Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2025 i Whisky Magazine

From writing to whisky Dave Smith, St George Spirits “The worst-case scenario? We drink it ourselves. And that’s not the worst thing to have to do.” Dave Smith, head distiller at St George Spirits in Alameda, California, is a storyteller at heart. With a background that includes teaching, winemaking, and creative writing, his journey to whisky has been anything but conventional. Since joining St George in 2005, he has dedicated nearly two decades to crafting spirits that defy categories and celebrate creativity. Initially intending to spend just a year at St George before returning to writing and winemaking, Smith found himself captivated by distillation. “I discovered a language in distillation — a love for process and the creative opportunity to tell a story in a way I’d never accessed before,”…

China, a nation where baijiu has long reigned supreme — commanding an astounding 97 per cent of the domestic spirits market — is starting to reveal an intriguing new frontier in the global whisky landscape. While brandy remains the leading imported spirit, accounting for 68 per cent of the total import value, whisky has quietly carved out its own niche, one that is growing. Despite a brief slowdown in 2023, China emerged as the world’s fourth-largest whisky market by value, with growth projected to reach an impressive 88 per cent between 2023 and 2026 — evidence of undeniable momentum. More than 40 distilleries are now spread across the nation, from the mist-laden mountains of Sichuan to the coastal stretches of Zhejiang. Whisky entered China during the late Qing Dynasty, appearing…

In the world of fine dining, wine has long held court — a sovereign of the table, iconically pairing Chablis with oysters, and well-aged Bordeaux with steak. Its reign, however, is encountering a spirited challenge. Across continents and cultures, whisky is emerging from the shadows of postprandial sipping. The notion of pairing whisky with food is not new; people have been writing about it for years, but with little traction. This is because whisky pairing has often been met with scepticism, even by aficionados. Many critics argue that whisky is too hard and too high in alcohol to be paired with food. “It’s just heat and burn,” they declare, echoing a common refrain on social media. Taylor Cope of the Malt Review website encapsulates this sentiment, saying, “Whisky pairs terribly…

In recent decades, whisky production has expanded far beyond its traditional heartlands. Distilleries have emerged — and continue to appear — in some of the globe’s most unique areas, where testing environments present challenges to be navigated, and opportunities to innovate. With climate change increasingly affecting the world’s ecosystems, the whisky sector — given its deep reliance on natural resources — is uniquely positioned to lead in ecologically responsible practices. From barley and water to climate conditions, whisky production is inherently tied to the land. As a result, distilleries are prioritising eco-friendly practices, and are working to minimise their impact, not only to ensure the reliability of their ingredients, but also to minimise their footprint. In particular, the northernmost distilleries of Europe, located within touching distance of the Arctic Circle,…

Inverness is the ‘Capital of the Highlands’, and stands among some of the most splendid scenery Scotland has to offer. The settlement, beloved by visitors today, was originally a modest fort, but by the 12th century had developed sufficiently to be granted a Royal Burgh charter by King David of Scotland in 1158, and 1307 saw Robert the Bruce seize the first of five castles to have existed in Inverness from English forces. More than four centuries later, the last battle on British soil took place at nearby Culloden Moor, when the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) was defeated by government troops led by the Duke of Cumberland. On a less dramatic level, the city has a long heritage of malting, thanks to the proximity of…

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In recent times, Hebridean distilleries have been popping up like tufted vetch through the summer machair, and one of the most architecturally beguiling is Benbecula. The styling is unorthodox, but there is something pleasingly appropriate about a distillery resembling a lighthouse on a small island with a strong maritime heritage. It is complete with a copper pot spirit still where the light itself would otherwise have been situated. The Outer Hebridean distillery is located beside the A865 at Gramsdale, in the north of the island, close to the North Ford Causeway that links Benbecula to North Uist, just as a similar causeway seven miles away joins it to South Uist. The island is served by an airport that connects with Glasgow and Inverness, while CalMac ferries sail between Uig on…

Steven Kersley faces an interesting conundrum. Not only does he need a name for a distillery, but also one for a whisky brand. The BrewDog Distilling Company’s managing director’s distillery is owned by one of the world’s largest beer businesses, which employs 2,600 staff, turns over £353 million a year, and runs more than 100 bars, having made a name for itself through marketing stunts that included driving a tank through London, dropping stuffed ‘fat cats’ from a helicopter over the Bank of England, and selling super-strength beer bottled inside taxidermy squirrels and stoats. Yet will that same BrewDog brand appeal to whisky drinkers? “Probably not,” muses Kersley as he leads the way through the distillery, which sits next to BrewDog’s massive brewery and head office at Ellon, a half…

By 22 March 2020, every province in Canada had declared a state of emergency. On the eve of the subsequent Covid-19 lockdowns, shoppers swarmed to grocery stores to fill their carts. While the scene mirrored America’s shopping scramble in the days leading up to 17 January 1920, when Prohibition’s strong arm would take those last few bottles of whisky away, in 2020, it was toilet paper, cold medications, and hand sanitiser that were snapped up. As consumers cleaned their treasured cracker boxes with disinfectant wipes, Canada’s hospitality industry anxiously wiped down its bars before hibernation. Before the pandemic, most Canadian bars were already in a regulatory lockdown of sorts — a hangover from Canada’s Prohibition. Licensed establishments in Ontario could serve cocktails to their guests but they could not make…

From León, the capital of the state of Guanajuato, the journey to Hacienda Corralejo — one of Mexico’s leading independent Tequila producers — takes just over 90 minutes. Once it has left the urban landscape, the road goes deep into the countryside of central Mexico, where fields of agave stretch in neat, spiky rows, casting a greenish-blue hue over the landscape. This is quintessential Tequila country. But it is also an area of profound historical and emotional significance to many Mexicans. This region is the birthplace of Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mandarte y Villaseñor, Miguel Hidalgo to his friends, the leader of Mexican independence, and widely celebrated as the father of the nation. Corralejo is closely connected to this iconic figure because the hacienda was…

WORLDWIDE DATES 2025 WHISKY LIVE JAKARTA, INDONESIA Saturday 1 to Sunday 2 February WHISKY LIVE BEIRUT, LEBANON Wednesday 5 to Friday 7 February WHISKY LIVE DUBAI, UAE Saturday 21 to Sunday 22 February WHISKY LIVE ATHENS, GREECE Saturday 8 to Sunday 9 March WHISKY LIVE LONDON, UK Saturday 28 to Sunday 29 March WHISKY LIVE DUBLIN, IRELAND Friday 16 to Saturday 17 May WHISKY LIVE GIN LIVE BARCELONA, SPAIN Saturday 14 June WHISKY LIVE PARIS, FRANCE Saturday 27 to Monday 29 September WHISKY LIVE HAMBURG, GERMANY Saturday 11 to Sunday 12 October WHISKY LIVE TAIPEI Saturday 25 to Sunday 26 October WHISKY LIVE THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS Friday 15 to Sunday 17 November WHISKY LIVE SINGAPORE Saturday 15 to Sunday 16 November FIND OUT MORE AT WHISKYLIVE.COM…

How far would you go to buy a bottle of whisky you’ve been hankering after for weeks? Would you consider a long drive across town to an obscure spirits store? Would you be prepared to stay up into the early hours to bid on an online auction site? If the whisky were special, how about buying a first-class airline ticket to Tokyo to snaffle that dream dram? Such is the feverish level of excitement surrounding rare releases of coveted Japanese whiskies at the moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if some whisky fans did take this expensive step in October, when rare bottles of Suntory Global Spirits’ beautifully presented Hibiki 100th Anniversary release went on sale on board Japanese airline ANA and Japan Air. The whisky, priced at ¥50,000–¥60,000 (£253–£304) on…