we should have just got on with it and drank it quicker as the flavours (although definitely still apparent) have diminished slightly. That said, it's still a great drink and in it's heyday was truly magnificent.

Finish: Long, tannic and warming, the chocolate notes in particular lingering along with the wood. Delicious.

To conclude - it's a very fucking lovely dram indeed, we have absolutely no regrets about drinking rather than selling, and we reckon it's well worth the initial £80-100 pricetag. But over a grand? We'd rather have 20 bottles of Uigedail thanks.

Cheers, and a very happy World Whisky Day!

The Milestone

At the Sheffield Food Festival, we had our first taste of cuisine from The Milestone, with their "Piggy" dish. This was a delightful selection of pork, including braised head fritter, blood sauce with black pudding, and an array of miniature salads and shoots. After trying this, we couldn't quite work out why we hadn't been to the restaurant before, particularly as it seems a sort of rite of passage in the Sheffield foodie scene!

We wasted no time in booking ourselves on to the Early Bird menu, which offers a smaller but still very varied selection of dishes and even includes a pint or glass of house wine.

Whilst we perused the menu we went for some homemade bread and dripping, recommended by our waiter for the evening (and it's worth mentioning that the service throughout was exceptional, although a little more formal than we're used to!). Can't go wrong there really, can you?!

Second up on our meal, we went for a celebration of the humble chicken, with chicken ham, chicken liver parfait, and chicken thigh served with crispy skin. Very nice (although the liver was just a tad too rich for Laura). We also shared the pig's head terrine, which was served with a delicious selection of pickled veg, crackling and a wonderfully tangy apple sauce. We'd expected this to be quite similar to the Piggy dish from the Food Festival, but it was a totally different twist on the ingredients, which demonstrates the flair and originality shown by the chefs on a day-to-day basis.

Onwards to the main courses! Laura chose the coley, accompanied by buttery-soft new potatoes and sea vegetables. Gherkins and anchovies were also used in the dish which worked really well as seasoning and were a lovely touch. Jim decided upon a classic: sausages served with mustard mash, plus side dishes of quite dense but still delicious Yorkshire puddings, and fresh asparagus. The mash sang with a lovely kick and tang of mustard and worked really well with an excellent pair of sausages. The spring asparagus was sweet and fresh with a lovely crunch and nicely seasoned with Parmesan.

Having partaken in two sides, Jim decided on a calvados rather than a dessert, which turned out to be a very good idea when Laura's sticky toffee pudding arrived. As such emphasis is placed on presentation here (and everything arrived looking outstanding), we were expecting a dainty little pud. What was put in front of us was a veritable wedge of gooey, rich and utterly scrumptious toffee pudding, served with salted caramel sauce and really tasty droplets of date puree, which brought the whole dish together perfectly. Jim's assistance was required.


The Milestone have a great ethos, having an end goal of being self sufficient. Already having a pig farm and a lovely little rooftop garden, they are well on their way to achieving this. The garden provides the restaurant with many of the shoots and herbs used in the dishes and cocktails, meaning they are as fresh as you can possibly get.

The "From Garden to Glass" cocktail menu itself looked superb, and boasted some completely original cocktails that I've never seen anything like in Sheffield before, including the Walk in the Weeds (comprising gin, celery, cucumber, mint, and borage - or whatever else they can forage from the rooftop garden!). Whilst we had over-indulged quite enough for one night we will definitely be back to try some of these out.

Cheers,

Laura & Jim