This is Whisky Live London weekend, and one of the highlights is the annual Icons of Whisky Awards. Whisky Magazine editor Rob Allanson gives us the overall winners, as well as the winners for the world category (Scotland and U.S. regional winners were announced recently). John Glaser of Compass Box is bottling a special whisky at the festival this weekend...in hopes of making people feel more "optimistic" about the state of the world these days. In the news, the politicians run amok, and a new Irish whiskey website hits the Internet!

Mike Nicolson spent 36 years working at some of Scotland's leading distilleries before retiring to British Columbia a few years ago. He's managed Lagavulin, Royal Lochnagar, and Blair Athol...just to name a few, and he'll share some of his memories with us in this week's episode. In the news, the finalists have been announced in the Spirit of Speyside Festival Whisky Awards, the Famous Grouse has plans to migrate to India, and Malt Advocate cuts the cost of tickets for WhiskyFest Chicago.

This week...the winner of the "Pick the Interview" poll on the WhiskyCast Facebook page! We'll hear from Fred Laing of Douglas Laing & Co. about working with both blends and single cask bottlings, his family's history in the whisky business...his stories about Richard Paterson and Jim McEwan...and how he was almost traded for a distillery! In the news, Diageo and Pernod Ricard cope with the recession, Kentucky distillers protest a tax increase by dumping bourbon on the steps of the State Capitol...and Mount Vernon marks Presidents' Day by firing up the stills at George Washington's Distillery...

A double feature this time around! If you've ever wanted to make your own whisky, the folks at New York's Tuthilltown Spirits are willing to teach you...and let you use their distillery! We'll also get some tips for surviving your first whisky festival from some veterans, and Facebook users can help decide the topic of the next episode of WhiskyCast!

Marcel Van Gils has been collecting Laphroaig expressions since 1997, and the Dutch dentist has what is likely the world's largest collection of Laphroaigs. His collection even includes the empty cask Prince Charles signed during a visit to the distillery in 1994! Marcel will tell us about his collection in this episode, and in the news, more on the Glen Breton controversy, U.S. whisky sales are being affected by the recession, and we'll hear from James Robertson of Tullibardine and Frances DuPuy of A. Dewar Rattray.