News
Can the Americans Keep Waterford’s Dream Alive?
Published 11/11/2025
Waterford Whisky, once Ireland’s bold experiment in terroir-driven spirit making, has found itself adrift until a group of Tennessee distillers offered €6 million to haul it ashore. The deal, still in exclusive talks, covers the distillery, the brand, and its bottled stock, but not the millions of litres of aging whiskey still held by the receivers. It is a story of ambition, insolvency, and a dash of American optimism poured into Irish copper stills.
Can the Americans Keep Waterford’s Dream Alive?
The World’s Oldest Whisky: Glenlivet 85 by Gordon & MacPhail
Published 09/11/2025
Gordon & MacPhail’s latest release, an 85-year-old Glenlivet bottled from cask #336, has officially become the world’s oldest Scotch whisky ever bottled. Released through Christie’s as part of the “Artistry in Oak” auction, it stands as a patient monument to time, craftsmanship, and the improbable endurance of oak. In a small, mist-soaked corner of Scotland where the sheep are winning the population race, one of those places that seems to have been designed primarily for the amusement of weather systems, a family called Gordon & MacPhail has performed a feat of improbable physics.
The World’s Oldest Whisky: Glenlivet 85 by Gordon & MacPhail
Uncle Nearest: The Oldest New Distillery in America
Published 08/11/2025
Uncle Nearest, the award-winning whiskey brand founded in 2017 to honour 19th-century distiller Nearest Green, has been placed under court-appointed receivership and may yet file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company is selling off vineyards, a Cognac château, and other non-whiskey assets in an attempt to stay solvent. Few whiskey brands can claim roots deep in the 1850s while only having an official birth certificate from 2017. Uncle Nearest manages it with the kind of confidence usually reserved for politicians, like saying you’ve been a punk since birth but your first gig was last Tuesday.
Uncle Nearest: The Oldest New Distillery in America
Ardbeg Appoints First Female Manager in Modern Times
Published 07/11/2025
Ardbeg has appointed Bryony McNiven as its new distillery manager, effective 1 January 2026. A chemist by training and lifelong Islay local who has worked with Ardbeg for over a decade. Niven will be the first woman to hold the role in modern times. There are many jobs in the whisky industry that sound wonderfully poetic until you realise they mostly involve paperwork, boilers, and the unpredictable nature of barley.
Ardbeg Appoints First Female Manager in Modern Times
Ardent Spirits Aquires Liquidated Chapter 7 Indie Bottler
Published 06/11/2025
Update Brand Rescued by Ardent Spirits The sector specialist, as it turns out, was not a mysterious consortium of intergalactic accountants but simply Ardent Spirits, a company that already owns Dark Matter Distillers and therefore has at least some experience in handling liquids that encourage philosophical reflection. Begbies Traynor confirmed the acquisition with the solemn relief of people who have finally finished a long and deeply disappointing spreadsheet. Read full update →
Ardent Spirits Aquires Liquidated Chapter 7 Indie Bottler