The World Whisky Forum aims to be a collaborative space for bold thinking and knowledge sharing. Here are my top five takeaways from three days of discussion with some of the international industry’s brightest minds. 

Safe Space Whisky is an Instagram campaign that calls on distillery visitor centres, bars and other whisky spaces to show they’re a safe space for Trans+ people following the UK Supreme Court ruling.

The UK’s majority-men Supreme Court just decided on the legal definition of ‘woman’. Tl;dr: the outcome is terrible for everyone, most urgently trans women. This is what it means for whisky, and why the ruling sets a dangerous precedent for all of us.

Has International Women’s Day lost its clout? What started as a protest movement needs to go back to its roots and beyond feel-good celebrations if we want to see lasting equitable change. Here’s what the whisky industry can do. 

Glenmorangie has unveiled its major Once Upon a Time in Scotland campaign to much fanfare. Recruiting Harrison Ford as the face of the brand sends a clear message – and it also provides a lens through which to view the wider troubled Scotch industry. Here are three takeaways from the starry series. 

The Kentucky Bourbon Festival brought all the vibes, good times, and of course, whiskey. And the whole atmosphere felt strikingly different to UK whisky events. Here’s what the community on this side of the pond, from organisers and brands to guests, can learn from it.

Unless you’ve tasted it and genuinely dislike the profile, there’s very little reason to dismiss Beyoncé and Moët Hennessy’s SirDavis release. Here’s what’s really going on.

Divisive politics, bad optics and a leaked email: why Brown-Forman’s decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are a lose-lose for everyone.  

A gamut of whisky releases have raised the question: are batch releases fair for both whisky lovers and distilleries? It’s a muddy area where there are no clear-cut answers.

In an age of sky-high prices and new limited editions every five minutes, it’s time to go back to basics. Here are five core expression releases from hero single malt Scotch distilleries that always deliver. 

We’re being priced out, yet the industry is warning of hard times ahead. Did makers get too greedy and take whisky drinkers for granted? As profits slump, clearly something’s got to give.

Earlier this month, noughties pop star Katy Perry released Woman’s World, a comeback single that… didn’t quite go to plan. But stop clutching those pearls – there’s much more to worry about than a stereotypically hot woman pouring a drink over herself.

Glenmorangie Dr Bill Lumsden x Azuma Makoto 23 Years Old is built around ‘shinra bansho’, a Japanese concept that takes in all things in nature.

The terms aren’t legally defined in any way – yet we all think we understand what a brand means by a ‘limited edition’ or ‘small-batch’ whisky. But are we all being misled. Does it matter?

As Pride Month draws to a close, let’s embark on a whisky-flavoured retrospective of the annual LGBTQIA+ celebration – while remembering that the whole purpose is to commemorate and push on for positive change.

From the existence of whisky dynasties to eye-raisingly unfair hiring dynamics, is the practice of favouring relations another inequality that shows up in Scotch? Here’s why keeping it in the family can leave a bad taste.

The main characters might be known for drinking Cosmos, but a recent deep-dive into Sex and the City drew some surprising parallels with the world of whisky. Fellow SATC girlies who also love a dram, this one’s for you. 

Like many things in life, we often make whisky much more complicated than it needs to be. But over in Ireland, Waterford and Roe & Co are layering up flavour in surprising ways – with people at the heart of the process. 

It's a question I get asked a lot. Even tonight over dinner. For 13 years I’ve thrown myself into a career that’s been drenched in the spirit. And it all started with a dram.

Has it ever been appropriate to describe the cohort of whisky makers outside of Scotland, Ireland, the US and Japan as ‘new world’ producers? This is why we should stop using the phrase.