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We're kicking off this weekend's special coverage of the Spirit of Speyside Festival in Scotland this time around! Thousands of people from around the world are in Speyside this weekend, and you'll hear some of them take part in a blind whisky nosing and tasting competition. With the "PappyGate" arrests fresh in the news, we'll get a glimpse into the ancient art of whisky thievery with Glenfiddich's Ian Millar, and there's plenty of news as well!

It's been a busy week in the whisky world, and there's a lot to talk about on this episode. We'll have the latest on Friday's explosion at the Silver Trail Distillery in Hardin, Kentucky that left distillers Jay Rogers and Kyle Rogers critically burned, along with the outpouring of support for them following the accident. Nine people were indicted in the theft of thousands of dollars worth of Pappy Van Winkle, Buffalo Trace, and Wild Turkey Bourbon in Kentucky, but there's a viral campaign seeking a pardon...for the whiskey. Finally, Bruichladdich's Jim McEwan suddenly announced his plan to retire in July after 52 years in the whisky business...so he really can spend more time with his family. We'll have all that, plus more of the week's news and tasting notes for one of Jim McEwan's favorite whiskies along with two single malts from 1975.

If distilleries have ghosts, the ones haunting the former Old Taylor Distillery in Kentucky finally have some people to scare. After nearly 43 years, the historic distillery is being restored with plans to begin distilling by the end of this year and open to visitors in the spring of 2016. Marianne Barnes left Brown-Forman recently to oversee the project for the distillery's partners and will be the master distiller when production begins. She joins us for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth with an update on the progress of bringing the old site back to life and trying to recreate the Bourbon that was originally made there for decades. In the news, investigators may announce indictments in the Pappy van Winkle and Wild Turkey Bourbon thefts this week, Scotland's newest distillery has been dedicated, and Scotch Whisky is helping global drinks companies weather the decline in Chinese spirits sales.

This week, we're on location at the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky for the annual Maker's Mark Handcraft Festival and the running of the Maker's 46 Mile at Lexington's Keeneland Race Course. Friday also brought an estimated 1,000 whisky and Kentucky basketball fans to Keeneland for the annual signing of the Maker's Mark Keeneland charity bottle. This year's bottle honors legendary University of Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp, and several of his former players spent hours signing bottles for the fans who turned out at Keeneland. We'll have a complete wrap-up of the weekend's events on this week's WhiskyCast. In the news, Tennessee's controversial whiskey law will stand for at least another year after a repeal attempt was scrapped, Scottish doctors want to see the drinking age raised from 18 to 21, and we'll get the latest on new whiskies from BenRiach, Amrut, High West, and Heaven Hill.

Bacardi took a step into the Bourbon business this week with its acquisition of Angel's Share Brands, the parent company of Angel's Envy Bourbon and the Louisville Distilling Company's distillery under construction in Louisville. The deal is a friendly one, since Bacardi had owned a small stake in Angel's Share since it was founded by the late Lincoln Henderson and his partners in 2006. Henderson's son Wes and the other Angel's Share executives will run the company as a separate division within Bacardi, and he joins us to discuss the reasons behind the sale on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Bacardi has also acquired a small share in Compass Box as part of a larger deal to supply whisky for the Compass Box blends, one of the whisky industry's major travel retail companies is being sold, and the Scotch Malt Whisky Society is changing hands, too.

Suntory Holdings CEO Takeshi Niinami is one of Japan's leading business executives. He's the first CEO from outside the founding Torii family, and is also a key economic adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. He inherited last year's $16 billion acquisition of Beam when he joined Suntory six months ago, and has been focused on making the deal work while changing Suntory's internal culture. We'll discuss the growing pains of the deal, which made Beam Suntory the world's #3 spirits company, with Takeshi Niinami on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, a preliminary ruling in one lawsuit against a "handmade" spirits maker could be a sign of problems for whisky makers facing similar lawsuits, Four Roses plans another round of construction in Bourbon Country, and milestones mean commemorative bottlings of whiskies from around the world.

US President Barack Obama visited a whisky maker for the first time this week during his trip to Cleveland for a speech to the City Club of Cleveland. He visited the small business incubator that's home to Tom Lix's Cleveland Whiskey, along with nearly two dozen other small manufacturers. Lix's proprietary -- and controversial -- process takes young whiskey and gives it what Lix claims is the color, aroma, and taste of older Bourbons. He'll tell us about the President's visit and discuss his process on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, the investigation into the theft of whiskey from a Wild Turkey warehouse in Kentucky continues, Jim Beam fights back in the courts, another "world" whisky is named the World's Best Single Malt, and a Japanese CEO has banned his executives from drinking some of his company's own whiskies to make more available for consumers.

Anthony Bourdain is many things...a chef, author, journalist, and media personality. At heart, though, he's a hedonist seeking pleasure from everything he encounters - including whisky. The host of CNN's "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" was the lead juror for this year's American Craft Council Rare Craft Fellowship Awards presented by The Balvenie, and we spent a few minutes discussing whisky at Tuesday's awards luncheon in New York City. He'll share his thoughts on the global interest in whisky, along with his take on what defines a "craft" whisky and more on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, a Buffalo Trace employee has been arrested has been made in the theft of five barrels of Bourbon from Wild Turkey, and investigators are looking for any links to the infamous 2013 "Pappygate" theft. Scotch Whisky industry leaders are hoping for a tax cut in this coming week's UK budget announcement, and a Bourbon brand not sold in the US for two decades is coming back. We'll also have plenty of feedback on

Lawyers are circling around the whisky industry, much like sharks around a shipwreck. At least five different US distillers and bottlers have been hit with class-action lawsuits since last September accusing them of misleading consumers. The litigation largely focuses on whether their whiskies are "hand-made," "small-batch," or claim to come from a small-scale distillery that actually purchases bulk whiskey from larger distillers. This week on WhiskyCast In-Depth, we'll hear from one of the attorneys targeting the whisky industry. Abbas Kazerounian's California law firm specializes in class-action consumer cases, and is currently suing Maker's Mark, Jim Beam, and Tito's Vodka over claims that their products are hand-made. His goal is to get drinks producers to be more honest with consumers, and plans to expand that fight to Scotch Whisky and other spirits as well. Beam Suntory declined to make anyone available to discuss the lawsuits, but company spokesmen have said the lawsuits are without merit. In the news

Lots to talk about this week, with news from all over the world! Bruichladdich's Jim McEwan joins us on WhiskyCast In-Depth to talk about the world's peatiest whisky ever -- his Octomore 6.3 with a phenol level of 258ppm! We'll also hear about new whiskies from Tomatin, Duncan Taylor, Midleton, and Whistlepig...the latest on Teeling Whiskey's new Dublin distillery that could be ready to make whiskey by St. Patrick's Day, and look at the Bourbon boom with Beam Suntory's chief of marketing and sales for Whiskies and Cognacs, Chris Bauder. 

For the second straight year, a Texas whiskey has won Best in Show honors at the American Craft Spirits Association competition. San Antonio's Ranger Creek Brewing & Distilling .36 Single Barrel Straight Bourbon beat a field of whiskies and other spirits from around the US. Ranger Creek co-founder Mark McDavid joins us this week on WhiskyCast In-Depth to share the story behind that whiskey and the distillery. In the news, a California law firm is challenging Beam Suntory on two fronts now over claims that Jim Beam and Maker's Mark are "hand-made", a distilling prodigy is leaving Brown-Forman for the craft distilling world, and doctors don't want us to confuse the "Bourbon Virus" with the "Whisky Bug".

It's Valentine's Day, and who better to explain his passion for making whisky than Rifino Valentine of Valentine Distilling. His Woodward Ltd. Bourbon is named after Detroit's legendary Woodward Avenue, which runs just a couple of blocks away from his distillery in the suburb of Ferndale, Michigan. Valentine is preparing to move from his original site to a brand-new facility in Ferndale, and is part of a craft distilling boom in the Detroit area. We'll talk with Rifino Valentine and his head distiller, Justin Aden, on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. There are plenty of new whiskies to talk about this week, and we'll also have more tasting notes from the #28DramsIn28Days project.

Ian MacMillan has been overseeing the whiskies from Deanston, Tobermory, and Bunnahabhain for years...but Cognac casks were one thing he hadn't experimented much with until the opportunity presented itself several years ago. The result is the new Deanston 18 Cognac Matured single malt that's being released in the US this month. We'll discuss Cognac casks with Ian on WhiskyCast In-Depth, along with his other single malts and his new take on the Black Bottle blend In the news, there's word that The Glenlivet may be replacing its flagship 12-year-old expression with the no-age-statement Founder's Reserve in some markets, old stills from Islay will be getting a new life in Ireland, and whisky sales keep growing in the US. We'll also kick off the #28DramsIn28Days series of tasting notes, too.

Graeme Macaloney gave up a secure career in the pharmaceutical industry to pursue his dream of making whisky, and the Scottish expat is getting closer to realizing his dream. He's hoping to begin construction on the Victoria Caledonian Distillery in Victoria, British Columbia soon, and has already brought Dr. Jim Swan and former Diageo distillery manager Mike Nicolson as consultants. Graeme explains why he and his family mortgaged their future (and their house) on his dream on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Wild Turkey's Eddie Russell joins us to discuss his promotion to Master Distiller alongside his father, the legendary Jimmy Russell. We'll also look at whisky economics in Scotland, where a new report estimates the industry's economic impact at £5 billion annually. There's word on new whiskies from anCnoc and GlenDronach, and this week's tasting notes include whiskies from Kentucky, Texas, Scotland, and France!

Kentucky's Four Roses Distillery announced this week that supply problems will prevent this spring's release of the annual Four Roses Limited Edition Single Barrel Bourbon. In his first interview on the subject, master distiller Jim Rutledge explains why dropping the limited-edition release will make more single barrel bottlings available to consumers, along with the prospects for bringing back the annual release in the future. In the news, Scotch Whisky producers are preparing for a fight with Westminster over taxes, we have more details on last weekend's Sunday Herald report about water usage violations at some Scottish distilleries, US regulators are cracking down on vague age statements, and there are new whiskies to talk about from Woodford Reserve and Glenmorangie. Finally, tasters at an event planned for Valentine's Day in London may really detect a note of sweat in their whiskies...

In the second of our two episodes from this weekend’s Victoria Whisky Festival, we'll catch up on more of the week's news - including more details on the $50,000 bottle of The Balvenie 50 stolen in a Montreal robbery Thursday and a Scottish newspaper report that several distilleries are in hot water with environmental protection officials over using too much water. We'll also get the latest on new whiskies from Springbank, the revival of a historic blended Scotch brand, and Corby's Dr. Don Livermore clears up more misconceptions about Canadian Whisky.

We're on the road for the first time in 2015 this weekend, with the first of two episodes from the 10th annual Victoria Whisky Festival in Victoria, British Columbia. The weekend kicked off with the annual Canadian Whisky Awards presentation Thursday night at the Hotel Grand Pacific, including a special Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Forty Creek founder John Hall. We'll hear from John and Canadian Whisky Awards founder Davin de Kergommeaux on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Montreal police are looking for a robber with very expensive taste in whisky following a holdup Thursday at the SAQ's flagship store in Montreal, Collingwood Rye takes Canadian Whisky of the Year honors, and Beam Suntory plans to export Alberta Premium for the first time.

On New Year's Day, David Perkins and his team at Utah's High West Distillery fired up the still at their new distillery for the first time. High West has been making whiskey since 2009 at its historic distillery and restaurant in the heart of Park City, and while the current distillery will continue, the bulk of High West's production will eventually come from the new facility located on a dude ranch and resort along Interstate 80 a few miles north of Park City. Perkins joins us to discuss the new distillery on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. We'll also have details on the latest chapter in the Balcones saga, a fake whisky scam in the UK, new whiskies from Aultmore and Balblair, and tasting notes on whiskies from Glencadam, Glenfiddich, and a new single barrel from Crown Royal.

Irish whiskey will take another step in 2015 with the first exports of Yellow Spot to the US market, still the strongest market in the world for Irish whiskey sales. While Yellow Spot is produced by Irish Distillers at Midleton Distillery near Cork, the brand is owned by Dublin-based whisky and wine merchant Mitchell & Son. Robert Mitchell is the latest family member to head up the 210-year-old business, and joins us to discuss this month's US launch of Yellow Spot, along with the global potential for Irish whiskey sales. In the news, Japan's Nikka Whisky is mourning the death of former president Takeshi Taketsuru, the adopted son of founder Masataka Taketsuru, Chip Tate is expected to announce more details on his new Texas distillery this coming week, and Laphroaig will revive its 15-year-old Islay single malt for 2015 as part of the distillery's 200th anniversary celebration.

As we close out 2014, we'll hear from the man some might call "The Whisky Whisperer" for his ability to coax young distilleries into producing spirit that's mature after just a few years. Dr. Jim Swan's client list includes Penderyn, Kilchoman, and Taiwan's King Car Distillery, which took the top two spots in this year's Malt Maniacs Awards with Kavalan Solist single malts. He's also involved with new distilleries in Scotland and England, as well as projects around the world, and will share some of them with us on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. We'll have the latest on plans for another expansion at The Glenlivet, along with new whiskies from Bruichladdich and Woodford Reserve, and this week's tasting notes focus on Tomatin's Cuatro series of identical single malts finished in four different types of sherry casks.