Barley Magazine

07/10/2026

Five whiskies. Five defining moments in the life of Sir Kenny Dalglish. 🥃⚽

From a 74-year-old Glen Grant distilled in the year he was born to a 31-year-old Glentauchers marking Blackburn’s 1995 Premier League title, Dalglish personally tasted and selected each wh**ky with Gordon & MacPhail.

Just 15 sets have been released worldwide, priced at £100,000 each.

Read the full story at BarleyMagazine.Com

11/09/2026

English Wh**ky now has protected status. After years of debate, the new GI finally sets out what can legally be called English Wh**ky, while leaving plenty of room to allow the category to evolve.

**ky **ky

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04/09/2026

What started with a $130 bottle of Blue Label became one of the most remarkable Johnnie Walker collections ever assembled.

After more than 20 years of collecting, Frans Op den Kamp is sending more than 3,200 bottles, miniatures and pieces of memorabilia to auction this September, including rare early bottlings, hundreds of Blue Label releases and a £30,000 Jenson Button Signature Blend.

Together, they tell a century-long story of how Johnnie Walker became one of the biggest names in Scotch wh**ky.

Read the full story at Barleymagazine.com

Wh**ky Auctioneer

01/09/2026

The Glendronach (The Glendronach ) is celebrating 200 years with Boynsmill House Edition, a new 14-year-old single malt that adds a small number of French Claret casks to the distillery’s classic Oloroso and Pedro Ximénez maturation.

Master blender Dr Rachel Barrie (Dr Rachel Barrie Hon. DSc.) tells Barley Magazine the w**e casks are there to “harmonise with, rather than replace, our signature style” - a style already beautifully represented by the excellent, and still somewhat under-recognised, Glendronach 12 Year Old.

Read the interview with Dr Barrie at barleymagazine.com

Boynsmill House Edition is bottled at 46.8% ABV and priced at £95. Available from The Wh**ky Shop

31/08/2026

31/08/2026

What happens when a distiller spends six years experimenting with almost every part of wh**ky production, then finally decides what he wants his wh**ky to be?

Rich Lock has announced a major change of direction at Retribution Distilling, his tiny Somerset operation tucked away in old farm buildings near Frome.

Gin and rum are going. Peat is being phased out. Wh**ky is moving firmly to the centre of everything.

That wh**ky will be built around heritage barley, brewers’ yeast, long fermentation, direct-fired stills and, most unusually, malt smoked by Rich himself using applewood from Somerset orchards.

It is the latest chapter in a distillery that began with home brewing and a garden shed, before Rich moved to the farm in 2020 and started filling wh**ky casks. Much of the equipment has been designed, adapted or built by him, production remains tiny and some mornings begin at 4am just to get the next mash underway.

“I, Richard Lock, make a difference,” he says. “I can’t have off days.”

We went to Somerset to meet Rich, taste the wh**ky and find out why, after years of experimentation, Retribution has finally decided exactly what it wants to become.

The next Retribution release lands on 14 September.

**ky **ky **ky

27/08/2026

🇫🇮 O FINLÂNDIA! 🇫🇮

🥃 I already loved Kyrö Distillery Company rye wh**ky before I visited the place where it is made, but earlier this year I spent a memorable few days in the beautiful north-west corner of Finland and came away loving it (and the funny, kind team who run it) much, much more.

So this is my love letter to Finland.

🪓 Centuries of invasion, brutal winters and geographical isolation, have forged a people who are resilient without swagger, patriotic without bombast and warm without ever becoming showy.

They’re also superbly droll - drier that a dessicated raisin.

⛪️ It’s a part of the country that’s abundant in unspoilt beauty, brooding pre-historic sites and the kind of trees, wooden barns and railway crossings that bring to mind a gruesome Netflix Scandi noir series.

I loved all of it.

Huge thanks to my friends Vaasa Citylife and everyone I met at Kyrö Distillery Company and in the town for being the best and most generous hosts.

If you need a pick me up for the soul, head to isokyrö and Vaasa. You’ll come away replenished, I promise you.

⬆️ link to the feature in biog ⬆️

Visit Vaasa VisitFinland Kvarken World Heritage STRAMPEN Bock's Corner Brewery ***ey

25/08/2026

The stars have aligned. The Wh**ky Exchange The Wh**ky Exchange has released the final four bottles in its Zodiac Series, completing a 12-wh**ky collection matching different drams to the supposed personalities of each sign.

Scorpio gets a rich, sherried 15-year-old Speyside single malt, Sagittarius a powerful four-year-old Bunnahabhain matured in a first-fill oloroso butt, Capricorn an 11-year-old Macduff full of apple, butterscotch and chocolate, while Aquarius takes perhaps the most intriguing bottle of the lot - a funky 10-year-old Campbeltown blended malt at 57.4%.

Each wh**ky was selected by Dawn Davies Dawn Davies and Chris Bolton, with artwork by Jenna Morse from The Wh**ky Exchange design team, and together the 12 bottles form one of the more playful independent bottling collections we have seen this year.

The final four go on general sale on 7 September. Head to BarleyMagazine.com for the full story and a closer look at what is inside each bottle.

**ky

11/08/2026

For years, cask investment firms sold wh**ky as an asset whose value would keep rising. Now some of those same companies are becoming bottlers, putting the liquid on shelves and asking drinkers to pay the premium.

We ask whether this is simply the natural next step for the trade, or the point where two very different wh**ky worlds start colliding.

***ey **ky

08/08/2026

Wh**ky and Antarctica have a longer history together than you might expect.

From the crates of Scotch carried south by Shackleton, to bottles recovered from beneath his frozen hut more than a century later, wh**ky has followed explorers to the end of the earth.

Now, for the first time, a cask has been deliberately matured on the continent itself.

We trace Antarctica’s strange and fascinating relationship with wh**ky, and ask what three years in one of the harshest environments on the planet might do to the spirit inside.

Read the full story at BarleyMagazine.come