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Whiskey & Spirits Podcasts
67 shows and 12,749 episodes sit under Whiskey & Spirits.
The best bourbon, Scotch, rye, and craft spirits podcasts — daily news, distillery interviews, blind tastings, and more. Curated in the PlayNext corpus.
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Whiskey & Spirits podcasts, explained
The revealing part of a whiskey conversation usually comes after the first sip, when an easy verdict gives way to questions about proof, oak, age, price, and whether the bottle changes in the glass. The best episodes leave that thinking intact. On audio, you hear the pause before a tasting note, the correction from across the table, and the argument that starts with flavor but ends somewhere in the whiskey business. That looseness is the attraction.
At the tasting table
The Bourbon Road is built around patient, shared tasting: two whiskey-literate voices comparing impressions, wandering into production detail, then returning to the pour. Its everyday flavor language keeps the technical talk legible. Start with The Hazmat Flight: Tasting Lost Lantern's Highest Proof Releases for the high-proof end of the shelf, or Bonjour Bourbon: A Deep Dive into French Oak Finishing when the cask is the main question. The pace gives both subjects room.
The Fred Minnick Show feels more like an expert narrating discovery in real time. Thoughts double back; sensory judgments pick up memories and side remarks along the way. For a practical entry, 10 Best Bourbons Under $60 puts price directly into the conversation. Bourbon Review: Heaven Hill 22 Year Old moves to the opposite end of the age statement, while keeping the bottle itself in focus.
The trade behind the pour
Bourbon Pursuit has the easy shorthand of people accustomed to talking about the category from inside it. Its brisk roundtable energy can carry market news, distillery references, and a tasting verdict without turning into a seminar. The Logistics of Bourbon with Rebecca Estes of Mister P Express puts distribution infrastructure in the title; Whiskey Quickie: Kentucky Bourbon Meets Japanese Whisky promises a tighter, bottle-led comparison. Choose it when the industry around whiskey matters as much as the liquid.
The Bourbon Show brings a panel dynamic and a clubby, plainspoken tone. Practical questions lead into stories, jokes, and the consumer culture surrounding a release. The Bourbon Show #241: Todd Leopold, Leopold Bros. (Denver, Colorado) offers a maker-centered route in, while The Bourbon Show Pint Size #469 — How to Enjoy Bourbon All Summer Long is framed around the ordinary business of drinking the stuff. The show is comfortable letting a useful answer take the scenic route.
Beyond the bourbon shelf
Fun With Scotch and other fine spirits rewards listeners who want comparison rather than a single-bottle verdict. Episode 71: Sherry Cask Shootout: Edradour Caledonia 12 year Single Malt vs. The Glendronach Ode to the Dark makes the head-to-head format explicit. For a broader regional flight, Episode 70: Lowland Scotch: Glenkinchie Single Malt 12 Year, Bothan Single Malt Sherry Expression, and Clydeside Stobcross Single Malt lays out three bottles before the episode even begins.
Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast moves faster, with tasting-room banter and practical explanations delivered in approachable language. Bottled in Bond Spirits is a clean route into a regulated designation. Irish Whiskies shifts the geographic frame without requiring a long runway.
Then there is Sips, Suds, & Smokes, whose tasting-table knowledge arrives with interruptions, jokes, and deliberately unpolished group energy. Agave 101 is the obvious choice when whiskey starts to feel like too narrow a boundary. Expect expertise with its elbows on the table.
A good detour
Film And Whiskey supplies the odd pairing that works because both halves invite opinion. The duo’s review structure gives sensory language a pop-culture counterweight, and disagreements tend to sharpen the verdict. Forrest Gump (1994) / Glenmorangie Nectar D'or Single Malt Scotch is exactly the kind of double bill the title promises. It suits listeners who would rather approach a bottle through conversation than through a formal tasting lesson.
For the wider table, move up to Food & Drink. Beer & Brewing stays with fermentation, malt, and hops; Wine follows grapes, regions, and the cellar. Cooking & Chefs heads into the kitchen, where the craft is served on a plate instead of poured into a glass.
Where to start
For a slow, shared examination of a pour, make The Bourbon Road your first listen. Pick The Fred Minnick Show for a solo expert voice and direct bottle judgments. Bourbon Pursuit is the best first stop for industry context, while Fun With Scotch and other fine spirits opens the door to comparative Scotch tasting. If formality is the thing keeping you away, try Sips, Suds, & Smokes.
Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.
Featured shows
9 shows, described rather than listed
Each one comes with a short write-up and the role it plays in this guide.
Daily bourbon news and industry coverage from episode #1 to #3,000+. The reference feed for what happened in American whiskey this week.
Loose, industry-literate panel conversations spanning bottle-in-bond deep-dives, founder interviews, and short 'Pint Size' news episodes.
American whiskey discovery beyond Kentucky — craft tours, French oak finishing, high-proof tastings, and distillery builder interviews.
One-on-one conversations with distillery operators and brand insiders, from Chattanooga Whiskey to Jack Daniel's single barrel programs.
In-depth Scotch coverage: distillery managers, whisky writers, and historical explorations of lost distilleries and regional production.
Each episode pairs a film with a specific bottle — Rear Window with Four Roses, Shawshank with Chivas Regal — treating both subjects seriously.
Blind tastings, head-to-head comparisons, and community guests. 400+ episodes of documented personal takes from the bourbon enthusiast world.
Panel show covering spirits broadly — whiskey, agave, and more — with live tasting sessions, blind-tasting reversals, and irreverent group commentary.
The buyer's view on whiskey releases, bottled-in-bond spirits, annual best-of lists, and cocktail applications from a major spirits retailer.
Where to start
4 routes in, one per reader
Daily format, focused topics, under 20 minutes — the lowest-friction way to get calibrated on current American whiskey news.
Covers regional and craft American whiskey outside Kentucky, with travel framing and technical episodes on finishing and proof.
Production-side distillery conversations and editorial overviews from writers like Dave Broom — the corpus's primary Scotch window.
Spans whiskey sensory analysis, cocktail craft, and bar culture — the right starting point for the drink-making side of the spirits world.
Glossary
Speak the language
A US designation requiring whiskey to be aged at least four years, bottled at exactly 100 proof, and produced at a single distillery in a single distilling season.
The grain recipe used to produce a whiskey. Bourbon mash bills must be at least 51% corn; rye-forward and wheat-forward variants produce notably different flavor profiles.
Whiskey drawn from one specific aging barrel, rather than a blend of barrels, resulting in batch-to-batch variation in flavor and proof.
Whiskey bottled at its natural barrel proof without dilution, typically ranging from 55% to 70%+ ABV depending on the barrel and aging conditions.
The barrel type required for bourbon aging — American white oak barrels that must be new (never previously used) and have their interior charred before filling.
Effectively synonymous with cask strength — the proof at which whiskey exits the barrel, prior to any water addition for standardized bottling.