Summer 2026 has been a season of genuinely good news for whisky. Beyoncé bought out Moët Hennessy to take sole ownership of SirDavis, Adrian Newey has put his name on a Glenfiddich, and the UK-India free trade deal took effect on 15 July, halving Indian tariffs on Scotch overnight. On top of that, Wyoming Whiskey has come home to Wyoming, a $200m Green Beret-founded distillery has opened in Kentucky, Islay welcomed its twelfth working distillery, and Scotch tourism has just posted a new all-time record. Here's our roundup of the stories worth knowing since our last update.
Beyoncé Takes Full Ownership of SirDavis from Moët Hennessy
On 28 July, SirDavis became a wholly Beyoncé-owned company after she bought out Moët Hennessy's stake in the brand the two launched jointly in 2024. Terms were not disclosed. The whisky now sits inside a Houston-headquartered spirits business, with production continuing at MGP in Indiana before finishing, blending and bottling in Texas.
For Moët Hennessy, this is the end of its first ground-up US spirits build, and it comes as the parent group continues to reshape its drinks division through a prolonged downturn in Cognac and Champagne. For SirDavis, the timing is arguably favourable. It exits the LVMH machine having already won Best New Product at the 2025 Spirits Business Awards and scored near the top of its category at the New York International Spirits Competition, with the credibility and distribution scaffolding intact and freedom to move on its own.
Aston Martin F1 and Glenfiddich Bottle an Adrian Newey Whisky
Glenfiddich and the Aston Martin Formula One team have released a two-tier limited edition inspired by the work of Managing Technical Partner Adrian Newey: a 16-year-old at £73.25 and a 19-year-old at £139, both bottled at 43% ABV. Malt Master Brian Kinsman blended across first-fill bourbon, Port pipes, Oloroso, wine and Fino sherry casks, framing the collaboration as one about the parts you don't see: "the defining performance often comes from what you cannot immediately see. That is something I recognise in whisky-making."
Newey is arguably the most influential designer in F1 history, so this is a step above the usual sponsor-liveries-a-decanter deal. The pricing is notable too: £73.25 for a 16-year-old William Grant single malt with F1 provenance sits squarely inside normal Glenfiddich territory. Worth seeing whether Aston Martin does more with it if the car finds pace in the back half of the season.
UK-India Free Trade Agreement Comes Into Force
The UK-India FTA, three years in negotiation and signed by Keir Starmer and Narendra Modi last July, came into force on 15 July 2026. For Scotch producers, this is the deal of the decade. Indian tariffs on imported Scotch drop immediately from 150% to 75%, then step down over the following ten years to a floor of 40%. India is already Scotch's biggest export market by volume, with more than 192 million bottles shipped in 2024.
Government projections have the deal lifting UK exports by up to £1bn a year in the medium term, and the SWA has been pushing for exactly this for a decade. It lands into a market that still buys mostly Indian-Made Foreign Liquor at price points well below Scotch, so the real prize is unlocking a middle-class shift toward premium bottles as the tariff advantage compounds. The separate China cut from 10% to 5%, agreed during Starmer's Beijing visit, is a useful bonus on top.
Wyoming Whiskey Returns to Wyoming Ownership After Edrington Exit
On 25 June, Wyoming-based investment group WW Partners acquired Edrington's 80% stake in Wyoming Whiskey, returning the state's first legal distillery to full local ownership after eight years of Scottish co-ownership. Edrington first took 35% in 2018, moved to majority control in 2023, and has now exited entirely. The deal is led by co-founder David DeFazio and coincides with Master Blender Nancy Fraley returning to the fold after a three-year hiatus.
Edrington's tenure moved production, blending and distribution onto a professional footing, and Buffalo Bill Cody was named Best Non-Kentucky Small Batch Bourbon at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards. Whether Wyoming Whiskey can build on that foundation as a smaller, more locally focused operation is now the question. Fraley returning is a very deliberate signal about direction, and worth watching over the next few releases.
Horse Soldier Farms Opens $200m Distillery in Somerset, Kentucky
On 1 July, Governor Andy Beshear helped Horse Soldier Farms open a $200m, 200-acre bourbon operation in Somerset, Kentucky, over the Independence Day weekend. The site sits on the former Waitsboro Hills Golf Course overlooking Lake Cumberland, includes a 50,000 sq ft visitor centre and retail complex called The Outpost, and is rated for up to seven million proof gallons a year. Management is targeting around 30,000 visitors annually.
Horse Soldier was founded in 2015 by John Koko, Elizabeth Pritchard-Koko and Scott Neil alongside retired members of 5th Special Forces Group, whose namesake mission was the horseback deployment into northern Afghanistan in the days after 9/11. Production had been contracted to Columbia, Ohio until now; this is the brand's first fully-owned site. Genuine capital going into new Kentucky bricks and mortar in a year when much of the state is holding back is a contrarian move worth watching.
Portintruan Prepares to Open as Islay's Twelfth Distillery
Elixir Distillers filed its premises licence with the Argyll and Bute Licensing Board on 21 April, the last formal step before Portintruan comes on stream this summer. The Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh-owned site sits just outside Port Ellen and follows Ian Macleod's Laggan Bay (April) as the second new Islay distillery to fill casks this year. Distillery Manager Georgie Crawford is running the operation, with ex-Ardbeg Visitor Centre Manager Jackie Thomson handling the visitor side.
The set-up is deliberately old-school for a new build: direct-fired Forsyths stills, on-site floor maltings, wooden washbacks and four spirit styles planned. The Singh brothers made their name with The Whisky Exchange and understand what the Islay collector base pays for, so expect early bottlings to be positioned firmly at that market. Construction started in 2020 and was interrupted by main contractor ISG's collapse in 2024; that Portintruan is opening at all this year is an achievement.
Glenachulish Wins Planning for £6m Loch Leven Distillery
Highland Council approved the £6m Glenachulish Distillery on the shore of Loch Leven on 6 August, giving the green light for construction to start in 2027 and first spirit in 2028. The site sits inside the Ben Nevis and Glen Coe National Scenic Area and will house three sets of copper pot stills running triple distillation, plus tasting rooms, a café and community space overlooking the loch.
Founded by the family behind Bar 1890 at Creag Mhor Lodge in North Ballachulish, the project promises seven permanent on-site jobs and around 30 further roles in the surrounding economy. Modest numbers, but meaningful for Ballachulish and Kinlochleven, whose local economies were built around slate and aluminium long before whisky came along. A triple-distilled Highland malt is a rare enough proposition to be worth watching once the stills fire.
Scotch Whisky Tourism Hits a New All-Time High
The Scotch Whisky Association confirmed in July that 2.7 million people visited a Scotch whisky distillery in 2024, a new record and roughly 4% ahead of the pre-pandemic peak of 2.61m in 2019. Visitor spend across Scotland's whisky regions topped £85m, more than 60% of visitors came from overseas (up from just under half in 2022), and whisky visitor centres are now collectively Scotland's single most visited tourist attraction.
The growth of tourism has been outpacing volume for a few years now, and the 2024 numbers make it official. The signals are pointing squarely at premiumisation and experience: Johnnie Walker Princes Street cleared its millionth visitor and launched a £50,000 private-blending session, new visitor centres opened at Eden Mill, Glencaddam and Luss alongside Ardbeg House on Islay, and 152 Scottish distilleries now open their doors to the public. Islay, Speyside and the Highlands remain the biggest beneficiaries, and increasingly it isn't just what's in the bottle but who came to see it get made.
Source: Scotch Whisky Association
Kavalan Wins IWC Whisky of the Year for Second Year Running
Taiwan's Kavalan claimed back-to-back Whisky of the Year at the International Whisky Competition, held this year at the Louisville Thoroughbred Society. The winning bottle was the Peatist Oloroso Sherry Cask Single Cask Strength, scoring 96.97 points in double-blind judging. Kavalan took eight of the top 15 slots overall, and Head of R&D Zerose Yang was named Master Distiller of the Year.
IWC is one of the harder blind panels to game, so two years in a row is a genuine result rather than a marketing footnote. Kavalan's subtropical maturation makes for an aggressive age curve, and this is the Peatist Series' first appearance at the top of a major competition. The winning cask is already available in Taiwan, France and Canada, which is a reminder that Kavalan increasingly bypasses the UK-first release calendar Scotch collectors are conditioned to expect.