I cannot believe we’ve reached the final issue of 2025, and with it, the end of my first year as editor of Whisky Magazine. It’s been an incredible honour to put together these last seven issues, and I’m super excited for what’s to come in 2026!

What I’ve loved most about this role is the responsibility. This is the biggest responsibility I’ve had in my professional career. I have a duty of care to you, the reader, to ensure that this magazine is as interesting and enjoyable to read for you as possible. But I also have a duty of care for those who share their stories to myself and all of our wonderful contributors. It’s important we get their stories right.

We all have our own different responsibilities in our everyday lives too, away from work. Growing up with three dogs during my teen years, it was always my responsibility to take them for long walks. They were three setters, after all, so needed as much exercise as one could muster up.

One day I hope to have children, and I know from my friends and colleagues that do that it’s the biggest responsibility a person could ever have. But there’s something empowering and purposeful about having such an enormous responsibility, that the idea of it sounds like an enormous honour and a privilege.

Responsibility is a huge word in the drinks industry. We all know the phrase “Drink Responsibly” which has become, essentially, a public health slogan. It has meaning for both customers (ensuring that alcohol is being consumed in a safe way and not putting themselves or anybody else in danger) and for producers (particularly in advertising, where the phrase shows safe consumption is being promoted rather than anything considered harmful).

Inside these pages, you’ll learn about the different responsibilities facing those within the industry. In Thijs Klaverstijn’s wonderful piece on young distilleries in Scotland, we learn about the trials and tribulations that they face during tough times, and the responsibility they feel to be transparent with their customers.

On the flip side of this, Alwynne Gwilt writes our cover story, focusing on Adam Hannett’s new role at Bruichladdich. You’ll learn more about the sliding doors moments that led Adam to this role, but most interestingly, the pressures and responsibility facing him taking on such a role at a distillery with a complex, centuries-long history.

One of the industry’s hottest topics, and in fact, every industry’s hottest topic, is artificial intelligence. AI is being used more and more, and the lines continue to blur. Open up any social media app, and you’ll be met with a bombardment of AI-generated videos, images, etc. all with different purposes. Some are obvious, designed to be “meme” content. Others have a much more sinister purpose, designed to create the illusion of realism to misdirect. It’s a mess, and something where everybody shares some responsibility in clamping down on things like this.

However, in Liza Weisstuch’s feature on the use of AI in the whisky industry, it does highlight the useful ways that it can be used. For example, data analysis has never been easier. It allows for instant, speedy results, something that would have taken a lot longer previously, and allows smaller distilleries to move at a rate only the larger companies could once move at. Still, it brings it back to that magic word — responsibility. AI is not a terrible thing (remember I said this when the robots start attacking us). The problem comes with misuse, and those who use it irresponsibly.

In many ways, the tastings pages at the back of this issue (and every issue) are the biggest example of responsibility that this magazine has, particularly during this festive season. It’s our responsibility to give an honest assessment of the whiskies we taste, and to be thorough in how we interpret their flavour profiles and our feedback.

For now, your only responsibility is to put your feet up, relax, and enjoy the next 80-or-so pages. And I raise you a dram to good health for the rest of the year, and if you don’t catch me across Whisky Magazine’s social media channels, then I’ll catch you all in 2026. Slàinte mhath!