WhiskyCast

Lindores Abbey has a unique place in whisky history, thanks to Friar John Cor and the aqua vitae  he distilled for the King in 1494. Gary Haggart has a direct link to the Friar as the first distillery manager at the Lindores Abbey Distillery, built right next to the ruins of the original abbey. He's even distilling modern-day aqua vitae  instead of gin or vodka while the Lindores Abbey single malt...

Blending whiskies is both an art and a science, and Dewar's could fairly be accused of focusing more on the science side in recent years with solid, if not innovative whiskies. Master Blender Stephanie Macleod was given the green light to bring back the creativity that helped build the Dewar's legacy, starting with the new "Double Double" range. We'll talk with her about that project and her caree...

This week, we're on location at the Wonderful World of Whisky Show in Cornwall, Ontario with everything from great whiskies and good friends to a guy dressed from head to toe in clothes made from recycled purple Crown Royal bags! On WhiskyCast In-Depth, we'll talk with John McCheyne, who's been traveling the wonderful world of whisky as the global ambassador for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and...

Irish Whiskey's resurgence is only now beginning to make up for decades of obscurity over the last century, but with 23 active distilleries in Ireland now, things are looking brighter than ever. In fact, there are projections that Irish Whiskey sales in the U.S. could surpass Scotch Whisky sales in the coming years...if Brexit and other political issues don't get in the way. We'll discuss the busi...

Women are making whiskies, running whisky companies, and teaching people how to enjoy whiskies all over the world. So...why do many men still treat women as second-class citizens at whisky tastings, bars, and whenever the topic of whisky knowledge comes up? Los Angeles-based freelance brand ambassador Kat Aagesen called out those men for their bad behavior in a column this week for The Whiskey Was...

Nicole Austin made her mark on the American craft distilling movement at Brooklyn's Kings County Distillery, then spent some time in Ireland working on Tullamore D.E.W's grain distillery project as its commissioning engineer. Last year, she returned to the U.S. - not to another "craft" distillery, but as head distiller and general manager at Diageo's Cascade Hollow distillery in Tennessee. That ma...

There's a long tradition of fathers and sons in whisky distilling, but Kentucky's Jeptha Creed Distillery is one of the few distilleries where mother and daughter run the show. Joyce Nethery is the head distiller at the family-owned distillery east of Louisville, while Autumn Nethery is both co-owner and in charge of marketing. Joyce's husband Bruce grows all of the grain for their whiskies and ot...

Amazon delivers almost everything...even whisky in some places. Now, Amazon Prime Video is delivering content for whisky lovers. We'll talk with the Three Drinkers: Aidy Smith, Helena Nicklin, and Colin Hampden-White, about their new series that's almost like whisky's "Top Gear." If you're more into serious conversation, Fred Minnick's interview series "Bourbon Up" has also made its debut on Amazo...

Long before highways crossed North America, flatboats with barrels of whiskey were a common sight along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers bound for New Orleans and beyond to satisfy the thirst of early consumers. Fortunately, today's route to market for distillers is paved and far more efficient - but Jefferson's Bourbon founder Trey Zoeller wanted to figure out what made the whiskey his predecessor...

Glenmorangie unveiled its 10th Private Edition release this week in London, and we were there as Allta marked a new style of single malt for Glenmorangie. The barley came from the Cadboll Farm near the distillery, but the big thing is the yeast - which also came from the Cadboll Farm. Dr. Bill Lumsden and his colleagues worked with their yeast supplier to isolate and grow a unique strain of wild y...

Even when things appear to be going well, there are sometimes undercurrents of trouble behind the scenes. That played out in Ireland this week after Walsh Whiskey Company and Italy's Illva Saronno Holdings agreed to dissolve their five-year-long joint venture because of disagreements on the company's future. Walsh will keep its Writers' Tears and The Irishman whiskey brands, while Illva Saronno ge...

In our second of two episodes from this week's Victoria Whisky Festival in Victoria, British Columbia, we'll talk with Eric and Allura Fergie of Fets Whisky Kitchen in Vancouver. Fets was one of four Scotch Malt Whisky Society partner bars in British Columbia raided by the province's liquor inspectors a year ago Friday. The Fergies had 242 bottles of SMWS whiskies valued at $40,000 seized because...

This is the first of our two episodes from the 14th annual Victoria Whisky Festival in Victoria, British Columbia. One of the highlights of the festival each year is the Canadian Whisky Awards, and Forty Creek returned to the top of the podium this year for the first time in five years with a new 22-year-old Canadian Rye whisky. We'll have the details on that and other award winners in the news, a...

The partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government is now the longest on record, and it is having an impact on the whisky business. Two whisky makers have whiskies ready to release in the U.S., but Jim Hough of Liberty Pole Spirits in Pennsylvania and Louise McGuane of Ireland's Chapel Gate Whiskey Company are stuck because their federally mandated label approvals are being held in limbo until th...

There are plenty of competitions to find the best whiskies, but what about competitions to find the best whisky tasters? Those are few and far between, but The Big Blind Bourbon Taste-Off will give whisky lovers a chance to test their skills later this month in Lexington, Kentucky. The winner gets $2,000 in cash, a barrel head trophy, and most of all...bragging rights. Daniel Marlowe of Lexington'...

2018 may go down in whisky history as the "Year of the Collector" as whisky collecting became popular not only among connoisseurs, but with investors looking for that next big thing to make money on. The trouble is that some so-called "rare whiskies" are cleverly counterfeited fakes so good that even the experts can't detect them without testing the liquid inside the bottle. A new report from the...

One sign of the Bourbon boom worldwide can be found in Great Britain, where the British Bourbon Society was founded in 2016 by six whisky lovers. As 2018 comes to a close, the Society's membership now stands at 2,000 and growing. We'll talk with two of the founders, Ed Rosie and Andrew Watson, on WhiskyCast In-Depth to find out why Bourbon and other American whiskies are becoming so popular in Gre...

While some entrepreneurs are trying to cash in on the Bourbon boom by starting new whiskey brands, others are looking to history for heritage brands that built a history but faded away over the years. That's the approach Manti Antilla of Grain and Barrel Spirits took, and it led him to Chicken Cock, a brand with a unique name and a century's worth of history to build on. He's now working with Kent...

Irish Whiskey continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the whisky business around the world, but Ireland's distilleries on both sides of the border have had their share of ups and downs this year. Walsh Whiskey Company founder Bernard Walsh is a former chairman of the Irish Whiskey Association, and on WhiskyCast In-Depth, we'll talk with him about the boom in new distilleries and cha...

Whisky Advocate's annual WhiskyFest took over the Marriott Marquis in New York City's Times Square Tuesday night, and we'll have some of the highlights along with the sadness. There was a pall in one corner of the ballroom as whisky lovers mourned the death of master distiller Dave Pickerell last month along with teams from several of the whiskies he helped create during his long career. We'll tal...

Neil Giraldo is one of music's "hit makers." As a musician and producer, he's worked with some of rock music's legendary performers to create the soundtrack to our lives since the late 70's. While he's not the first musician to create a whiskey brand, he comes to the whiskey business with more than just a name. He helped his grandfather distill whiskey and grappa as a young boy growing up in Cleve...

Ireland's Power family dominated the Irish Whiskey industry almost from the day innkeeper James Power started making whiskey behind his inn on Dublin's Thomas Street in 1791 until his descendants merged their company with the Jamesons and Cork's Murphy family in 1965 to create Irish Distillers. Powers remains one of Ireland's best-selling whiskies to this day, and is gradually being reintroduced t...

Back on the road again, and this episode comes from the New Brunswick Spirits Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick! We'll have highlights from the festival, which is now in its 23rd year, and on WhiskyCast In-Depth, we'll get the story behind the revival of Red Spot Irish Whiskey. This single pot still classic from Dublin's Mitchell & Son disappeared in the mid-1960's, and the pleas of Irish Whi...

This episode marks our 13th anniversary of the very first WhiskyCast episode on November 12, 2005, and we're celebrating with an old friend! Ian Buxton has been around the whisky industry for nearly 40 years, first as a marketing executive and now as a writer. He's responsible for reviving Aeneas MacDonald's classic book "Whisky" and sharing it with a new generation of whisky lovers, and his "101...

This time around, we're on the road in Kilkenny, Ireland, but with heavy hearts. The whisky world lost one of its leaders Thursday night with the death of Master Distiller Dave Pickerell in San Francisco. Dave was truly deserving of the Master Distiller title. After leaving Maker's Mark in 2008, he helped dozens of craft distillers and entrepreneurs get into the whisky business, earning him the ni...