Whisky Magazine

There is a palpable shift occurring internally at the most long-established distillers, blenders and bottlers. A new generation of whisky makers and marketers is slowly but surely taking the reins, while many of the people who exist as living links to a previous era of the industry, the great post-war boom, pass on. Defining a ‘generation’ is famously difficult, and even accepted terms like ‘baby boomers’, ‘millennials’ and ‘gen z/zoomers’ are somewhat loose around the edges. Nevertheless, just as people born within those time periods tend to share common values and goals, we can observe the same generational shift, and its ramifications, playing out in all areas of the world of whisky. Regardless of country and whisky-making style, there appear to be common themes linking members of the new guard, many…

After a couple of years of change in the world, Whisky Live events are settling back into their routine. On 21 and 22 May this year, we saw the return of Whisky Live London to the Honourable Artillery Company, drawing crowds from far and wide to celebrate the wonders of the global whisky scene. Across the water in Ireland, Whisky Live Dublin is set to take place on 10 and 11 June, and it is promising to be the biggest whiskey event ever held by organisers Celtic Whiskey shop. Alongside the in-person events resuming the world over, the US-based e-commerce platform Beveridge has created a phenomenal whisky tasting pack to showcase its partnership with Whisky Live. Back in 2021, Whisky Live announced the news that Beveridge would be its partner for the…

Since I began writing about whiskey, we have lost some amazing talent. In Kentucky, these were the folks who kept the whiskey flowing at a time when no one really wanted it, saving our signature industry and setting it up for a major comeback. Because of their efforts, the next generation of whiskey talent has been able to take over, propelling the industry into the future. A few months ago, Steve Thompson died suddenly and unexpectedly. He had worked for Heublein before joining Brown-Forman, and was one of the three main people instrumental in starting the Woodford Reserve brand, along with the late Lincoln Henderson, who went on to found Angel’s Envy with his family, and Dave Scheurich, who is still consulting with new brands across the United States along with…

At this moment in 2022, it’s hard to imagine that in the United States at the turn of the 21st century, there were long-standing distilleries in Kentucky making bourbon, some in Tennessee doing their charcoal-filter thing, and little else. Monongahela rye, Pennsylvania’s signature, was a thing of the past. Abandoned industrial brick buildings remain as memorials and tributes. Maryland rye, as a category, was also a chapter in history books. In the very early 2000s, a few enterprising folks were tinkering with fruit distillation, making brandies inspired by their ancestral lands, like Marko Karakasevic, owner and operator of Charbay Distillery, in California, whose family traces its distilling roots back 12 generations before him. Nobody could have predicted that, two decades later, there’d be whiskey made and aged in every state. In…

The word ‘new’ is often said to be the most used and abused term in sales and marketing. For whisky, though, it’s ‘old’ that gets rolled out the most. ‘Old’ entered the whisky lexicon at the beginning of the 19th century, gaining popularity over the next 150 years. The appeal of ‘old’ was twofold. One usage described the sale of aged whisky, not raw or young distillate; the other defined distilleries using traditional or ‘old school’ modes of whisky manufacture. When new mechanical technologies and steam power moved whisky distilling towards mass production, the old-school distillers promoted their traditional pot stills, hand mashing and rustic techniques as the old ways. This was most conspicuous in the US, where the government recognised four distillery classifications, in 1816. In first ranking was Old…

TO FOOD AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE TO WHISKY READERS When using the special promotion code 2527, a 10-issue subscription to Food and Travel magazine costs just £47 .50* to UK addresses, £55.10 for addresses in Europe and £79.20 for the rest of the world. Or, if you prefer to go digital, it's just £29.50 no matter where you live. You can see a free sample issue at bit.ly/FTJUL21 *Normal prices are UK £59.50, EU £69, RoW £99.10. Offer valid until 30 June 2022 3 EASY WAYS TO ORDER bit.ly/FTSUB subscriptions@foodandtravel.com +44 (0) 20 7501 0521 www.foodandtravel.com ESCAPES ENTERTAINING FESTIVALS WEEKENDS AWAY ADVENTURE GOURMETTRAVELLER TASTE THE EXPERIENCE - EXPERIENCE THE TASTE…