DramMaster Daily Whisky News — 7 September 2026

By Murray

Living Souls Releases Six New Whiskies: A £67 Tamnavulin to a 50-Year-Old Carsebridge

Independent bottler Living Souls has released six new whiskies, from a £67 Tamnavulin to a 50-year-old single grain from Carsebridge, one of Scotland's silent distilleries. The Carsebridge 50 Year Old is bottled at 40.3% ABV and priced at £279.95 for a 70cl bottle. Carsebridge was founded near Alloa in 1799 by John Bald and began life as a malt distillery before conversion to grain production in 1852. It grew into one of the major Lowland grain sites of the 19th century, became a founding member of Distillers Company Ltd in 1877, and was one of Scotland's biggest grain distilleries before it passed to Scottish Grain Distillers in 1966. It is now closed. The 50-year-old carries tasting notes of orange blossom, lemon sherbet and butter shortbread on the nose, with mandarin, vanilla fudge, cardamom buns and a touch of coconut on the palate. The release joins a Living Souls portfolio that includes long-aged grain whiskies from Port Dundas and a 45-year-old Bunnahabhain single malt.

Murray's take: A 50-year-old grain whisky from a closed distillery at under £280 is aggressively priced for what it is. Carsebridge grain at this age is genuinely rare — silent distillery grain carries a different scarcity than silent distillery malt, and the market still undervalues it. Living Souls is building a reputation for exactly this kind of bottling: old stock, accessible pricing, no mythology.

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Gordon & MacPhail's Final Talisker: A 39-Year-Old from 1987

Gordon & MacPhail have bottled their last ever Talisker — a 39-year-old single malt distilled in 1987, drawn from a single refill sherry butt and limited to 451 bottles at 51.4% ABV. The release has sold out almost everywhere in the UK. On the nose, it leans into a classic sherry profile: rum and raisin fudge, melted milk chocolate, hazelnut, and exotic fruit running through mango, pineapple and green apple, with only the faintest tingle of smoke after nearly four decades in cask. The palate is unmistakably Talisker — peppery, meaty, robust spice opening with slow-cooked brisket, brine and pickles before bright orange jelly cuts through. The chilli pepper smokiness associated with the distillery arrives with real potency, and later sips turn botanical: pine resin, mint and coriander seed. The reviewer awarded it nine out of ten.

Murray's take: Independently bottled Talisker of this age is rare. The distillery's own releases rarely approach four decades. The fact that this is the last G&M Talisker is the headline, and it explains the sellout. G&M earned their reputation by bottling old whisky properly, and this sounds like a fitting close. The sherry-forward nose giving way to Talisker's peppery signature on the palate is exactly what you would hope for from a 39-year-old refill butt.

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Johnnie Walker Red Soul: Diageo Builds a Smoke-Free Walker for Non-Whisky Drinkers

Diageo announced Johnnie Walker Red Soul on 11 March 2026, calling it the first global innovation to sit under the Red Label banner. It is a sweeter, smoother blended Scotch aimed at people who do not currently drink whisky, rolling out across Europe and the Middle East since the spring. Red Soul and Red Label share the same ABV (40%), bottle size (700ml), lack of age statement, and roughly the same recommended price of £25. The difference is in the character: Red Label has a peppery, smoky edge; Red Soul removes the smoke and dials up vanilla sweetness and caramel fudge. Master blender Dr. Emma Walker, who has held the role since January 2022, said the team "kept the lively, approachable core that defines Red Label, but chose to dial up the vibrant vanilla sweetness and smoothness, deliberately stepping away from smoky notes." The house serve is Red Soul with lemonade, a pinch of sea salt, and a strawberry garnish. Diageo's global whiskey director John Williams called it "softer, bit sweeter and perfect for mixing."

Murray's take: Red Soul is a recruitment bottle, not a whisky enthusiast's bottle, and Diageo is straightforward about that. Removing smoke to reach non-whisky drinkers is a sound commercial move — smoke is the single biggest flavour barrier for new entrants. At £25 and built for lemonade, it competes with RTD cocktails more than it competes with Black Label. Whether it converts anyone to whisky drinking is a longer question, but Diageo did not build it for people who already drink the stuff.

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The Borders Distillery Names David King Strategic Advisor Ahead of First Single malt Launch

The Borders Distillery (TBD) has appointed industry veteran David King as senior strategic advisor, ahead of the launch of its single malt Scotch whisky brand in September 2026 — the first single malt from the Scottish Borders since 1837. King brings more than 30 years of experience across the premium whisky industry, with previous roles at Edrington, Berry Bros. & Rudd, Anchor Brewers & Distillers and Gordon & MacPhail. He joins a team strengthened earlier this year by the appointment of Giancarlo Bianchi as managing director. The Hawick-based distillery opened in 2018, becoming the first single malt distillery to operate in the Scottish Borders in nearly two centuries. It already produces gin and vodka. King called the distillery "a rare beast among the new distilleries that have sprung up over the last 20 years," saying it has "the setup and ambition of a global brand even before a bottle of its single malt whisky has been sold." Bianchi emphasised the whisky's "uniqueness of origin" combined with "high quality and approachable style" and an "accessible price position."

Murray's take: A distillery hiring a 30-year veteran with Edrington and G&M on his CV right before its first single malt launch says something. The Borders has been maturing stock for eight years, patience most new distilleries do not have. The "accessible price" positioning is the right call for a region with no existing single malt identity. The first Borders single malt in 189 years does not need to be expensive to matter.

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Whisky Waste to Biofuel: A WWI Fermentation Process Finds New Life in Scotland's Distillery Waste

Scotland's malt whisky industry produces almost 750,000 tonnes of spent barley (draff) and two billion litres of copper-laced pot ale annually. As little as seven percent of what comes out of a distillery is drinkable spirit. Celtic Renewables, an Edinburgh firm founded in 2012 as a spin-out from Edinburgh Napier University by microbiologist Professor Martin Tangney, has industrialised a century-old fermentation process to turn that waste into biobutanol, a direct petrol substitute. The process, acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation using the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum, was originally developed by Chaim Weizmann at the University of Manchester during the First World War to produce acetone for cordite. By 1917, the process was making nearly 3,000 tonnes of acetone a year at the Royal Navy Cordite Factory at Holton Heath in Dorset. The value has since flipped: in wartime, acetone was the target and butanol a nuisance byproduct; today, butanol is the target as fuel, and the process is run for the molecule the original operators barely knew what to do with. Celtic Renewables demonstrated the concept in 2017 by fuelling a Ford Focus with whisky-waste biofuel, and has since built Scotland's first biorefinery at Grangemouth. Tangney said his objective is "to change the economy, taking stuff with limited use and upvaluing it."

Murray's take: Two billion litres of pot ale a year is a waste problem most people outside the industry do not know exists. The fact that the solution is a WWI process shelved decades ago because oil got cheap — and now revived because oil is expensive and waste disposal costs money — is a neat industrial loop. Celtic Renewables is not making boutique whisky products; they are making petrol from the part of the process that nobody wants. The Grangemouth biorefinery is the proof it works at scale.

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