Whisky Magazine November 2020

I wish I’d put some money on it. You know that feeling when you’re almost 100 per cent sure you’re right? Well, I should have listened to it. No, I’m not talking about whether there will be a second wave hitting the UK before Christmas, although that might be worth a punt – let’s face it, who would have thought that curfews would return to a British city? Instead I’m talking about that moment just after everyone has had their summer holidays (congratulations if you managed something); the kids go back and then the grind starts again, even in this new normal. What happens at that exact moment? The UK gets some of its hottest weather for months. Beautiful clear skies, the mercury rising up into the late 20s (I know…

All our Whisky Live energy is focused on looking to the future. We are setting 2021 dates for real ‘Live’ events, while refining how Whisky Live ‘At Home’ is delivered to you wherever you live. Who knows what 2021 will bring, but we know that Whisky Live and Gin Live will, by the unique nature of our ability to present spirits in miniature form, be possible in some format. As we all know, the situation is evolving on a weekly, if not daily, basis and we aim to be as responsive as possible. With each country on a different timeline and with different rules and regulations, it’s best to contact your nation’s organising team direct. There may be pop-up Whisky Lives, At Home events could national and international, and we may…

Like most of us, I didn’t grow up expecting to be a whisky drinker. As a teenager living in sleepy Worthing on the south coast of England, whisky wasn’t really in my vocabulary. The late 1990s was a time for spiced rum and coke, and Jose Cuervo shots with the gurn-inducing salt and lime combo. Whisky was just something the old blokes down the working men’s club drank out of warm tumblers in clouds of smoke. Despite living just 30 minutes away I hadn’t visited my hometown for several years, but recently an old friend convinced me to pop over and reminisce. Have you ever revisited the place you grew up in, decades after you left? It’s bizarre, like recalling glimpses of a dream after waking, or bumping into an old…

It was a Tuesday morning in mid-August, one of those muggy days when the heat becomes steam on contact with the road and makes the New York City air hazy. I had been very hard at work in the paint aisle at Home Depot because apparently finding just the right shade of white paint is a herculean undertaking. After about 10 minutes of flipping through samples I lost my focus, forgetting about shading, brightness, shadows, warmth and tint. How can anyone bother with such mechanical technicalities when you’re scanning through colours named Wind Swept, Elusive Blue, Touchable, Pearls and Lace, Maybe Mushroom, Tiara, Violet Hush, Twilight Twist, Just Perfect, Ageless, Sterling Shadow, Slices of Happy, Wistful Beige, Pacific Pearl, Oyster Cracker, Fountain Frolic, Willow Springs, Velveteen Crush, Forgive Quickly. What Romantic…

In March I was all set to present at the New Orleans Bourbon Festival before it was cancelled at the last minute to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Since then I have missed countless whisky tastings, events and festivals that I would ordinarily take part in. The last one I attended in person was The Bourbon Classic. Virtual meet-ups became commonplace as enthusiasts and industry folk struggled to connect with each other under rapidly changing parameters. In the early days of the pandemic it was the bartenders and brand reps leading the way to virtual mixology classes, and people like Molly Wellmann and Sailor Guevara were on livestreams night after night offering people a distraction while mixing up a special concoction alongside a dose of history. It felt like being…

In 2020, we are reminded of the historical stigma of slavery, and the lasting economic hardships and prejudice its legacy has on communities. It seems timely to turn the pages of history to examine the role slavery played in the development of American whiskey. Recent revelations by Fawn Weaver on the influential and collaborative relationship between Jack Daniel and Dan Call’s slave, Nathan ‘Nearest’ Green, also provides an exceptional story of the vital role African Americans played in the development of American whiskey. Before the Green-Daniel partnership began in antebellum Tennessee, in neighbouring Kentucky, a quarter of the population were slaves. At that time, 28 per cent of white families owned slaves and half of those had more than 20 slaves. Kentucky’s largest slave market, Cheapside in Lexington, was in the…