It has been an excellent first year for our drinks community magazine project and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our readers and contributors for their support. We have plenty to offer in this issue including some reports from magical places. Over the past year we have been fortunate to visit Kavalan in Taiwan, Kupu in Hawaii, South Africa, Japan, Germany, Main Land USA and Ireland. Some of our team are heading to China later this year having already attended a world launch event there earlier in the year. We have some insightful educational features and even a very touching short story from one of our distiller friends. Please do not miss Pat’s amazing cocktail column and if you have time, take a look at our discussion about the environmental issues facing our industry. The usual questions to our industry friends have been answered by some living legends. Elani, our art director, has done a fantastic job again and we are grateful to all of our supporters and advertisers for their kindness. Thank you and please do not hesitate to get in touch with your feedback and comments. We very much hope you will enjoy our 4th issue.

Welcome to the inaugural issue of our new magazine. World Whisky & More is a new “old” idea of ours that we have wanted to pursue for a while. We have a wonderful community and a great set of whisky specialist friends throughout the world and we thought it was time to explore and cover the topic of ‘World Whisky’ in a new and refreshing way, with discussions with our friends, interviews and insights, and other entertaining content that could create a bridge between producers, industry professionals and consumers. WW&M is more like a collaboration and a forum about innovation, environmental issues and other developments in the industry rather than just another magazine. We are lucky to have such a great mixture of contributors, as well as input from the different awards and competitions, so that we can help some of the smaller distillers and innovators shine and make the industry a more colourful place. As they say, variety is the spice of life.

First of all, a big heartfelt thank you, dear reader, for your support. Our first issue was an unexpected and very happy success and we had a lot of great feedback from our readers like you. Thank you. Welcome to our second issue, with a similar diversity of great contributors and topics. We’ve continued to ask our world- renowned whisky friends about our main topic and we have a great selection of articles covering our latest adventures and discoveries. We’ve been to Kentucky, Iceland, South Africa, India and New Zealand and our network of specialists are discovering world whisky and even more beyond this beautiful amber liquid around the globe. We are lucky to have Marie’s new series of articles covering Shochu and there are tasting notes and reports from the Swiss Spirits Review as well as some opinion pieces and insights into the latest developments of world whiskies. We hope you enjoy this second issue of our magazine and look forward to hearing from you if you fancy sharing your opinions and comments. Thank you for your continued support and enjoy.

Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2019. The 16th edition and the 15th anniversary. The world's leading whisky guide.

It is a great pleasure to see the amazing reception that the first two issues have had, and now here we go with issue three. The diversity of contributors is just brilliant, not to mention that all the great and legendary members of the whisky industry are continuing to reply to our call and are happy to answer our main question about world whisky. We have welcomed new International Drinks Specialists members and new contributors in the making of this issue and during our research we have found true hidden gems again. Our contributors and specialists continued their journeys and visited some excellent distilleries, and, from just popping down the road to see a friend in local distilleries, to big intercontinental diplomatic visits, we carried on exploring. Personally I find it very exciting to see environmental solutions and sustainability efforts at the distilleries that we visit and write about, and wonderful to learn about all the innovation that helps world whisky to stay exciting and relevant. It is heartwarming to see the beautiful feedback from our readers and from the whisky community. Thank you so much for your support this year: Merry Christmas and see you in 2024.

World Whiskey is your nation-by-nation whiskey bible to more than 700 varieties and top award-winners from around the world. Featuring an up-to-date photograph for each type to aid in recognition, this comprehensive reference guides you through every important distilling nation-from Dewar's and Macallan in Scotland to Jack Daniel's and Maker's Mark in the United States to Amrut and Lammerlaw in Asia and Australasia. Its nation-by-nation A to Z format makes it accessible for confirmed whiskey lovers and new converts alike. Tasting notes and information on the factors that contribute to each variety's unique flavor help you explore and enjoy this distinctive spirit. Learn about every aspect of whiskey production, gain insight into the operation and secrets of featured distilleries, use whiskey tour maps to plan trips around major whiskey-producing regions, and much more. With this completely up-to-date edition of World Whiskey, you are sure to find a satisfying dram wherever you are.

We had an amazing start of the year with a very busy drinks competition judging season and the third annual gathering of the Council of Whiskey Masters - and both of us as examination chairmen at this historical event. The first ever Master of Whiskey exams (Level 4) were a success and our visit to the Isle of Raasay and eponymous distillery was just joy. Raasay DIstillery is a must visit if one is visiting Skye it is a must to go over to Raasay. Avoid missing out on something special and take the ferry over to see Alasdair and the team. At this years Swiss Spirits Review we got many amazing entries to talk about and there are some beautiful new releases and discoveries from our work at International Drinks Specialists in our Editor’s Choice. We continue to grow and welcome new contributors including the legendary Joe Micallef as cultural editor. We also feel that we must mention our very talented art director Elani doing a wonderful job with designing our magazine and working with us so nicely. Thank you!