Author name: Mark Gillespie

Happy Hour Live with Dave Worthington and Sam Simmons: (Episode 919: January 26, 2022)

That Boutique-y Whisky Company releases some of the most unique single cask whiskies on the market, and we’re joined this week by Sam “Dr. Whisky” Simmons and Dave Worthington for whisky talk, games, and much more! Join us each Friday night at 5:00pm New York time (22:00 GMT/UTC) for our live shows on the WhiskyCast YouTube channel, our Facebook page, Twitter, and Twitch. Links: That Boutique-y Whisky Company

Frey Ranch: Part of a New Crop of Farm Distillers (Episode 918: January 24, 2022)

There was a time when farm distillers dominated whisky production until the advent of large-scale commercial distilling more than 150 years ago. Now, the boom in craft distilling has created a whole new crop of “grain to glass” farm-based distillers like Frey Ranch in Fallon, Nevada. Colby and Ashley Frey founded the distillery in 2013 on the farm east of Reno where Colby’s family has lived for generations, and they see whiskey as a way to not only showcase their grains, but provide a future for their kids. We’ll take an audio tour of the distillery and farm with Colby Read More »

Happy Hour Live with Billy Abbott & Davin de Kergommeaux (Episode 917: January 19, 2022)

Our Friday night #HappyHourLive webcasts are back! This week’s show features Billy Abbott, author of the new book “The Philosophy of Whisky,” and Canadian Whisky Awards founder Davin de Kergommeaux. Davin handed out the 2022 Canadian Whisky Awards the night before our webcast, and we’ll discuss the winners along with the state of Canadian Whisky. Join us each Friday night at 5:00pm New York time (22:00 GMT/UTC) for our live shows on the WhiskyCast YouTube channel, our Facebook page, Twitter, and Twitch. Links: The Philosophy of Whisky | CanadianWhisky.org

Whisky Lessons from a Century Ago (Episode 916: January 16, 2022)

A century ago, Masataka Taketsuru was using the lessons he learned during his time in Scotland to build Japan’s emerging whisky industry armed with a notebook full of information. While that notebook remains in Nikka Whisky’s archives, it’s now been translated into English for the first time. Ruth Anne Herd and Professor Alan Wolstenholme teamed up for the translation, and there’s a family connection behind the project. Wolstenholme’s grandfather was the manager at Hazelburn Distillery in Campbeltown when Taketsuru was doing his “internship” there, and that’s one of the stories Alan Wolstenholme shares with us in this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. Read More »

Dewar’s Japanese Smooth Highball

January 13, 2022 – Our friends (and sponsors) at Dewar’s shared this recipe for a traditional mizuwari-style highball featuring their Japanese Smooth Blended Scotch finished in Mizunara Oak casks.
50ml of Dewar’s Japanese Smooth
100ml chill…

Uncovering Evidence of Scotland’s Whisky History (Episode 915: January 10, 2022)

The excisemen of Scotland’s past never found all of the illegal whisky stills being used around the country, and traces of those illicit distilleries can be found to this day…if one knows where to look. Derek Alexander knows, and he’s on a mission to uncover as much of that history as possible in his role as an archaeologist with the National Trust for Scotland. His search started two decades ago with a project to uncover remains of The Glenlivet’s original distillery, and that project continues to this day as well, as he tells us on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In Read More »

10 Years of Brooklyn-Style Rye (Episode 914: January 2, 2022)

We’ll start the New Year off with an anniversary…the 1oth anniversary for the New York Distilling Co. in Brooklyn’s North Williamsburg neighborhood. Allen Katz and his partners opened their distillery in what was at the time a fairly run-down neighborhood, only to see gentrification take shape around them. As Allen discloses on WhiskyCast In-Depth for the first time, that’s forcing them to make plans to move to a new location in the very near future both to expand production and comply with the city’s pending changes to fire safety codes for distilleries. He’ll also explain why they decided to focus Read More »

Nick Savage: Action Hero or Whisky Maker? (Episode 913: December 27, 2021)

OK, the headline is a tease…of course Dr. Nick Savage is a whisky maker. In fact, he’s been the master distiller and blender at Scotland’s Bladnoch Distillery for the last couple of years. He’s just created the latest three Bladnoch single malts, and joins us on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. Speaking of heroes, though…there are a lot of them in the whisky world, and many of them helped raise $3.4 million to help Kentucky tornado victims in the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit auction. We’ll have the details in this week’s news, along with a look at one of the groups behind Read More »

Texas Whisky, Texas Music: Balcones and ZZ Top Join Forces (Episode 912: December 19, 2021)

There are plenty of collaborations between whisky makers and the entertainment world, from singers and bands to actors who want to make their own whiskies. What’s the key to making one of these collaborations work? We’ll find out from Balcones Distilling’s Jared Himstedt, who just released the Tres Hombres Texas Whisky collaboration with the members of ZZ Top. We’ll also taste several other “celebrity” whiskies in the What I’m Tasting This Week Department, too. In the news, bidding has already reached $1.6 million in the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit auction to raise money for Western Kentucky tornado victims! We’ll have that Read More »

Bourbon Auction for Kentucky Tornado Victims Reaches $1 Million in Bids

By Mark Gillespie December 18, 2021 – The recovery from last weekend’s devastating tornadoes in Western Kentucky and four other states could take months, but Bourbon lovers are hoping to help make some of the burden easier…not with their whiskey, but with their money and their hearts. An online auction of whiskies, experiences, and other memorabilia has already raised more than $1 million in bids in less than 48 hours. “To be honest with you, that was the goal for the entire auction,” says whiskey writer and podcaster Fred Minnick, who organized the auction along with the Bourbon Crusaders and Read More »

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