Spirits Of Whisk(e)y S2 Episodes

This week's guests on Spirits of Whisk(e)y are Christopher Pellegrini and Stephen Lyman, founders of Honkaku Spirits, US importer of a rapidly expanding portfolio of Japanese spirits, including koji whiskey and a wide range of shochus. Listen and learn how Christopher, a university lecturer turned certified sake and awamori expert, and Stephen, a clinical epidemioligist and medical educator, went from indulging a passion for Japanese libations to pinning their professional future on building a g...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Rhonda Kallman, Founder & CEO of Boston Harbor Distillery. Located at The Port on Boston Harbor in a renovated 1850s brick and beam building, the Distillery produces an expansive portfolio of distilled spirits, with a particular focus on whiskey, including a bottled-in-bond single malt. Listen and learn how the matriarch of Boston's craft beer movement—Rhonda founded both The Boston Beer Company, makers of Samuel Adams, and New Century Brewing Co.—wen...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Louise Mc Guane, Founder of J.J. Corry Irish Whiskey and Ireland's first modern whiskey bonder. Listen and learn how this daughter of Irish agriculture enjoyed a career promoting a global portfolio of spirits with the likes of Diageo, Pernod Ricard, and Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton before returning to the family farm to revive the generations-old practice of blending and maturing select whiskeys from across the Emerald Isle. Spirits of Whisk(e)y is ...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Mark Reynier, Founder of Waterford Whisky in Waterford, Ireland, the Emerald Isle's oldest city, as well as Renegade Rum Distillery on the tiny Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Listen and learn how this former wine merchant went from resurrecting Islay's long-shuttered Bruichladdich Distillery and helping to revive the tradition of Scottish gin making by introducing The Botanist to converting a former Guinness brewery into Waterford Distillery, mak...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Paul John, Chairman of John Distilleries in Goa, India, makers of Paul John Indian Single Malts, some of the world's finest and most award-winning whiskies. Listen and learn how the company, founded in 1996, grew from an idea to a leading spirits manufacturer in less than a decade—not just in India, but across the globe—introducing its first single malt whiskies, to worldwide acclaim, in 2012. Please visit spiritsofwhiskey.com for show notes, past ...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Harris Cooper, PhD, Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Emeritus, at Duke University and author of American History Through a Whiskey Glass. Listen and learn how Dr. Cooper, the editor and author of numerous social science textbooks and an avid student of American history, went from hosting whiskey and music pairing dinners with his wife to becoming an Executive Bourbon Steward and penning an engaging and whimsical book that colorfully illustrates...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Matthew Cordiner, Global Brand Ambassador for Single Malts at Scotland's John Dewar & Sons. While this Speyside native grew up in the village of Craigellachie, home to one of the single malt whiskies in his charge, it was a chance summer position as a distillery tour guide that opened his eyes to the possibility of a career in promoting the water of life. Hear Matthew wax both poetic and technical over Aberfeldy and Craigellachie, but two of the five ...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Joe Beatrice, Founder of Louisville, Kentucky's Barrell Craft Spirits and his newest project, Stellum Spirits. After a successful career in advertising, founding and leading Blue Dingo Digital in the 1990s, the Boston native and New York technology and marketing entrepreneur turned his talents to whiskey and rum, launching Barrell Craft in 2013. Hear Joe, the driving force behind Stellum Spirits, discuss the brand's initial blends, Stellum Bourbon and...

This week's guests on Spirits of Whisk(e)y are the powerhouse trio who quite literally run, distill, and blend Penderyn, the first whisky made in Wales in over 100 years. Listen and learn how CEO Stephen Davies, Distillery Manager Laura Davies, and Master Blender Aista Phillips followed unlikely career paths to producing award-winning single malt whiskies and other spirits at the Welsh Whisky Company and its Penderyn Distillery, in the foothills of the magnificent Brecon Beacons in South Wales. ...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Dave Beck, a 3D digital, game, and new media artist. He's also a professor of game design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, in Menomonie, Wisconsin. All very exciting stuff, but just why are we featuring him and his work in this space? Well, he created Distilled, a board game of spirited strategy based on his sabbatical research in—where else?—Scotland! Please visit spiritsofwhiskey.com for full show notes, past episodes, and coming attractions...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Kaitlyn Tsai, Global PR Officer at Taiwan's Kavalan Distillery, recognized by the spirits press as maker of multiple best-in-class whiskies, including the celebrated Vinho Barrique. Listen and learn how Kaitlyn went from a successful career in film production to representing Taiwanese whisky before a global audience, in the process being named Icons of Whisky's 2021 "World Whisky Brand Ambassador." Then hear Chef Louise Leonard wax delicious over pair...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Donal O'Gallachoir, Co-Owner & US National Brand Manager at Ireland's Glendalough Distillery, in County Wicklow, just south of Dublin. Founded by five friends, including Donal, with a mutual love of Irish whiskey and Irish lore, the distillery is located in a narrow glacial valley—"Glendalough" is Irish for "the valley of two lakes"—in the Wicklow Mountains, the historical and spiritual home of the legendary St. Kevin, whose image graces each and ever...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Seth Benhaim, Founder & CEO of L.A.'s Infuse Spirits, makers of Broken Barrel Whiskey. Listen and learn how this inveterate entrepreneur went from infusing premium vodka with fresh and dried whole fruit to creating a range of whiskeys that employ broken barrel staves in an oak bill unique to each expression. Plus we catch up on what's new with past guest Matt Hofmann, Master Distiller at Seattle's Westland Distillery, in the first edition of "Whiskey ...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Daniel Szor, Founder & CEO of The Cotswold Distilling Company, operators of Cotswolds Distillery in Shipston-on-Stour, a small town in Warwickshire, England. Listen and learn how this native New Yorker went from managing currency investments in Paris and London to making exceptional English single malt whiskies, as well as a range of distinctive gins, in the British Midlands. You can even read about his story in Daniel's 2020 autobiography, Spirit Gui...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Dr. Don Livermore, Master Blender at Hiram Walker & Sons Limited. Located in Windsor, Ontario, just across the Detroit River from Motor City, the historic Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery is Canada's oldest—and North America's largest!—and home to a vast range of spirits and brands, including a distinguished quartet of Canadian whiskies: J.P. Wiser's, Lot No. 40, Pike Creek, and Gooderham & Worts. Listen and learn how "Dr. Don," who this year celebrates...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Rob Arnold, Master Distiller at Firestone & Robertson Distilling Co., in Fort Worth, Texas, makers of TX Whiskey. Fort Worth, aka Cowtown, was at one time home to the world's largest horse and mule market. Now, however, thanks to the pioneering work of this third-generation whiskey professional and bona fide Renaissance man, it's a center of whiskey innovation. Listen and learn how the author of Shots of Knowledge: The Science of Whiskey (2016) and Th...

This week's guest on Spirits of Whisk(e)y is Robin Robinson, author of The Complete Whiskey Course: A Comprehensive Tasting School in Ten Classes. This veteran of the spirits sector has led a full and colorful life in whiskey, traveling the globe as both brand ambassador—Compass Box, anyone?—and whiskey educator, and now he's compiled that expertise and that experience into one handy and remarkably thorough tome. Listen and learn how Robin went from trodding the boards—because he's an actor, of ...