ARTICLE ARCHIVE
Explore every Barlist article, guide, and editorial note in chronological order.
Barlist
At Springbank Distillery, barley still arrives at one end of the production process and bottled whisky leaves at the other. Between those points, the grain is steeped, spread across malting floors, dried in the kiln, milled, mashed, fermented, and distilled. The resulting spirit is filled into casks, matured in Campbeltown, bottled, and labelled by the […]
June 24, 2026
History
Single barrel bourbon existed as a distillery practice before it existed as a recognised commercial category. Warehouse teams had always known that barrels matured differently. One might develop with unusual balance, another with greater depth, while a third might remain awkward even after years in the same building. Distillers occasionally reserved exceptional casks for owners, […]
June 23, 2026
Spirits
The name Havana Club does not refer to the same rum everywhere. Across much of the world, it belongs to a Cuban produced brand managed through Havana Club International, the joint venture created by Corporación Cuba Ron and Pernod Ricard. In the United States, the name appears on a different rum made in Puerto Rico […]
June 22, 2026
History
The Gin Craze is often told as a morality tale. Cheap spirit flooded London, the population lost control, William Hogarth exposed the damage, and Parliament restored order. The real history is less convenient. Government policy helped expand the market in the first place. Poverty and overcrowding made the consequences more visible. An attempt to suppress […]
June 21, 2026
Cocktails
Set a bottle of Angostura bitters beside almost anything else in a bar and it looks slightly misprinted. The label is too large for the glass, the type is densely packed, and the yellow cap seems almost defiantly plain. Nothing about it follows the quiet visual order usually expected of a product that has survived […]
June 20, 2026
Cocktails
Observed each year on 19 June, National Martini Day places one of the world’s most recognisable cocktails back at the centre of bar culture. In 2026, the date falls on a Friday. The observance itself has no clearly documented founder or official institutional origin. Still, the Martini carries a history far older and more complex […]
June 19, 2026
Distilleries & Producers
Floor Maltings History: Where Whisky Began Before stainless steel vessels, automated temperature control, and industrial malt plants, a Scotch whisky distillery often began its work on a stone or concrete floor. Barley was steeped in water, spread in a shallow layer, and turned repeatedly by hand as it germinated. The process demanded time, judgement, space, […]
June 18, 2026
Barlist
On the northwestern edge of Glasgow, close to the Kilpatrick Hills and the industrial history of the River Clyde, Auchentoshan Distillery has built its identity around a third passage through copper. Most Scotch malt whisky is distilled twice. At Auchentoshan, every part of the spirit passes through a wash still, an intermediate still, and a […]
June 16, 2026
Distilleries
On the southern coast of Islay, the name Laphroaig stretches across a whitewashed warehouse facing a narrow bay. The lettering now belongs to one of the most recognisable names in Scotch whisky, yet the identity behind it was built from a tightly local set of materials: barley, peat, water, casks, coastal geography, and the decisions […]
June 15, 2026
