Billy Leighton

Billy Leighton started in Northern Ireland and worked at Bushmills before joining Irish Distillers at Midleton in the late 1980s. He became master blender in 2004, at the moment when Irish whiskey was beginning to grow again and the company had to decide what to do with its most distinctive, and least understood, spirit type.

His answer was to rebuild single pot still whiskey — distilled from a mash of malted and unmalted barley in copper pot stills — as a premium category. Redbreast was expanded into a full range, the historic bonder brands Green Spot and Yellow Spot returned, and Powers John's Lane brought the style back to bar shelves. The spicy, oily pot still texture he championed is now the signature of modern Irish whiskey.