DramMaster Daily Whisky News — 16 August 2026

Jameson Distiller's Batch Arrives in the US — Five Cask Types, One Heritage

Jameson has launched Distiller's Batch in the United States — 46% ABV, $49.99 SRP, joining the Jameson Reserve Series. Nationwide from September 2026 following pre-sale.

Crafted by Master Distiller Kevin O'Gorman at Midleton Distillery, it is matured across five oak cask types: ex-bourbon, Oloroso sherry, virgin Irish, virgin European, and virgin American oak. The whiskey opens with toasted oak, honeycomb, salted caramel and baking spices, followed by dark chocolate, toffee, cinnamon and orange peel.

O'Gorman said: "200 years ago, one of the very first Jameson recipes were crafted in the Single Pot Still tradition — a legacy we discovered in a mashbill handwritten by John Jameson II in a pocket notebook dated 1826, still kept today in our archive in Midleton. Distiller's Batch is our way of celebrating that origin story."

The release earned Gold at the BTI, Gold at the ISC, and Double Gold at the SFWSC — all in 2025.

Murray's take: Five cask types for $49.99 is a serious value play. The Single Pot Still heritage matters — the 1826 mashbill reference gives genuine lineage rather than marketing gloss. The three gold medals pre-launch tell you the liquid backs up the story. Pour it neat or in a Manhattan. If Irish whiskey has been off your radar, this is the bottle that pulls you back.

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Old Elk Distillery Launches 10-Year-Old Collection — Three Whiskeys, $69.99 Each

Old Elk Distillery, owned by Middle West Spirits of Columbus, Ohio, has released its 10-Year-Old Collection: a trio of straight bourbon, straight wheat whiskey, and wheated bourbon, each aged a full decade at $69.99 SRP. First major release since Middle West acquired Old Elk in May 2025.

The Straight Bourbon uses a high-malt mashbill of 51% corn, 34% malted barley, 15% rye, at 52.5% ABV. The Straight Wheat Whiskey runs 96% wheat, 4% malted barley, at 51.5% ABV. The Wheated Bourbon sits at 51% corn, 46% wheat, 3% malted barley, also 52.5% ABV.

Luis Gonzalez, CCO of Middle West Spirits, said: "We're excited to launch these whiskies with a very strong age statement. Through this 10-year collection, we can offer a line of whiskies with exceptional quality while maintaining accessibility, something truly rare in the industry."

All three are available nationwide and at the Middle West Spirits distillery bottle store in Columbus.

Murray's take: Three 10-year-old whiskeys at $69.99 each, all cask strength, all from an independently owned Ohio distillery. The high-malt bourbon (34% malted barley) is the unusual one — most bourbon mash bills run 10-15% malt at most. Middle West bought Old Elk last year and this is their first move: putting 10-year-old stock on the shelf at a price that undercuts most age-statement bourbon from the big houses. Worth seeking out.

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A $90 Australian Blended Malt Just Beat the Field at the Melbourne Royal Spirits Awards

Bird Blended Malt Whiskey, a South Australian collaboration between Fleurieu Distillery, Bird in Hand Winery, and entrepreneur Mark Bouris, has been named Best Blended Malt Whisky at the 2026 Melbourne Royal Australian International Spirits Awards. Retail: $90 per 700ml.

Bird was the only gold medallist among eight entries — the rest received five silver and two bronze. The whiskey is predominantly bourbon-cask matured with an apera-finished component. Notes: citrus, cream, baked shortbread, vanilla, honey, and a salted-caramel maritime edge.

Founders Mark Bouris, Andrew Nugent, and Paul Giles initially sold premium bottles at $200-300 before launching Bird in October 2025 as their accessible expression. Giles, who spent years in Japan, cited Japanese whisky's delicate character as inspiration: "We wanted to do something that was actually quite delicate, quite floral."

Fleurieu Distillery also won Best Australian Single Malt for its Tapestry expression. St Agnes Distillery was named Champion Large Australian Distiller.

Murray's take: A $90 blended malt winning gold against pricier competitors is the kind of result that matters. The Melbourne Royal is serious — international distilleries entered for the first time in 2026 — and Bird was the only gold in its category. The Japanese-whisky inspiration is worth noting: delicacy over power. The apera finish gives it a regional accent that separates it from Scotch blends. Fleurieu winning both Best Single Malt and Best Blended Malt tells you the whole operation is producing, not just one lucky cask. If Australian whisky has seemed out of reach price-wise, $90 is your entry.

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The Folk Song That Hid a Highland Whisky Still

In a public house somewhere north of the Grampians, a crofter could stand and sing the praises of his finest ewe, and half the room would drink to a sheep that never existed. The ewe with the crooked horn was hardy, thrifty and never once sick. She was also, as everyone present understood, made of hammered copper. The crooked horn was the coiled worm of an illicit whisky still, and the milk she gave was spirit run off a peat fire in a hidden glen.

The Excise Act of 1814 prohibited any Highland still with a capacity below 500 gallons — a threshold that would have consumed more grain than an entire Highland county could harvest. The same year, a separate law barred Highland distillers from selling spirit south of the Grampian Mountains. Communities weighed eviction against the excise laws and chose survival.

In 1782, more than 1,000 illicit stills were seized in the Highlands — and the seizures barely dented the trade. Gaelic speakers called the apparatus a phoit-dhubh — the black pot. Archaeologists at Ben Lawers have recovered a copper collar from one such still, hidden in a stone bothy, one of five known smuggling sites on a single nature reserve.

The Excise Act of 1823 allowed small-scale distilling under a license costing ten pounds plus a per-gallon fee. George Smith of Glenlivet took out one of the first licenses in 1824 and carried pistols for years against neighbours who regarded him as a traitor.

Murray's take: The illicit whisky trade was not romance. It was a Highland economy running on stills the law had made criminal, where a folk song about a sheep was the only safe language for talking about what kept the rent paid. The 1823 Excise Act is the hinge — it legalised small-scale distilling at a price crofters could meet, and smuggling died because the economics finally worked, not because the gaugers won. George Smith carrying pistols against his own neighbours for taking out a license tells you how real the divide was. The craft didn't disappear. It walked straight into the licensed distilleries that took their names from the same glens.

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Every World's Best Single Malt Winner — 20 Whiskies, 7 Countries, 20 Years

The World Whiskies Awards has crowned a World's Best Single Malt every year since 2007. Twenty whiskies, seven countries, and a shift from a Scotland-Japan duopoly to a genuinely global field.

The early years were split evenly: Talisker 18 (2007), Yoichi 1987 20 Year Old (2008), Highland Park 21 (2009), Ardbeg Corryvreckan (2010), Yamazaki 1984 (2011), Yamazaki 25 (2012). Then the field opened. Sullivans Cove French Oak Cask HH0525 from Tasmania won in 2014 — the first non-Scottish, non-Japanese winner. Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique from Taiwan took 2015. Teeling 24 Year Old gave Ireland its first title in 2019.

The current holder is Bowmore 21 Year Old Sherry Oak Cask, priced at £269 and still readily available. Scotland holds nine of the twenty titles, Japan five, England two, with one each for Australia, Taiwan, Ireland, and Israel. Kavalan, whose 2015 victory was Taiwan's first, was named Distiller of the Year at the 2026 awards.

The list's most striking detail is not who won but what's left. Most early winners are discontinued, at auction, or priced in the thousands. Talisker 18 and Ardbeg Corryvreckan remain in the core range and affordable — the exceptions, not the rule.

Murray's take: Twenty years of World's Best Single Malt and Scotland holds nine — not dominance, but persistence. The real story is the geographic spread: Tasmania, Taiwan, Ireland, Israel, England all producing a world champion in under two decades. The current holder, Bowmore 21 Sherry Oak at £269, is one of the few recent winners you can buy without going to auction. If you want to taste what the judges picked, start there.

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