Not Another Whisky Podcast

This week, Mitch sits down with whisky industry veteran Kenny Mackay at Ballindalloch Distillery in Speyside. Kenny has spent nearly 50 years in Scotch whisky, working with names including Peter Thompson’s, Bowmore, Macallan, Carn Mor, Lindores Abbey and Ballindalloch. In this episode, he shares stories from across his career, from missing out on becoming a helicopter pilot to helping launch Black...

Live from Spirit of Speyside, host Daz welcomes three blenders—Brian Kinsman (William Grant & Sons), Ollie Chilton (Elixir/ Tormore), and Sarah Burgess (Head of Whisky Creation at International Beverage, jokingly “banned” from other sessions)—to taste four whiskies and talk careers, process, and mischief. Brian explains his science-to-apprentice path under David Stewart and taking over in 2009...

Recorded in the historic Vaults in Leith, Mitch Bechard is joined by SMWS “chief storyteller” Richard Goslan and Kask Whisky founder Justine Hazlehurst for a deep dive into one of Scotch whisky’s most overlooked powerhouses. Leith was never just a port. It was a whisky engine room: bonding, brokering, blending, bottling and shipping enormous volumes of Scotch around the world. At one point, the ar...

This week, Not Another Whisky Podcast goes live from the Craigellachie Hotel for Battle of the Stills, recorded during the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival. Daz is joined by three brilliant distillers: Euan Christie from The Cabrach Distillery, Polly Logan from Tormore, and Kristy Lark from Killara Distillery in Tasmania. Euan shares the story of The Cabrach: an area with deep illicit distilling...

Mitch and Daz catch up after a packed festival season, They recap Spirit of Speyside’s, Mitch’s chaotic-but-fun Tormore launch and plans to expand their sold-out “Battle of the Ambassadors” into a winter tournament, “The Road to Speyside,” with heats and a final at the festival. Daz recounts Fèis Ìle highlights at Laphroaig’s 40th anniversary tastings and Bowmore events, including a boat trip on L...

Mitch and Daz take a deep dive into coopering — the ancient craft behind every great dram. Recorded in Edinburgh over suspiciously large highballs, the episode traces the cask from Celtic barrel-makers and Roman trade routes to modern whisky maturation, wood policy, rejuvenation and the global cask trade. Mitch speaks with Ian MacDonald, former head cooper at The Balvenie, who started his apprenti...

Daryl interviews Sarah Dowling, lead whisky maker at Laphroaig, tracing her path from a genetics and environmental background to a 2012 Edrington recycling contract that turned into a long whisky career via sensory panels, Diageo, and nearly seven years at Cooley in Ireland (working on Connemara and other releases, and even managing the site). She discusses how her palate evolved from missing vani...

Gordon Dundas brings out Tamdhu’s Dalbeallie Dram, ninth edition — a natural-colour, first-fill sherry powerhouse sitting at 60.5% ABV. It’s everything you’d hope for from Tamdhu in full sherry beast mode: fruitcake sweetness, dark spice, espresso bitterness and a finish that somehow drinks far too easily for its strength. The panel get stuck into age statements, natural colour, value, pricing, an...

Mitch kicks off a sold-out Clash of the Drams live recording, making it clear from the start that this is not going to be one of those polite Speyside tastings where everyone nods quietly and pretends to know what quince is. This year’s brave contenders are Stuart Buchanan from Brown-Forman, Gordon Dundas from Ian Macleod Distillers, Struan Grant Ralph from Glenfiddich, and first-time entrant Char...

Mitch is joined by Ria McAdam, European Marketing Manager at The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, for a dive into the world of SMWS — who chats about the current chance for members to win an entire Distillery 10 Islay cask . They get into the origins of the Society, from Pip Hills sharing cask-strength whisky with friends in the 1970s to the founding of SMWS at The Vaults in Leith in 1983, before movin...

Mitch takes Not Another Whisky Podcast on the road for a live recording at Speyburn, joined by distillery manager Euan Henderson and head of whisky creation Sarah Burgess —two people quietly shaping one of Speyside’s most underrated distilleries. They dig into Speyburn’s “hidden gem” reputation, what’s changed with the new visitor centre, and how the team balances consistency in new make with the...

Daz and Mitch are back—slightly dusty, fully loaded with stories, and picking up where they left off. They kick things off by chatting about the now-legendary two-part Thomson Brothers live episodes (and the ongoing failure to actually sit down and have a proper dram with them like normal human beings). Then it takes a turn… Mitch’s back garden goes full disaster movie. A neighbour’s shed fire spr...

Part two of our live Not Another Whisky Podcast recording with the Thompson Bros at the Craigellachie Hotel picks things up mid-tasting — and it only gets better from here. We start with a chat on label design, working with artists, and the reality of constant releases, before getting into what life actually looks like running a distillery, a hotel, and everything else… in a whisky market that’s n...

Recorded live at the Craigellachie Hotel, this one’s exactly what you’d hope for from a Not Another Whisky Podcast live show, six drams, zero filter, and the Thomson Brothers in full flow. Mitch sits down with Phil and Simon for part 1 of a six-dram tasting that quickly turns into a deep dive on value, volatility, and what’s actually going on behind the scenes in whisky right now. On the tasting t...

Mitch and Daz kick off their first proper catch-up of the year (with zero planning and maximum hair compliments), swapping updates on travel and work: Daz recaps a Dublin weekend that somehow involved more Guinness than Irish whiskey, while Mitch recounts a hectic run of podcast recordings, a corporate tasting, a long drive to see Bladnoch and the new Galloway Distillery, visits with Charlie MacLe...

Mitch heads up to the Little Brown Dog HQ to sit down with Managing Director, DR. Andrew Smith for a properly relaxed, no-BS chat about independent bottling—and everything around it. They get into how Andrew went from hospitality (with a brief detour towards becoming a vet) to co-running one of Scotland’s more quietly interesting bottlers, what actually makes a cask worth bottling in today’s marke...

Arthur Motley on Cask Backrooms, Whisky Identity, and the Liquid Antiquarian Arthur Motley joins Mitch & Daz in Bennet’s Bar for a cracking conversation on cask buying, whisky identity, and what happens when one of the industry’s most experienced retailers decides to go it alone. From his early days at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society to 21 years at Royal Mile Whiskies — where he worked his way...

Time For Whisky’s Martin Eber on Hong Kong’s Generosity, Japan’s Bar Magic, and Keeping Whiskey Blogs Alive Daz welcomes Martin Eber of Time For Whisky, an Australian whisky blogger he has known for about 11 years, to discuss his journey from collecting travel-retail bottles in 2008–2009 to starting the Time For Whisky blog in 2012 and moving to Hong Kong in 2014 as the scene rapidly expanded. The...

India is the largest whisky market in the world , yet Scottish whisky still represents only a tiny slice of what’s actually being drunk. In this episode, Mitch and Daz unpack the reality behind the headlines and explore how the Indian whisky ecosystem really works. From IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) and the role Scottish Whisky plays inside local blends, to changing consumer trends, tariffs, c...

Nicholas Pollacchi joins Mitch and Daz for the 200th episode of Not Another Whisky Podcast — which feels equal parts milestone and minor miracle. We rewind to April 2021 when the audio was ropey, the format was loose, and Mitch decided he’d edit every episode himself (questionable life choice). From there, listener questions take over — which means things escalate quickly. We relive: A VIP bourbon...

This week we welcome Ardnahoe distillery manager David Livingston to discuss the Islay distillery’s location, origins, and whisky style. Livingston explains Hunter Laing’s long-held ambition to create their own distillery, Ardnahoe’s opening in 2018, and his own third-generation Islay whisky background. He reflects on how Islay has changed with tourism and the rise of single malts, and why whisky...

This week Mitch sits down with David Stirk — whisky writer, independent bottler, whisky historian — for a wide-ranging conversation on Campbeltown, the rise (and early struggles) of indie bottlers, and where the Scotch industry is and might actually be heading. From his first life-changing dram of Glenlivet 21 in 1996 to building Creative Whisky, rewriting the history of Campbeltown, and diving in...

This week on Not Another Whisky Podcast , Mitch & Daz do something dangerously self-indulgent: they look back at how this whole thing started. From a shared love of whisky (and questionable decision-making) to accidentally building a podcast people actually listen to, they dig into the origins of NAWP, the friendships that fuel it, and why they’ve never quite followed the “normal” whisky podca...

A lively kick-off of Season 6, the Mitch & Daz welcome listeners with a post-holiday catch-up. They contemplate the ideal cutoff for New Year greetings, and share their plans for revealing their weights in the next episode (maybe not!) They get into their festive adventures, from drinking boutique whiskies to escaping to sunny Portugal. The duo previews exciting plans for 2026, including 45 ep...

Mitch & Daz sit down and look back on the year that was 2025. Thanks to all of you who listened to us this year and have a great festive season, we will be back 1st Feb 2026 Hosted by Mitch Bechard and Daz Haldane, this is where the whisky world gets pulled apart properly, with stories, insights, and the occasional bit of chaos along the way. 🥃 New episodes every week(ish) 🎤 Live shows &...