Whisky Magazine Apr 2022

Whisky should be fun. I know that this might seem like stating the obvious, but there seems to be a lot people who have either forgotten this or have a very different understanding of fun to the rest of us. Exhibit A: I was recently watching a video circulating online of a huge queue outside the Good Spirits Company in Glasgow (a really great drinks retailer). Apparently, people camped out for hours to get a good spot. One person turned up at 4:30am. And why were they braving a dreich day on the streets? They were there in the hope of landing a bottle of the coveted Campbeltown malt Springbank. Similar reports came in from whisky shops up and down the country, usually accompanied by tales of exhausted retail staff with…

The world is opening up again, and our calendar of 2022 Whisky Live events is well and truly underway. It’s time to take a look at some of the events you can expect to see, both in person and at home, from the Whisky Live team. We are proud to announce the first-ever Whisky Live Nordics will take place at the legendary K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen on 13 and 14 May 2022. The event will feature two masterclass stages, where the world’s leading whisky producers will share their stories and secrets, as well as the usual unlimited whisky samples. Tickets are available now. Meanwhile, Whisky Live London returns to the stunning surroundings of the Honourable Artillery Company in London on 20 and 21 May 2022. But, even if you’re well versed in…

There are some dogmatic beliefs about the subject of pairing whiskey and cigars that need to be challenged in order to find an enjoyable combination. Several years ago, I found myself stuck trying to figure out the solution to this exact puzzle. I had heard it said by many authoritative folks that if you want to smoke a full-bodied cigar, you should choose a full-bodied whiskey, and if you want to smoke a light-bodied cigar, you should pick a light-bodied whiskey. To me, it seemed that if you are going to enjoy a full-bodied whiskey with a full-bodied cigar, then they would be too competitive, and, on the flip side, light-bodied whiskeys and cigars would be terribly boring. It wasn’t until very recently that I discovered what I believe to be…

A funny thing happened on the way to 2022. Americans’ relationship with Tequila and mescal escalated from a flirty love affair to a full-blown obsession. This announcement came in early February at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States’ (DISCUS) annual economic briefing, a presentation that delivers meticulously researched and measured data that reveal Americans’ spirits consumption over the past calendar year. I am the furthest thing from a business or finance journalist, but I’ve found that having quantifiable information about what and how people drink gives me a clear lens through which to view the industry. A top-line breakdown of what’s going on in the USA is this: the industry’s economic health is exceptional. America, the second-largest market in the world, after China, saw revenue in spirits sales grew…

Whisky imbroglio, the battle of words amongst industry stakeholders, lasted 70 years. It was instigated by new technologies impacting how whisky was made and sold – argued between distilling factions, rectifiers, wholesalers and independent bottlers who lobbied governments to define its product identity. All the opponents, across different countries and industry sectors, marshalled contradictory arguments deploying the same keywords: pure and wholesome. Forcing the British, Irish, American and Australian governments to hold inquiries to settle this question: what is whisky? The victors would define how whisky was made and labelled. As whisky came out of the provincial shadows in the early 19th century, innovative national and regional industries creatively exploited growing consumer demand and technological advances in production. Before the 20th century, no legal definition existed for whisky; it could be…

Rabbi Chaim Levin goes by the moniker ‘The Bourbon Rabbi’. He fits the bill. After all, he often finds himself at a distillery. That’s because he makes his own bourbon. It’s also because he’s the co-owner of Kentucky Kosher, a company that aims to make more kosher products available to consumers by helping food and drink producers become certified as kosher. As if that weren’t enough, he occasionally takes contract work as a mashgiach (kosher supervisor) from organisations like the Orthodox Union – by far the world’s largest kosher authorising body, certifying approximately 70 per cent of kosher foods in the United States. Like many things in Jewish tradition, what makes a whisky kosher goes back to the Talmud – a record of the rabbinic debate on Jewish law, philosophy, and…