Whisky Magazine

We all have our own heroes in life. It might be a former employee or manager who has influenced you professionally and inspired you in your workplace. It might be a family member, perhaps a parent, whose battles through hardship has given you the confidence to fight your own battles. Your hero might not even be someone you know personally, like a sporting hero. There might be no industry with a greater number of heroes who have passed on their skills and knowledge through an unfathomable number of years than the whisky industry. Within the many decades (and sometimes centuries) a distillery has existed for, a fountain of knowledge, technique, and talent has had to pass through multiple generations in order to keep any one brand’s whisky at a consistently…

I reland’s premier whiskey tasting event, Whiskey Live Dublin, is back! The event will take place from Friday 16 to Saturday 17 May 2025 at the RDS Main Arena, Hall 1 on the Merrion Road, and is in partnership with Whisky Live brand owner Paragraph Publishing. Whiskey Live Dublin will showcase both classic, well-established Irish brands as well as the new kids on the scene, with attendees offered the opportunity to sample the latest Irish whiskey releases. The event will also present whiskies from across the globe, including Scotland, Japan, and the US, offering the opportunity for guests to broaden their whisky horizons and meet exhibitors from hundreds of miles away. As well as the chance to sample and taste, the event will include food pairings, informative masterclasses (highlights from…

I’ve watched the furore surrounding the proposed English whisky geographical indication (GI) — and, conspicuously, the lack of commotion surrounding American single malt’s newly minted status — with mixed feelings. For those who’ve missed the news, December 2024 saw the United States’ Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s (TTB) issuing of its ‘final rule’ detailing new labelling and production standards for ‘American single malt’ (before now, a more lenient definition of ‘malt whisky’ existed), while 19 February 2025 saw the commencement of a public consultation by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) regarding a proposed GI for ‘English whisky’. While both definitions (the former now set in stone, the latter open to objections until 20 May 2025) are generally what one might expect, both definitions…

Back in December, you could almost hear the drumbeat of doom to which the global whisky industry was marching into the new year. The social-challenge-turned-lifestyle-change of sobriety (not to belittle or mock its critical importance for countless people) is fuelling the growth of non-alcoholic brands. The US surgeon general announced that labels on all alcoholic drinks should include a cancer warning. Craft distilleries are closing and global corporate juggernauts are tightening the purse strings and cutting staff. And the new/old administration in the US is threatening tariffs on all imported goods. Will a trade war be a death knell for producers? But just as the holidays arrived, a ray of light cracked through the clouds of gloom, and telegraphed an affirming message: hard work and dedication pay off. After almost…

While the number of new whisky distilleries has increased twentyfold over the past 25 years, remarkably, no distillery deaths have been reported. Progressively stringent health and safety standards, improved training, and better equipment and design have made distilling safer. The only fatalities were human mishaps at warehouses: falling off roofs and forklift accidents. However, the past tells a different story of death and destruction at the distillery. Since the late 18th century, industrialisation has facilitated large-scale whisky production, with steam-pressure boilers and more complex machinery creating hazardous working conditions within distilleries. This has resulted in thousands of destroyed or damaged distilleries and hundreds of worker accidents and fatalities. Referencing a US insurance industry report from 1881, 97 insured distilleries burned down between 1875 and 1880, with the principal danger being…

In 2015, Dublin welcomed its first new distillery in more than 125 years: the Teeling Whiskey Distillery. A bold endeavour from brothers Jack and Stephen Teeling, the project wasn’t merely about whiskey — it was about rewriting the story of Irish whiskey in the modern era. But the story had already begun. In 2012, Jack and Stephen launched their independent whiskey brand with a vision to bring something fresh and innovative to Irish whiskey, and three years later, the opening of their own distillery cemented their place at the forefront of Ireland’s whiskey renaissance. “When we started, the Irish whiskey industry felt small and controlled by multinationals,” Jack recalls. “We wanted to bring something different — not to compete with what was already out there but to offer something new…