Blackpool raises a glass to resort edition whisky

The Big Peat blended malt comes from the isle of Islay and is a big seller world wide with whisky collectors.

Now Charnley Road based Whisky-Online has been honoured by the producers, by having an exclusive edition in time for the New Year and Burn’s Night celebrations.

Whisky-Online was founded by Wayne and Debbie Ormerod, who run it with their son Harrison.

Wayne said the Big Peat Blackpool version, which sells for £45, was already popular with collectors and, with just 300 bottles, could increase in value as the years go on.

He said: “Whisky is a vibrant market at the moment, it is in the top three commodities, but you need to know what you are doing.

“For example in 1993 Bowmore released a whisky called Black Bowmore for between £69 and £99. Now a good expression of it can go for £18,000. It could be worth up to £30,000 at retail.”

He said the trick was acquiring whisky from distilleries that are now closed as they bottles were now becoming rare.

He said every whisky had its own character depending on where it was produces and the type of casks it was aged in.

The Big Peat whisky, which has a picture of the fisherman character on the front with the Blackpool Tower, was a blend of peaty malts from Islay’s Coal Ila, Bowmore, Ardbeg and Port Ellen distilleries.

A German collector online has already bought two cases of the Blackpool edition and people have been calling in to collect cases.

Wayne added: “There are Big Peat collectors all around the world. It has 34,000 followers online. It puts Blackpool on the whisky map.”