Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2024 i Whisky Magazine

The world is waking up to a new year. It’s traditionally a time for personal reflection and resolution, to recharge our batteries so we can step forth with renewed optimism and vigour. But our big blue marble keeps on turning, heedless of our traditions. For residents of Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, 2024 began with significant earthquakes which at the time of writing have killed more than 200 people and triggered a mass evacuation. In the first week of 2021, right-wing protestors stormed the US Capitol in a violent riot that left five dead and saw more than 170 police officers injured. On 1 January 2005 the world was still reeling from the Boxing Day Tsunami, the result of a 9.1-magnitude underwater earthquake that hit off the coast of Sumatra, which…

Looking at a blank page on my computer screen often feels like staring into an empty void that threatens to swallow me whole. Or at least haunt me like the biggest to-do list you’ve ever onfronted. And not even a generous pour of a fine, fine single malt can calm a journalist’s nerves when she gapes at the emptiness and thinks of the responsibility she takes on whenever she sits down to pen an article or even a column. But especially an article. These are other people’s stories I need to tell. To even speak to a journalist is to trust them with your story, your business, your reputation. It can become a crippling source of anxiety if I think about it too much or too long. There is one…

Headline Sponsors Sponsors COMMUNICATOR Barry Chandler, Stories & Sips Highly Commended Matt Healy, Potstilled.com IRISH WHISKEY BRAND AMBASSADOR  SPONSORED BY MCLAREN PACKAGING Brendan Carty, Killowen Distillery Highly Commended Eric Ryan, Irish Distillers MARKETING TEAM Jameson Highly Commended Teeling Whiskey SALES TEAM Midleton Distillery Collection, Irish Distillers SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER  SPONSORED BY BRINDIAMO GROUP James Browne, Irish Distillers PRODUCTION TEAM Killowen Distillery Highly Commended Midleton Distillery VISITOR ATTRACTION MANAGER Lisa Jameson, Teeling Whiskey VISITOR ATTRACTION TEAM Teeling Whiskey MASTER DISTILLER/MASTER BLENDER  SPONSORED BY BRINDIAMO GROUP Billy Leighton, Irish Distillers Highly Commended John Wilcox, Blackwater Distillery SUSTAINABLE DISTILLERY SPONSORED BY BRINDIAMO GROUP Midleton Distillery CAMPAIGN INNOVATOR Irish Distillers Highly Commended Powerscourt Distillery VISITOR ATTRACTION Powerscourt Distillery Highly Commended Teeling Whiskey BRAND INNOVATOR Blackwater Distillery Highly Commended Waterford Distillery CRAFT PRODUCER SPONSORED BY REFLEX…

The popularity of Australian whisky has dramatically increased worldwide over the last 10 years. Despite the country’s geographical remoteness and the whisky’s relative youth, Australian producers are tapping into their country’s unique terroir and lenient regulations to promote novelty and creative freedom within the category. It’s a landscape that Darren Peck at Morris Whisky knows well. “Australia’s appetite for innovation and forging a new path puts us in great stead for producing unique and flavoursome whisky for the world to enjoy,” he asserts. “This predisposition, coupled with the role that location and climate play in defining the overall style of Australian whisky, are interesting facets that I think we, as producers, are cognisant of understanding, as well as critics, trade, and whisky enthusiasts.” Here, we spotlight six industry pros setting…

The Australian state of Victoria and its largest city, Melbourne, have a rich distilling history reaching back to the 1890s when whisky was made at the Joshua Brothers distillery in Port Melbourne. Since then, distilleries have boomed and busted, resulting in an almost 20-year period through the 1980s and 1990s where no whisky was produced in Victoria. Since Melbourne’s now-celebrated Starward Distillery switched on its stills in 2007, Victorian distilleries have been opening with growing confidence, taking advantage of the region’s proximity to some of the country’s best cereal crops and vineyards. With the producers have come bartenders to sell their wares, and Australia is now home to numerous upmarket whisky bars. One that has been grabbing a lot of headlines (for all the right reasons) is Melbourne’s award-winning Whisky…

GENERAL INFORMATION Distillery name: The Pōkeno Whisky Company Parent company: Independent Address: 61 Potts Road, 2471, Whitford Years of operation: 2018 – present Open to the public: Yes, on Saturdays TEAM & OUTPUT Distillery manager name: Matthew Johns Production team size: 8 people Maximum annual capacity: Currently 100,000 litres, moving to 250,000 litres in 2025 (with additional fermenters) Present working capacity: 80,000 litres Operation time: 5 days a week, 1 shift Automation: Fully automated WATER Water source: Natural spring CEREALS & MASHING Cereal varieties: Laureate (unpeated) Mill type: Roller mill Mash tun type: Semi lauter, mash tun filter Batch size: 0.5 tonnes Wort clarity: Very clear Mashes per week: 8 FERMENTATION Washbacks/Fermenters: 4 x stainless steel, 3,000 litres Wash charge volume: 2,700 litres Temperature control: Yes Switchers: No Duration: 80…

Emma Cookson is one of Australia’s most influential whisky communicators, named Communicator of the Year in the 2023 Icons of Whisky awards. Born in California, she moved to Australia at a very young age. Her career in drinks started with bartending in Melbourne, where she met people from various distilleries and began falling in love with whisky. She worked at a speciality whisky bar before getting a university degree in whisky, gaining experience in tasting and learning about a range of styles and brands. During the pandemic, Emma made friends with some of the team at online retailer The Whisky List, for which she now works. She began by running virtual whisky tastings, utilising her extensive knowledge, and a role in the company was built for her. Today, she continues…

For two centuries, the four major whisky-producing countries have made discernible styles of whisky based on differences in cereals and production methods. Scotland’s malted barley is discernible by its smoky-flavoured whisky due to peat kilning. Ireland mashes a lighter, fruitier whisky with proportions of unmalted barley and other small grains. The United States mashes a corn-dominant bourbon whisky, and Canada is recognised for its blended rye whisky. Canada’s methods make it the most intriguing of all whisky-producing countries. The production of Canadian whisky involves a multidimensional manufacturing philosophy employing variations in mashing, fermenting, distilling, and cask maturation to blending. Each grain is often separately distilled and matured before final blending to formulate multifarious organoleptic iterations. This aesthetic pragmatism dates back to the 1795 Montreal rum distillery which also became the…

I’ve written previously (Editor’s Word, Issue #184) about my growing concern that the whisky industry is on the cusp of losing multigenerational institutional knowledge. Thus, I’m immeasurably pleased when I see an effort being made to record oral history, preserve artefacts, and share these gems with the public. At a grassroots level, I treasure scans of old distillery photographs and adverts posted to Facebook groups, and I salute those taking the time to do this. However, these groups’ decentralised nature is both their strength and weakness. Images flood in from numerous sources, but in random order and often without much context. Worst of all, it can be hard to find an image posted weeks ago, especially if you can’t remember to which group it was published or by whom. I…

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Walk around Bladnoch near Wigtown on Scotland’s southern coast and there are subtle echoes of Australia dotted around the distillery: a southern cross flying alongside the saltire and the union flag; a video showing conservation work on the Great Barrier Reef; a bottle of blended Pure Scot finished in Australian tawny casks. Perhaps the most striking Aussie motif is a surfboard hanging on a wall in the visitor centre, built from Bladnoch’s casks. David Prior, the Australian serial entrepreneur who bought the distillery in 2015, took the surfboard’s twin back to Melbourne. “It’s hanging on the wall in my office,” Prior confesses. “I was going to use it – I had it shaped to match the dimensions of boards I ride in Australia – but then the guy-who-shaped-its workshop burnt…

GENERAL INFORMATION Distillery name: Starward Parent company: New World Whisky Distillery Address: 50 Bertie Street, Port Melbourne, VIC, Australia Years of operation: 2007–present Open to the public: Yes, check website for details and bookings TEAM & OUTPUT Distillery manager name: Sam Slaney Maximum annual capacity: 600,000lpa Automation: Semi-automation WATER Water source: Thompson and Upper Yarra reservoirs CEREALS & MASHING Cereal varieties: New World Whisky specification pale malt, Victoria-grown two-row barley, Planet and Bottler varieties Cereal preparation: Barrett Burston Malting Average ppm of malt: 0ppm Peat source: N/A Mill type: 4-roller Bühler mill Mash tun type: Lauter tun Batch size: 1.2 tons Wort clarity: Clear FERMENTATION Washbacks/Fermenters: 5 x Furphy 25,000-litre stainless steel Wash charge volume: 5,000 litres Temperature control: Yes Switchers: No Duration: 3 days Yeast source: ADY Yeast varieties:…

Taster biographies Bethany Brown After studying English literature at university, Bethany worked as a journalist for regional newspaper groups before moving to the spirits industry. She was appointed as editor of Whisky Magazine in 2022, having previously edited its sister titles Gin and Rum. She is also editor of annual publication Scotch Whisky and chair of judges for the Icons of Whisky. Christopher Coates A member of the team since 2013 and a keen whisky drinker long before that, Christopher served as Whisky Magazine’s Scotch whisky editor before being appointed as editor in 2020. In 2022, he was named editor-at-large and now writes a regular column for this title, in addition to his role as a blind taster. He is also chair of judges for the World Whiskies Awards. THE…

Starward Pinot Noir Cask STARWARD WHISKY ABV: 50% Style: Single malt Bottling type: Distillery Price per bottle: AU$169 (£88.20) Availability: Melbourne airport Origin: Australia Yarra Valley’s Yering Station, one of Australia’s oldest continuously producing vineyards, is the collaborative partner of this intriguing new release from Melbourne-based Starward Whisky. Starward Pinot Noir Cask consists of red wine cask-matured single malt which has been aged for almost two more years in ex-Pinot Noir wine casks from Yering Station. The extra ageing in these French oak puncheons imparts notes of forest berries, black cherry, vanilla, and subtle hints of oak. It’s a real treat for Australian whisky (or wine) fans travelling through Melbourne airport. Seagram’s Longitude 77 PERNOD RICARD ABV: 43% Style: Single malt Bottling type: Distillery Price per bottle: Rs6,290 (£60) Availability:…