I hit Scotland's whisky trail recently and found myself in Dufftown. Rather than write about William Grant's photogenic Glenfiddich, however, I opted to go next door to the sister distillery at Balvenie, now one of the few places where you can see the complete whisky process, from farm to glass.

CONSUMER confidence will be the subject of discussion this week with updates from Diageo, Punch Taverns and bookie William Hill.

For whisky lovers with an adventurous palate, cocktails which draw our national spirit have always provided a welcome avenue of  further exploration.

IT'S LIKELY to be medium-bodied, with a conservative nose, a liberal blend and a smooth finish. But then what else would you expect from "David Cameron, the whisky"?

YOUR dinner party is drawing to a triumphant close. You've stunned your guests with the starters, mesmerised with the mains and dazzled with the desserts. How do you cap that before sending them off into the night convinced you are the host with the most?

THE good old boys in the Scotch whisky industry used to say, with the benefit of generations of experience: "the wood makes the whisky".