Inside Whisky

Nicole Lindsay you say? Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And indeed, if you follow our podcast regularly you probably know her already from our episode about Springbank Distillery. This time, however, Springbank will take a backseat since the episode is (mainly) about Kilkerran Single Malt and Glengyle Distillery.

We met Nicole in the new Springbank blending lab to record this episode and it was so much fun talking to her again since she is an absolutely wonderful person and so incredibly knowledgeable – but, of course, you know that already if you have listened to our first episode with her.

Let’s dive deep into Glengyle Distillery, the original purpose of which it was to make sure Campbeltown would retain its status as a whisky region and which, ever since, has become an integral part of the Campbeltown whisky family.

Lean back, pour a dram, relax and come to Campeltown with us to meet Nicole Lindsay once more – you know it’s worth it.

Have you always wanted to meet the legendary Swedish mermaid of the Ardnamurchan peninsula? Then here's your chance: Meet Jenny Karlsson, Ardnamurchan Distillery's marketing and communications manager, part of the blending team, part-time mermaid and much more.

We travelled all the way to the very West of Scotland's mainland to talk to Jenny in situ about Ardnamurchan, AD whisky, the narrow single-track road leading to the distillery, sustainability, hidden gems in the warehouses, Miriam's and Martin's Swedish (which is absolutely "jättebra") and a lot more. And guess what, it was an absolute blast!

When you listen to the episode, we're sure you will fall in love with Jenny right away because of her sympathetic, humorous, enthusiastic, excited and sometimes a bit positively confused character. We certainly love Jenny and enjoyed our chat with her a lot. And now we hope we can transport a bit of Jenny's excitement and love for Ardnamurchan to your living room.

Pour a dram and tune in - this is an episode definitely not to be missed!

We’re back on the Isle of Arran – we really love this little island! 

And no! Even though we greatly enjoy our chats with Andy Bell of Lochranza Distillery, we don’t have him on the podcast this time – and actually this episode is not even about Lochranza Distillery.

Instead, we will focus on the Isle of Arran’s newest gem: Lagg Distillery (what a beautiful place!!).

We travelled all the way to the south end of Arran, straight into the Scottish Lowlands (wait, really?!) to talk to Lagg’s distillery manager Graham Omand. Of course, we also discussed the Lowlands, Highlands, Islands topic – because things are not as clear-cut for Lagg Distillery as for most other Scottish whisky producers, but Graham will happily tell you more about this topic – listen for yourself.

Furthermore, find out more about Graham – the Islay man on Arran –, about the venture of setting up a new distillery, about Lagg’s inaugural releases and about what Donkey Kong and Super Mario have to do with them. Of course, that’s not all and there is a lot more to learn and discover…

… So pour a dram, lean back, tune in and get to know Graham Omand and Lagg Distillery.

This weekend it's derby time in Edinburgh: Hibs against Hearts. Hibernian Football Club and Heart of Midlothian will face off in the first derby of this (still very young) football season. 

Wait, isn't this a podcast about whisky? So why are we talking about football here? 

Well, we went to Edinburgh to record with Greg Urquhart and John Moffat of the spirits company Gleann Mòr, which is known for their independent bottlings of "Rare Find" whisky in the whisky world. Listen in and Greg and John will happily answer the question why football and the "Hibs" in specific are definitely worth talking about in this episode.

Moreover, you will find out some interesting facts about independent bottling, the casks Greg and John dream about at night and Gleann Mòr's other projects besides whisky.

Tune in, lean back and enjoy the show!

The Mecca of whisky. Whisky drinkers' heaven. The one place, probably every Scotch whisky lover wants to visit at least once in their lifetime. Of course, we're talking about the Isle of Islay in the Scottish Hebrides with its currently 9 working distilleries (and at least 2 more to come), home to arguably the best peated whisky on this planet.

We're finally back after a short break and we've got a brand new episode for you: We went to talk to Cat Gordon of Islay's oldest whisky producer, Bowmore Distillery, and had an absolutely fantastic chat with her. Check out the epsiode and find out more about Cat, the distillery (of course!) and about how Martin made it into the history book of Bowmore visitor centre anectodes.

Certainly one of our most entertaining episodes with some really funny moments. Raise a good dram of Bowmore whisky, sit back and enjoy the show - you don't want to miss out on this one!

It is probably going to be very hard (impossible?!) to find another place on earth with a higher distillery-density than the Scottish Speyside - and apart from some of the best Scotch whiskies being produced there, the possibility to visit so many different distilleries within such a small space makes the region a magnet for whisky tourism. 

One distillery that can't be missed during a visit in the Speyside is Glenfarclas Distillery. Owned by the Grant family and thus being one of the few left family-owned whisky distilleries in Scotland, Glenfarclas has a very special charm to it. What also makes the distillery very special is that there are not too many distilleries around with such a large inventory of old stock - I mean, which distillery can actually regularly release a thing such as the "Family Casks" series with whiskies dating back until the 1950s?! 

So for the grand finale of Batch 3 of “The Barrel Talk”, we set off to the iconic Glenfarclas Distillery in the heart of the Scottish Speyside to talk to Deborah Stewart. Tune in and find out more about the history of the distillery, the broad range of whiskies offered by Glenfarclas and, of course, about Deborah, her background story, her love for the brand and her ambitions in the “Dramathon”. This episode is one not to be missed. 

This episode of “The Barrel Talk” is slightly different than what you are used to. Michael and Andrea Gradl of Gradl’s Wiskyfässla in Nuremberg, who are the co-founders and co-organisers of The Village Whisky Fair invited us to come to the fair and “present The Village to an international audience”. Of course, we couldn’t say no and subsequently spent three fabulous days in Nuremberg, working quite a lot, meeting lots of wonderful people, recording this special episode and enjoying a very special moment with Jim McEwan, who we invited to join us virtually for the big Masterclass to sing his favourite song “Sweet Caroline” for him. The recording of the song is the background music for the initial quotes and can be found, once more, at the very end of the episode. If you would also like to see the video along with the song, go check out @inside_whisky on Instagram.

Of course, all the background noise didn’t make it easy recording but we tried our very best to provide you with the high sound-quality you are usually used to – for those (rare) cases when it did not always work perfectly, we sincerely apologise. 

For you not to get lost during this long episode of almost 2 hours and 12 minutes, here’s a list of our guests with the indicated times of where to find the specific interviews: 

1. 00:03:29 Ben Curtis (The Single Cask) 
2. 00:09:04 Matthew Hastings (Nc’Nean Distillery) 
3. 00:20:08 David Ferguson (Lochlea Distillery) 
4. 00:26:13 Udo Sonntag (author) 
5. 00:34:24 David Thompson (Spirits of Yorkshire / Filey Bay) 
6. 00:40:29 Alexander Tichy (Whisky Club of Austria) 
7. 00:46:43 Torsten Zimmerman (The Single Cask / Scotch & Tattoos) 
8. 00:52:12 Scott A. Fraser (Isle of Raasay Distillery) 
9. 00:58:48 Thomas Ewers (Malts of Scotland) 
10. 01:05:51 Kenny Macdonald (Dràm Mòr) 
11. 01:12:19 Max Engel (Ayrer’s Destille) 
12. 01:18:54 Dr. Janne Savolainen (SAVU Glass) 
13. 01:23:41 Eva Maria Sigurbjörnsdóttir (Flóki Whisky) 
14. 01:29:19 Laurentius Michielse (exhibitor) 
15. 01:33:06 Scott Martin (Distell Group / Bunnahabhain, Tobermory, Deanston) 
16. 01:40:05 Andreas Kreser (St. Kilian Distillers) 
17. 01:46:02 Michael Hupe & Christian Albrecht (Airport Nürnberg) 
18. 01:50:52 Greg Urquhart (Gleann Mór / Rare Find) 
19. 01:57:38 Roxy @roxylinn (bartender Provocateur Berlin / The Glenlivet) 
20. 02:03:15 Kwek Yi Xian & Teo Spy (The Single Cask) 
21. 02:11:57 Sweet Caroline (Masterclass surprise for Jim McEwan) 

Tune in and enjoy The Village Whisky Fair with us. 

For this episode of The Barrel Talk we will once more stay in the Scottish Speyside, in Elgin, to be precise, and are joined by Iain Allan, global brand ambassador and visitor centre manager of Glen Moray Distillery. If you are a fan of exploring whisky matured in all kinds of different casks, Glen Moray is probably one of your go-to whiskies because of the vast variety of different finishes and maturations. Discover interesting facts about the idea behind and the roots of Glen Moray's rich diversity. Find out about Iain's love for Glen Moray, his favourite casks and expressions, some secret treasures patiently sleeping in the warehouses and some potential future crackers to be released by the distillery, which we can really look forward to in the future. Pour yourself a good dram of whisky and let Miriam and Manuel carry you off to the Scottish Speyside for a lovely chat with Iain Allan about Glen Moray Distillery.

Peated. Speyside. Privately-owned. These three words sound as if they don't match but indeed, they describe the distillery starring in our latest episode: Benromach. Nestled between Inverness and Elgin, in the small town of Forres, we had the opportunity to talk to Benromach's distillery manager Keith Cruickshank about what makes Benromach special. Being owned by Gordon & MacPhail, Keith would rather claim that Benromach is actually "his distillery" - in this episode you will find out why. Learn about Keith's long career at the distillery, how things changed during the past 25 years and what he would do if he were not to be the distillery manager at Benromach anymore. Moreover, of course, we also talk whisky and discuss the idea behind the creation of the Benromach single malt, talking about core range whiskies and also specialties like the 40-year-old. Enjoy a dram and listen to Miriam and Manuel and their chat with Keith, who will make you want to travel to the Scottish Speyside immediately.

Islay is the island of dreams for each and every Scotch lover and even though the island does have uncountable beautiful spots, we have to admit that we love being down at Bunnahabhain Distillery enjoying a dram at the pier with its views across the sound of Islay towards the Paps of Jura. Our guest in this episode, David Brodie, beloved tour guide at Bunnahabhain, probably feels the same. David talks about how he got to Islay and Bunnahabhain, about Islay's weather, the bumpy road down to the distillery and, of course, about the casks and the whisky as well as the experience in Bunnahabhain's famous Warehouse 9 tasting. He also reveals stories about his funniest (or should I say strangest?) guests on the tour and which drams you should absolutely try. So imagine sitting at the Bunnahabhain pier, looking over to the Paps of Jura - and then pour yourself a good dram of (Bunnahabhain) whisky and join David and Miri on this episode of "Inside Whisky - The Barrel Talk".