Secrets from the world of whisky, from the 60-year-old bottle that sold for £650,000 to the tipple you get at the supermarket

In the last 20 years, the world of whisky has exploded, being transformed beyond recognition.

What was once a croft industry in the Scottish Highlands and Islands has spread around the world. The Scots' craft has spread out across the world, from Ireland and Wales to Japan, India and beyond. In India alone, tens of millions of cases of whisky are made each year. And even the English have been getting on the act.

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What's driven the change? How has the craft of whisky-making changed, if at all? And how have we gone from a world where once your grandad laid a few bottles down under the stairs to one in which the world's finest and rarest single malts have become an investment-class commodity?

This week's Country Life Podcast sees James Fisher joined by Kevin Balmforth, cask master at Glenlivet, and Andrew Simpson, international brand ambassador for Chivas Brothers, to talk through all this and more.

From the 60-year-old bottle auctioned off at £650,000 to the astonishing image of the six million casks lying in wait for future generations to taste, it's a fascinating listen.

This is Country Life's final podcast of 2025, after which we'll be taking a winter break for a few weeks — we'll be back in mid-January.

Episode credits

Host: James Fisher

Guests: Kevin Balmforth and Andrew Simpson

Producer and editor: Toby Keel

Music: JuliusH via Pixabay