Contents
p5
Plans to ban drinking from a glass in pubs and clubs in Scotland are wrong,says Dominic Roskrow
Once upon a time the drinks trade went through a quiet stage just after Christmas until Spring, and again for a month during summer. No more.
Such is the success of whisky at the moment that it’s not...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
From the Editor
p11
An invite to speak at a prestigious club sends Michael Jackson in search of a literary giant
Did the letter really say: “Our club’s past speakers have included Mark Twain.” Yes it did. Would I now accept their invitation to speak? I can imagine no request less resistible.
Before I had reache...
By Michael Jackson in the section
Musings with Michael Jackson
p12
Dave Broom on why whisky needs to broaden out
Verviers Live consisted of an extraordinary journey through malt whisky’s upper reaches: a 1966 Bowmore which sat delicately on the tongue and slowly expanded across the palate; a 1959 Highland Park t...
By Dave Broom in the section
A dram with Dave Broom
p14
Piers Morgan is one of Britain’s leading media personalities and he’s promoting whisky. Dominic Roskrow met him
On the day I am to meet Piers Morgan, a row has erupted in the press between pop impressario Louie Walsh and singer Ronan Keating.
Keating has apparently criticised Walsh in an interview. And Walsh’s...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Spotlight
p16
In this issue we asked three people who stand against snobbery in whisky how they view the industry
The Participants:
John Clotworthy (JC)
Drumchork Lodge, Aultbea, Scotland
Mike Hayward (MH)
Nurse, malt collector and Whisky
Magazine reader
Dave Robertson (DR)
John,Mark and Ro...
By in the section
Whisky debate
p18
What better way to visit the distilleries on Islay and Jura than on foot? Dominic Roskrow and a Whisky Magazine team have done just that
If you’ve ever followed the coast tour of Port Ellen on Islay and visited the distilleries of Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg you’ll know what a special experience it is.
If you do it on foot after t...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Islay
p22
Peaty whisky has been enjoying a long spell in the limelight.But are there new territories to explore? Ian Wisniewski reports
Being called names doesn’t bother me, and I’m sure the rest of the gang are fine about it too. After all, ‘peat freak’ or ‘peat head’ only indicates a passion for peated malts, and there’s nothing der...
By Ian Wisniewski in the section
Whisky production
p25
Fountains of Wayne are not your archetypal whiskey band. And, says Lew Guthrie III, they’re all the better for it
If you’ve been reading this music page for the last three issues or so you’ve probably spotted a trend. Lots of songs about sad lonely guys sitting in depressing bars crying in to their whiskey, remin...
By Lew Guthrie III in the section
Whisky and Music
p26
Deanston Distillery is something of a hidden gem. Ian Buxton visited it
“We need to work smarter,not harder”
That’s the view of Graham MacWilliam, Inver House’s Distilleries general manager, and you can’t argue with that.
After all, in Speyburn Inver House has taken a ...
By Ian Buxton in the section
Distillery focus
p30
Hard rock and whisk(e)y have been bedfellows for 40 years.Dominic Roskrow lets his hair down
It’s become the iconic rock star image: hair long and flowing, leather trousers or jeans, shirt open to reveal muscular torso and chest hair, jewellery, sunglasses. And there, in the right hand, a hal...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky and Music
p34
In the latest in our series,Rob Allanson looks to bourbon country
From the hills and hollows of eastern Kentucky through the rolling bluegrass of its heartland to the massive lakes and flatlands of the west, Kentucky has much to offer, although for the bourbon afici...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Visitor Guides
p38
Charles Cowdery looks at how Abraham Lincoln’s time in the whiskey trade could have cost him his political career
Bill Clinton’s carefully constructed confession that he tried marijuana while a post-graduate student in England, but “didn’t inhale,” dogged him throughout his presidency. So has George W. Bush’s you...
By Charles K. Cowdery in the section
American Whiskey
p42
The Whisky Shop is bringing whisky to a new market by mixing High Street marketing techniques with outstanding whisky. Dominic Roskrow spoke to Ian Bankier
It’s a wet day out of season in the English tourist city of York. There are few people out and about but at The Whisky Shop, nestling in the city centre next to the Jorvic Centre, there is a steady st...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky Spotlight
p44
No whisky company has taken the field of malt whisky and food matching more seriously than Diageo. Richard Jones uncovers the company’s latest ideas and thinking.
The document is 119 pages long. It is A4 portrait in size and produced in glorious Technicolour.
The chapters include: ‘Around The World With Malts, Some Winning Combinations with Regional Foods’; ‘T...
By Richard Jones in the section
Whisky and Food
p47
Jefferson Chase delves in to some under the radar reading material
More often than it should, the best writing is that which flies under the radar screens of self-appointed literary experts. Case in point: paperback-original ‘noir fiction’ in the United States. Reiss...
By Jefferson Chase in the section
Whisky Literature
p48
How do you guarantee customers will love your whisky? Get them to do the selection for you,
that’s how.Richard Jones joins the Earl Grey Whisky Committee in Leek, Staffordshire, for a night
of conversation, whisky and dubious decor.
Committees don’t enjoy the best of reputations. In little more than 30 seconds on the internet I managed to come up with following musings on the subject: “Committee - a group of men who individually ...
By Richard Jones in the section
Whisky Spotlight
p50
Ian Wisniewski looks at the Rusty Nail
Various cocktails exert their own particular appeal, with the Cosmopolitan offering supreme fashionability, while the Dry Martini epitomises an ultimate sophistication.
But actually having to prepare...
By Ian Wisniewski in the section
Whisky cocktails
p54
John Rose answers another selection of readers’ letters
Q. Could you give me some more information about the regulation of Scotch whisky? Is there an obligatory minimum period of ageing whisky? What is the difference between single malt and blended whisky?...
By John Rose in the section
Whisky Questions
p55
Joe Bates with the latest from travel retail
Store focus: Iceland
For some mysterious reason the nearer a country is to the Arctic Circle, the higher its taxes on spirits. Prices in Iceland, for instance, are some of the highest in Europe.
Un...
By Joe Bates in the section
Travel retail
p56
Ian Wisniewski looks at evaporation and how it varies
Losing around two per cent of a cask’s contents through evaporation can seem a depressing annual statistic for distillers (and even more so for accountants). But this type of regret is a pointless emo...
By Ian Wisniewski in the section
Whisky production
p59
Aberko is a small independent bottler, Ian Buxton investigates...
The life of the independent bottler seems all but ideal: stroll round a few of the more interesting distilleries tasting their whiskies, select a particularly fine cask, develop your own distinctive p...
By Ian Buxton in the section
Whisky Spotlight
