25th anniversary events | The Jancis Robinson Story

Whisky with a winemaker's palate

Monday 22 September 2025 • 1 min read
Heather Tillott of Sullivan's Cove

A wine-first approach is opening up a new whisky world. Above, Heather Tillott, distillery manager at Tasmania’s Sullivans Cove.

I came into whisky from wine. Those seven years in retail, then the same on the features desk of a drinks-trade weekly, plus WSET training, fair drummed the Wine Way into my head. When I made the move to whisky, I worked alongside Michael Jackson, father of the American craft-brewing industry and the first great global whisky writer. We usually reached the same conclusion when we tasted together, but I noticed that Michael would approach whisky as a beer taster, and I...

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