Joel Harrison is an award-winning spirits writer, Keeper of the Quaich, Musketeer of Armagnac and Gin Guild ‘rectifier’. Now 40, he has given up all hope of ever playing for Oxford United.
Recent contributions

Columns
Should spirits play by the rules?

Columns
‘There’s a revolution under way in Scotch whisky’

Features
The Cognac bounty hunter

Columns
Why there’s no place for non-alcoholic spirits in my drinks cabinet
All contributions

Features
Master whisky blender Richard Paterson OBE on continuing his legacy
Known as ‘The Nose’, Richard Paterson is widely acknowledged as the most experienced master blender in Scotch whisky. Now he is assembling a new team of blenders to continue his legacy

Columns
Back to the Future: the best Scotch whiskies to pair with movies from the 1980s
Joel Harrison jumps into his DeLorean and heads back to a decade celebrated for memorable movies – and malts

Columns
The best winter cocktails to make at home
You might think that, with everything else going on, Christmas isn’t the time to spend hours perfecting cocktails to serve up to thirsty guests. The good news is, you don’t have to…

Features
The best rye whiskies from around the world
Joel Harrison takes a look at how the grain became fashionable again, and picks out six of the best rye whiskies

News
Bowmore and Aston Martin join forces for £50,000 bottling
Last month, Diageo took the wraps off its £20,000, eight-bottle collection. Now historic Islay distillery Bowmore has trumped it with an astonishing single release

Vive la révolution! Cognac reinvents itself
The image of Cognac is being transformed, from the most traditional of spirits to mixologists' favourite. On World Cognac Day, Joel Harrison shelves his balloon glass and suggests three Cognac cocktails

News
Keeping spirits alive: Scotch distilleries set to release new bottlings
Scottish distilleries may be closed to visitors, but a raft of new releases will provide cheer to whisky lovers in the second half of the year

News
Distilleries may be closed, but the show goes online for whisky lovers
Scotch isn’t on the rocks yet, with a flurry of rare releases offering solace to fans bereft of the usual May festivals

Features
Islay, Scotland: the darling of the whisky world
Joel Harrison charts the rise and rise of Islay, a remote island off the west coast of Scotland where distilleries were closing down just 40 years ago

Features
Lockdown cocktails – keeping the spirit alive
A cocktail should, all things being equal, be blended by a top mixologist behind your favourite bar in your favourite city. All things aren’t equal right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still indulge. So welcome to the new normal, as our spirits consultant Joel Harrison bring you his best recipes to shake at home

News
Ten “exceptional expressions” of WhistlePig whiskey on offer at Fine+Rare
The casks have been selected by Fine+Rares’s head of spirits David Walters in collaboration with WhistlePig’s master blender Peter Lynch

Reports
The rarest and most collectible Scotch whiskies
A select group of whisky lovers was presented with some of the rarest bottles of Scotch in the Justerini & Brooks portfolio last week. Joel Harrison reports
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