I used to be a supermarket whisky shopper.

Caskable is what happened when curiosity won. I stopped grabbing whatever was on the shelf and started finding out what was actually in the glass.

How this started

For years, buying whisky meant standing in a supermarket aisle, picking whichever bottle looked sensible and cost less than I’d feel guilty about. I had no idea what a region was, why one bottle was £25 while the one next to it was £250, or what half the words on the label were trying to tell me. (Quite possibly nothing. We’ll get to that.)

Then it stopped being enough. Not because I set out to become an expert (I still don’t think of myself as one), but because I got curious enough to pay attention. I tasted slowly instead of quickly. I asked why, instead of nodding along like everyone else at the table.

What I found was an industry that is brilliant at making itself sound complicated. A lot of the language around whisky exists less to inform you than to make you feel you need permission to have an opinion. You don’t. Nobody is checking tickets at the door.

Caskable is the site I wish had existed when I started: reviews and explanations from someone who is still learning, for people who are still learning. No fancy words, no nonsense, and no pretending a £25 bottle is a disgrace.