This Week on WhiskyCast

Irish Whiskey’s Ups and Downs in 2018 (Episode 744: December 9, 2018)

Irish Whiskey continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments of the whisky business around the world, but the distilleries in Ireland and Northern Ireland have had their share of ups and downs this year. Walsh Whiskey Company founder Bernard Walsh is a former chairman of the Irish Whiskey Association, and on WhiskyCast In-Depth, we’ll talk with him about the boom in new distilleries and challenges presented by Brexit and Ireland’s controversial new public health legislation. In the news, we’ll have details on another executive change in Scotland, while a former consultant now finds herself running the distillery she was hired to consult for. We’ll also have details on a breakup that will affect whisky festivals during 2019 in many major U.S. cities, along with a court hearing that could send former Indian whisky baron Vijay Mallya back home to face fraud and money laundering charges. On Behind the Label, we’ll find out what happened when a whisky lover won a contest to help create this year’s Forty Creek Unity whisky, and we’ll have tasting notes for it, too!

WhiskyFest Hits New York City (Episode 743: December 6, 2018)

Whisky Advocate’s annual WhiskyFest took over the Marriott Marquis in New York City’s Times Square Tuesday night, and we’ll have some of the highlights along with the sadness. There was a pall in one corner the ballroom as whisky lovers mourned the death of master distiller Dave Pickerell last month along with teams from several of the whiskies he helped create during his long career. We’ll talk with one of Dave’s protegés, Hillrock Estate’s Dylan Strang, about the distillery’s plans to move forward using the lessons he and his colleagues learned from their friend and mentor. In our Behind the Label segment, we’ll have an interview you can only hear on WhiskyCast as we talk with artist Michael Dillon, the painter who created the one-of-a-kind label for the 1926 Macallan that shattered the world record for a whisky auction last week in London. In the news, we’ll have the details of the U.S. Treasury Department’s plan to rewrite federal alcohol regulations for the first time in more than three decades – and some of the agency’s proposals have craft distillers nervous.

WhiskyCast Tasting Panel: An Evening With the Pittsburgh Whiskey Friends

When the Pittsburgh Whiskey Friends invited us to come to their city and lead a benefit tasting in honor of the 11 people killed in the October 27, 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, we didn’t hesitate. This episode was recorded at the tasting on November 26, 2018 in Pittsburgh, with all of the proceeds going to benefit the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in memory of the Tree of Life shooting victims. Dad’s Hat, Powers, Amrut importer Raj Sabharwal, and Liberty Pole Spirits donated the whiskies for the evening, and Christian Kahle won a raffle for one of the spots on our tasting panel. He joined Bobby Long and Scott Ritenbaugh from the Pittsburgh Whiskey Friends and public broadcasting personality Rick Seback to taste the Dad’s Hat Pre-Prohibition Style Pennsylvania Rye, Powers Three Swallow, Amrut Fusion, and Liberty Pole’s Peated Bourbon.

 WhiskyCast HD: Cleaning up Thousands of Bourbon Barrels at Barton 1792 Distillery

On June 22, 2018, half of Warehouse 30 collapsed at the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, spilling around 9,000 barrels of whiskey. The rest of the warehouse collapsed on July 4 with another 9,000 barrels. Crews have been working since then to recover as many barrels – and as much Bourbon – as possible. The site is closed to reporters, but Sazerac has released a video and new images showing cleanup work at the warehouse site.

Thanks to everyone who joined us in Pittsburgh for a special live WhiskyCast Tasting Panel event! We teamed up with the Pittsburgh Whiskey Friends to raise money for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in memory of the victims of October’s mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The event raised $1,700 for HIAS, including $500 in online donations to reach our goal for Mark’s ultimate sacrifice. The longtime Philadelphia Flyers fan agreed to wear a Pittsburgh Penguins jersey if $500 in online donations came in before the start of the evening. We reached that goal with hours to spare, and thanks to everyone who supported the campaign to make Mark wear a Sidney Crosby jersey for the evening.

Please join us and the Pittsburgh Whiskey Friends in thanking everyone who came out to support a very worthy cause and help us show the world that love is #StrongerThanHate!

If you were listening to the June 30, 2018 edition of NPR’s “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me,” yes, that was WhiskyCast’s Mark Gillespie you heard as a contestant during the “Listener Limerick Challenge” segment at the end of the show. We’ve been public radio fans for years, and if you call Mark’s mobile phone, you just might get to hear legendary anchorman Bill Kurtis’s special voice mail greeting! If you didn’t get to listen to the show live, we’ve included links here so you can download the podcast version.

WhiskyCast has been around longer than any other whisky-focused podcast, and we’re celebrating the start of our 14th year of podcasts! Twice each week, we bring you the latest whisky news, along with in-depth interviews, tasting notes, and much more. Each podcast features brand-new content, and unless there’s a special occasion, we don’t do “best of” shows. However, there will be times when we’re traveling or during the holidays when we’ll produce just one show during the week, and we’ll try to let you know ahead of time.

If you’re just discovering us for the first time, here’s a bit of our own story. WhiskyCast pioneered the genre of whisky-focused podcasts back in 2005, when most people had never heard of podcasting! Since then, we’ve produced hundreds of hours of original – and free – audio and video content for whisky lovers like you around the world. Our community spans the globe, and we’ve done stories on whiskies made in the far north of Scandinavia all the way to the tips of South Africa and Australia – and everywhere in between. We’ve met many of you at whisky festivals and while visiting distilleries, and hope to meet many more of you over time.

Please explore the website. We’ve collected all of our past episodes here, and post the latest whisky news as it happens – often several days before the next episode of WhiskyCast. All of our web content is free, including Mark Gillespie’s database of more than 2,300 tasting notes for whiskies from around the world and our calendar of upcoming whisky festivals and tastings.

We’re able to do this thanks to the support of our advertisers – both past and present. They advertise on WhiskyCast knowing that they will never have any say over our editorial content, and may even have their ads running next to features on their competitors. They recognize the importance of independent, fact-based journalism devoted to telling the stories of whisky in a creative, yet ethically sound way focused on helping you learn more about whisky.

Slainte!

The WhiskyCast Team

Whisky Photo of the Week

Our latest photo of the week shows barrels of maturing whiskey lined up on a rickhouse floor at the Balcones Distilling warehouse in Waco, Texas.