16/04/2026
Next week Friday 24th April welcome Abbott to The New Union for a whisky night of The Whisky exchange exclusives Billy is a great friend of bar and Kendal whisky festival tickets in link and more about Billy below
https://thenewunion.co.uk/product/an-evening-with-billy-abbott-24th-april-730/
Billy Abbott is a drinks writer, educator and presenter based in London. He began his drinks career in 2011, after a successful decade working in IT and finance.
Following his passion for great drinks, he changed careers and joined online retailer The Whisky Exchange as a writer. In the intervening years, his role has grown, seeing him become a senior writer for company, and, as a WSET spirits educator, he now leads internal drinks training. He is also The Whisky Exchange's ambassador, hosting tastings and seminars about all categories of drink. This has included being one of the hosts of Whisky Show, the UK's biggest whisky festival since 2020.
Along with his work at The Whisky Exchange, he is a freelance writer, presenter and educator, writing words, leading tastings and teaching people about drinks around the world. Since 2014, he has led Whisky Squad, a London-based whisky-tasting club that celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2025. He is also a judge for several international drinks competitions, covering whisk(e)y, rum, beer and Asian spirits.
His love for drinks from around the world has led to him gaining a variety of qualifications, including WSET Levels 2 and 3 in Spirits, WSET Level 2 in Wine and WSET Level 3 in Sake, as well as becoming and International Sake School Shochu Adviser. He is also a BNIA-certified Armagnac Educator and an Okinawa Distillers Association Awamori Jinbner.
He is a liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Distillers, working with the Vocational Training and Communications Committee in a communications role, and a committee member of The Circle of Wine Writers, maintaining the group's website and online channels, as well as giving a voice to The Circle's spirits communicators.
His work has been recognised with a Highly Commended nod in the Communicator of the Year category at the Icons of Whisky Awards 2020 and a win in the Rest of World region in 2021. He was shortlisted for IWSC Spirits Communicator of the Year in 2020, 2021 and 2023, and won the award in 2026.
His first book - The Philosophy of Whisky - was published by the British Library in October 2021 and is available from all good bookshops as well as his own website, https://philosophyofwhisky.com. It was nominated for the Fortnum & Mason Debut Book Award in 2022.
Billy also has his own blog, which he doesn't get much time to update, at https://spiritedmatters.com.
You can find more about him at http://billyabbott.co.uk
