Author name: Mark Gillespie

Tickets for this year’s Spirit of Speyside Festival go on sale next Monday (March 7), and festival organizers are hoping for a return to normal after two years of pandemic-caused cancellations and postponements. We’ll talk with the festival’s new volunteer chairman, George McNeil, about plans to hold a traditional Spirit of Speyside Festival from April 27 through May 2, along with some of the changes planned for this year’s event. In the news, we’ll look at the Ukraine invasion’s impact on the whisky business, along with more details on plans for a new Campbeltown distillery. Links: Spirit of Speyside Festival Read More »

It’s been 24 years since Gordon & MacPhail reopened the historic Benromach Distillery in Forres, Scotland to make a “traditional” style of Speyside single malt, and 124 years since the distillery opened for the first time. Neither distillery manager Keith Cruickshank nor Gordon & MacPhail’s Richard Urquhart were around for that first opening, but both were on hand in 1998. We’ll talk with them about the distillery’s revival and its future, just as it’s being joined by an all-new distillery when The Cairn opens later this spring. In the news, Campbeltown may get its first new distillery in more than Read More »

It takes guts to put your whisky up against those from around the world in blind tastings and agree to publish the results no matter what, but the verdict is now in for The Judgement of Westland. Around 2,000 people tasted Westland’s American single malt against competitors from Scotland, Australia, and India over the last four months, and in the end, all four malts were separated by just a fraction of a point. We’ll discuss the findings with Westland’s Steve Hawley on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Scotch Whisky exports are starting to recover from the double whammy of U.S. Read More »

It’s been nearly two years since Uncle Nearest and Jack Daniel’s joined forces to create the Nearest and Jack Advancement Initiative with a goal of creating new opportunities for people of color in the spirits industry. The Initiative’s business incubator program has just graduated its first company after working with Du Nord Social Spirits for more than a year. The Minneapolis distillery was damaged by fire in the unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by police just a few blocks away in June of 2020, but is making a comeback with plans for an all-new distillery in one Read More »