Contents
p5
This will be the last time I refer to the Ardbeg-sponsored Islay half marathon. Until next year's race, that is. Although it would not be unfair to
suggest that the word 'race' is too strong a term fo...
By Marcin Miller in the section
The Miller's Tale
p11
Michael Jackson’s summer season, boosted by Bell’s
The first place I recall drinking beer that had been finished in a whiskey cask was Goose Island, the pioneering brewpub in Chicago. Now I can buy Innis and Gunn Oak Aged Beer, from Scotland, in my lo...
By Michael Jackson in the section
Musings with Michael Jackson
p12
Dave Broomdiscovers life on the ocean waves
That’s more like it.” Had I really said that? The bosun’s jaw dropped.
It takes a lot to render him speechless. Then he grinned – a more common occurrence. “Did you hear that? We have a convert.”
I’...
By Dave Broom in the section
A dram with Dave Broom
p18
Dominic Roskrow reports back from Kentucky and Spain
You couldn't make it up
Dark rumblings on the soccer field The Scottish have always been good at making allies – normally anyone who’s not English – so it came
as no great surprise to discover that a special relationship wa...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
World of whisky
p22
If you’ll excuse the pun, Kentucky whiskey is on a roll at the moment. Dominic Roskrow went on a voyage of discovery that started with selecting his own whiskey and ended at the party to end all parties
It may have been the sunshine heat, it may have been the exquisite bourbon and it may have been no more than standard festival excitement, but in Kentucky in September there was a real sense that some...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Special Report
p23
The distillery at Woodford Reserve is like nowhere else on earth
This is truly surreal. Kentucky’s youngest master distiller, Chris Morris, is standing over a single barrel which is full of a liquid that looks
like concrete mix and has the consistency of gruel. Hi...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Special Report
p27
The Kentucky Bourbon Festival is starting to attract people from across the world.
Dominic Roskrow went to find out why
The party for Tom Bulleit at a private house in the suburbs of Bardstown was dead as a dormouse.
We – Whisky Magazine managing director Damian Riley-Smith, myself and a Polish writer we’d adopted cal...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Special Report
p32
Top author Iain Banks couldn’t believe his luck when he was asked to write a book on Scotland’s distilleries. He tells Dominic Roskrow about his year drinking whisky
When Iain Banks was approached about writing his new book, it was, to coin a phrase, an offer he simply couldn’t refuse.
His agent wanted to know if the author of such landmark novels as The Wasp Fac...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Interview
p36
As crazy ideas go, pillaging malts on Islay for charity is pretty crazy. Dave Broomtracked down some of the guilty parties and asked them exactly what they thought they were doing
He remembered the barrel roll. The laughs they’d had, the too-late night on Jura and the push up the hill at Port Askaig the next morning with thick ringing heads. The way the island came together, th...
By Dave Broom in the section
Whisky Events
p40
The Easy Drinking Whisky Company is taking the selling of whisky to a new level – by selling directly on taste. Dominic Roskrow reports
Quite often the best ideas are the simplest ones. The ones when you say ‘why didn’t someone think of that before?’
So it is with the concept behind Easy Drinking Whisky Company, which has taken the s...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Trends
p42
Our Mystery Visitor travels to Arran
Isuppose that most, if not all readers of Whisky Magazine have dreamt of running their own distillery. Back in 1995, after a distinguished career in the industry, Harold Currie did rather more than t...
By Mystery Visitor in the section
Mystery Visitor
p44
Martine Nouet gathers her thoughts and gives a back-to-basics guide to the cooking methods she uses
It is funny how I fill up my mind with good resolutions when coming back to work after a long summer break. This sudden good-will syndrome gives me an irrepressible energy to tidy up my desk, reschedu...
By Martine Nouet in the section
Whisky and Food
p48
Islay’s meant to be all about tranquillity. But when Ian Buxton visited Bowmore it was anything but
Islay is supposed to be quiet. Very quiet. The island’s image is of great peace and tranquillity; empty open spaces, washed by clear skies, a deep silence broken only by the cries of distant seabirds....
By Ian Buxton in the section
Distillery Focus
p53
Jim Thompson died unknown and poor. But his 1952 novel The Killer Inside Me is now regarded as a masterpiece. Jefferson Chase turns its whisky-drenched pages
Jim Thompson is the James Joyce of hard-boiled American fiction. Born in Oklahoma in 1906, his first job was at a seedy Texas hotel during Prohibition, where he was well-regarded for his ability to sc...
By Jefferson Chase in the section
Whisky Literature
p54
Frank McHardy has given his life to whisky. He’s now installed in the newest distillery in Scotland and he’s a proud man. Dave Broom spoke to him about his exceptional career
It’s hard to recall what it once looked like. The last time. When it was just a vast empty barn with no windows and a thick layer of pigeon guano.
Now we walk on a clanging metal floor hanging high a...
By Dave Broom in the section
Whisky Profile
p58
’Own label’ whisky brands are thriving across the world. But how does the market work and how has it developed the way it has? Peter Mulryan reports
The world of whisky has not been unaffected by the growth of the multinationals, in fact, the whisky industry has led the way. As early as the 1920s Johnnie Walker was sold in more than 120 countries;...
By Peter Mulryan in the section
Whisky Trends
p72
Ian Wisniewski takes us step by step through the mashing process
With distillation and maturation seen as the key partnership influencing the flavour of malt whisky, it’s easy to dismiss mashing as an ‘industrial equation.’ Starch equals sugar, which in turn equals...
By Ian Wisniewski in the section
Whisky Production
p82
It’s not often you get to see inside the secret life of John Haydock
Whisky Magazine’s Jocasta Eatwell writes:
Few men have brought as much fame and fortune to the Scottish whisky industry than John Haydock, that writer whose words bring so much pleasure to drinkers a...
By John Haydock in the section
An acidic finish
