Cask to Glass

At 80 phenolic parts per million, Bruichladdich Distillery's Octomore whiskies are almost twice as peaty as traditional Islay whiskies. Released at just 5 years old & around 60% ABV, Bruichladdich's Master Distiller Adam Hannett jokes they're "too young, too strong & too peaty". In this episode he & John sample three expressions from the Octomore 17 range.

"You'll still be tasting that tomorrow morning when you wake up," Adam laughts as John gives Octomore a go.

Tune in to find out what the world's peatiest whisky really tastes like.

Slàinte!

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Socials: @C...

What are the 3 whiskies you MUST try before you die? John speaks to Ardnamurchan Distillery’s Connal Mackenzie to uncover his ultimate bucket-list drams & explore Scotland’s wild west coast of whisky. Perched on the rugged Ardnamurchan Peninsula - Scotland’s westernmost mainland point - this distillery is crafting some of the most exciting, sustainable and character-rich Scotch whisky in the world today. Connal, who had to go to New Zealand to enter the whisky business, descirbes how independent bottler Adelphi established Ardnamurchan, the secrets behind their signature spirit profile, & how they balance peated & unpeated styles.

“We didn’...

How do you take over an iconic whisky brand like Highland Park from a “Hall of Famer”, who’s shaped and directed its flavour and style of nearly 30 years? And how do you keep its signature taste and feel consistent, so consumers know exactly what they’re getting, yet make it exciting and refreshing?

It’s a problem Marc Watson has been grappling with daily for the last 19 months since he took over the role of Master Whisky Maker for Highland Park from Gordon Motion, who retired in July last year.

Marc’s conclusion...

“Whiskies are made to be opened; to be enjoyed; and to be shared about,” insists Hamish Malcolm, aka The Dram Caddy, who provides whisky and golfing tours across the east and north-east of Scotland. "They’re not meant to be stored on a shelf.”

We first spoke to Hamish back in July 2025 about how he pairs whisky tastings with rounds of golf. But what value for money whiskies does he recommend his guests should be drinking?

He’s picked out six “bang for buck” whiskies, while John’s picked out three he just loves.

Up to 70% of a whisky’s flavour comes from the wood. But what actually happens inside the barrel to create world-class whisky? Legendary Master Distiller Billy Walker unpacks the exact science of oak maturation, cask chemistry, and why age still matters.

In this episode of Cask to Glass, John sits down with legendary master distiller and blender Billy Walker from The GlenAllachie Distillery to explore the chemistry, craft, and science behind Scotch whisky.

With over 50 years of industry experience taking in many famous names including Hiram Walker, BenRiach, GlenDronach and Glenglassaugh, Billy

Is Scotch Whisky "unfairly" taxed in the UK compared to other drinks?

Yes, says Mark Kent, CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association. "72% of the cost of an average bottle of Scotch goes on tax of one form or another," he says.

And it's sometimes cheaper to buy whisky shipped to other countries than to buy it in Scotland because the UK has the fourth highest level of excise duty on spirits in Europe, and the highest in the G7 group of nations.

"Scotch falls under spirits," he says, "and 70% of...

"If you take away the cooper, you take away the cooperage, you take away the barrels, then you don't get whisky," says Ray Prosser, Sales & Operations Manager at Oakwood Cooperage, the largest independent cooperage in the UK. Not just because Scotch Whisky must by law be matured in oak casks for a minimum of three years, but because, Ray says, 70% of whisky's flavour comes from the wood.

Ray's been a cooper for 36 years.

“I always had a fascination with wood, even from my days at school,” he tells John Beattie. “It was one of tho...

How do you take your whisky? On a Brazilian beach, with coconut water obviously. Or better still coconut water ice. In 2025 Brazil was the joint-fifth largest market for Scotch whisky by volume - 54 million bottles. But with a population of some 200 million people, Brazil's still an untapped market. So how do you crack it?

In this episode of Cask to Glass, we sit down with industry veteran Andre de Almeida (Founder of Inside the Cask and former Export Director for Loch Lomond Group). Born in Brazil and now based in Scotland, Andre offers a rare insider...

Legendary master blender Richard Paterson OBE began his career in whisky on 5 September 1966. Sixty years on, he's still passionate about Scotland's national drink and the world's favourite spirit. In this episode he reflects on a life in whisky and demonstrates the best way to drink whisky.

He reveals how his earliest childhood memory of whisky was when his father, who ran the family bottling & blending company, would kiss him good night: "I could the feel bristles on his chin. But I also could smell the whisky on his breath."

"Then when we were...

Can a community-owned distillery survive the current whisky market? GlenWyvis Distillery, founded in 2015 with 4,000 community investors, began production in 2018. Now it needs £300,000 by October & £6 million in the long-run to keep going. In a candid interview two of its directors explain why. If you want to help contact them at [email protected].

We first spoke to GlenWyvis Distillery in April 2025 (Episode 13).

But now the distillery is on the brink. As we've explored in several episodes over the last few months, the whisky industry is in a downturn because of the cost of living cr...

“I really enjoy my whisky,” Jamie Muir says.

He ought to.

Raised on Jura, schooled on Islay and now Distillery Manager at Tomatin Distillery near Inverness, you’d say something had gone horribly wrong if he didn’t enjoy his whisky.

Drill deeper and he admits: “I think a lot of what I enjoy about whisky is situational. Drinking it in a warehouse, yep, there’s something incredibly special about that. Drinking it with someone who really enjoys it, I get probably more gratification from that now as well.

“Again...

Go behind the scenes of Douglas Laing & Co. with Fred and Cara Laing as they share 75 years of whisky history, blending secrets, and a few drams along the way. As third and second-generation leads of one of Scotland's most respected independent bottlers and blenders, they bring a wealth of history, humour, and heart to the table.

“Fred’s practically kicking me under the table,” complains Cara Laing, the Managing Director of Douglas Laing & Company, the family-owned independent bottlers and blenders based in Glasgow.

Cara’s the third generation of her family to work for the...

Whisky should be fun, declares Dawn Davies, outgoing commercial buying director for global whisky retailer The Whisky Exchange.

She wants to shatter many of the myths around whisky. Like you can't mix Lagavulin with Coca-Cola. She calls it the "smoky cokey". And "it's absolutely delicious," she says.

Then there's the "geeky" stuff.

"I'm a fermentation geek through and through," she admits, because different yeasts create different flavours. Before that there's the grain: barley, corn or rye... etc. Each gives a different flavour.

Then there's the type of...

Ever wondered what it actually takes to break into the whisky industry?

John sits down with recruitment specialist Nicola McRedmond, founder of DrinkAbility, to discover the hidden roadmap for your career. From mastering the art of networking to the specific roles in high demand right now, this is your blueprint for landing your dream job in spirits.

In this conversation with Nicola, we dive deep into the current state of the whisky job market. From the shifting roles of brand ambassadors to the "incestuous" nature of industry hiring, Nicola shares expert advice on...

Step into "Scotland's greatest story" and discover one of the 7 Wonders of the Scotch Whisky World - the Diageo Claive Vidiz Scotch Whisky Collection - curtesy of Susan Morrison, CEO of the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh.

Let Susan "dram you" into discovering whisky for the first time or into expanding your whisky journey no matter how experienced you are.

Over nearly 40 years the Scotch Whisky Experience, located at the top of Castle Hill right next to Edinburgh's iconic Castle, has played host to over nine million visitors from around the world.

How do you market whisky in the 21st century? Or as ex-Diageo marketing guru, Nick Morgan, puts it: How do you get "liquid on lips"? A Keeper of the Quaich and the 48th inductee in the Whisky Hall of Fame, Nick's written the definitive history of Johnnie Walker, the best-selling Scotch whisky in the world: Johnnie Walkder: A Long Stride - The Story of the World's No 1 Scotch Whisky.

Red label. Black label. Blue label. Green label. Gold label...

For over 200 years Johnnie Walker blended Scotch whisky has been the world's leading whisky...

Is whisky ownership the ultimate tangible asset?

In this episode of Cask to Glass, we go behind the scenes of the whisky industry with Russell Spratley and Ross Archer from Spiritfilled. From their roots in finance to launching an award-winning independent bottling brand and an HMRC-approved bond, they share what it really takes to navigate the world of casks.

We dive deep into:

•The reality of whisky as a tangible asset vs. a financial instrument.

•How the Braeside Bond is creating a new standard for transparency and "experience-led" storage.

What does a 6,000-mile journey from Africa to a Scottish distillery have to do with a rare 30-year-old whisky? John Johnstone shares "The Swallows' Tale", a story of family legacy, natural cycles, and the spirit of Glenkinchie Distillery.

From his roots in the mining community of Tranent to his transition from engineering into the heart of the whisky industry, John shares a deeply personal look at the people and history behind the "Lowland Legend."

We dive into the arrival of the swallows at the distillery, the craftsmanship behind the legendary 30-year-old release, and...

There are a lot of supposed "rules" when it comes to whisky. But for Ann Miller "rules are meant to be broken". AKA The Dram Queen, Ann's been demystifying the flavour and vocabulary of whisky for years, from explaining how a drop of water unlocks the taste of a dram to explaining the science of what goes on in the cask.

In this episode of Cask to Glass, John Beattie chats to one of Scotland’s most esteemed whisky educators.

With a career spanning from the Scotch Whisky Experience in the 1980s to Ch...

Would you pay £9,000 for a single nip of whisky?

Today, we’re inside the legendary Fife Arms Hotel in Braemar, home to one of the world's most exclusive whisky libraries as John Beattie chats to Tom Addy about a whisky distilled in 1833 that was hidden behind a cellar wall for decades.

What was his sales pitch to Jimmy Fallon? And did it work?

Slàinte!

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Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes

Art work & design: Jess Robertson

 <...

“If you’re looking to get a quick return on your investment, you don’t do whisky,” chuckles Angus MacMillan founder of Benbecula Distillery.

"You don’t do salmon farming either, because that I took from egg through to plate,” he says of a previous business venture. “So I'm a bit of glutton for punishment on these things.”

Angus joins John in the first week of May from Benbecula, a small island in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland, “on a beautiful sunny day.” The Scotch whisky industry has just learned that Preside...

"Whisky is for stories. Tequila is for jail,” jokes Chris Greta a Texan story hunter and advertising copywriter, who travels the world helping distilleries look past the stills and mash tuns to find the magic, whether it’s in people, the place, the birds, the trees, and the rivers.

Chris doesn't just look for tasting notes; he looks for the “Capo d’ Astro bat", that hidden, unique detail that makes a distillery truly special. Whether it's an "inconvenient" distillery at the southern tip of the world, a rock that becomes a holy object, or the legendary "resistan...

Founding US President George Washington once said alcohol was a business for "scoundrels." So how'd he end up owning the largest whiskey distillery in the United States?

Cue James Anderson, a Scottish farmer and 18th century expat.

Join Scottish artist Ian Gray as he takes the whisk(e)y trail from Mount Vernon to Louisville; Lynchburg to Islay; Speyside to Shimamoto.

Slàinte!

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Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes

Art work & design: Jess Robertson

M...

If you love whisky, there are hundreds of distilleries across the world pursuing flavour based on passion, provenance and a “taste of place”. Just look "beyond the glens" and the global "big five", says award-winning indy bottler Georgie Bell from The Half Cut.

“I know I’m on a Scotch whisky podcast,” Georgie Bell co-founder of indy bottlers The Half Cut chuckles, before pressing home her point. “It’s Scotch and, not Scotch or…” she insists.

“Whisky is now made across the world, and there are passionate individuals who are making whisky to the quality of Scotc...

Most Scottish whisky distilleries produce millions of litres every year.

But Stirling Distillery?

They produce what their owner, Cameron McCann, calls a "puddle."

Yet in 2025 this tiny family operation won Best Scottish New Make Spirit at the World Whiskies Awards.

Join John as he dives into how Scotland’s smallest distillery is beating the global giants, the 172-year history of their building, and their innovative approach to the future of spirits, including sustainable aluminium bottles. Plus, Cameron shares three "undervalued" whiskies that every enthusiast should track down ri...

By day, Sarah Russell is “Miss Sarah”, an Australian primary school teacher in Adelaide. The rest of the time, she’s “That Whisky Girl”, an Instagram influencer and whisky podcaster breaking down barriers in a male-dominated industry.

“I just wanted to get the girls going,” she tells John from Kyoto, Japan’s “cultural capital”, where she’s just back from visiting the Miyagikyo Distillery founded by Masataka Taketsuru, the Father of Japanese Whisky.

“I got into whisky into whisky a few years ago,” Sarah says, “and I’ve just found that it’s a very male dominated field. And...

If you want to get David Thomson, co-founder of Annandale Distillery, started, just tell him, “You don’t make peated whisky in the south of Scotland.”

“Yes, we do!” he’ll thunder.

Then expect a wee history lesson.

“If you go to Barnard’s book, The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom,” he’ll tell you, referring to Alfred Barnard’s definitive whisky guide published in 1887, “you find that all four of the distilleries that were in the south of Scotland did make peated whisky.”

“I mean,” David says of Annandale, “we l...

Two months ago, in Episode 48 with Paul Bock and David Reid, they mentioned one of the regulars at their whisky and cheese gatherings brought along two bottles of Romanian whisky, which they agreed were “excellent”.

“Romanian whisky?” we thought. “We need to find out more.”

So we reached out to Téa Nicolae, Paul and David’s guest. And we got more than we bargained for, because among other things Téa’s a researcher working in the phenomenology of taste, with a focus on whisky and its cultural perception.

In particular, she...

There’s only one way to drink whisky properly, insists Annabel Meikle, whisky consultant and educator, and that’s on your own terms and without regard for any supposed rules.

You can have it with water, with ice, in a highball, as a cocktail, frozen, or even with green tea…

Green tea?

“When I travelled through Asia,” Annabel recalls, “people were drinking whisky with green tea, with ice and with water. And, you know, if you’re in a warm, humid climate, that’s a really pleasant way to enjoy it.”

“...

Imagine a Scottish bar that didn’t sell Scotch whisky.

Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

But for almost seven years that’s exactly what Jason Waddleton, founder and owner of The Haven Scots bar in Boston, couldn’t do.

“We had a real weird anomaly that people would walk in, ask for a Scotch. We couldn’t serve them, because we had a beer and wine license only for the first six years,” Jason explains. “It was brutal.”

Jason started The Haven in 2010, offering authentic Scottish cuisine...

“If you’re looking to create a whisky,” says John Moore of Stirling Whisky Company, “you need two things. You need the body to be fit and healthy. So the distillate must be good.

“And then you need to put a really good suit on it. And it’s got to be a suit that complements the whisky. And I think the GlenAllachie 15 does that perfectly.”

GlenAllachie 15 is John’s “banker”; his “go-to”; the one whisky he “would never grow tired of.”

It’s a full-bodied whisky, he says, with “complexity”, which “coupled with...

“There’s no scientific reason that a blend should be inferior to a single malt,” insists Alasdair Stevenson of blending house Turntable Spirits. “In ways you could argue the opposite in terms of flexibility and the creative opportunities that blending gives you. It’s really all down to the strategy of the blender.”

Go back 150 years or so to when blending started, Ally argues, and “it was about consistency, quality and flavour combination.”

“I mean, if you take it into the world of wine or cooking, you would think about combining different components, different ingredie...

How do you take your oysters?

Yes oysters.

Straight up? A splash of Tabasco? Or a couple of drops of whisky?

Yes. Whisky!

“I’d always have oysters with whisky rather than Tabasco,” Scottish food writer, broadcaster and 2022 UK MasterChef finalist Sarah Rankin tells John Beattie in this the 50th episode of Cask to Glass.

“I love oysters and Cumbrae oysters are the best oysters there are,” she says. “A couple of drops of Tabasco brings out the sweetness, kind of opens up your tastebuds.”<...

“My palate has seen a lot of action,” confesses Fraser Campbell, whisky educator, brand consultant, drinks strategist. “I started off working in pubs in Speyside when I was 18. And that was pretty much it.”

Twenty seven years later Fraser is now the host and creator of Whisky Bytes, producing “snackable knowledge whisky videos”. His latest venture is One for the Road, a luxury chauffeur-driven tour and whisky tasting service, which launched earlier this year.

But as an 18-year-old pouring drams in a local pub in Forres in north east Scotland, Fraser says he learnt “the...

Whisky and cheese?

It’s a simple question really: Do they pair well together?

Does a Gorgonzola go well with a smoky Bowmore? Or is it better with a sherry-flavoured Speyside? Say a Glenfarclas or a Tamdhu?

And what should you have with Gruyère?

Since lockdown, photographer Paul Bock and a brand marketer David Reid have been holding regular whisky and cheese soirees at Paul’s studio in Edinburgh.

Up to 70 guests at times. Some are in the industry. Some are just friends. And s...

“We’re going through a period of short-term volatility,” admits Mark Kent, CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association.

“Volatility which,” he says, “is partly to do with international trade conditions; partly to do with the domestic situation we find ourselves in.

“And you’ll know that we’ve had 17 percent duty increases; increases in energy costs, general costs of doing business at home, which is really acting as a brake on the industry.

“And then we’ve got tariffs and the US.”

A week ago HMRC, the UK’s tax agency, publish...

Back in Series 1 Episode 5, Martin McAdam of Ardgowan Distillery joked that “the best thing you can do with whisky is put it in a cask, put it in a warehouse and never sell it because it’s increasing in value all the time.”

“The longer you can hold onto your whisky,” he told us, “the more valuable it becomes.”

On that premise you’d think that whisky is a sure-fire investment.

Well yes… and no…

As we’ve discussed on several occasions with our good friend Max McFarlane, former Mast...

Word of Richie Gray’s First Fifteen has been getting around, “to the point where,” the Scottish rugby and American football coach says, “I never even thought to myself you’d be getting the calls you’ve been getting over the last two or three weeks.”

And Richie’s had his share of high impact phone calls. The Springboks in 2014. The Miami Dolphins in 2016. Fiji in 2020. And the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023.

He’s the Collision King. A training innovator and coaching entrepreneur whose contact and collision methodologies and training aids are used across world rugby and th...

The quickest way to get to Dunnet Bay Distillery by road from almost anywhere in Scotland is to take the A9 north about as far as it can go.

Just before Thurso, hang a right east bound onto the A836, follow the road and you can't go wrong. The disitillery's housed in a rennovated 19th century mill built out of Caithness stone - the same stone that was used to refurbish Boston Harbour on the other side of the Atlantic.

But beware.

If you miss the distillery, you'll quickly find...

What if there was Skyscanner for whisky and distillery tours? A one-stop-shop where you could find, compare and book your next whisky or other alcohol tourism experience?

That's the concept behind Sip Seekers, the brain child of Victoria Miller, aka Scottish Whisky Girl on Instagram.

"I was up north probably nearly two years ago now," Victoria explains, "and I was sat at breakfast and I thought: 'I want to see a distillery today.' And I started loading different tabs on my phone for different tours even at the same distillery, assessing different...