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23 Articles

LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH & FAMOUS

Beyond the spirit’s captivating flavours, the hallowed values of authenticity and integrity are undoubtedly at the core of whisky’s appeal, and this has been more or less the case on both sides of the Atlantic for well over a century. Scotch whisky and bourbon became the internationally recognised spirits of their respective nations in no small part because their makers were committed to provenance, craftsmanship, and quality. We see these values reflected in many brand straplines through the ages, with Ballantine’s ‘Stay True’ messaging being just one contemporary example of a brand appealing to drinkers’ affinity for the ‘true characters’, real stories, and core values behind their favourite drams. This is a long way of saying that, traditionally, whisky enthusiasts’ love for the water of life is a conscious rejection…

LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH & FAMOUS

After a successful debut in 2024, Whisky Live is coming back to Dubai. Presented as MaltLive Dubai, the event will make its return from 22–23 February 2025. Held at the Emirates Golf Club, MaltLive Dubai is run by Malt Society Arabia (MSA) in partnership with Whisky Live brand owner Paragraph Publishing. At MaltLive 2025, attendees can expect more than 100 participating exhibitors, with the opportunity to taste premium whiskies and meet whisky experts. Masterclass sessions will be held over the two days, offering enthusiasts a chance to learn more about their favourite spirit. A VIP lounge will offer rare releases, as well as time with master distillers, blenders, and brand ambassadors from iconic brands. There are two levels of tickets available: Silver Band (AED 249) and Gold Band (AED 699),…

SITTING ON THE FENCE

As you read this, the world is likely to be a different place than it was when I wrote it. By the time you see this, the election for president of the United States will have taken place, and the fate that we in the US — and the world at large — have been awaiting/speculating/dreading will be determined. Now, however, the campaign is intensifying by the day. I keep up with the daily — if not hourly — headlines with the focus of a gambler at the horse track. I consider it my duty, as I want to arm myself with enough understanding to make informed decisions and persuasive conversation, regardless of how much anxiety it causes. In a twist that is both a relief and a tragedy, this…

SITTING ON THE FENCE

Great Britain’s four towering mega-personages during the Elizabethan era led illustrious lives. All enjoyed cosy familiarities with the proto-whisky industry. The three upper-class luminaries — Queen Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Francis Drake — were credited with inventing alcoholic drinks. More importantly, as England’s leading geopolitical protagonists, they are remembered for their parts in raids on the Spanish Main. The trio were also famed for championing the establishment of Britain’s first settlement in North America — but only Drake stepped onto North Carolina’s ill-fated Roanoke settlement, in 1586. The last of these four Tudor superstars was William Shakespeare, who wrote about embryonic whiskies in his plays as English and Irish aqua vitae. Fellow playwright Ben Jonson wrote about usquebagh, from the Irish uisce beatha, meaning ‘water of life’. Queen…

MAKE IT A DOUBLE

The Whisky Magazine Hall of Fame is sponsored by AMORIM TOP SERIES INDUCTEE NO 97 STEPHANIE MACLEOD Dewar’s Stephanie Macleod is accomplished in the sensory analyses of whisky, with specific training in the fine art of blending. She began her career in whisky as a sensory analyst at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, working on a project which attempted to unlock the maturation secrets of Scotch whisky. In 1998, Macleod joined John Dewar & Sons in the spirit-quality laboratories at the company’s head office in Glasgow. Becoming blender designate in 2003, she began her official three-year training with former master blender Tom Aitken, before stepping in to the role herself in 2006, becoming the first female master blender for Dewar’s. With the expansion of the Scotch whisky portfolio in 2014,…

MAKE IT A DOUBLE

PRIDE OF SCOTLAND

Headline Sponsors Sponsors ADVERTISING AGENCY Northport COOPER Allan Bartlett, Tomatin Distillery COOPERAGE Alba Cooperage CRAFT PRODUCER Isle of Raasay Distillery DIGITAL AGENCY Northport DISTILLER SPONSORED BY GLENCAIRN Holyrood Distillery DISTILLERY MANAGER SPONSORED BY MCLAREN PACKAGING Roselyn Burnett, Cardhu Distillery INDEPENDENT BOTTLER Caskshare Highly Commended Brave New Spirits MASTER DISTILLER/MASTER BLENDER SPONSORED BY BRINDIAMO Stephanie Macleod, Dewar’s Highly Commended Alasdair Day, R&B Distillers Emma Walker, Johnnie Walker PR AGENCY Spey SALES TEAM The Team, Isle of Raasay Distillery SINGLE ESTATE Arbikie Highland Estate Highly Commended Lochlea Distillery SUSTAINABLE DISTILLERY SPONSORED BY IPL PACKAGING Nc’nean Distillery VISITOR ATTRACTION MANAGER SPONSORED BY LARKFIRE Laura Sharp, Cardhu Distillery VISITOR ATTRACTION The Scotch Whisky Experience Highly Commended The Port of Leith Distillery VISITOR ATTRACTION TEAM The Team, Johnnie Walker Princes Street Highly Commended The Team,…

PRIDE OF SCOTLAND

Canadian flavour maven Reece Sims has developed a system to help consumers identify which whiskies they would like, and inform brands about her findings. Sims is a taste trainer and flavour coach who has done the heavy lifting of classifying whisky flavours, and now shares that knowledge with others. But there is a lot more to it than that. After sampling thousands of whiskies herself, her fine-tuned palate also harnesses the input of a large consumer tasting panel, giving her deep insights to predict what others will enjoy. It began at the University of Victoria, where she enjoyed the odd rye and ginger as she was working her way through college, serving tables and tending bar in a Mexican restaurant. In 2015, when she graduated with an honours degree in…

When you’ve been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, won 10 Grammys, a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer, and the Nobel Prize in Literature, what do you do next? If you’re Bob Dylan, you set up an award-winning whiskey distillery, then showcase your wares in an abandoned church in the heart of Louisville, Kentucky. In 2018, Heaven’s Door — a reference to Dylan’s 1973 classic ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ — became the musician’s first (professional) foray into the whiskey world. Working alongside Marc Bushala, co-founder of the wildly successful Angel’s Envy, Dylan set his sights on producing a whiskey that would demonstrate both his long-standing love for the liquor and his enduring need to be creative. Dylan and whiskey are a natural pairing. His music conjures up images…

A design for life

Whisky, in its essence, is a form of art. While science plays a vital role, there is often a “je ne sais quoi” element added to the whisky-making process too. It takes skilled distillers and blenders to truly understand and harness this artistic energy to create outstanding whisky. Aside from this literal comparison, it is hard to deny an intrinsic link between whisky and the arts. Just as a painter may find paint unruly one day and tame the next, there is a similar wildness to the world of whisky that is never short of fascinating distillery to distillery. In an increasingly crowded space, distilleries have played on this thread, and have long been experimenting with how art can form a key part of a considered marketing strategy to distinguish…

A design for life

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR christmas

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The birth of a new dream

When the iconic Karuizawa distillery was demolished in early 2016, it seemed unlikely that whisky-making would be revived in the cool resort area in central Japan any time soon. But now there are three new whisky producers in the Greater Karuizawa area. The first to fire up the stills was the new Karuizawa distillery, which is officially known as the Karuizawa Whisky Distillery (to distinguish it from the old one). It is thanks to the renowned artist David Stanley Hewett that whisky aficionados worldwide will be able to closely follow the growth of the Karuizawa Whisky Distillery. Hewett has been based in Karuizawa since 2010, and whisky enthusiasts may know him for the work he has done on a prestigious three-bottle set released in April 2023 by the luxury Japanese…

The birth of a new dream

Under the influence

Whisky became the most popular spirit because of copying. Copying is hard-wired evolutionary behaviour in the animal kingdom. By mimicking the behaviour of a high-status member of the group, unranked members obtain information, seek social approval, and engender a favourable self-concept. Social mimicry is at the heart of our species’ success, as it builds social rapport and accumulates cultural dividends, a prerequisite to developing civilisations. Distilled malt spirits as proto-whisky started as a social beverage during Elizabethan times. The first social trendsetters were the apex influencers: royalty and aristocrats (see Mythbusters, p10). Following the Tudor period, the pyramid of influencers widened to include high-status people, signifying social prestige, power, and wealth. As printed communications arrived, influencers expanded to famous adventurers, military heroes, and others worthy of admiration and emulation. By…

Under the influence

AN ICONIC Spirit

Regular readers of Whisky Magazine will no doubt be familiar with the growing number of whisky brands gaining the attention of, and in some cases being founded by, celebrities. From Hollywood A-listers to Grammy award winners, owning a piece of a whisky brand has become a big deal in the glamorous world of show business, which, ironically, seems miles away from the often rustic, historic, and crafted origins of the spirit. Head back to London in the early 1920s, though, and a whisky revolution was starting to take shape amongst high society at the time, paving the way for the celebrity attraction we are witnessing today. Created in 1923, Cutty Sark was designed to be a game changer in the appreciation of Scotch whisky. Deliberately smooth, mellow, and delicately blended,…

AN ICONIC Spirit

As it does in life, whisky features in films at times of celebration and defeat; in moments of excitement and intimacy. It can appear in cocktails or served straight, and can give an insight into someone’s emotions, motives, and status. The Cocktails There are number of drinks that are as much of a favourite on-screen as they are off, such as the Manhattan (Some Like It Hot (1959)), Sazerac (Live and Let Die (1973) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)), and the Old Fashioned (Knives Out (2019) and Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)). As many readers will be familiar with these already, here are some other whisky drinks seen on the big screen. Whisky (Scotch) & Soda The perennial favourite of army colonels, prime ministers, and Beverly Hills cops…

I’ve played guitar now for 40 years because, frankly, I’m old,” FEW’s founder, Paul Hletko, laughs, recalling picking up the instrument when he was 14, and teaching himself to play. He spent his college years playing in Grateful Dead cover bands, and even managed a few groups, including his own. “Music has always been an incredibly important part of my life.” That love of music naturally flows into his whiskey-making. “To me, fundamentally, the art of making music and the art of making whiskey are identical. It’s about creating either an emotion or an experience — something that connects what you’ve made with the people who are enjoying it. “At the end of the day, we’re just trying to tell a story — a story through our whiskey, and musicians…

As sipped on screen

It is one of the most iconic depictions of whisky in 21st-century cinema. Bill Murray as Bob Harris, an American actor whose star is very much on the wane. Tuxedo. Tumbler in hand. “For relaxing times, make it Suntory times.” He repeatedly struggles to muster the brand-approved blend of pleasure and enthusiasm in his delivery. Whisky here, as indeed in every moment it is featured on screen, adds an unspoken quality to the story. Lost in Translation, Harris’ mid-life-crisis tale, directed by Sofia Coppola, was released in 2003. Then, the world was only just waking up to Japanese whisky. At the time the script was written, there was no way it would have been held up internationally as the exactingly made, deliciously complex spirit it is today. Instead, the connotations…

As sipped on screen

From Scotland to Seoul

Take a bar crawl through Seoul, and you’ll likely find locally produced soju, beer, or, if you’re seeking something richer, imported Scotch for the traditionalists or Japanese single malt for the younger crowd. It’s only in recent decades that whisky has started to make its mark on Korea’s drinking scene, where the culture is often tied to culinary traditions and local ingredients. If you’re after locally crafted whisky, though, you’ll need to dig a little deeper. In a world where the best-known whisky regions have a long sense of history, lineage, and legacy, others are just beginning their story. Kim Chang Soo is writing the first chapter. “Fifteen years ago when I decided to produce whisky in Korea, people laughed. At that time, no one even believed it was possible,”…

From Scotland to Seoul

Nick Laracuente Archivist and bourbon archaeologist, Sazerac @bourbonarchaeology “When I started focusing on the archaeology of distilleries, a fellow archaeologist took me under his wing and shared his knowledge and tastes from his extensive collection. Before Buffalo Trace Distillery called me about finding “something old” for the project that turned out to be ‘Bourbon Pompeii’, I was invited to speak about bourbon archaeology during a regional archaeology conference. I was sharing my work of what I eventually published as an archaeological model to identify distilleries only from their material remains. Identifying and differentiating between moonshine, farm distilleries, and industrial distilleries required that I knew the basics about all stages of distilling and distribution, and how those changed with scale, technology, and social influences throughout history. After the Bourbon Pompeii project,…

THE LIE OF THE LAND

People! Please stop perpetuating the misconception that Canadian whisky is the world’s most flexible, least regulated style. This is not true. And the letter ‘e’ in the name of a country does not mean its whisky should also have an e’. No, not in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, or any other place, except sometimes Ireland and the United States. Old whisky is not automatically better than young; Canadian whisky is not automatically light in flavour; and US Prohibition nearly drove most Canadian distillers into bankruptcy, except for Hiram Walker, originally an American distiller. Deep breaths. Today’s emphasis on sensational whisky stories has sown a new crop of misinformation to annoy long-time fans as much as it misleads those new to whisky. As whisky sales begin to slide from…

THE LIE OF THE LAND

Tastings Latest

Taster biographies Bradley Weir After studying at the University of Gloucestershire, Bradley started writing about film before moving into spirits. He joined Whisky Magazine as tastings co-ordinator in 2022, and is now serving as its interim deputy editor, and as interim editor of sister publication American Whiskey. Alwynne Gwilt After studying broadcast journalism in Canada, Alwynne moved to the UK where she started her blog, Miss Whisky, before later joining the Balvenie as brand ambassador. Alwynne now runs her own company, MW Consulting, hosting events and writing about the water of life. THE PROCESS • All samples are blind tasted, with ABV, country/region, and style the only information disclosed • Samples are tasted individually over a two-week period • Tasters work to tasting and scoring guidelines in order to assess…

Tastings Latest

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SCOTCH WHISKY RETAINS TRAVEL-RETAIL POPULARITY OVER FOUR DECADES

The annual Tax Free World Association (TFWA) Exhibition & Conference in Cannes is usually the perfect place to discover which new whiskies will land on duty-free shelves over the next 12 months. It remains the travel retail industry’s largest gathering, and while the show in October lived up to expectations, there was also a reflective mood among many exhibitors and visitors as the event marked its 40th anniversary. In 1984, the year of the first Cannes tax-free show, the travel world was a different place. It was a pre-digital, Europe-focused time, when the low-cost travel revolution, heightened travel security restrictions, and the rise of China had yet to happen. As it does today, in the mid-1980s Scotch whisky dominated duty-free spirits sales, but blends rather than malts ruled the roost.…

SCOTCH WHISKY RETAINS TRAVEL-RETAIL POPULARITY OVER FOUR DECADES

Calum Rae started his career training as a sound engineer and touring with bands. Later he joined Eden Mill St Andrews, where he had stints as a packaging assistant and a tour guide. He then became a brewer, where he developed his interest in specialty yeast and malts. Moving back to whisky, Rae was part of the commissioning team for Leith’s Bonnington Distillery. He later joined Holyrood, also in Leith, a distillery he calls “Willy Wonka’s booze factory”. He started as a senior distiller, moving up to assistant distillery manager, then in 2023 took on his current role of distillery manager. WHISKY #1 Holyrood Embra We love that Edinburgh is like the gateway to whisky in Scotland. You land here and you go off to the Lowlands, the Highlands, Speyside,…

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