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Dr. Matthew Crow of Diageo is one of Scotch Whisky's up-and-coming blenders. Working under Dr. Jim Beveridge, he helped create Johnnie Walker Double Black and worked with Jim last year on the £120,000 John Walker & Sons Diamond Jubilee whisky to mark Queen Elizabeth's 60th anniversary on the throne. In the past year, he's helped create three new Talisker releases, and joins us on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth to discuss the subtle differences in blending Single Malts versus Blended Scotch whiskies. In the news, Heaven Hill opens the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience on Louisville's Main Street, Glenfiddich releases a special whisky to support wounded warriors, and we'll take a look at the 2014 Malt Whisky Yearbook with editor Ingvar Ronde.

This week, we'll take a tour of a distillery very few people ever get to visit, Beam's Alberta Distillers facility in Calgary, Alberta. 80% of the distillery's whisky is sold in bulk to clients around the world, which means if you've tried all but a few Canadian whiskies, the chances are pretty good Rick Murphy and his team had something to do with them.  The remaining 20% is bottled under the Alberta Premium and Alberta Springs labels for the Canadian market, along with the Tangle Ridge label available in the US and a few other markets. The distillery is on the edge of the Canadian Rockies, which means high altitude, low humidity, and lots of cold and snow. One of their innovations is a unique "straddle loader" to move barrels of whisky around without the risk of using a forklift in extreme weather. In the news...still no arrests in the Pappy Van Winkle theft, Diageo opens a new Scotch whisky warehousing complex in Fife, and Jim Murray names his whisky of the year for the 2014 Whisky Bible.

This week, we're in Banff, Alberta for a very special Bowmore weekend in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The "Bowmore on the Rockies" weekend featured a dinner with the entire 1964 Bowmore Trilogy series of Black, White, and Gold Bowmores, the 1995 release of the original Black Bowmore, and the 1964 Bowmore Fino Sherry Cask. Morrison Bowmore's Master of Malts, Iain McCallum, joins me to discuss the newest releases from Bowmore, Auchentoshan, and Glen Garioch, along with some of the issues facing the whisky business today. In the news, the man wanted for questioning in the Pappy Van Winkle theft turns out to be Bardstown High School's principal...who told investigators he was trying to buy some Pappy, not sell it. 

Ireland's Kilbeggan Distillery is said to be the world's oldest whiskey distillery, and it's now being run by what may well be one of the youngest head distillers. Andrina Fitzgerald grew up a few miles from Kilbeggan, and was promoted to head distiller shortly after Beam acquired Kilbeggan as part of the Cooley Whiskey deal. We'll hear from this rising star in the whiskey business on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, the latest from Kentucky on the Pappy van Winkle theft, along with an update on the Teeling family's plans for a new distillery in Dublin. This week's tasting notes include the "hottest" whisky in the world right now, this year's Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20-year-old Bourbon.

The most secure jobs in the whisky business may be the coppersmiths at Forsyth's of Rothes in Scotland, since almost all of the major distillery construction projects underway worldwide are buying their stills from Forsyth's. We got word of two more new distilleries this week...the Morrison family's Glasgow Whisky Distillery to be built on the Queen's Dock along the River Clyde and Bernard Walsh's new distillery in County Carlow, Ireland. Tim Morrison and Bernard Walsh join us to discuss their plans on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, the search is on for the "Pappy Pilferer", two whisky auctions this week raised tens of thousands of dollars for charities, and if you're feeling a cold coming on, this week's tasting notes may have just the answer.

With 28 malt whisky distilleries and two grain whisky distilleries in Scotland, Diageo almost always has something going on. Dr. Nick Morgan is head of whisky outreach for the world's largest whisky producer, and we sat down in New York City this week with drams of Talisker Storm to discuss the malt's U.S. debut, this year's special releases, and more for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth segment. In the news, plans for another malt distillery in Scotland are getting clearer, Arran releases its Millennium Casks, and WhistlePig unleashes The Boss Hog. We'll also hear WhiskyCast listeners venting their frustrations (and singing their praises) in this week's Your Voice.

Baker Beam comes from one of Kentucky's legendary Bourbon families. However, the grand-nephew of Jim Beam and cousin to Booker Noe, Fred Noe, and Parker Beam doesn't often get the spotlight. If his name sounds familiar, it's because he's the namesake for Baker's Bourbon from Beam's Small Batch Collection, and that makes him one of the few living distillers with a Bourbon that bears his name. He'll share his history in distilling and memories of working with Booker Noe on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, the U.S. government shutdown is affecting whisky makers, but plenty of new whiskies beat Washington's budget clock in time to hit the market this week.

This week's WhiskyCast comes from Forty Creek Distillery's annual Whisky Weekend in Grimsby, Ontario. Forty Creek's John Hall makes his whisky differently from any other distiller, and we'll deconstruct Forty Creek Barrel Select on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth during a Whisky Weekend tasting session with John, Davin de Kergommeaux, and Johanne McInnis. In the news, a WhiskyCast exclusive -- Diageo's supply of whiskey for Bulleit Bourbon from Four Roses will be cut off next spring, and that could force Diageo to make a decision on the future of the long-closed Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville.

In the second of two episodes from this weekend's Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, we'll hear from the newest members of the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame. Fred Noe is the 7th generation member of the Beam family at Jim Beam, and Tom Blincoe's Buzick Construction has been responsible for most of the state's major distillery construction projects over the last several decades. In the news, Whisky Magazine announces the winners of this year's U.S. Icons of Whisky Awards, Jimmy Russell explains just what happened when his team made a mistake that led to Wild Turkey's new Forgiven, and Mike Veach tells us about the Filson Historical Society's Bourbon Challenge next month.

Parker Beam surprised everyone the other night at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown. He wasn't expected to attend the Kentucky Distillers Association's All-Star Sampler event with master distillers from all of the KDA member distilleries, but he came and spent the entire evening signing bottles and meeting Bourbon lovers. We'll hear from Parker about his battle with ALS on the first of this weekend's two episodes from the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

Ger Buckley is the fifth-generation cooper at Ireland's Midleton Distillery, but had no one to pass the torch to. In fact, there hadn't been an apprentice cooper at any Irish distillery for nearly four decades...but Ger was able to convince Irish Distillers that the tradition needed to be kept alive for another generation. 21-year-old Killian O'Mahony has just signed on for a four-year apprenticeship...he and Ger join us for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, we pay tribute to the late Lincoln Henderson, Buffalo Trace plans to keep honoring the late Elmer T. Lee, and the latest on this year's Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. This week's tasting notes include Wild Turkey's new Forgiven...an accidental blend of Rye and Bourbon. 

There was a changing of the guard at Ireland's Midleton Distillery this week, in addition to the housewarming party for Midleton's massive distillery expansion. Brian Nation officially replaced Barry Crockett as Master Distiller for Ireland's largest distillery, and it's the first time in almost 70 years that a Crockett family member won't be at the distillery. We'll meet the man charged with carrying on the legacy of names like Jameson, Power, and Crockett on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth, and get the details on the distillery expansion in our news update. There's also word on this year's special releases from Diageo, and Fred Laing tells us about the new Douglas Laing's Old Particular range of single cask bottlings. In this week's tasting notes, there's a little-known Irish whiskey from Midleton, Glen Grant's Five Decades single malt honoring longtime Master Distiller Dennis Malcolm, and a new Dalmore bottling from Single Cask Nation.

Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve Bourbons may well be some of the hardest whiskies to find, and hundreds of people call the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery office in Louisville every year begging to get just one bottle. Celebrities, ordinary people with a special occasion, and the most ardent Bourbon lovers all get the same answer from Preston Van Winkle and his father, Julian Van Winkle III: "We can't help you, now, but if you check with your local retailer in October, they might be able to find you a bottle." Preston Van Winkle joins us for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth to discuss "Pappy-Mania" -- and he'll tell us why this year's 23-year-old Pappy may well be the last of its kind. Ryan Maloney of Julio's Liquors in Massachusetts explains why he and his colleagues have to resort to lotteries to allocate their few bottles of Pappy each year, and Benjamin Lee will tell us about his quest to explore all 59 U.S. national parks (and a few distilleries) by motorcycle.

When Kentucky was still a wilderness in Colonial days, Pennsylvania was a hotbed of whiskey distilling. Back then, the Keystone State was known for its rye whiskies. Over the last several decades, though, Pennsylvania's distilling industry dried up and withered away. Herman Mihalich and John Cooper are trying to revive the tradition with their Dad's Hat Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey, producing it themselves at a converted wool mill in the Philadelphia suburb of Bristol. We'll hear their story on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Jack Daniel's is expanding, John Teeling's been pulled back into the Irish Whiskey business, the new Parker's Heritage Collection Bourbon has a mission of raising funding -- and awareness -- for ALS research, and this week's tasting notes include one of whisky's Holy Grails, the Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 23-year-old Bourbon.

Utah's High West Distillery & Saloon crams a craft distillery and high-end restaurant into two historic buildings in the ski resort's downtown area. James Dumas, a James Beard Award-nominated chef  and partner in High West, takes us on a tour of the distillery for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth, and it's often hard to tell where the distillery begins and the restaurant ends. Dumas didn't learn to appreciate what whisky offers until he started working with High West founder David Perkins, but now, he's a complete convert, as he showed us during the tour. In the news, Tomatin takes top honors at the Whisky Fringe for the second year in a row. We'll also have the latest on new whiskies from Tullamore Dew, Single Cask Nation, and a new series of Jameson bottlings...along with a reason to skip the duty-free shop if you're flying on Ryanair.

Last December, Wyoming Whiskey made its debut with thousands of whiskey lovers descending on the tiny town of Kirby, Wyoming. Kirby's quiet again, but the state's namesake Bourbon is still selling as fast as the distillery can produce it. This week, we'll catch up with Wyoming Whiskey co-founder David DeFazio and talk with the guys from Bin 21 in Jackson Hole about the demand for this unique whiskey. In the news, plenty of new Bourbons are coming from Elijah Craig, Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, and Old Forester. We'll also visit with Bob and Barbara Townsend of the Miner's Delight Inn in Atlantic City, Wyoming. Would you believe some people think they're on the Jersey Shore instead of high in the Rockies?

Keith Batt never dreamed of distilling whisky when he and his family bought the Nant Estate in Tasmania, but the farm had lots of barley and lots of water, along with a 120-year-old grist mill. Now, the Nant Distillery is celebrating its fifth anniversary, getting rave reviews for its whiskies, and Keith's 10-year-old son is already asking questions about the business. Keith joins us for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Diageo's profits are up and the world's largest whisky maker is looking for more acquisitions, a legendary Chicago whisky bar is getting its own Compass Box whisky and sharing it with the world, and we'll get the latest on new whiskies from around the world.

Ask a Scot about Ben Nevis, and you're more likely to hear about the highest peak in Scotland than the whisky of the same name. However, the Ben Nevis Distillery in Fort William is making a name of its own these days, with a 15-year-old single cask bottling that just won Best Single Malt Scotch 15 Years and Under in the International Wine & Spirit Competition. Longtime Ben Nevis manager Colin Ross joins us for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth to share his team's triumph and some history...including a dramming session years ago at Lagavulin that wiped out a historic sample of Malt Mill single malt. In the news, there's word of a deal between Diageo and Louisville air quality regulators over complaints about fungus from the angel's share at one of its maturation warehouses, and UK competition regulators have confirmed they're looking into Diageo's acquisition of United Spirits and its Whyte & Mackay unit in Scotland.

The whisky world lost one of the legends this week with the passing of Buffalo Trace Master Distiller Emeritus Elmer T. Lee. Not only was he responsible for making Single Barrel Bourbons popular when he came up with the idea for Blanton's, but two years later, he had a Single Barrel Bourbon named after him following his retirement in 1985. Elmer kept selecting the barrels for his bourbon right up until shortly before his death, and his whiskey is as good as the man himself. We'll remember Elmer T. Lee on this week's episode, with a look back at his life and legacy. In the news, Kentucky's distillers join forces to help Parker Beam raise money for ALS research, Balcones breaks ground on a new distillery in Waco, Texas, and the latest on nearly two dozen single cask Scotch whiskies released this week.

What goes into reviving a distillery that's been closed for 14 years? That was the question from WhiskyCast listener Scott Mansfield after Chivas Brothers reopened Glen Keith Distillery in Scotland last month,  and we put it to Alan Winchester of Chivas Brothers for this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Diageo plans to meet with UK regulators over the future of Whyte & Mackay after its purchase of India's United Spirits, new distilleries are coming to Louisville and Ireland, and our tasting panel from this month's WhiskyCast Virtual Tastings shares their thoughts on Russell's Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon.