WhiskyCast features cask strength conversation twice each week with in-depth interviews, the latest news on whiskies from around the world, whisky events, Mark Gillespie’s tasting notes, and more!
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This Week on WhiskyCast
Whiskey on the Willamette (Episode 719: August 12, 2018)
This week, we’ll visit House Spirits Distillery – part of Portland’s “Distillery Row” along the eastern banks of the Willamette River. House Spirits is the home of Westward American Single Malt Whiskey, and head distiller Miles Munroe will take us on a tour of the distillery during WhiskyCast In-Depth. We’ll also talk with Jeneen Bell, the president of Portland’s 300-member Women Who Whiskey chapter, about what makes Portland a good place to drink. In the news, cleanup work is slowly progressing at Kentucky’s Barton 1792 Distillery following the recent rickhouse collapse, but it could take months to work through a massive pile of around 18,000 whiskey barrels. Templeton Rye has opened its $35 million distillery in Iowa, and we’ll have the latest on new whiskies from Scotland and Kentucky, too.
Jeff Arnett: 10 Years as Master Distiller at Jack Daniel’s (Episode 718: August 5, 2018)
Jeff Arnett became the Master Distiller for Jack Daniel’s in 2008, joining a small club of distillers that began with Jack Daniel and Nathan “Nearest” Green in 1866. In his first decade on the job, he’s created more new Jack Daniel’s whiskies than all of his predecessors combined, while also traveling the world as the brand’s chief ambassador. We’ll talk with Jeff Arnett about that decade and his plans for the future on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, community activists in Northern Ireland are trying to scuttle part of the expansion plan for Bushmills, while Wild Turkey’s team is scrambling to meet unexpected demand for one of their newest whiskies.
WhiskyCast Tasting Panel: Podcasters Tasting Whiskies? Rye Not!
We’ve assembled a panel of podcasters and a longtime WhiskyCast listener for this Tasting Panel session recorded on location at the Podcast Movement 2018 conference in Philadelphia. Elsie Escobar, Chris Liro, Sean MacCready, and Mike Joachim nosed and tasted a flight of rye whiskies: Heaven Hill’s Pikesville Rye, Beam’s Old Overholt Bottled in Bond Rye, and High West’s 2018 edition of its Yippee Ki-Yay rye.
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.
WhiskyCast was one of the four finalists in this year’s Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards for “Best Broadcast, Podcast, or Online Video Series.” This is the first year that the Spirited Awards has honored digital media, and we are proud to have been one of the finalists along with our colleagues at Bartender at Large, Life Behind Bars, and The Speakeasy. Congratulations to Noah Rothbaum, David Wondrich, and their colleagues at The Daily Beast who produce Life Behind Bars for winning the first Spirited Award honoring a podcast.
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 now, we have to decide which of the show’s hosts and panelists will record Mark’s mobile phone message. If you didn’t get to listen to the show live, we’ve included links here so you can download the podcast version.
WhiskyCast now comes to you twice a week, with a new mid-week episode in addition to our regular weekend podcast! We’ve decided that there’s so much to cover in the world of whisky each week that it makes more sense to bring you two shows each week that fit better into your busy schedule instead of one longer show. There will still be times when we’ll do one episode a week because of travel commitments or holidays, though.
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.
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
Whiskey barrels have a unique beauty all their own, whether you find them in Scotland, Ireland, Kentucky, or the House Spirits Distillery’s maturation warehouse in Clackamas, Oregon. Our latest episode of WhiskyCast has a tour of the distillery in downtown Portland.
