There are worse ways to spend your time than with a whisky book and a dram.
I’ve accumulated a fair collection over the years, and while I don’t read all of them cover to cover these days, I find myself returning to them for different reasons.
Michael Jackson’s The World Guide to Whisky is a classic, and a reminder of just how influential Jackson was as a whisky writer.
Dave Broom’s The World Atlas of Whisky sits somewhere between reference book and coffee-table book for me. It’s big, glossy and packed with great photography — the sort of book you can pick up, open at almost any page and happily browse for a while.
Broom’s A Sense of Place is very different, and one I keep coming back to for his writing. There’s something about the way he connects ideas and plays with language that makes it a pleasure to read, rather than simply a book about whisky. I’ve enjoyed several Sunday mornings, sitting on our patio, sipping on a dram while losing myself in this book – an almost meditative unwinding.
Aeneas MacDonald’s Whisky is another one I’m fond of — a genuinely enjoyable read. First published in 1930, it’s often called the first proper whisky book ever written, and it shows — MacDonald was writing purely from love of the stuff, with strong opinions and no shortage of them. Dave Broom has called it the finest whisky book ever written, and Charles MacLean has said it’s the one he’d take to a desert island.
Ingvar Ronde’s Malt Whisky Yearbook is the dependable one. The staple. When I want to check a distillery, production numbers, ownership or some other bit of whisky trivia, that’s usually where I go.
Charles MacLean’s Scotch Whisky: A Liquid History is one I go back to whenever I want the fuller story — five years of research went into it, and it shows in how it traces whisky’s path through medicine, smuggling, agriculture and politics, right back to its earliest days. I got to spend a day with MacLean himself in Campbeltown back in 2016, selecting the Private Barrel Company Glen Scotia 10 Year Old Single Cask. Fair to say I was a bit starstruck.
And for Japanese whisky, it’s Stefan van Eycken’s Whisky Rising. I got to see Stefan in person at The Whisky Show last year, where he ran a brilliant masterclass. Chatting with him afterwards, I ended up opening and sharing an old bottle of Nikka I’d brought along, right there on the show floor. A good memory to have attached to a book I already rated highly.
Different books, different purposes.
But there’s still something rather nice about turning the pages, glass in hand, and spending some time exploring whisky without a screen in sight.
What’s in your whisky library? I’d love to hear what whisky books you’d point people towards.
Sláinte,
Mark
What’s In Mark’s Glass This Week
Rauchig Bud Spencer The Legend Batch 02 49% – You get whiskies that take you back to childhood memories (Bunna 40yo – picking guavas off a tree at my friend’s house) and then you get this, where a fond childhood memory is slapped onto the label. I grew up watching Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, waiting for the next ridiculous punch, the deadpan one-liners, the chaos, and that unmistakable humour. The peat doesn’t quite pack the same punch as our hero, but the dram has enough going for it to leave a smile on your face.
The plan is to watch one of the movies, while polishing off the dregs. The question is, which one? I leaning towards either They Call Me Trinity, or Watch Out We’re Mad. Thanks go to Emile for parting with this bottle.
Fellowship Conversations: Murdo Mackenzie
A whisky distiller makes decisions today that won’t reveal themselves as right or wrong for a decade, sometimes more. Murdo Mackenzie, who took over as Benromach’s Distillery Manager in 2025 after learning the trade under Keith Cruikshank, has made his peace with that kind of patience. In this conversation, we get into what actually makes Benromach Benromach: manual cuts taken by feel rather than sensor, long fermentations, peat, wooden vessels, and a stubborn insistence on doing things the hard way when the easy way would cost the spirit its character. We also talk about first drams, old managers, favourite bottles, and why whisky is, in the end, as much about memory as it is about flavour.
Pour yourself a dram and join the conversation.
— Read the Interview
The Fellowship Pour
Your whisky. Your glass. Your story. Send us a photo, share the moment, and add your pour to the growing Fellowship community. The submissions keep rolling in, and they’re great.
“In your journey, going forward, always good to know where you come from…” — Derek N.
“By Sunday evening I’d spoken to enough people for one week; the Yamazaki was excellent company and asked absolutely nothing of me.” — Stephane R.
Yet Another SA New Release
August was a bumper month for SA releases, as covered in last week’s post. And Spring Day (1st Sept) kicked off with another. The 2nd annual Friends of Metanoia release from the Metanoia Distillery.
So what is this years release from Kenny and Andy?
METANOIA Klein Karoo Single Malt Whisky – Friends – 2026 Release – 282 bottles only, bottled at 46.3% abv.
It’s a four year old single malt was matured in an ex Rupert & Rothchild red wine cask and finished in new American Oak. I’m looking forward to putting the head-to-head with the WhiskyBrother Exclusive Metanoia and having them battle it out.
Announced at 8am on the FoM whatsapp group, I clicked through to order my bottles and was greeted with the dreaded error: “Resource Limit Is Reached”
Seems like demand outstripped the web server’s allocated resources! Good to see the demand for local juice is so high. After repeated attempts over the 30 mins or so, I managed to complete my order and secure my whiskies.
Grab your bottle (or 2) here: Metanoia – 2026 Friends Release
Industry News
Thor buys a distillery: Chris Hemsworth becomes co-owner of Archie Rose
The Australian actor has joined founder Will Edwards as co-owner — and global face — of Sydney’s most-awarded distillery, ahead of its US launch later this year. Three whiskies co-created by Hemsworth and the Archie Rose team land in Asia and New Zealand in late 2026, with Europe and the UK to follow in 2027. Celebrity spirits deals are ten a penny; celebrity part-ownership of a serious single malt producer is rather rarer.
— The Whiskey Wash
A whisky cask scam firm is shut down at the High Court
Cask Spirits Global Limited was wound up on 25 August after an Insolvency Service investigation found 17 customers had paid a combined £97,249 for whisky casks — yet only four held valid ownership documents, and some casks never existed at all. The firm cold-called investors with promises of returns up to 150% and produced just 2 of 29 accounting documents requested. Coming after The Glenturret’s fake-cask crackdown a fortnight ago, the message is the same: if a cask deal arrives by cold call, hang up.
— The Whiskey Wash
India’s whisky giant goes abroad: ABD takes Officer’s Choice to Malaysia
Allied Blenders & Distillers — maker of the world’s biggest-selling whisky by volume — has signed its first-ever overseas production deal, appointing an established local partner to bottle Officer’s Choice Blue in Malaysia in 750ml, 180ml and 90ml formats. ABD now exports to 39 markets (double what it managed two years ago) and calls the “asset-light” co-bottling model a template it may repeat elsewhere. Read alongside Pernod’s numbers below: more proof of where whisky’s volume growth actually lives.
— The Spirits Business
GlenWyvis sounds the alarm — the community-owned distillery needs millions to survive
Dingwall’s GlenWyvis, crowdfunded into existence by 3,000-plus members a decade ago, has told those members it must raise “a couple of million pounds” to see its way through 2028. Production is paused, the distillery manager and operator have left, and a long legal fight with the landlord has drained funds. Director David Graham’s blunt read on the wider industry: “What we’re looking at now is probably on par with the whisky loch that destroyed distillery capacity in Scotland in the early 1980s.” A sobering counterweight to the week’s celebrity-investment cheer.
— The Spirits Business
Pernod Ricard’s year: US and China drag, India keeps climbing
FY26 organic sales fell 3.9% to €9.4bn with recurring operating profit down 5.2% — the US off 14% and China off 19%, while India rose 7% to underline (again) where the industry’s growth actually lives. Within Chivas Brothers, Scotch slipped 2%: Ballantine’s crept up 1% while The Glenlivet fell 5% and Royal Salute 9%. Guidance for FY27 is for stable organic sales — a bet that two years of destocking are finally done.
— Shanken News Daily
Sazerac picks up the shuttered Garrard County Distillery
Buried in this month’s American whiskey round-up: Sazerac has bought the Garrard County Distilling Co. site in Lancaster, Kentucky — the ~$300m plant that opened in 2024 and halted production this year — adding major distilling and warehousing capacity at distressed-asset money while smaller producers retrench. A telling data point for where the US contraction is heading: consolidation, not collapse.
— Alcohol Professor
New Releases
Benromach goes all-in on sherry at 12 — a new flagship
Announced to Friends of Benromach on Tuesday morning (1 September), ahead of the public reveal: Benromach is adding a Twelve Years Old to its core range — matured exclusively in first-fill sherry casks, a departure for a house whose core 10, 15 and 21 all marry sherry and bourbon wood. Bottled at 46%, non-chill filtered, with rich fruitcake, raspberry and orange over cracked pepper and the distillery’s trademark touch of smoke. Priced at £45 and currently available in the UK, with France, Germany, South Korea and the USA to follow soon.
— Benromach
Ardbeg goes permanent at 15: meet Trudernish
The big launch of the week: Ardbeg has unveiled Trudernish, its first permanent 15-year-old — matured in bourbon, new charred oak and oloroso sherry casks, bottled at 48.8% and priced at £80, on sale from 15 September via Ardbeg.com, the Embassies and specialist retailers. It fronts a complete redesign of the core range rolling out globally from autumn, and arrives with a Double Gold from this year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition already in hand. A permanent age-stated Ardbeg above the Ten doesn’t happen often; expect the first SA allocations to vanish.
— The Whisky Wire
Octomore 17 arrives — four new super-heavily-peated Bruichladdichs
The 17th annual Octomore series went on sale 1 September: 17.1 (mainland Concerto barley, 81ppm, first-fill bourbon, 59.7%, £143), 17.2 (French oak ex-bourbon plus a first-fill Port barrique finish, 59.5%, £158) and 17.3 (Islay-grown barley from Octomore Farm’s Irene’s Field at a monstrous 132.1ppm, five years in bourbon plus Ribera del Duero, Sauternes, Eiswein and Syrah casks, 60.9%, £199), with the distillery-exclusive 17.4 (oloroso and French virgin oak, 108.2ppm, £178) following from 1 October.
— The Spirits Business
The Balvenie’s oldest whisky ever — 88 years old, 17 bottles
The 1931 Collection’s centrepiece was distilled on 5 March 1931 and matured for 88 years in a single refill European oak sherry butt from Jerez, bottled at 43.2% by malt master Kelsey McKechnie — just 17 bottles, each housed in a Daniel Arsham bronze sculpture with a hand-blown crystal decanter. It debuts at Frieze Seoul this week (price on application; UK enquiries via Harrods), alongside two rather more attainable siblings: a 12yo built on 100% home-malted barley (47.5%, £90) and a 15yo from home-grown, home-malted barley (47.8%, £150). By some distance the oldest whisky The Balvenie has ever released.
— The Spirits Business
Aberargie reveals its Expressions Range — single-varietal barley, bottled side by side
The Perthshire farm distillery (whose Inaugural Release only just landed in SA at WhiskyBrother) has previewed the first two whiskies in its new Expressions Range, launching 15 September: a Golden Promise Edition (68% first-fill bourbon, 32% first-fill sherry) and a Laureate Edition (the inverse — 68% first-fill sherry), each built to let a single barley variety speak for itself. Field-to-bottle barley geekery from a distillery that grows its own grain.
— WhiskyIntelligence
Laphroaig 35 Year Old — the Strong Characters Collection continues
The second release in Laphroaig’s series honouring the people who shaped the distillery pays tribute to former manager Dugald Johnston. Matured solely in ex-bourbon casks and bottled at 43.8%, it runs to 5,500 bottles at £880 — initially a UK exclusive via John Player & Sons Home of Whisky until 28 September, then wider. Extremely old Laphroaig that has kept its bourbon-cask discipline is a rare thing; expect the secondary market to notice.
— The Whiskey Wash
Torabhaig hands the keys to its distillers — the Distillers’ Series debuts
The Isle of Skye distillery has launched a new limited series giving individual team members full creative control. The first pair: distiller Iona Macphie’s First Edition, built on chocolate malt at 60.9% ABV, and Niall Culbertson’s First Edition, using brown and dark crystal malts with a lighter peating, at 59.3%. 5,250 bottles of each, £75, in selected markets including the UK from early September, with two releases planned per year. It caps a big week for the operation — parent Mossburn Distillers also completed a 50-acre, five-warehouse maturation campus near Jedburgh that will house Torabhaig and Reivers stock, with in-house cask filling for the first time.
— Whisky For Everyone
Douglas Laing’s Strathearn releases Batch 03
The Perthshire micro-distillery’s third batch under Douglas Laing ownership repeats the Batch 02 recipe — ex-bourbon, virgin oak and ex-sherry casks married together — but leans noticeably harder on the sherry, with dark honey, chocolate, toffee and soft leather in the notes. Small-scale single malt from one of Scotland’s tiniest distilleries; it rarely travels far beyond the UK, but it’s worth knowing the batches are now coming regularly.
— WhiskyIntelligence
Rosemaund Farm’s “The Director’s Cut” — a 10-year-old English single malt, no ballot required
Herefordshire’s Rosemaund Farm launched its third Director’s Cut on 1 September — and for the first time it’s on open sale rather than by ballot: 3,000 individually numbered bottles at 47% and £126, a marriage of ex-bourbon, oloroso and virgin oak casks selected by master blender Tristan Stephenson. Distilling has also restarted at the farm, with up to 200 casks to be laid down this year. English whisky with a genuine double-digit age statement is still rare enough to note.
— The Whiskey Wash
SMWS September 2026 Outturn
The TwoWhisky Bros worked through this month’s outturn — 22 new bottlings, including lesser-seen names like Glendronach, Clydeside and an unpeated Ardmore, with mid-month surprises rumoured. Top picks:
Top Picks (7.5/10)
4.404 Highland Park 21yo — “A Tugboat Smokery in the Orkney Mist” | £170 | 59.4% | 2nd Fill #4+ Char Puncheon
Barbecued pork, candied almonds and honeyed sweetness on the nose; sour cherries, earthy peat smoke, grilled strawberries and fudge on the palate. The charred cask has lifted a (presumably tired) sherry cask into something really tasty — a really solid Highland Park, though similarly aged Secret Orkneys go for much less.
41.184 Dailuaine 16yo — “The Perfumer’s Mixologist” | £80 | 55.7% | 1st Fill Ex-Oloroso Hogshead
Cherry cola, cinnamon sticks and candied apples into cherry jam, raspberry and milk chocolate — a beautifully integrated sherry finish with the thicker Dailuaine spirit still audible. Good value, and a natural next stop for anyone who missed the SA shop’s 41.183.
79.17 Deanston 9yo — “Let the Springtime Flourish” | £64 | 60.1% | 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel
Waxy citrus and flat peaches, then a thick, oily palate of orange peel, ginger snaps, malt loaf and vanilla custard. Drinks far better than 60% suggests — quite impressive for the age.
Good Drams (7/10)
- 10.305 Bunnahabhain 12yo — “Smoky Wasabi” | £87 | 57.3% | 2nd Fill Ex-Bourbon Hogshead — Punchy, oily, aggressive peat with candied nuts and cough syrup; drinks more like a 6yo Stoisha, and that’s a profile many will love.
- 100.52 Strathmill 19yo — “Balsamic Glow” | £110 | 56.6% | 1st Fill Ex-Oloroso Hogshead — Rose, cherry and a big bowl of fresh strawberries and raspberries; beautifully integrated alcohol. The sherry finish has worked well here.
- 167.6 Clydeside 7yo — “A Tropical Treat” | £58 | 61.6% | 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon Barrel — Foam bananas, pineapple chunks and sweetened yoghurt into nougat and custard; an estery profile you don’t see often, really well done.
- 168.4 InchDairnie 9yo (KinGlassie) — “A Foodie’s Dream Dram” | £62 | 57.2% | 1st Fill Ex-Oloroso Hogshead — Sherried and peaty with the smoke a background actor; very good price against other indie KinGlassies.
One to swerve: 8.58 Tamdhu 10yo (£65) took a rare 4/10 — “mostly ethanol and bitter oak… What went wrong?”
— Two WhiskyBros — SMWS September 2026 Outturn Review
South Africa’s allocation (Outturn No. 38) hasn’t landed yet — with No. 37 all but sold out, it shouldn’t be far off. No confirmation yet on which expressions we’ll be getting here.
Reviews Roundup
Thompson Bros Bruichladdich 2004 21yo — 7/10
A second Thompson Bros bottling in the roundup: a 21-year-old Bruichladdich from the Dornoch brothers lands a solid 7/10 — not the knockout the 9/10 Tullibardine above proved to be, but another well-chosen cask from a strong fortnight for the label.
— The Whiskey Wash
“Enviable” 36yo 1989 blended malt (Thompson Bros, 46.5%) — 91/100, week’s top score
Serge’s Friday blends session crowns a pale-as-pinot-grigio 36-year-old Speyside blended malt (rearrange the letters to find the distillery): “that combination of freshness and fine age… S.u.p.e.r.b. bottle.” The same session lands Gordon & MacPhail’s CRN57° blended malts for The Cairn at 88 (18yo) and 89 (25yo) — “if there isn’t any Benromach in there, I’ll eat my beret” — and a 36yo Milroy’s Vintage Reserve “Tun 89” at 88.
— Whisky Fun
Secret Orkney 25yo 2000 (52.6%, TWA & Sansibar) — 88/100
A joint Whisky Agency/Sansibar bottling from a cream sherry butt — “not a sherry bomb in any way”: dark fruits and heather from the Orkney distillery that isn’t allowed to say its name. Still findable in (mostly German) shops.
— WhiskyNotes
A Japanese private-cask trio: Shizuoka 3yo — 87, Sakurao 4yo — 86, Ichiro’s Malt & Grain — 86
Ruben works through Lucky Choice’s private casks: a bourbon-cask Shizuoka at 52.7% (just 68 bottles), a rum-finished Sakurao at a bracing 63%, and a sherry-hogshead Ichiro’s at 61.1%. Young Japanese whisky punching at these scores remains the category’s quiet story.
— WhiskyNotes
Watt Whisky’s new outturn — Ben Nevis 11yo leads at 87 (WhiskyNotes, 25 August)
The Campbeltown indie’s latest four: Ben Nevis 11yo (53.7%, bourbon barrel, 300 bottles) is the pick at 87, ahead of a 6yo sherried Staoisha at 85, a 9yo Campbeltown blend at 84 and a Strathmill 10yo at 83.
— WhiskyNotes
The Teuchter strikes twice — two 87s for Decadent Drinks’ blended malt
Serge’s blends session crowns The Teuchter 10yo Batch 2 (Clynelish-forward) and Batch 4 (Ben Nevis-forward), both at 47% and both on 87 points — “has anyone ever thought of vatting Clynelish and Pulteney?” The same session gives the Teuchter 17yo PX an 84.
— Whisky Fun
A huangjiu-finished secret Highlander — 88 points and a plea to the SWA
A Secret Highland “Chinese Yellow Wine Cask Finish” bottled by HK Whisky for Whisky Live Hong Kong (53%) takes 88 — with Serge musing that the Scotch Whisky Association should formally authorise huangjiu casks. A Thompson Bros manzanilla-finished Highland Malt 10yo lands 86 alongside.
— Whisky Fun
Official vs indie Cardhu — and the indie runs away with it
Charlie’s three-dram face-off: the official 12yo takes a bruising 4/10, the 11yo from the 2020 Special Releases a 7/10 — and a James Eadie 9yo first-fill bourbon single cask (52.4%, 659 bottles, £65) an 8/10: “best Cardhu I have ever tasted.”
— Dramface
Three indie Glenlossies — 8.5s for TWE and Fragrant Drops
Thijs verticals a blend-fodder Speysider: The Whisky Exchange’s 16yo “Libra” (52.8%) and Fragrant Drops’ Sauvignon Blanc-barrique 11yo (58.2%) both take 8.5, with Cadenhead’s 12yo close behind on 8.3. Proof again that unsung distillery names carry the indie value.
— Words of Whisky
House of Hazelwood 47yo “The Silent Partner” (Charles Gordon Collection) — 8/10
Old peated malt meets very old grain in what Phil Dwyer calls one of the finest old blended Scotches he’s tasted — a different bottling from the 1968 single grain that starred a few weeks back.
— The Whiskey Wash
Thompson Bros Tullibardine 2006 19yo — 9/10
Nine of its nineteen years in a PX hogshead: a sherry-soaked Highland standout from the Dornoch brothers, and the week’s second-highest score.
— The Whiskey Wash
Bourbon Corner
Angel’s Envy goes stout and amburana for the 2026 Distillery Series
Master distiller Owen Martin finishes 6–7-year bourbon for six to 24 months in imperial stout barrels, with a portion getting a month in Brazilian amburana wood. 50% ABV, roughly 1,800 × 375ml bottles at US$55 — distillery-exclusive from 10 September. (Mark: This is an interesting one I wouldn’t mind trying! Interesting move too to bottle it at 375ml, meaning more people get to snap up a bottle.)
— The Spirits Business
Michter’s US*1 Toasted Barrel Finish Rye returns this fall
Back after a hiatus: barrel-strength rye (averaging 109.1 proof) given a second maturation in toasted-not-charred barrels built from 24-month air-dried wood. Around US$120 when it lands in September.
— The Whiskey Wash
Four Roses Experimental No. 002 — honey-cask bourbon
The follow-up to the Mizunara experiment: 6–8-year OESQ and OBSK bourbons finished three to nine months in honey-seasoned barrels from the Bohman Bee Company. 104 proof, 375ml, US$55 — exclusive to the distillery and Cox’s Creek visitor centres from 18 September.
— Breaking Bourbon
Jack Daniel’s American Single Malt goes nationwide
Previously a travel-retail exclusive, Lynchburg’s 100% malted barley expression — charcoal mellowed, aged in new charred American oak and finished in oloroso sherry casks — rolls out across the US as a limited annual release: 90 proof, 1-litre bottles, US$74.99. Master distiller Chris Fletcher calls helping lead the newly TTB-recognised American Single Malt category “an incredible milestone” for the first registered distillery in the US.
— Breaking Bourbon
Old Elk’s double-digit age statements arrive — and review well
Breaking Bourbon gives the new Old Elk 10 Year Straight Bourbon (105 proof, US$70, MGP-sourced) a 3.5/5 for its “candy shop” profile, calling the range a coming-out statement under new owner Middle West Spirits; The Whiskey Reviewer separately rates the 10 Year Wheat Whiskey a B+.
— Breaking Bourbon | The Whiskey Reviewer
Upcoming Events
McGregor Whisky Weekend
Friday–Sunday, 11–13 September 2026 | McGregor, Western Cape | Main event: Saturday 12 September
A weekend-long celebration of whisky in the village of McGregor, featuring over 60 whiskies to taste at the main event at Lord’s Winery, plus Friday evening masterclasses and tastings around the village. The main event runs from 1–5pm, with free transport between McGregor and Lord’s Winery. Most whiskies available for tasting will also be on sale on the day.
Book tickets via McGregor Whisky Weekend
The Macallan Dinner Experience with Thami Banda
Tuesday, 15 September 2026 | Bottega Parkhurst, 22d 4th Avenue, Parkhurst | R1,200pp
An exclusive Macallan dinner experience hosted by Brand Ambassador Thami Banda, featuring guided tastings of The Macallan 12, 15, 18 and 30 Year Old Double Cask. The R1,200 ticket includes the whisky tasting, a 3-course meal and waiter gratuity (extras excluded). Arrival is at 18h30 for a 19h00 start, with limited seats available.
RSVP via email to parkhurst@bottegacafe.co.za
The Whisky Experience at The Firs
Friday, 18 September 2026 | The Firs, Rosebank, Johannesburg | R390pp
An evening showcasing more than 70 whiskies from a wide range of producers, styles and countries, with live entertainment. Guests can explore and taste at their own pace from 6pm to 9pm. VIP access is also available at R1,500pp, offering a more intimate experience with a hand-picked selection of rare and exceptional whiskies, hosted by expert presenters.
Book via WhiskyBrother
Highland Park Heritage Day Whisky Tasting & Spit Braai
Thursday, 24 September 2026 | The Whisky Shop, Fourways | R900pp
A Heritage Day afternoon featuring a guided tasting of Highland Park 12, 15 and 18 Year Old, followed by a traditional South African spit braai. The R900 ticket also includes a bottle of Highland Park 12 Year Old. Tasting starts at 1pm at The Whisky Shop, The Gantry Shopping Centre, Fourways.
Book via The Whisky Shop
Bushmills Whisky Tasting
Wednesday, 30 September 2026 | Hyde Park, Johannesburg | R290pp
A guided tasting with Bushmills SA ambassador Muzi Mathe, featuring the 10, 14, 16 and 21 Year Old expressions from the historic Northern Irish distillery. 7pm at WhiskyBrother Hyde Park.
Book via WhiskyBrother.
1 October — Randpark Golf Club Whisky Festival
Thursday, 01 October 2026 | Johannesburg | R300pp
A new one for the calendar: 40+ whiskies in the Jacaranda Room & Terrace, 6–9pm.
Book via WhiskyBrother
WhiskyBrother’s Helden Distillery Day Trip (Note: The date has changed)
Saturday, 17 October 2026 | Parys Free State | R1,490pp
A full-day experience at South Africa’s Helden Distillery with an in-depth tour led by founder and owner Dr Pieter van Helden — ideal for anyone who hasn’t visited a working distillery before.
Book via WhiskyBrother
Whisky Live Festival
Thu 5th to Sat 7th November, 2026 | The Galleria, Johannesburg | Pricing TBA
SA’s biggest whisky festival returns — details and booking links to follow.
Worth Reading
Diageo on the spirits trends shaping India — The Spirits Business
A meaty interview with Diageo India chief innovation officer Vikram Damodaran: Indian single malts now approach a million cases a year against 400 million total spirits cases, Scotch is forecast to compound at 6% to 2030 — faster than Indian whisky itself — and premiumisation is consolidating whole categories. Essential context for the market every distiller is chasing.
— The Spirits Business
Can Ardray make blended Scotch cool again? — Master of Malt
Adam O’Connell’s category essay dismantles malt-over-blend snobbery through Ardray’s four component blends — solera-style building blocks, grain as texture — and lands the line of the month: “if a whisky only becomes worse once you learn it’s a blend, the problem isn’t in the glass.” Sharp, opinionated criticism (yes, on a retailer’s blog — but it reads as criticism, not catalogue copy).
— Master of Malt
What it really takes to buy your own cask of Springbank — The Whiskey Wash
A cask-market specialist on the realities behind the most-hyped cask on the market: allocation odds, storage, insurance, exit routes and the numbers that make or break a Springbank cask purchase. The perfect antidote to the cold-call cask pitches dismantled in this week’s Industry News.
— The Whiskey Wash
Beyond the barrel: a chef’s whiskey revolution in Chattanooga — Whisky Magazine
Sailor Guevara profiles James Beard-nominated chef Erik Niel, who applies kitchen sourcing discipline to single-barrel bourbon — blind warehouse tastings and a 400-plus-bottle programme built barrel by barrel. A people story about palate over hype; the bourbon-side long read of the week.
— Whisky Magazine
And That’s a Wrap!
Thanks for all the support, comments, suggestions and inspiration that helped shape this issue of the Digest. What other community-related content would you like to see here?
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Until next week, DRAM on!