ARTICLE ARCHIVE
Explore every Barlist article, guide, and editorial note in chronological order.
Video
For centuries, Japan’s brewing heritage has centred on sake. Yet one man’s determination would change the country’s relationship with distilled spirits forever. Masataka Taketsuru did not simply introduce whisky to Japan. He studied its origins, understood its principles, and reimagined them for a completely different landscape. Learning Whisky at Its Source Born into a family […]
June 29, 2026
Trending
For years, the global spirits industry spoke the language of expansion. New markets were opening, premium bottles were moving into wider circulation, cocktail culture was travelling, and international groups could often rely on growth in one region to compensate for weakness in another. That confidence has become harder to sustain. Global beverage alcohol volumes fell […]
June 29, 2026
History
On the southern coast of Islay, Lagavulin Distillery stands beside a sheltered bay between Laphroaig and Ardbeg. Its white buildings, dark kiln roofs, and long waterfront warehouses belong to one of Scotland’s most recognisable whisky landscapes. Still, the character associated with the distillery was not created by scenery alone. Peat is the most obvious part […]
June 28, 2026
Discovery and Education
By the beginning of the 1900s, Britain and Ireland were producing whisky on an industrial scale, exporting it across an expanding commercial world and presenting it as a drink rooted in tradition. Yet the industry could not agree on a basic question. What, legally and culturally, was whisky? For pot still distillers, particularly those defending […]
June 27, 2026
Partnership
Rum is often presented as one broad family, although its identity changes considerably with raw material, geography and method. In Martinique, the most distinctive tradition begins with sugarcane crushed for its fresh juice rather than processed first into crystallised sugar and molasses. That raw-material choice places Martinique within the wider world of pure cane juice […]
June 26, 2026
Video
Behind every memorable cocktail lies more than a recipe. It is shaped by technique, timing, and the person preparing it. Few modern bartending methods illustrate this better than the Hard Shake, a technique developed by Kazuo Ueda that has become one of the defining symbols of Japanese bartending. More than a distinctive way of shaking […]
June 25, 2026
Cocktails
The Manhattan cocktail emerged from a city learning how to display power. During the closing decades of the 1800s, New York was becoming richer, larger, and more divided. Railways, banking, shipping, property, newspapers, and industry created fortunes on a scale the country had rarely seen. Private clubs multiplied, hotels grew more elaborate, and dining rooms […]
June 25, 2026
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
