Inside Whisky

How do you produce whisky inefficiently on purpose and why would you want to do that? Well, we also wanted to know and asked Phil and Simon Thompson of Thompson Bros Distillers, Dornoch Castle Hotel and the relatively newly founded Dornoch Distillery. Despite their young age, Phil and Simon have had the chance to try some extraordinary whiskies from times long gone, dating back as far as the 1900s...

Green rolling mountains, sleepy and bleating sheep, idyllic villages and vivid cities with wonderful people, vibrant traditional pubs with passionate folk music, delicious local food and, of course, a long and quite eventful history of producing whiskey… … Does that sound appealing to you? If yes, come join Miri on her trip to Ireland and experience the Emerald Isle with her! For this episode, the...

If we told you that there is a distillery in the Scottish Highlands, which is beautifully situated, easily accessible, has a very rich history, but which is still quite often overlooked, would you want to know more about it – especially if you knew that they promise you the “golden dram”? Well, we were certainly intrigued and once we visited for the first time, we couldn’t but visit many more time...

“If you can work in the stillhouse at Dalmore, you can work in any stillhouse in the world because it’s completely complicated” – doesn’t sound like the easiest of jobs, don’t you think? So let’s get to know the man who is responsible to make sure that every single drop of The Dalmore is, well, The Dalmore, despite the quite complicated process in the stillhouse.  Let’s meet Mark Lancaster an...

No Scots on this episode?! Not for me, you say? BUT WAIT!! This German-Italian whisky-bromance straight from our hometown Munich might indeed be a bit different but we can assure you that it still makes for a great listen. In this episode we talk to Davide Ansalone and Randolph Kunis. You might know Davide better as @whisky_munich on Instagram, since he is one of the most influential and biggest w...

Nicole Lindsay you say? Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And indeed, if you follow our podcast regularly you probably know her already from our episode about Springbank Distillery. This time, however, Springbank will take a backseat since the episode is (mainly) about Kilkerran Single Malt and Glengyle Distillery. We met Nicole in the new Springbank blending lab to record this episode and it was so mu...

Have you always wanted to meet the legendary Swedish mermaid of the Ardnamurchan peninsula? Then here's your chance: Meet Jenny Karlsson, Ardnamurchan Distillery's marketing and communications manager, part of the blending team, part-time mermaid and much more. We travelled all the way to the very West of Scotland's mainland to talk to Jenny in situ about Ardnamurchan, AD whisky, the narrow single...

We’re back on the Isle of Arran – we really love this little island!  And no! Even though we greatly enjoy our chats with Andy Bell of Lochranza Distillery, we don’t have him on the podcast this time – and actually this episode is not even about Lochranza Distillery. Instead, we will focus on the Isle of Arran’s newest gem: Lagg Distillery (what a beautiful place!!). We travelled all the way...

This weekend it's derby time in Edinburgh: Hibs against Hearts. Hibernian Football Club and Heart of Midlothian will face off in the first derby of this (still very young) football season.  Wait, isn't this a podcast about whisky? So why are we talking about football here?  Well, we went to Edinburgh to record with Greg Urquhart and John Moffat of the spirits company Gleann Mòr, which is...

The Mecca of whisky. Whisky drinkers' heaven. The one place, probably every Scotch whisky lover wants to visit at least once in their lifetime. Of course, we're talking about the Isle of Islay in the Scottish Hebrides with its currently 9 working distilleries (and at least 2 more to come), home to arguably the best peated whisky on this planet. We're finally back after a short break and we've got...

It is probably going to be very hard (impossible?!) to find another place on earth with a higher distillery-density than the Scottish Speyside - and apart from some of the best Scotch whiskies being produced there, the possibility to visit so many different distilleries within such a small space makes the region a magnet for whisky tourism.  One distillery that can't be missed during a visit...

This episode of “The Barrel Talk” is slightly different than what you are used to. Michael and Andrea Gradl of Gradl’s Wiskyfässla in Nuremberg, who are the co-founders and co-organisers of The Village Whisky Fair invited us to come to the fair and “present The Village to an international audience”. Of course, we couldn’t say no and subsequently spent three fabulous days in Nuremberg, working quit...

For this episode of The Barrel Talk we will once more stay in the Scottish Speyside, in Elgin, to be precise, and are joined by Iain Allan, global brand ambassador and visitor centre manager of Glen Moray Distillery. If you are a fan of exploring whisky matured in all kinds of different casks, Glen Moray is probably one of your go-to whiskies because of the vast variety of different finishes and m...

Peated. Speyside. Privately-owned. These three words sound as if they don't match but indeed, they describe the distillery starring in our latest episode: Benromach. Nestled between Inverness and Elgin, in the small town of Forres, we had the opportunity to talk to Benromach's distillery manager Keith Cruickshank about what makes Benromach special. Being owned by Gordon & MacPhail, Keith would...

Islay is the island of dreams for each and every Scotch lover and even though the island does have uncountable beautiful spots, we have to admit that we love being down at Bunnahabhain Distillery enjoying a dram at the pier with its views across the sound of Islay towards the Paps of Jura. Our guest in this episode, David Brodie, beloved tour guide at Bunnahabhain, probably feels the same. David t...

After being a shareholder of The BenRiach Distillery, The GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh one might think all life goals have been reached. Not so Billy Walker. A few years back, he and his partners decided to sell the three distilleries but for Billy it had always been clear that this would not be the end of his journey in the whisky industry. Serendipity made it possible for him to eventually purc...

Seeing Andy's shining eyes at the very moment when setting foot into one of Lochranza Distillery's warehouses made one thing clear to us once more: You can never get tired of this special atmosphere and smell of the warehouses of a Scotch whisky distillery...  ... the warehouse, you're wondering? Well yeah. This episode is slightly different than usual - it's an extensive and probably a bit g...

"If Scotland was a whisky, it would be a Springbank" - that was one of the first reactions we got when starting to promote our latest episode of "The Barrel Talk". We just found this statement so perfectly fitting that we had to include it here. Springbank is so much more than just a whisky, it's probably one of the "truest" Scottish spirits you will find, it's history, it's a myth, it's family, i...

Have you ever heard of the new Lochlea Distillery? If not, it's just about time to find out more about this very interesting project, situated in the heart of the Scottish Lowlands near the beautiful seaside town of Ayr. With their inaugural release just around the corner the time is more than right to go discover this new distillery with Lochlea's David Ferguson and us. In this episode you will f...

From French assistant teacher to distillery manager of Lagavulin, one of the most popular whisky brands worldwide. Sounds like living the American Dream - in this case, however, it is a Scottish Dream come true for Frenchman Pierrick Guillaume. In this episode, Pierrick is telling his story about how he got into the whisky industry working his way up to becoming Lagavulin's distillery manager. We...

After having had the first Irish distillery on our show in the last episode, this time it’s another “first”: We have got an English whisky distillery for you! And it is not just any English distillery – it is probably the most hyped one – and we’re absolutely delighted to present Matt McKay of BIMBER Distillery to you. Of course, there is still no easy travelling (especially to the UK) and therefo...

Teeling is the first Irish distillery on the show - as well as our first online recording for a podcast episode since travelling is still not possible at the moment. In this list of many "firsts", Teeling Distillery is also the first whiskey distillery to open up in Dublin in 125 years and since Irish Whiskey is on everybody's lips as of recently, we are very happy that Chris Hayes, European brand...

Before Kilchoman Distillery was built and finally opened in 2005, no one had built a distillery on Islay for 124 years. Furthermore, there was not much expertise to be found when it came to actually building a new distillery from scratch in the early 2000s because hardly anyone had done something like that before. Considering those facts, would you have "bloody done it" and taken this huge risk? L...

Wick - once the herring capital of Europe and thus one of the most important harbour cities in Scotland. In 1826, Wick has also become the home of Pulteney Distillery making the town quite attractive and offering several possibilites to work there. Nowadays, however, many young people leave the town to look for work in the bigger cities. But of course, some people stay and make your visit to the N...

The Isle of Harris is one of the most beautiful but also one of the most remote Scottish Islands. Find out why the Isle of Harris Distillery is so important for the island, the Hearach (the people of Harris) and their daily lives.  This episode offers some interesting insights into the island life in this remote place in general but, of course, will also provide you with some exciting informa...