WhiskyCast
1,069 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 days ago - ★★★★★ - 223 ratingsEach week's episode features the latest whisky news, a calendar of upcoming events, and interviews with whisky experts. For more information, links, and a complete archive of past episodes, visit www.whiskycast.com.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
WhiskyCast Episode 568: December 26, 2015
December 27, 2015 04:57 - 1 hour - 83 MBThere are a lot of issues facing the world of whisky and spirits these days, and we'll discuss many of them on this week's WhiskyCast. During the recent New Brunswick Spirits Festival in Canada, WhiskyCast's Mark Gillespie moderated a panel discussion with Glenfiddich's Ian Millar, Dr. Kirstie McCallum of Burn Stewart Distillers, Angostura Rum master distiller John Georges, and The Glenlivet's Alan Winchester. We discussed topics ranging from declining whisky sales to the impact of the thaw ...
WhiskyCast Episode 567: December 19, 2015
December 20, 2015 06:35 - 58 minutes - 46.9 MBThis week, we'll look at the business behind the whiskies we drink - and investors hope to profit from. More investors are looking seriously at the whisky business...they're not just looking to invest in rare bottles, but something even rarer...the distilleries that make whisky. We'll talk with Frank Lampen, one of the co-founders of Diageo's in-house venture capital unit, Distill Ventures. This week, Distill made its second major whisky investment of the month by taking a minority stake in ...
WhiskyCast Episode 566: December 13, 2015
December 13, 2015 23:58 - 28 minutes - 23.3 MBThis week, we'll give you a glimpse at something rarely seen...the very first still run at a new distillery. This week, the stills at Ireland's Waterford Distillery came to life - 24 years after they were last used at the old Inverleven Distillery in Scotland. Like a lot of pieces of the Waterford story, those stills spent some time on Islay at Bruichladdich, but like the old Guinness brewery in Waterford that closed two years ago, they found new life in the Irish Whiskey boom. We'll talk wi...
WhiskyCast Episode 565: December 5, 2015
December 06, 2015 07:48 - 57 minutes - 46.2 MBEvery once in a while, you might want to step outside of your comfort zone and try something besides whisky. A WhiskyCast listener asked for suggestions along those lines after hearing our October episode about Armagnacs, and we turned to Jeff Cioletti for answers. He's the author of the new book "The Year of Drinking Adventurously: 52 Ways To Get Out of Your Comfort Zone" and editor-at-large for Beverage World magazine, and he'll join us for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Dia...
WhiskyCast Episode 564: November 29, 2015
November 30, 2015 05:03 - 37 minutes - 29.9 MBThis week, we'll be talking about whisky and education. Not teaching people how to drink whisky, but how to make it! There aren't many university-level programs in distilling, but the University of Kentucky has now started offering a certificate in Distillation, Wine, and Brewing to undergraduate students who complete a series of courses in chemistry, engineering, and other subjects. Dr. Seth DeBolt is one of the program's founders, and joins us to discuss it on this week's WhiskyCast In-Dep...
WhiskyCast Episode 563: November 21, 2015
November 22, 2015 03:02 - 55 minutes - 44.8 MBThis week, we're at Canada's oldest whisky festival...the New Brunswick Spirits Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and draws visitors from all over Canada and the northeastern United States. This year, festival attendees also celebrated the 2016 Whisky Bible's naming of a Canadian whisky as the World Whisky of the Year. We'll get reaction to Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye's place at the top of the podium, and why it's helping...
WhiskyCast Episode 562: November 14, 2015
November 15, 2015 06:17 - 50 minutes - 40.9 MBAs we begin the 11th year of WhiskyCast, we're taking a look back this week to catch up with some of the friends we've made over the last ten years...people who are now making their own way in the whisky world. We'll hear from a Kentucky sheriff's deputy starting his post-police career as a Bourbon distiller, a couple from New Zealand who gave birth to a whisky distillery and a baby son at the same time, and a Scottish expat who followed his wife to New Jersey and wants to teach his new neig...
WhiskyCast Episode 561: November 7, 2015
November 08, 2015 06:43 - 48 minutes - 39.1 MBScotland's Glenturret Distillery celebrated its 240th anniversary this week by gathering 240 people at The Famous Grouse Experience for a toast, and by announcing the debut of the distillery's first range of single malts in many years. Stuart Cassells heads up Glenturret, and was instrumental in making those single malts possible. He'll join us on WhiskyCast In-Depth to discuss the history and the future of Scotland's oldest distillery. We're also celebrating an anniversary this week, though...
WhiskyCast Episode 560: October 31, 2015
November 01, 2015 05:17 - 46 minutes - 37.8 MBPopular, yet controversial in many ways, WhistlePig Farm's distillery has finally opened after a series of lengthy delays and disputes. Founder Raj Peter Bhakta spent around $250,000 in legal fees battling Vermont regulators over whether WhistlePig Farm qualifies as an "agricultural operation" under the state's unique laws protecting farms from commercial development. Even though whiskey distilled from rye grown on the farm is still several years away from being ready for sale, Bhakta claims...
WhiskyCast Episode 559: October 24, 2015
October 25, 2015 05:58 - 52 minutes - 42.3 MBAndy Cant has been a Scotch Whisky nomad for nearly four decades, working at distilleries and maltings all over Scotland. He's done everything from making grain whisky for blends to running a maltings and multiple malt whisky distilleries from Islay to the Highlands. These days, you'll find him at Cardhu Distillery in Speyside, but we caught up with him recently at Mount Vernon in Virginia, where he was part of a team from Scotland making single malt whisky at George Washington's Distillery....
WhiskyCast Episode 558: October 17, 2015
October 18, 2015 06:11 - 33 minutes - 27.3 MBGeorge Washington's Scottish distiller never made single malt whisky at Mount Vernon in the 18th Century, but Scottish distillers John Campbell, Bill Lumsden, and Andy Cant did in the spring of 2012. They returned to Virginia this week to bottle that whisky for charity, and the first set of two bottles sold at the Spirit of Mount Vernon gala for $26,000. We'll hear from the distillers on the challenge of making whisky the "old school" way on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Pappy Van Winkle...
WhiskyCast Episode 557: October 10, 2015
October 11, 2015 04:08 - 35 minutes - 28.5 MBIt's rare that we talk about spirits other than whiskies on WhiskyCast, but with many people complaining that rising prices for single malts are forcing them to seek alternatives, it's a good time to take another look at Armagnacs. We first looked at the French spirit back in 2007, and while whisky prices have been rising sharply, prices for vintage Armagnacs have been rising much more slowly. Florence Castarède is the sixth generation of her family to manage Armagnac Castarède, and we'll di...
WhiskyCast Episode 556: October 4, 2015
October 05, 2015 02:17 - 34 minutes - 27.5 MBEarlier this year, Japan's Nikka Whisky announced plans to replace many of its age-statement single malts with new no-age-statement versions. The company's past projections of estimated demand couldn't have forecast the current boom in Japanese whisky sales, and Nikka didn't lay down enough whisky to meet today's demand. We'll discuss the situation with Nikka's chief blender, Tadashi Sakuma, on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Brown-Forman has started construction of its new dis...
WhiskyCast Episode 555: September 25, 2015
September 28, 2015 20:33 - 52 minutes - 42.3 MBIn this special bonus episode from Whisky Live Paris, we'll have more highlights from one of Europe's top whisky festivals. We'll look at the recent controversy over a legal definition of France's Breton Whisky, and hear from an American making single malt whisky in England...the very idea might make some heads explode in Scotland! In the news, Taiwan's award-winning King Car Distillery is starting a massive expansion project -- not just doubling production capacity, but boosting it by five ...
WhiskyCast Episode 554: September 26, 2015
September 26, 2015 23:34 - 28 minutes - 23.2 MBThis time around, we're in Paris for the first of two episodes this weekend from Whisky Live Paris! Each year, Whisky Live Paris draws whisky fans and whisky makers from all over the world, and this year, that includes a record number of American distillers as Europeans discover a taste for US-made craft whiskies as well as their larger counterparts. We'll talk with several US distillers who made the trip to Paris as part of WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, one of Ireland's newest distiller...
WhiskyCast Episode 553: September 19, 2015
September 20, 2015 08:38 - 54 minutes - 43.7 MBSam Mead is a fifth-generation rancher, but never had any interest in distilling...until he came back home to work at Wyoming Whiskey, the distillery his parents founded in 2006. He started at the bottom milling grain, and eventually discovered the distilling bug within him. After a series of changes at the distillery, he wound up being the head distiller (and won't allow people to call him a "master distiller"). We're on the trail in Wyoming this week, and we'll hear from Sam Mead on Whisky...
WhiskyCast Episode 552: September 12, 2015
September 13, 2015 02:52 - 53 minutes - 43 MBThe Glenrothes was one of the first Scotch Whisky distilleries to label its single malts with wine-style vintages instead of age statements. While the Berry Bros. & Rudd-owned brand remains committed to vintages, it's re-launching its entire range of vintage-less whiskies known as The Glenrothes Reserve Collection. Luke Tegner of Berry Bros. & Rudd was in New York City this week to introduce the new range, and joins us on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth to discuss the changes. We also have a...
WhiskyCast Episode 551: September 5, 2015
September 06, 2015 06:08 - 33 minutes - 27.1 MBLouisville isn't just famous for Bourbon...it's also becoming a popular city for culinary connoisseurs, and the foodies are flocking to Chef John Varanese's restaurant specializing in New American cuisine. The menu at Varanese also gets a lot of inspiration from Bourbon, and we'll kick off Bourbon Heritage Month in Kentucky by talking whisky and cuisine with Chef Varanese on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, there's a new #1 at the top of the Single Malt Scotch whisky sales ranki...
WhiskyCast Episode 550: August 29, 2015
August 30, 2015 02:29 - 43 minutes - 35.4 MBKieran Folliard is a native son of Ireland, but calls Minnesota his home now. While running a group of Irish pubs in Minneapolis, he and his staff decided they should sell their own special Irish whiskey. Two Gingers became so successful in the pubs that Folliard decided to sell his stake in the pubs to his staff and make a go of Two Gingers, which was named for his mother and aunt back in Ireland. He wound up selling his brand to Beam, while retaining control over the day-to-day management....
WhiskyCast Episode 549: August 22, 2015
August 23, 2015 05:46 - 34 minutes - 27.8 MBMany American craft distillers produce single malt whiskies, but Seattle's Westland Distillery is one of the few that only produces single malts. The distillery in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood also produces one of the few peated American single malts, and while Westland is currently importing peated malt from Scotland, that's about to change. The distillery has exclusive rights to one of the only harvestable peat bogs in the Pacific Northwest, and is working with Skagit Valley farmers and a l...
WhiskyCast Episode 548: August 17, 2015
August 18, 2015 06:23 - 44 minutes - 35.8 MBThe "Bourbon Boom" has led to a corresponding boom in the publishing industry, with almost as many new Bourbon books as there are Bourbons on the market. Fred Minnick's second whisky book, "Bourbon Curious" not only shares some of the history behind many Bourbon brands, but breaks down many of them by flavor characteristics to help new Bourbon fans find the whiskies they're most likely to enjoy. Fred's based in Louisville, and keeps a close eye on the Bourbon industry. On this week's WhiskyC...
WhiskyCast Episode 547: August 8, 2015
August 09, 2015 06:08 - 45 minutes - 43.8 MBThis week, we're on location at the M.B. Roland Distillery in Pembroke, Kentucky for a special benefit to raise money for the Lifting Spirits - Jay & Kyle Rogers Support Fund. Jay and Kyle were critically burned in the April 24th still explosion at the Silver Trail Distillery in Hardin, Kentucky, and while Kyle died of his injuries two weeks later, Jay is well on the road to recovery. He and Silver Trail founder Spencer Balentine will share their stories of that tragic day and the weeks sinc...
WhiskyCast Episode 546: August 1, 2015
August 02, 2015 03:07 - 46 minutes - 37.3 MBScotland's Bladnoch Distillery will be 200 years old in 2017, but for more than a year, it was fair to question whether one of the oldest Lowlands distilleries would be around for that milestone. The questions about Bladnoch's future have been answered with the distillery's sale to Australian entrepreneur David Prior, who's making a "substantial investment" in equipment upgrades with plans to resume distilling in 12 to 18 months. We caught up with Prior in Bali during a combination business ...
WhiskyCast Episode 545: July 25, 2015
July 26, 2015 04:07 - 47 minutes - 37.9 MBThe history of Bourbon is filled with enough myths to make a dozen Disney movies, enough crimes for years of True Detective, and enough mysteries to make Sherlock Holmes hang up his deerstalker cap. In part two of our conversation with "Bourbon Empire" author Reid Mitenbuler, we'll look at the crimes, corruption, and prejudice that are part of Bourbon's past, as well as the resurgence of craft distilling and other factors that give Bourbon a bright future. In the news, Brown-Forman has start...
WhiskyCast Episode 544: July 19, 2015
July 19, 2015 19:42 - 50 minutes - 40.4 MBBourbon has a unique place in American history, but as with other elements of American history...many of the stories of Bourbon are based more on myth and legend than actual facts, and the truth often gets lost over decades of marketing mythology. Reid Mitenbuler debunks many of the myths and provides historical context in his book "Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America's Whiskey." He'll share some of his stories with us in the first of a two-part interview on this week's WhiskyCast...
WhiskyCast Episode 543: July 11, 2015
July 12, 2015 03:41 - 34 minutes - 27.8 MBThere are dozens of stakeholders in the Scotch Whisky industry, and while they do work together on a few key fronts, their competitive nature makes it difficult to set aside their own needs for the common good. Victor Brierley is on a one-man mission to change all that with an ambitious dream of creating a unified marketing platform for Scotch Whisky. He'll share his plans with us on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, sparks from a construction worker's tool are being blamed for t...
WhiskyCast Episode 542: July 4, 2015
July 04, 2015 23:59 - 46 minutes - 37.7 MBJim Rutledge gets most of the credit for reviving Four Roses Bourbon in the US over the last decade after years of neglect by the brand's previous owners, who shipped the distillery's high-quality Bourbon to export markets while giving domestic consumers a cheaply blended Four Roses American Whiskey instead. This week, Rutledge announced his plans to retire September 1 after 49 years with Seagram and Four Roses, and will become the distillery's Master Distiller Emeritus. We'll talk with Jim ...
WhiskyCast Episode 541: June 27, 2015
June 28, 2015 03:12 - 35 minutes - 29 MBJust as whisky brands need to change things up once in a while to remain fresh, so do whisky festivals. Tickets have gone on sale for this September's Kentucky Bourbon Festival, and while most of the changes this year are taking place behind the scenes, next year's 25th edition of the festival should look very different. We'll talk with the Bourbon Festival's new executive director, Jill Hawkins, on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Silver Trail Distillery's Jay Rogers is back ho...
WhiskyCast Episode 540: June 20, 2015
June 21, 2015 04:46 - 39 minutes - 32.1 MBIt's Father's Day weekend, and we have two stories to share on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. Euan Henderson didn't want to work in the whisky business when he left school, but when your father is veteran distillery manager Iain Henderson, it's hard not to wind up in the family business. Euan's now a team leader at Aberlour, Glenallachie, and Tormore distilleries...and he'll share his story - and his dream to ultimately follow in his father's footsteps - with us. We'll also talk with Phil ...
WhiskyCast Episode 539: June 13, 2015
June 14, 2015 04:16 - 47 minutes - 38 MBDave Schmier and Michael Kandar started Bardstown Barrel Selections five years ago to bottle some casks of good whiskey they'd come across from MGP-I in Indiana, but their Redemption Rye business took off. In this case, success was too much of a good thing, and the partners ran out of capital to keep investing in new casks. This week, they sold Redemption Rye to Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, which has already completed a long-term supply contract and plans to take the brand nationwide as pa...
WhiskyCast Episode 538: June 6, 2015
June 07, 2015 06:32 - 39 minutes - 31.7 MBThis week, we're looking at the end of an experiment nearly 14 years in the making...Buffalo Trace's Single Oak Project. The attempt to create "Bourbon's Holy Grail" used 96 trees to make 192 special casks filled with whiskey for 8 years, with nearly 1,400 different possible variables that could have an impact on the final whiskey. More than 5,000 people posted their tasting notes on the 192 different bottlings, but it took a team of whisky writers to make the final selection from five final...
WhiskyCast Episode 537: May 30, 2015
May 31, 2015 07:06 - 41 minutes - 33.2 MBIrish Whiskey once dominated the world, but several factors combined to nearly wipe the country's distillers out over time. While it's now the fastest-growing segment of the whisky industry, Ireland's distillers only have a 4% share of the global market - and now have ambitious plans to triple that over the next 15 years. Irish Whiskey Association chairman Bernard Walsh explains just how he and his colleagues plan to do that on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, more details are c...
WhiskyCast Episode 536: May 23, 2015
May 24, 2015 04:06 - 50 minutes - 40.8 MBGordon & MacPhail reopened Benromach Distillery in Speyside in 1998 after 15 years of inactivity, and Keith Cruickshank has been there since the stills were fired up. After two years as a stillman, he was promoted to distillery manager, and remains one of the three men who tend the stills at Benromach. He'll take us on a tour of the distillery on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, a lawsuit has been filed in connection with last month's explosion at the Silver Trail Distillery in ...
WhiskyCast Episode 535: May 16, 2015
May 17, 2015 05:07 - 34 minutes - 27.9 MBThe labels on whisky bottles often give us more than just the legal description of what's inside the bottle. Good ones convey the character and heritage of the spirit...perhaps even a sense of what it tastes like. Author Noah Rothbaum has been looking at whisky labels from before Prohibition to the present day, and picked 100 of them for his new book "The Art of American Whiskey." He'll share the story behind the book in this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, one of the victims of las...
WhiskyCast Episode 534: May 9, 2015
May 10, 2015 06:38 - 32 minutes - 26.4 MBThis episode wraps up our special coverage of the Spirit of Speyside Festival in Scotland, and we'll hear from soccer's Michael Owen. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star is working with Speyside Distillery as a global ambassador for its Spey single malts, and surprised visitors touring the distillery last Monday. He'll tell us why his whisky is better than David Beckham's Haig Club. We'll also look at another pairing -- this one matching whisky with bacon rolls, and George Gran...
WhiskyCast Episode 533: May 2, 2015
May 03, 2015 01:48 - 26 minutes - 21.1 MBLots of people try to pair whiskies with foods, but pairing whiskies with music? That's the challenge Neil Ridley and Joel Harrison took on when they curated the "Sound of Aberlour" tastings for this year's Spirit of Speyside Festival. We'll continue our special coverage from Speyside with Neil and Joel, along with the drams and musicians they put together. In the news, Glen Grant's Dennis Malcolm received the inaugural "Spirit of Speyside Award" for his contributions to both the whisky indu...
WhiskyCast Episode 532: May 1, 2015
May 02, 2015 14:26 - 34 minutes - 27.5 MBWe're kicking off this weekend's special coverage of the Spirit of Speyside Festival in Scotland this time around! Thousands of people from around the world are in Speyside this weekend, and you'll hear some of them take part in a blind whisky nosing and tasting competition. With the "PappyGate" arrests fresh in the news, we'll get a glimpse into the ancient art of whisky thievery with Glenfiddich's Ian Millar, and there's plenty of news as well!
WhiskyCast Episode 531: April 25, 2015
April 26, 2015 04:57 - 39 minutes - 32.2 MBIt's been a busy week in the whisky world, and there's a lot to talk about on this episode. We'll have the latest on Friday's explosion at the Silver Trail Distillery in Hardin, Kentucky that left distillers Jay Rogers and Kyle Rogers critically burned, along with the outpouring of support for them following the accident. Nine people were indicted in the theft of thousands of dollars worth of Pappy Van Winkle, Buffalo Trace, and Wild Turkey Bourbon in Kentucky, but there's a viral campaign s...
WhiskyCast Episode 530: April 18, 2015
April 19, 2015 04:35 - 41 minutes - 33.3 MBIf distilleries have ghosts, the ones haunting the former Old Taylor Distillery in Kentucky finally have some people to scare. After nearly 43 years, the historic distillery is being restored with plans to begin distilling by the end of this year and open to visitors in the spring of 2016. Marianne Barnes left Brown-Forman recently to oversee the project for the distillery's partners and will be the master distiller when production begins. She joins us for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth wit...
WhiskyCast Episode 529: April 11, 2015
April 12, 2015 05:42 - 53 minutes - 43.4 MBThis week, we're on location at the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky for the annual Maker's Mark Handcraft Festival and the running of the Maker's 46 Mile at Lexington's Keeneland Race Course. Friday also brought an estimated 1,000 whisky and Kentucky basketball fans to Keeneland for the annual signing of the Maker's Mark Keeneland charity bottle. This year's bottle honors legendary University of Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp, and several of his former players spent hours...
WhiskyCast Episode 528: April 4, 2015
April 05, 2015 05:13 - 26 minutes - 21.3 MBBacardi took a step into the Bourbon business this week with its acquisition of Angel's Share Brands, the parent company of Angel's Envy Bourbon and the Louisville Distilling Company's distillery under construction in Louisville. The deal is a friendly one, since Bacardi had owned a small stake in Angel's Share since it was founded by the late Lincoln Henderson and his partners in 2006. Henderson's son Wes and the other Angel's Share executives will run the company as a separate division wit...
WhiskyCast Episode 527: March 28, 2015
March 29, 2015 03:47 - 30 minutes - 25.1 MBSuntory Holdings CEO Takeshi Niinami is one of Japan's leading business executives. He's the first CEO from outside the founding Torii family, and is also a key economic adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. He inherited last year's $16 billion acquisition of Beam when he joined Suntory six months ago, and has been focused on making the deal work while changing Suntory's internal culture. We'll discuss the growing pains of the deal, which made Beam Suntory the world's #3 spirits com...
WhiskyCast Episode 526: March 21, 2015
March 22, 2015 03:36 - 38 minutes - 31 MBUS President Barack Obama visited a whisky maker for the first time this week during his trip to Cleveland for a speech to the City Club of Cleveland. He visited the small business incubator that's home to Tom Lix's Cleveland Whiskey, along with nearly two dozen other small manufacturers. Lix's proprietary -- and controversial -- process takes young whiskey and gives it what Lix claims is the color, aroma, and taste of older Bourbons. He'll tell us about the President's visit and discuss his...
WhiskyCast Episode 525: March 14, 2015
March 15, 2015 02:48 - 37 minutes - 29.9 MBAnthony Bourdain is many things...a chef, author, journalist, and media personality. At heart, though, he's a hedonist seeking pleasure from everything he encounters - including whisky. The host of CNN's "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" was the lead juror for this year's American Craft Council Rare Craft Fellowship Awards presented by The Balvenie, and we spent a few minutes discussing whisky at Tuesday's awards luncheon in New York City. He'll share his thoughts on the global interest in w...
WhiskyCast Episode 524: March 7, 2015
March 08, 2015 04:20 - 49 minutes - 39.8 MBLawyers are circling around the whisky industry, much like sharks around a shipwreck. At least five different US distillers and bottlers have been hit with class-action lawsuits since last September accusing them of misleading consumers. The litigation largely focuses on whether their whiskies are "hand-made," "small-batch," or claim to come from a small-scale distillery that actually purchases bulk whiskey from larger distillers. This week on WhiskyCast In-Depth, we'll hear from one of the...
WhiskyCast Episode 523: February 28, 2015
March 01, 2015 04:05 - 55 minutes - 44.6 MBLots to talk about this week, with news from all over the world! Bruichladdich's Jim McEwan joins us on WhiskyCast In-Depth to talk about the world's peatiest whisky ever -- his Octomore 6.3 with a phenol level of 258ppm! We'll also hear about new whiskies from Tomatin, Duncan Taylor, Midleton, and Whistlepig...the latest on Teeling Whiskey's new Dublin distillery that could be ready to make whiskey by St. Patrick's Day, and look at the Bourbon boom with Beam Suntory's chief of marketing and...
WhiskyCast Episode 522: February 21, 2015
February 22, 2015 05:02 - 35 minutes - 28.4 MBFor the second straight year, a Texas whiskey has won Best in Show honors at the American Craft Spirits Association competition. San Antonio's Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling .36 Single Barrel Straight Bourbon beat a field of whiskies and other spirits from around the US. Ranger Creek co-founder Mark McDavid joins us this week on WhiskyCast In-Depth to share the story behind that whiskey and the distillery. In the news, a California law firm is challenging Beam Suntory on two fronts now ov...
WhiskyCast Episode 521: February 14, 2015
February 15, 2015 05:08 - 44 minutes - 35.6 MBIt's Valentine's Day, and who better to explain his passion for making whisky than Rifino Valentine of Valentine Distilling. His Woodward Ltd. Bourbon is named after Detroit's legendary Woodward Avenue, which runs just a couple of blocks away from his distillery in the suburb of Ferndale, Michigan. Valentine is preparing to move from his original site to a brand-new facility in Ferndale, and is part of a craft distilling boom in the Detroit area. We'll talk with Rifino Valentine and his head...
WhiskyCast Episode 520: February 7, 2015
February 08, 2015 05:00 - 54 minutes - 44 MBIan MacMillan has been overseeing the whiskies from Deanston, Tobermory, and Bunnahabhain for years...but Cognac casks were one thing he hadn't experimented much with until the opportunity presented itself several years ago. The result is the new Deanston 18 Cognac Matured single malt that's being released in the US this month. We'll discuss Cognac casks with Ian on WhiskyCast In-Depth, along with his other single malts and his new take on the Black Bottle blend In the news, there's word tha...
WhiskyCast Episode 519: January 31, 2015
February 01, 2015 05:52 - 54 minutes - 44.1 MBGraeme Macaloney gave up a secure career in the pharmaceutical industry to pursue his dream of making whisky, and the Scottish expat is getting closer to realizing his dream. He's hoping to begin construction on the Victoria Caledonian Distillery in Victoria, British Columbia soon, and has already brought Dr. Jim Swan and former Diageo distillery manager Mike Nicolson as consultants. Graeme explains why he and his family mortgaged their future (and their house) on his dream on this week's Wh...