2020 will not be remembered well by many people, but there have been a few bright spots for whisky lovers. One is the arrival of the first official distillery bottling from Kentucky's Castle & Key Distillery, the 3-year-old Restoration Rye. The historic Old Taylor Distillery had been closed since 1972 and left to fall into ruins when Will Arvin and Wes Murry bought the 113-acre site in 2014. Six years, millions of dollars, and a new name later, one of the early landmarks of Kentucky Bourbon is back. We'll talk with Wes Murry and Will Arvin, along with Brett Connors and Jon Brown from the distillery team on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, U.S. President Donald Trump has now signed a massive federal spending and Covid-19 relief package into law, including a permanent reduction in federal excise taxes for small-scale distillers. We'll have the details and the rest of the week's whisky news, including the passing of a Scotch Whisky icon.

We have breaking news heading into the holiday week, as it appears the U.S. Congress will make a federal excise tax break for distillers permanent. The details are still tentative, and we have the latest as of air time. On this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth, Dr. Nick Morgan joins us to discuss his new book on the 200-year history of Johnnie Walker, "A Long Stride." We'll also have tasting notes and the answer to a trivia question - which country has more whisky distilleries: Ireland or France!

85 years ago today, the five Shapira brothers and their partners opened Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. The Shapira family is still in charge today, with second-generation company president Max Shapira leading the company. We'll talk with Max about Bourbon then and now, including the company's recent expansion into Canadian Whisky with last year's purchase of Black Velvet and its distillery in Lethbridge, Alberta. In the news, the clock is ticking more loudly as the deadline gets closer for Congress to extend a critical federal tax break for small-scale distillers, and we'll talk with one distiller who says the damage may already have been done. There's also hope that a move in London might help ease some of the trade tensions affecting the whisky industry, while new data shows a significant decline in alcohol sales worldwide this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. We'll have the rest of the week's news and much more on this week's WhiskyCast!

With more people looking at rare whiskies as investments, more of the world's top auction houses are adding spirits experts to their in-house wine teams. That was just one of the moves Sotheby's made over the last two years after whiskies and other spirits started making up a larger share of bidding at its wine auctions around the world. Now, Sotheby's holds separate whisky auctions in London, New York, and Hong Kong - with three auctions last month combining for more than $4.6 million in bids. Jamie Ritchie heads up the Sotheby's wine and spirits team, and joins us on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, whisky makers around the UK and Europe are just as nervous about New Year's Eve as their American counterparts, since the arrival of 2021 means the final split between Great Britain and the European Union. As of now, there's no trade deal between the two sides once the final Brexit split happens, and that could lead to all kinds of issues for whisky makers. We'll have that story, along with a new report on what's been a history-making decade for the Irish Whiskey industry, the week's new whiskies, and December's Whisky Club of the Month.