Whisky Magazine Issue 29

The Miller's Tale

Another fascinating 12 months in the world of whisky, then. The trend for small independents buying distilleries from large multinationals goes on. Announcements of new smaller-scale distilling projec...

By Marcin Miller in the section The Miller's Tale

Local Hero

Michael Jackson fulfils a fantasy

Like most small boys, I wanted to be a big man. Specifically, I wanted to be a big man called Dave Valentine. Why didn’t they pick him for England? “Because he is Scottish,” explained my Dad. A...

By Michael Jackson in the section Musings with Michael Jackson

A real Japa-knees up

Tequila, Italian death drinks, replica pubs and bad country and western …
Dave Broom discovers the surreal side of Japan

Do you eat many potatoes in Scotlando?” As a conversation opener it was up there with the very best. The fact that it came from a geiko who had just christened me Antonio and was now ordering a rou...

By Dave Broom in the section A dram with Dave Broom

From monsters to minnows

Pip Hills looks at who owns what in the world of whisky

A friend of mine, who teaches economics at a university, tells me that he often uses the Scotch whisky industry as an example of what he calls the post-modern economy. I don’t much like the descrip...

By Pip Hills in the section Distillery Focus

Big in Japan

Whisky Live Japan goes from strength to strength and is getting weirder as it does so. Marcin Miller mixes it with Tokyo’s finest

A good cocktail is all in the shaking, as one Tokyo bar owner took great delight in explaining to me during my recent visit to Japan. Exactly the same ingredients, shaken in the same quantities but i...

By Marcin Miller in the section Whisky Events

A true boon in Kentucky

The Kentucky Bourbon Festival is one of the year’s whiskey highlights. Damian Riley-Smith brought back a suitcase full of fond memories

The rollercoaster ride that is the Kentucky Bourbon Festival more than met expectations yet again. Kentucky, often mistakenly left off the US tourist map, is the heartland of hospitality, subtle beaut...

By Damian Riley-Smith in the section Whisky Events

A taste of India

The market for whisky in India is huge. Tom Bruce-Gardyne examines its colourful, unconventional nature

Thank God for Spain!” was a cry that echoed round the boardrooms of the great whisky corporations in the 1990s. With the American market in fullscale retreat, dropping by six million cases that deca...

By Tom Bruce-Gardyne in the section Indian Whisky

The King of Cooley

Dr John Teeling is teetotal, he runs on caffeine, and he’s making waves in the world of Irish whiskey. Peter Mulryan talks to the man behind the company

Depending on which part of the whiskey industry you work in, time is either your friend or your enemy. To a master blender, it’s a decade before some whiskeys start to get interesting, on the other...

By Peter Mulryan in the section Irish Whiskey

The name's malt... Single Malt...

James Bond is drinking whisky again. More specifically, he’s drinking Talisker – and the relationship is benefiting both of them. Dominic Roskrow reports

The bar’s crowded and noisy when Bond enters, but he is noticed immediately. He is dressed perfectly, tux and bowtie spotless, hair groomed to perfection. His target – in more ways than one – i...

By Dominic Roskrow in the section Whisky and Film

Waste not, want not

Gavin D. Smith takes a look at the by-products of whisky-making, and where they end up

As whisky consumers, we give a great deal of thought to what goes into our drink, but very little thought to what does not. Yet were it not for effective management of the by-products of distilling, t...

By Gavin D. Smith in the section Whisky and the environment

Whisky Live 2003!

Rare and delicious whiskies are just waiting to be discovered

Whisky Live 2003 runs on 7th and 8th March at the Royal Horticultural Halls, London SW1, and is the United Kingdom’s premier whisky tasting event. Organised by Whisky Magazine, last year it attracte...

By Brigid James in the section Whisky Live

Bile with Style

Jefferson Chase on a sharp-penned Canadian who both writes and drinks whisky – Mordecai Richler

In 1899 a man named Robert Barr wrote an essay arguing that Canadians couldn’t write literature because they drank too much whisky. Ninety-nine years later, Jewish-Canadian author Mordecai Richler p...

By Jefferson Chase in the section Whisky Literature

Lift the winter spirits

Martine Nouet argues that one of the advantages of bad weather is that you can drink strong spirits to keep out the cold

Eveybody fights the rigours of winter in their own manner. Modern conveniences have spoilt us with houses that are (too) well-heated. But think of the old times when peat or log fires were the only wa...

By Martine Nouet in the section Whisky Cocktails

As esay as one, two, three?

Peter Mulryan looks at the increasingly rare art of triple distillation

The theory is simple. You put your wash into a pot still and gently turn up the heat. Alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, so it’s the first to evaporate. This liquid is collected and th...

By Peter Mulryan in the section Whisky Production

Bottle ageing...so where's the science?

In Issue 27, Martin Isark argued that whisky aged in the bottle. His views have provoked a storm of opposition. Here Peter Wood makes the case against Isark’s theory

So, Martin Isark has uncovered an industry conspiracy to conceal from us drinkers the fact that our malt changes in the bottle? He is in good company, if a little late in the piece, for back in 1967, ...

By Peter Woods in the section Whisky Production