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Joel Harrison is an award winning drinks writer and commentator, and creative consultant to the drinks business, aiming to enliven the world of distilled spirits to new drinkers while cementing the knowledge of those already invested in the category.
Drinks Writer and Presenter:
Joel, who specialises in whisky and fine spirits, has been a professional drinks writer for over a decade, contributing to a number of different publications such as The Telegraph, Whisky Magazine and The Wall Street Journal India, World of Fine Wines as well as other magazines around the world.
Wider media work has seen television appearances on major daytime TV shows, with a regular slot on Channel 4’s magazine show Sunday Brunch and The Ultimate Shopping List (airing in 2017) with Michel Roux Jr, as well as radio work across the UK, America and India. Harrison has also presented a series of educational videos for WSET on Cognac and The Telegraph on whisky.
His debut book Distilled won the Best Drink Book 2015 at the Fortum & Mason Food and Drink Awards. It is now in multiple languages world-wide, included both simple and complex Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. His second book, Straight Up: A Guide To Global Drinking was shortlisted as one of the top 10 spirits books of 2017 at the Tales of the Cocktail ‘Spirited Awards’, and his third book, The World Atlas Of Gin, was released in Sept 2019. All three books are published by Mitchell Beazley/Octopus.
Joel has been made a Keeper of the Quaich, the highest honour in Scotch whisky, a member of Compagnie des Mousquetaires d’Armagnac in the world of brandy, and made a ‘Rectifier’ in the Gin Guild, making him one of the most awarded drinks writers globally, supported by his position as WSET trained spirits educator. Harrison was included in the 2019 ‘Future 50’ list as just one of 16 people under the age of 40 selected to be singled out for praise for their work in the drinks industry.