DramMaster Daily Whisky News — 6 August 2026

Beyoncé Takes Full Ownership of SirDavis Whisky

Beyoncé has acquired full ownership of SirDavis American Whisky, buying out Moët Hennessy's stake less than two years after the brand launched in August 2024. Financial terms were not disclosed. SirDavis was Moët Hennessy's first spirits brand built from the ground up in the US. The brand is named after Beyoncé's paternal great-grandfather, Davis Hogue, a farmer and moonshiner during Prohibition. Bottled at 44% ABV from a mash bill of 51% rye and 49% malted barley, it is distilled by MGP Ingredients and finished, blended, and bottled in Texas. The liquid was developed by Dr Bill Lumsden of Glenmorangie and Ardbeg alongside head blender Cameron George. It retails at around US$89 (£79 in the UK). The buyout coincides with LVMH restructuring its wines and spirits division following a prolonged downturn in Cognac and Champagne sales.

Murray's take: When Moët Hennessy launches a celebrity whisky and walks away in under two years, the story isn't the celebrity — it's the walking away. LVMH's drinks division is under real pressure, and a boutique American whiskey venture is the easiest thing to jettison. Beyoncé now owns the brand outright: full creative control, full commercial risk. SirDavis at £79 competes in a crowded premium rye segment against brands with decades of shelf recognition. The question is whether the liquid justifies the price without the LVMH distribution machine behind it.

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Duncan Taylor Releases First Mizunara Cask Finish — 14-Year-Old Auchentoshan, 76 Bottles

Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky has launched its first-ever Mizunara oak cask finish as part of its Octave portfolio. The release features a triple-distilled Auchentoshan single malt, distilled in October 2011 and matured for 14 years before spending four months in a Mizunara octave sourced directly from Japan. Bottled at 52.1% ABV, the outturn is 76 bottles. Priced at £125, it is available exclusively through The Spirits Embassy. Before octavation the whisky showed vanilla yoghurt, honey, ginger, and soft citrus. After four months in Mizunara, those notes evolved into creamy rice pudding, golden syrup, mandarin, cedarwood, and a lingering ginger warmth. "Auchentoshan's lighter, triple-distilled spirit allowed the Mizunara oak to fully express its natural character and the results far exceeded our expectations," said Ian Logan, senior spirits manager at Duncan Taylor.

Murray's take: Mizunara oak is a nightmare to work with — porous, prone to leakage, and expensive to source. But what it does to whisky in four months is genuinely distinctive: sandalwood, incense, and a cedarwood spice that no other oak produces. Duncan Taylor chose well pairing it with Auchentoshan's lighter triple-distilled spirit, which gives the wood room to speak. £125 for 76 bottles is a calculated bet on scarcity. The risk is that four months isn't long enough for the Mizunara to truly integrate — it may read as an overlay rather than a transformation. But Duncan Taylor's Octave range is built for exactly this kind of test.

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Godawan Sweeps World Whisky Masters 2026 With Master and Two Golds

Godawan Artisanal Single Malt Whisky by Diageo India has secured one Master and two Gold medals at The Spirits Business World Whisky Masters 2026. Godawan 01 Rich & Rounded was the only expression in the India – Single Malt category to receive the top Master medal, while Godawan 02 Fruit & Spice and Godawan 173 each earned Gold — a clean sweep for the portfolio. The competition uses blind tasting by an independent panel, with brand identity and packaging excluded. Godawan 01 is matured in PX sherry casks with notes of sultanas, dried fruits, fig, and apricot, with a syrupy texture and a finish of mature wood, caramel, and baklava. Godawan 02 is matured in virgin oak and finished in cherrywood casks, carrying rich fruit, vanilla, sweet ginger, and roasted coffee bean. Godawan 173, the limited-edition collector's expression, is matured for over nine years across ex-bourbon, oloroso, PX sherry, and heritage Asha Liqueur casks. The brand has now crossed 125 global awards.

Murray's take: Godawan's competition record is no longer a surprise — it's a pattern. Three expressions entered, three medals, one Master. The PX sherry cask maturation on Godawan 01 is doing the heavy lifting; sherry cask influence reads well in blind tasting, and the syrupy, dried-fruit profile is exactly what panels reward. Godawan 173 at nine-plus years across four cask types is the interesting one — an ambitious maturation programme for a distillery that only launched in 2022. Diageo India is investing in credibility, and the awards are stacking up.

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Wylye Distillery Opens Its Wiltshire Farm to Whisky Visitors

Wylye Distillery in Wiltshire, England, has announced it is ready to welcome trade, media, and private guests to its Windmill Farm site in the Wylye Valley. The move comes as founder and distiller Sam Barber marks the third birthday of his first bourbon barrels, laid down in July 2023. Barber has built the operation single-handedly across four repurposed farm buildings in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The warehouse now holds over 1,000 casks. The distillery uses a half-tonne brewhouse with five temperature-controlled washbacks and two Forsyths copper pot stills running balanced double distillation. Barley is sourced from a local grower, with malting at a nearby floor maltings. All distillate goes into casks for full-term maturation — no finishing. Ex-bourbon barrels form the warehouse bedrock, supplemented by ex-solera butts and a seasoning programme with wineries in Montilla-Moriles and Jerez. Visitor facilities sit in a restored dairy with a bespoke bar, log burner, vatting lab, and drinks terrace. Barber said he will not be bottling yet.

Murray's take: One man, four farm buildings, 1,000 casks, and he's not bottling for at least another year. That's either conviction or madness, and the line between them in whisky is thin. The setup is serious — Forsyths stills, floor maltings, a sherry butt seasoning programme with Montilla-Moriles and Jerez cooperages. Barber is building a warehouse profile, not a marketing story. The refusal to bottle at three years is the right call for a distillery whose entire stock is full-term maturation with no finishing shortcuts. English single malt is crowded with new entrants, but most are selling vision before the spirit is ready. Wylye is opening the doors after the casks have aged, not before.

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Boann Distillery Launches Stillness Irish Whiskey Exclusively for M&S

Marks & Spencer has partnered with Boann Distillery in the Boyne Valley to launch Stillness Irish Whiskey, a new own-label spirit created exclusively for M&S customers across Ireland and the UK. The whiskey was developed over two years of collaboration between M&S product developers and Boann's team, with multiple on-site blending and tasting sessions at the distillery in Lagavooren, on the outskirts of Drogheda. Stillness is a triple-cask blend bottled at 40% ABV in a 700ml bottle, with tasting notes of gentle vanilla and honeyed sweetness balanced by soft oak and a warming finish. Boann is family-run, founded by the Cooney family, whose experience in the Irish drinks industry spans over 60 years. The distillery operates two sites in County Meath and Tipperary employing more than 90 people, and also supplies M&S's Irish Cream Liqueur. Peter Cooney, export sales director, described the two-year development process as "meticulous" and "demanding in all the right ways."

Murray's take: An own-label Irish whiskey from M&S, developed over two years with a family distillery that already supplies their Irish cream liqueur. This is supermarket private label done properly — not a contract bottling with a label slapped on, but a genuine distillery collaboration with on-site blending. At 40% ABV and triple-cask blended, Stillness is aimed at the accessible end of the Irish whiskey shelf — sipping and mixing, not collecting. Boann is a working distillery with 90-plus employees and a US export presence, not a contract filler. M&S choosing them over a larger producer says something about where own-label spirits are heading. Whether Stillness differentiates itself from the dozens of other blends at this price point depends entirely on what's in the bottle.

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