WhiskyCast

Deep below the Johnnie Walker Princes Street experience in Edinburgh lies Dr. Emma Walker’s personal playground. The Johnnie Walker master blender curates around 500 of the more than 10 million casks of maturing whisky in Diageo’s inventory in the Vault. If you have the means, she’ll create a bespoke blend that takes y

Robert and Walter Pattison were among the most successful whisky brokers of the 1890’s, a golden era for Scotch whisky. However, their empire collapsed because of bad loans, fraudulent cask sales, and an accounting scheme that inflated the company’s profits. When the Pattisons finally fell, they took other whisky merch

Oregon’s Westward Whiskey filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week, as the House Spirits-owned distillery tries to reorganize its business and keep the stills running. CEO Tom Mooney joins us this week in his first in-depth interview since the filing, and explains why Chapter 11 doesn’t automatically mean going out of

Europeans have been making rye whisky for generations, but a 20-year-old treaty between the European Union and Canada is affecting their ability to call their whisky what it is…rye whisky. The treaty restricts the use of “rye whisky” to Canadian ryes, even though there’s no requirement that Canadian Rye whisky be made

Coopers have used everything from torches to infrared lamps to toast the inside of barrels. Now, a technique pioneered by the wine industry is making its way into whisky: the use of heated Icelandic magma stone formed by volcanic lava. It’s said to provide a more consistent toasting than other methods, and Dewar’s is t

King Car Group’s Kavalan Distillery in Yilan, Taiwan marks its 20th anniversary this year. Kavalan has won numerous awards for its single malts, including the “World’s Best Single Malt” in the World Whisky Awards. We’ll talk with Kavalan’s David Chen about the distillery’s history and its growing global following on th