Contents
p5
Rob takes a quiet night with a jazz legend to reflect on what whisky can mean
For this column I had wanted to return to rambling on about my recent trip to the United States, the various gems I discovered out there and the wisdom gleaned from spending several days in a magnific...
By Rob Allanson in the section
From the Editor
p11
Michael looks back at the early days of his education in Edinburgh’s finest
Had I discovered The Canny Man’s so quickly by the employment of my own nose, that would have been a precocious feat. I was a teenager, and had been living in Edinburgh for only a few months.
I was i...
By Michael Jackson in the section
Musings with Michael Jackson
p12
Dave delves into a glamourous world of Highland gatherings,fast drams and racy women
She sits, swathed in silks, crosslegged showing a surprising amount of leg. Her hair is styled in what I believe is called a pixie cut. In her lips is a cigarette holder which looks at least 18 inches...
By Dave Broom in the section
A dram with Dave Broom
p16
With the whisky industry becoming increasing part of large global corporations we decided to look at
how ownership is viewed by the drinkers. We put two questions to Whisky Magazine’s online community at www.whiskymag.com. The first looked at whether the size of the company influenced a whisky’s flavour,availability and price;and whether the nationality of that company had any influence on the whisky
PANEL
BA Bruce D Allen,Massachusetts,USA
NB Nick Brown,Isle of Lewis,UK
KG Kenneth Graham, Perthshire,UK
SH Adrian Phelan,Galway,Ireland
1. Does the size of the company that owns your favourite ...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Round Table
p18
Rob Allanson takes an educational trip through America’s whiskey heartland
There seems to be something built in to the human condition that predisposes us to explore, seek out more knowledge and discover what is over the horizon.
I think this is why you find all sorts of tr...
By Rob Allanson in the section
Whisky Journeys
p24
Rye is on the rise again,William M.Dowd looks at what’s hot out there at the moment
“I’d just helped Ed Hickey into a taxi. Ed had been mixing his whiskey with his rye, and I felt he needed conveying. I started to walk down the street when I heard a voice saying: ‘Good evening, Mr. D...
By William M. Dowd in the section
Rye Whisky
p28
Ian Wisniewski talks to Campbell Evans,The Scotch Whisky Association’s director of government and
consumer affairs
Ian (IW): How would you describe your role, it sounds like multi-tasking on a global scale ?
Campbell (CE): Our primary focus is to protect Scotch whisky. When you’re selling in 200 countries you als...
By Ian Wisniewski in the section
Whisky Interview
p31
In the latest of our series Gavin D Smith looks at the history behind Rosebank
For many aficionados, Rosebank remains the quintessential Lowland single malt, although the distillery stopped producing spirit 14 years ago.
Michael Jackson describes Rosebank as “The finest example...
By Gavin D. Smith in the section
Lost distilleries
p32
Ardmore and Glendronach have much in common but at the moment their experiences are very different.
Dominic Roskrow visited both
They are blood brothers, sharing a common geography and history; close cousins with a (not so) common uncle.
Misfit distilleries operating on the furthest borders of Speyside, close to Scotland’s ble...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Distllery focus
p36
The region known as The Highlands covers a huge and disparate area. So in this area we focus just on the South and East part of the region
Is it time to reassess our definitions of the whisky regions of Scotland? Are our broad regional descriptors becoming increasingly redundant and as whisky enthusiasts grow in number and the knowledge ...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Regional Focus
p42
Whisky can be a great summer drink – and it can work well with the barbecue. Dominic Roskrow gets the big recipe book out
It’s a commonly held view that whisky isn’t a summer drink. But whenever someone says this to me I think back to my very first day as Editor of Whisky Magazine and a television interview Michael Jacks...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky and Food
p46
Ian Buxton dusts off the film canisters to discover a lost world
In every distillery visitor centre you care to name you’ll see the same picture. It’s sepia, often a bit grainy and it features a group of serious looking individuals gazing earnestly at the camera.
...
By Ian Buxton in the section
Whisky and Film
p48
Jefferson Chase looks one of America’s notable writers
American author David Sedaris is notable for a lot of reasons, including being one of the few remaining advocates of smoking in a county where cigarette consumers are often considered only slightly le...
By Jefferson Chase in the section
Whisky Literature
p52
Robin Laing is whisky’s muse.He’s recorded three CDs of whisky songs and has just completed a quite excellent book on Speyside,called The Whisky River. Dominic Roskrow spoke to him
Typical. You wait years for some new Robin Laing whisky product, and then two come along at once.
And the arrival of a new whisky compact disc and a new whisky book come complete with rather a large ...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Whisky and Music
p54
Ian Wisniewski investigates distillery character versus maturation character
The benefits of oak aging have been appreciated far longer than they’ve been understood, as it’s only since the 1970s-80s that detailed research has enabled science to supplant, or confirm, what exper...
By Ian Wisniewski in the section
Whisky Production
p57
Joe Bates reports from one of Europe’s largest airports
The size and quality of the whisky offered at a duty-free shop often depends on how many business travellers the airport serves. The more suits and laptops seen on the concourse, the better the range ...
By Joe Bates in the section
Travel retail
p58
Ian R Mitchell tells some tales of the Donside illicit whiskymakers.
Speyside whisky is world-renowned.
And everyone has heard of the Royal Lochnagar distillery on Deeside. But between these two major rivers of North East Scotland lies a more modest watercourse, the R...
By Ian R Mitchell in the section
Whisky history
p60
Gavin D Smithmeets the man behind the classic Highland malt
Dalmore distillery is the jewel in Whyte & Mackay’s crown. Located 20 miles north of Inverness, on the shores of the Cromarty Firth, Dalmore dates back to 1839 and has belonged to the Glasgow-based co...
By Gavin D. Smith in the section
Whisky Interview
p62
Caroline Dewar meets the women behind the whiskies
In times when we know that women are a largely untapped market as whisky drinkers and careers in scientific or technical subjects are of dwindling interest to school students, where do women fit into ...
By Caroline Dewar in the section
Behind the scenes
p78
In the latest in the series on whisky terms,Dominic Roskrow looks at the letters H,I and J
If you can’t make heads nor tails of the distillation then it’s not really surprising – there are so many terms floating about for the various stages of spirit that it’s a nightmare to put it into log...
By Dominic Roskrow in the section
Understanding whisky
