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Transcript

Careers in Scotch Whisky: Behind the Scenes at the Scotch Whisky Experience · Whisky Stories Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi guys, it's Graham here. Just a quick message before you
• 0:03
  jump into this weeks podcast. I just want to say thank you so
• 0:06
  much for everybody who's watched, listened, interacted
• 0:11
  with the podcast since we started.
• 0:12
  It's absolutely fantastic. This week we got some great news
• 0:15
  that we hit over 50,000 stream views, lessons, downloads across
• 0:20
  all platforms, which is just it's massive for us.
• 0:22
  It's huge. And I can't thank every single
• 0:24
  person enough for for taking their time to listen to our
• 0:27
  nonsense. It's it really is fantastic.
• 0:29
  Thanks to everybody who's engaged and interacted over the
• 0:32
  last episode with Inch Derny, the King Lassie raw and the King
• 0:36
  Lassie double matured have gone down absolutely fantastic.
• 0:38
  The vlog is there as well, so please check that out on our
• 0:41
  YouTube channel and yeah, just enjoy that and let us know what
• 0:45
  you think. This is a great episode.
• 0:46
  I just want to say one quick thing before we dive into this
• 0:49
  episode is one of our mics has been slightly playing up over
• 0:53
  the last couple of weeks. Any people like me who get
• 0:56
  really, really pernicate about audio and the quality of the
• 0:59
  audio might start getting a little bit annoyed.
• 1:02
  It's OK. I've tried to fix it as best as
• 1:04
  possible. It's not your car radio, it's
• 1:06
  not your earphones, it's not your your device.
• 1:08
  It's our microphone. We have fixed the problem, but I
• 1:10
  have tried to to to edit this as best as possible so that it
• 1:14
  comes across clearly. Please stick with it.
• 1:16
  It's not actually as bad once you once you get listening to
• 1:19
  it. But for someone like myself, it
• 1:21
  would, it would really annoy me. So I just want to say give you a
• 1:23
  quick heads up before this episode.
• 1:25
  Anyway, thank you so much once again for downloading,
• 1:27
  streaming, playing, listening and passing the pod.
• 1:30
  Don't forget we can get involved in the newsletter as well.
• 1:32
  You can get Angus, this is drama of the week.
• 1:33
  We've got our interviews that we do with our previous guests,
• 1:37
  Q&A's, all that kind of stuff. It's great.
• 1:39
  Thank you very much. Cheers.
• 1:40
  All the very best. I guess you know what to do.
• 1:42
  I do clap a cent. Welcome to the Whiskey Stories
• 1:48
  podcast. It's a real pleasure to watch
• 1:51
  them succeed, move on in the industry.
• 1:54
  Like to think that we've ignited quite a lot of that passion.
• 1:57
  Yeah, for them. Yeah, in in the product, in the
• 2:00
  industry as a whole. And it's just so lovely.
• 2:02
  And then to to hear them on things like the podcast.
• 2:05
  Oh, well, that's a pickle for them, isn't it?
• 2:07
  That's been, you know, that's been, you know, one of your one
• 2:10
  of your ex employees gets on at the Whiskey Stories podcast
• 2:12
  right now. They've made it.
• 2:14
  One thank you for listening to. Please do not encourage him.
• 2:17
  Welcome along at the Whiskey Stories podcast For myself, we
• 2:21
  are not in the athletic arms. For people watching on the
• 2:24
  YouTube channel, you will know that we are not in the backroom
• 2:26
  at Diggers, sandwiched nicely between the the bar and the
• 2:29
  dense toilets. No, we've gone up in the world.
• 2:31
  We've finally made it, Ross. Yeah, this is the best looking
• 2:33
  table before a podcast starting I've ever seen.
• 2:36
  We've got drums on the table. It's looking good.
• 2:38
  We do, but we are. We've made it.
• 2:39
  I guess we've made it. This wee Scotch whiskey
• 2:42
  experience. We have Scotch whiskey.
• 2:44
  Almost half our guests have at one time or another worked here.
• 2:49
  Most of our listeners are people who have been in the podcast who
• 2:52
  are maybe watching this on the YouTube channel be going.
• 2:54
  I know that room. Yeah, I've been, I've been in.
• 2:56
  I know those people. They're they're at Swee.
• 2:58
  And it's it's so interesting because referenced it for the
• 3:02
  last nearly two years. Yeah, anyone tell me the
• 3:04
  episode? Or what you've visited here for
• 3:07
  the first time for the dead the. First Episode The first episode
• 3:11
  that the Scotch Whisky experience was mentioned was
• 3:13
  episode #5. Out of 70.
• 3:16
  This is 7979 or 71 of the 70s so Cody Reynolds.
• 3:21
  Cody Reynolds, of course. They let me just go back from a
• 3:25
  book. Here it was episode #5 Cody
• 3:28
  Reynolds on the 9th of November 2023.
• 3:30
  That's when that's their cause. And then a month.
• 3:32
  Later, he's visited for the first time.
• 3:34
  Well, he was the first person, the first Illuminati.
• 3:37
  Illuminati because they run the whiskey industry.
• 3:43
  Run by the whiskey industry. Well, but you know, and we've
• 3:46
  mentioned it, how many other people have we had on the
• 3:48
  podcast? It's amazing.
• 3:49
  It's amazing actually. I was just saying, and we'll get
• 3:51
  into it, I'm sure because we've got three fantastic guests as
• 3:54
  our visual visual viewers rather than audio listeners can can
• 3:59
  see. And it's people that not only
• 4:01
  have continued to work in West, people that are now doing
• 4:04
  whiskey as their full time career and have been real
• 4:06
  success stories in West. Yeah, that maybe come and said,
• 4:09
  you know what, maybe they're visiting Scotland.
• 4:10
  They're from all over the world. Let's try to do something.
• 4:13
  Oh, working the Scotch whiskey experience.
• 4:15
  What a great experience while living in Edinburgh.
• 4:17
  Absolutely. Or whether you're coming to Ali
• 4:19
  Baxter coming down from from Bill Gordonstone up up in the
• 4:22
  Northeast Lodge and Glenbury from his bedroom window going.
• 4:25
  Do you know what Scots Whiskey experience is?
• 4:28
  A place for me. And they're leaving and coming
• 4:29
  back. Except, no, I think we've talked
• 4:31
  about it on the podcast a lot and we've mentioned it as the
• 4:34
  the whiskey youth development system.
• 4:37
  Although somebody who isn't in the youthful side of it, a
• 4:40
  person has worked here. And I'm surprised, Ross, that is
• 4:42
  this is one of the few places that we've managed to find that
• 4:45
  you haven't worked very good, your illustrious career of seven
• 4:49
  years, but your dad actually here as well.
• 4:52
  Yeah, whiskey dad and lad Robert Barth.
• 4:53
  He messaged me today. He was so excited and we had
• 4:57
  these fantastic three guests on. He said he was doing nursing to
• 5:02
  work in psychosis for 20 years and left.
• 5:05
  And the two years, I think weekends I don't, I don't know.
• 5:08
  I think the weekend tours, for example, he's just talking about
• 5:11
  doing the master classes here and said he's never enjoyed a
• 5:13
  job so much. And I don't know if anyone who's
• 5:15
  listening, I don't know if you've watched the movie Ross or
• 5:17
  not, but Angus might get this reference.
• 5:19
  But The Shawshank Redemption? That not something a bit
• 5:21
  present. Yeah, and, and, and the halfway
• 5:24
  house that everyone leaves and there's a beam like that beam
• 5:26
  there, OK. Of, of everyone that leaves and
• 5:29
  goes into this halfway house and they score their name into that
• 5:31
  beam. I can see your dad's name along
• 5:35
  with all the other guys, but no, it's fantastic.
• 5:39
  Before we do get started, though, we do have to say a big
• 5:41
  shout out. Last week we were in sternly.
• 5:43
  They still are back in the Kingdom of Fife.
• 5:45
  Yeah. Trying proper Fife whiskey.
• 5:48
  Absolutely. That was all there.
• 5:49
  It was fantastic. And this is part of our first
• 5:52
  ever collaboration that we've done with that, with that with
• 5:55
  an organization whiskey industry.
• 5:56
  So big thanks to Scott and Daniel for showing us around the
• 6:00
  distillery last week. It was.
• 6:01
  It was good. Funny.
• 6:02
  It was great and yeah, letting us try their newer releases.
• 6:05
  What was your highlight I guess? Just seeing that, you know, the
• 6:09
  fact that we're going into a distillery that hasn't been open
• 6:12
  to the public, not many people have seen.
• 6:14
  A good laughing sampling for didn't they?
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  Because with the Rylaw releases and stuff, they're big on
• 6:20
  obviously rye releases on making rye and single malt and the
• 6:23
  distillery. So I mean, everyone who's
• 6:26
  listened will know how well Angus stepped in the versus
• 6:29
  malt. It'll be good.
• 6:31
  But we have to say, you know the King Lassie raw exclusive?
• 6:35
  Well Raw is one of the one of their brands 8 both 8 year old.
• 6:38
  And heavily beated 5 barley. Absolutely available through the
• 6:42
  Whiskey Exchange. Think you can get that exclusive
• 6:44
  for a month? And you can also go to Roll My
• 6:45
  Whiskeys and get their King Lassie.
• 6:49
  King Lassie double maturation. Which was your favorite Ross?
• 6:52
  Double maturation for me, but you know, the heavily peated
• 6:54
  whiskey is challenging for my inexperienced in a mature
• 6:58
  palette, but we'll get there. We're getting there.
• 7:00
  I enjoyed myself. I I like the raw, I really did.
• 7:03
  I said yeah, let us know if you did that.
• 7:05
  Fife Barley. Fife Barley Arguably the best
• 7:07
  barley in Scotland. I'm in East Lothian.
• 7:10
  You do. By the way, guys, look, we are
• 7:11
  joined by some fantastic guests and I have to say, I guess we we
• 7:14
  talked about, we, we came here for the Distillers Fair.
• 7:19
  Yeah. Is this is it before New Year or
• 7:23
  after? What I think it was before New
• 7:24
  Year, I think it was it must have been 30th of December.
• 7:28
  If I remember correctly, I had to have about 3 years gone
• 7:30
  before I came after Christmas indulgence.
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  I was like if I'm good a whiskey fair I'm going to have to do
• 7:37
  that. But we both said we did the
• 7:39
  tour. We just said the last time we
• 7:41
  were probably here was a school trip.
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  Yeah, absolutely. I'm pretty sure at least two of
• 7:47
  our guests will have been working here all those years
• 7:50
  ago. But it's absolutely fantastic.
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  We've got Susan Morrison, Lenka Wiles and Angela Deneen welcome,
• 7:58
  along with the Risky Stories podcast.
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  Susan, how are you? I'm I'm very well and I feel
• 8:02
  very old. Thank you.
• 8:04
  It wasn't that long ago you're looking at Angus thinking, God,
• 8:07
  that must have been about 30 odd years ago.
• 8:08
  Angus is only 26 years old, you know.
• 8:12
  That. Too longer than that, but yeah,
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  it's great to thank you so much. You are the you're the top brass
• 8:19
  here, aren't you? Not?
• 8:21
  Sure. Cheers.
• 8:25
  But it's, no, I mean, honestly, thank you so much for, for
• 8:28
  inviting us along. Thank you so much for having us
• 8:30
  here. It's fantastic.
• 8:31
  As I say, Angus and I have enjoyed the Scotch whisky
• 8:34
  experience, conversations that we've had with guests, many of
• 8:37
  the guests that you'll probably have worked with and maybe
• 8:40
  trained up as well. And also we've enjoyed the, the
• 8:43
  hospitality that you've given us.
• 8:44
  We've got some great drums on the table.
• 8:45
  It's, it's great to see it be here.
• 8:47
  So what's it been like for yourself working?
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  Is it a busy time just now? You've been busy today.
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  I I've actually been off site today, so that's not a question
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  for me. I came rushing up especially for
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  this. But we are getting busier now.
• 9:01
  I have to say this year's challenging, right?
• 9:03
  And I think it's challenging generally for tourism,
• 9:06
  particularly in Edinburgh, sure, which is becoming quite an
• 9:10
  expensive city. Yeah.
• 9:12
  But yeah, I mean, 2023 bumper year, so busy, right?
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  Don't think we've ever seen the like.
• 9:18
  I think that was the big bounce back after COVID and last year
• 9:22
  was good too. So it'll be interesting to see
• 9:24
  where things go this year. But I think globally, obviously
• 9:27
  the situation is a little bit uncertain and business doesn't
• 9:31
  like uncertainty and neither do tourists.
• 9:33
  So, well, I mean, I mean, I took the challenge of walking up the
• 9:36
  Royal Mile this afternoon to get here with two big bags on my
• 9:39
  shoulders and I was bumping through selfie takers and I was
• 9:43
  actually guilty of it myself to be honest.
• 9:44
  Watch your Tick tock channel and you'll see.
• 9:46
  But you know, Edinburgh does seem busy.
• 9:49
  And then walk through the door. I can still see there are people
• 9:51
  arriving for their for their tours to go around and things
• 9:53
  like that. So, you know, for people who are
• 9:55
  coming to Edinburgh, when they're coming to Scotland, one
• 9:57
  of the things we talk a lot about, Ross, is the fact that,
• 9:59
  you know, when you're being a tourist coming to Scotland,
• 10:02
  whiskey is on there. Yeah, on your.
• 10:03
  We know. That we've known that for years,
• 10:05
  that whiskey is on the tick list.
• 10:08
  Yeah. For in particular, the
• 10:09
  international visitors. You know, it's synonymous with
• 10:12
  Scotland. So, you know, one of the reasons
• 10:14
  we were set up all those years ago was because there wasn't
• 10:18
  really anything in Edinburgh and only 20% of visitors went
• 10:22
  further worse than sterling. Yeah, wow.
• 10:24
  And and this is something I mentioned before we started
• 10:27
  recording. I didn't actually realize.
• 10:28
  I mean, I've been at living born in Edinburgh and a year before
• 10:31
  you actually opened. And of course, I can't remember
• 10:34
  my feet. Well, no, I'm 26.
• 10:37
  No, no, I'm actually, I'm actually 35.
• 10:40
  I was born in 1990. So you, you opened in 1988, so a
• 10:43
  year before Now, I I obviously can't remember a time of you not
• 10:47
  being here, but I could have sworn you hadn't been around
• 10:50
  that long. So one one thing really, really
• 10:53
  interesting we should explain about Scotch whiskey experiences
• 10:56
  owned by collectively the whole Scotch whiskey industry as a
• 11:01
  whole. So all these different companies
• 11:03
  came together and decided to find this visitor experience in
• 11:09
  Edinburgh for purposes. It's maybe worth, it's maybe
• 11:12
  worth just saying, yeah, what's your role of in Swee, What's
• 11:16
  your role of in Swee? And then tell us kind of maybe
• 11:18
  the background of Swee and how it's set up and what what it is
• 11:21
  today. So, so I am currently called the
• 11:23
  chief executive, but I've had lots of names over the years.
• 11:26
  And the and the reason we were set up was really just to be a
• 11:30
  window on the world so that international visitors got that
• 11:34
  opportunity to engage with Scotch whisky because they
• 11:36
  clearly wanted to. But unbelievably, we didn't have
• 11:41
  anything in the Gateway city. Yeah, for them at all.
• 11:45
  So it was actually Alastair Mackintosh, she was managing
• 11:47
  director of William Muir sign in Leaf, who had come up with the
• 11:51
  idea and obviously worked with a lot of the chief execs of the
• 11:54
  big companies being a bottler down there.
• 11:57
  And he and he said it was like pushing an open door.
• 11:59
  Everybody was saying, well why have we not thought of this?
• 12:02
  Before, yeah. So really the industry got
• 12:04
  behind it and that's something that I love about the whiskey
• 12:08
  industry. They do get together and work
• 12:11
  for the greater good. And we've spoken away, yeah.
• 12:13
  And we've spoken about this before is, you know, and I think
• 12:17
  it probably leads us into a question we were going to ask in
• 12:19
  a way. When we look now, you know, walk
• 12:21
  out the door and you look down to Princess St. from the Castle
• 12:25
  Esplanade, you can see the Johnny Walker experience.
• 12:27
  And there's no sharp elbows in the West industry in that sense,
• 12:31
  from what we've spoken about, because you know, you, you were
• 12:35
  set up all those years ago and Johnny Walker experience is now
• 12:38
  this great flagship experience for, you know, a particular
• 12:43
  company, but that's also a company that owns part of this
• 12:47
  experience as well. And instead, you know what, what
• 12:51
  we've generally found when we've asked this question to people
• 12:53
  that have worked at SUI or, or what have you, it's it's not a
• 12:56
  case of you to kind of jostling for position.
• 12:59
  It's a case of you helping each other out, working together and
• 13:03
  adding to each others experience.
• 13:05
  Yeah, and absolutely. And I think, you know, there's
• 13:08
  so many visitors to Edinburgh and our job is to try and engage
• 13:13
  people, ignite that spark, that beginning of a journey with
• 13:16
  Scotch whiskey. So the more that we have here,
• 13:20
  the more chance we have of getting more visitors.
• 13:22
  Something you speak about, speak about all the time.
• 13:24
  No sharp elbows. And WW's a massively important
• 13:28
  industry, but it's a small industry.
• 13:30
  Yeah, you can get to know everybody if you make the effort
• 13:33
  to get to know everybody. I think it's maybe worse before
• 13:36
  we delve into the challenges of Scotch whiskey experience
• 13:39
  looking at for an international list as well for Scott or
• 13:42
  ambassador in Tennessee Scotch whiskey experience when it was
• 13:45
  set up, was it meant to be tours explaining production Was that
• 13:48
  the kind of let's teach people the fundamental this is Scotch
• 13:52
  whiskey. This is why it's.
• 13:53
  Important when you had a roller coaster when you.
• 13:57
  Disappointed many a child. Yeah, because the barrel right
• 14:00
  has been mentioned quite a lot because I mean recently I think.
• 14:03
  I left an impression on us. I.
• 14:04
  Think the the, the, the tour that we did in the for the the
• 14:11
  distillers Fair, I think it was like the real, I think you were
• 14:14
  putting tours on because I think the tour had been completely
• 14:16
  revamped at this point. Yeah.
• 14:17
  But that was a disappointment for Angus and I was that we
• 14:20
  didn't get, we didn't get a battle.
• 14:22
  So that's the battle. But I, I believe every other
• 14:24
  person that we've spoken to who worked here and with the battle,
• 14:26
  right, they did say that was one of the most annoying and
• 14:29
  frustrate frustrating. Things.
• 14:31
  A few people spoke about them being on tour and it would stop
• 14:34
  halfway, and they went well, OK Well, we need to do this anyway.
• 14:36
  I thought it was brilliant. Yeah.
• 14:38
  It was a brilliantly entertaining way.
• 14:40
  Yeah. To learn production.
• 14:41
  Yeah. And.
• 14:42
  However, most people So the first pressing questions why did
• 14:44
  you get rid of the bar? Oh.
• 14:49
  Like like marketing have hung their hat on the barrel ride for
• 14:52
  many years. You know, it was kind of the
• 14:54
  hook. But the point was that the
• 14:57
  customers that were coming to us knew nothing about whiskey.
• 15:00
  They wanted to engage, but we had to make it fun.
• 15:02
  It couldn't be boring and dry. It's not the information that
• 15:06
  someday who's already an enthusiast wants to know.
• 15:09
  So we had to deliver the basics, production and blending and all
• 15:13
  that kind of thing. Appreciation in a really fun and
• 15:16
  entertaining. Way because even from early
• 15:17
  days, if you're getting hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of
• 15:20
  visitors annually, a lot of people coming through the
• 15:22
  Dorset. So we haven't had whiskey
• 15:24
  before. Yeah.
• 15:24
  So a lecture is the last thing you want to give them, I guess.
• 15:27
  Yeah. So, so because we're not a
• 15:29
  distillery and we can't show them production, we had to find
• 15:33
  a way to deliver that. And the ride was actually a very
• 15:36
  effective way of doing it, taking them round a virtual
• 15:39
  distillery and it in its early days, it actually took them
• 15:42
  through the history. So we started off and I can
• 15:44
  still remember some of the script, honestly.
• 15:48
  I know we started off in a in a crofter's cottage talking about
• 15:52
  elicit distilling and took them right through to kind of the
• 15:56
  global, yeah, position of whiskey today.
• 15:59
  But then we brought the car right downstairs and and we
• 16:02
  turned it into a virtual distillery and it was a great
• 16:04
  way of delivering production. However, it was the bane of all
• 16:08
  of our lives. I know particularly of the
• 16:10
  guides lives. Yeah, certainly when you were
• 16:12
  thinking any minute now I'll be pushing this car as the track.
• 16:15
  Such a forward thinking thing to do back then.
• 16:18
  Well, I will ask you, Susan, how long have you been here with the
• 16:21
  Scotch whisky experience? I used to quite happily tell
• 16:24
  people and now I'm just marginally invited, so it will
• 16:27
  be 37 years. Amazing what?
• 16:30
  What was your first role when you came to school?
• 16:31
  It was. A Saturday tour guide?
• 16:33
  Yes. So were you, were you here on?
• 16:35
  Were you here on opening then? Yes.
• 16:37
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:38
  Wow. Not on the actual first day in
• 16:40
  the first Saturday. Really.
• 16:42
  Yeah. So in terms of how can you
• 16:43
  remember how what the excitement, the feeling, was it
• 16:47
  a busy, was it a busy time where you in and there was a buzz
• 16:50
  because it can imagine that what we're talking 1988 and right.
• 16:54
  So you're looking at, you know, what was the tourism world like
• 16:58
  at Edinburgh at that point versus how many people locally
• 17:02
  were going. There's a new thing opening in
• 17:03
  Edinburgh and it'd be quite nice to go see on Saturday and stuff
• 17:06
  like. That not a great time for Scotch
• 17:07
  whiskey either. Well, I want to come to that,
• 17:09
  but it wasn't. But so, I mean, can you remember
• 17:11
  that Saturday when you were in? Yeah, I remember that Saturday
• 17:15
  and and you're going to be disappointed because, you know,
• 17:19
  they had all the opening and had the industry round and there was
• 17:21
  a big buzz obviously around that.
• 17:23
  But that first Saturday, it was just tourists walking up the
• 17:27
  mile because remember, we don't have websites and yeah, of
• 17:30
  course, systems. It was literally people passing.
• 17:33
  So it wasn't like suddenly people came flooding through the
• 17:36
  door, right? It was definitely like a slow
• 17:38
  burden, encouraging people. I'm sitting beside Angus is
• 17:41
  another person who's been here a fairly bit.
• 17:43
  You've got Angela Danine. Angela what?
• 17:45
  What's your role here at the Scotch Whisky Experience?
• 17:48
  I am the operations director. Operations director, right?
• 17:50
  So when did you start working here then?
• 17:53
  In December 2002. So I can, you know, you've been
• 17:56
  here a long, long time. And I think it's really, we've
• 17:59
  talked a lot about the people that have moved on from the
• 18:01
  Scotch whiskey experience. But of all those people that
• 18:03
  have moved on, you guys will have been part of their journey
• 18:06
  and you'll probably remember a lot of them that do you see the
• 18:09
  sort of flock that have moved on and and had you've had an impact
• 18:14
  on their journey? Absolutely.
• 18:15
  It's a real pleasure to watch them succeed, move on in the
• 18:19
  industry. Like to think that we've ignited
• 18:21
  quite a lot of that passion. Yeah, for them.
• 18:24
  Yeah, in in the product, in the industry as a whole.
• 18:27
  And it's just so lovely. And then to to hear them on
• 18:30
  things like the podcast. Oh well, that's a pickle for
• 18:32
  them, isn't? It.
• 18:33
  That's when you know, that's when you know one of your one of
• 18:36
  your ex employees gets on at the whiskey store.
• 18:38
  His podcast. Now they've made it.
• 18:40
  One, thank you for listening to Please do not encourage him.
• 18:42
  And what what was your first role when you joined Scottish
• 18:46
  Experience? I started as a tour guide, so I
• 18:51
  bumped into season in my previous role as a seasonal
• 18:54
  guide at Glenfiddich Distillery, which is what I did before that.
• 18:58
  So we was on my radar already and I had a couple of friends
• 19:02
  working here too. So I came down and was
• 19:05
  successful in my application. So started as a tour guide and
• 19:08
  then quite quickly became Susan's PA, which I did enjoy.
• 19:13
  What's the worst thing? She sent you off to go again?
• 19:16
  So again, did she ever just. Oh, I've had a long night and
• 19:18
  it's easy to get me to Salpa Dean and I'll double Americano.
• 19:22
  I think we all need to remember that Susan is still my boss.
• 19:27
  We'll do an episode with you on your own, but.
• 19:31
  Please do not encourage him, but how?
• 19:33
  How great is that though, that you again you've you've already
• 19:37
  had the passion in whiskey, you've decided Dufton's
• 19:40
  fantastic. But perhaps let's come down to
• 19:42
  civilization a little bit experienced.
• 19:46
  As a space, either I'm taking great offence.
• 19:48
  Well, I was going to say your accent there.
• 19:50
  You're you're. Immediately there's nothing in
• 19:52
  even in the early 2000s, there's nothing in Edinburgh.
• 19:54
  There's nothing in Edinburgh for Scotch whiskey.
• 19:57
  So Scotch whiskey experience, what a fantastic opportunity to
• 20:00
  start as a tour guide again shows.
• 20:02
  You've just got this enthusiasm for whiskey.
• 20:05
  You'd probably, I would say, I don't know if it was on your
• 20:07
  radar, guess you'd be a confederate beforehand.
• 20:10
  But you know, when you arrive as assassinated tour guide as your
• 20:13
  kid, you know I'm going to have a Korean whiskey.
• 20:16
  Of course not. And so it just shows, you know,
• 20:19
  what a great place and atmosphere obviously was at that
• 20:22
  point in your career to make it to where you are now.
• 20:25
  It brings on to our 3rd guest. And also it's worth saying for
• 20:28
  people that because I've told Graham not to mention about,
• 20:31
  I'll mention at first, well mentioned the keepers of the
• 20:34
  quake a while ago. We have some real whiskey
• 20:37
  royalty in this and the ladies, ladies probably hate me saying
• 20:42
  that, but we've got three what where keepers of the quake,
• 20:46
  Susan. They're a master of the quake,
• 20:48
  which again, for people that are new to the podcast, it's it's
• 20:52
  basically an, an award. You get nominated by your peers,
• 20:55
  which I think is really significant.
• 20:56
  And it's something that gives back and shows and demonstrates
• 20:59
  the time and the effect and the influence you've had in Scots
• 21:03
  whiskey industry. And so I'll hand over to Lenka.
• 21:06
  Lenka, what do you do at Scotch Whiskey Experience and how long
• 21:08
  have you been here? Well, I've had lots of different
• 21:12
  titles as Susan and I can never remember my latest one.
• 21:15
  Specialist tours go on, Angela. Lenka is our senior specialist
• 21:22
  to your and Taste Monitor. Yeah, Monitor, Monitor manager.
• 21:26
  Yeah, now I started here. The Yuri Bone, Angus, 1999.
• 21:34
  9/19/89 I was born so I 19. 90. So yeah, I started here 26 years
• 21:44
  ago and I think what I should mention, all three of us here
• 21:48
  are actually language graduates because we have always been very
• 21:53
  keen to employ people who speak languages.
• 21:55
  We have always had probably the most languages of any visitor
• 21:59
  attraction in Edinburgh. 20 plus now including British Sign
• 22:04
  Language and American Sign Language.
• 22:06
  Well, that's what I was going to ask.
• 22:09
  Not so good for a podcast. Have you ever had a language?
• 22:13
  I mean, you might, you know, 20 languages.
• 22:15
  There must be. I mean, obviously you mentioned
• 22:17
  British Sign Sign Language, but it must be a niche language
• 22:20
  where someone's turned up and has just been astounded that you
• 22:22
  can offer Gallic. Gallic.
• 22:24
  Really. So the one closest to home,
• 22:27
  Yeah, is effectively the one that a Gallic speaker can come
• 22:30
  here and know that. Well, we don't have a Gallic.
• 22:32
  Do do we have still a Gallic? We used to.
• 22:35
  Yeah, most of the two. Most of the two, yeah.
• 22:37
  Gallic, Yeah. Yeah, so we have all the main
• 22:40
  languages. We have Gallic as well, sign
• 22:44
  languages. And yeah, we have a lot of
• 22:46
  international employees. I started here because of my
• 22:50
  languages. What language is it?
• 22:52
  Can you speak? Could you speak now before you
• 22:54
  join? What?
• 22:55
  What language is it? What?
• 22:56
  What languages do you bet you can speak on your CV?
• 22:58
  Yeah. So I'm from the Czech Republic,
• 23:01
  as you can probably tell, not a very Scottish accent, even
• 23:04
  though I've been here half my life now.
• 23:05
  Yeah, some kind of half and half.
• 23:08
  But I studied English and Spanish at the university in all
• 23:12
  amounts in Czech Republic, and I was born behind the wrong side
• 23:17
  of the Iron Curtain. So Russian was one of my
• 23:19
  languages and I studied Polish and Portuguese for a bit as
• 23:23
  well. So small country, small country.
• 23:26
  When when somebody from FAIF and Aberdeen came down, he meant
• 23:29
  I've never heard that. There's still some people who
• 23:33
  work here who I have to really focus.
• 23:37
  What's very interesting about yourself like, and I mentioned
• 23:40
  it before it was kind of winding you up, is you're nominated
• 23:42
  twice by our listeners as our guest at They would like to have
• 23:46
  on. I tagged in those posts.
• 23:47
  He never got back to me, but yeah.
• 23:52
  And one of the things that I was told Ross's dad, Bob, Bobby,
• 23:57
  Bart, he actually, and I think it was maybe Vicky Elliott might
• 24:01
  have done. Apologies if I've got that
• 24:02
  wrong, but one of the things I whoever it was that tagged you
• 24:05
  said your knowledge on Sherry. Yeah.
• 24:09
  And I believe that you are very, very into your Sherry and, and,
• 24:13
  and how that. All works.
• 24:14
  Last year I became a certified Sherry educator.
• 24:16
  Wow, I I did that in my. I'm the certified Sherry
• 24:20
  educator. It's something that I've always
• 24:22
  been fascinated by the symbiosis between the Sherry and whiskey
• 24:26
  industries. As you can imagine it's 100
• 24:29
  years and I think 1st and and lease is particularly big in
• 24:35
  Sherry imports, particularly Constitution Street.
• 24:39
  If you go to port houses and cherry houses in Spain and
• 24:42
  Portugal, you see like the founding document of Coburn is
• 24:49
  Constitution St. in Leith names like Sandaman, Duff, Gordon,
• 24:54
  William Humbert. Symington as well.
• 24:56
  Yeah, Symington and all these. I was just really fascinated
• 24:59
  about how that came about. And two big empires.
• 25:05
  Yeah, I go there every year. I'm actually going in a month.
• 25:08
  You've got tattoos. Yeah.
• 25:10
  So you normally, sheriff, you've got shit like what?
• 25:13
  What on earth, right? Because I'll be honest.
• 25:15
  Because Ross Bar would maybe like a like one of these as
• 25:18
  well. Like.
• 25:18
  But tattoo? Ross, I got unfair.
• 25:23
  I I stand my ground with this. I was unfairly christened to
• 25:26
  Sherry tart of the of the podcast because I love well, my
• 25:30
  my no, no, I know, I know, but you've you've cornered me into
• 25:34
  an area. But one of the things entry
• 25:36
  level whiskey is you know, a lot of people, I would imagine maybe
• 25:39
  people you you've you've maybe come across people.
• 25:41
  It's like Sherry whiskey is a great entry into it And Glen
• 25:45
  allocate 15 Glen Drona 12 fifteens these sort of these
• 25:50
  heavily shoot time dude and down to. 10 There were the whiskeys
• 25:53
  that got you into. Really genuinely where?
• 25:55
  And of course I talk about this in the podcast after like
• 25:57
  episode 4 and Ross is like, I you're a Sherry tart.
• 25:59
  Yeah. And then the one that hit home
• 26:04
  was maybe 5 or 6 months ago when we really started the weekend
• 26:09
  DRAM roll call in our Facebook group, which I really recommend
• 26:12
  to get involved. And if you're if you're
• 26:13
  listening, you want to get involved in that every Friday,
• 26:16
  6:30 PM weekend DRAM roll call all.
• 26:18
  From all over the world. We were all over.
• 26:20
  I don't know who this guy is. I've never met him and he puts
• 26:24
  up, I can't remember what the DRAM was very heavy.
• 26:26
  He said he just tagged it perfect for a Sherry tart like
• 26:29
  you, Graham. And I sort of thought, well,
• 26:31
  that's where the reach is going. People are actually called me
• 26:34
  that, but but I know about Sherry, but I'm not.
• 26:36
  I wouldn't say it's something to know an awful lot about.
• 26:40
  I definitely don't know enough about it to get tattoos.
• 26:43
  But but what is it that draws into that?
• 26:45
  What? What was it that?
• 26:46
  And what are tattoos? Well I've got my long dress
• 26:50
  right, I'm sure you So these are the symbols for all the main
• 26:55
  Sherry types. I was looking for a T-shirt and
• 26:57
  I couldn't find 1 so I love that.
• 27:01
  Great, Graham is gonna get whiskey, glass, Scotch whiskey
• 27:04
  on his chest after that. Absolutely, but so.
• 27:08
  I, I love history that and what I love about whiskey industry is
• 27:11
  that whichever persuasion you are, so be a language graduate,
• 27:16
  chemistry graduate, marketing, you can find your niche that is
• 27:20
  something that you can focus on because it's such a big area and
• 27:25
  I'm constantly learning. I feel like I'm novice all the
• 27:29
  time. But yeah, the, the historical
• 27:31
  part really intrigued me. The fact I, I live in Leith and
• 27:35
  Angela as well. And you walk around Leith, you
• 27:38
  see these big warehouses, and when you go to Hereth and Porto,
• 27:44
  you see the names and you see. And so you read more.
• 27:47
  Yeah. Listen to both casts.
• 27:49
  Yeah, it says so much that even even after you know your career
• 27:54
  in whiskey, still having your career in whiskey, the more and
• 27:57
  more you learn, saying I still feel like a novice because the
• 27:59
  more you learn, the more you realize, Oh my God, there's so
• 28:02
  much to learn. Well, do you know what?
• 28:03
  Actually, Bobby Barr mentioned to me, not only is is because
• 28:07
  fortified wine knowledge fantastic, you said that one of
• 28:10
  the most impressive W analogies has ever come across.
• 28:12
  And again, as soon as you say I've still got lots to learn or
• 28:15
  blah, blah, blah, that's when you know they know a lot about
• 28:17
  Westgate because it shows, because it shows an interest.
• 28:20
  And obviously you're training all these new starts, you're
• 28:23
  training people that have been here for a long time, new
• 28:25
  scripts, new tours. So your enthusiasm you then get
• 28:29
  to share, which must be so satisfying.
• 28:32
  It's brilliant. I always found that doing
• 28:37
  whiskey tastings, for example, people are asking me questions
• 28:40
  on stuff that I would love to tell them about.
• 28:42
  Yeah. So that I already want to tell
• 28:44
  them. I'm just waiting for them to ask
• 28:45
  me almost. Well, it's really interesting.
• 28:46
  To take for you to see reviews coming in and people develop and
• 28:50
  and get internally promoted etcetera.
• 28:53
  Their your passion becomes their passion.
• 28:55
  Well, I want I want to because one of the questions I used to
• 28:58
  before I before we start the podcast, and it was funny
• 29:01
  because I remember I did a deep dive into whiskey when I was
• 29:05
  doing locked in and so many people did.
• 29:06
  I liked the drum, but I didn't know an awful lot about it.
• 29:09
  So I did and I read this very cynical article and I can't
• 29:12
  remember where I read it. And I just thought I'm going to
• 29:14
  cling to that right, because it's another little bit nugget
• 29:17
  of knowledge. And it was about the the Sherry
• 29:20
  cask. And we actually wrote up with in
• 29:23
  our newsletter was we recently published A newsletter after a
• 29:26
  Pintail episode a good few weeks ago now, But it was about is the
• 29:31
  Sherry cask, the Sherry cask. And I, I remember reading this
• 29:34
  article and it was all about how a Sherry cask is effectively,
• 29:37
  you know, a, a cast, a cast from a bodega should be seen as a
• 29:42
  car, a Sherry cask. I think it was 1986.
• 29:45
  You'll be able to tell me was when, when they when they
• 29:48
  stopped the exporting Sherry and cast format.
• 29:52
  Everything had to be bottled and then sent out.
• 29:55
  So effectively that was the the cynical article that I read was
• 29:58
  people saying they're not share the cast or share the season
• 30:00
  casks and the industry has to do a lot better to make sure people
• 30:04
  are aware that. They have never been say, Sherry
• 30:07
  season casks ever. It was always transportation
• 30:11
  casks that we got here so. Because it'd be interesting to
• 30:14
  know and I can't remember what the episode was.
• 30:16
  We talked about this was cast from a bodega, would be in like,
• 30:21
  it's like hen's teeth. Now there will be distilleries
• 30:24
  in Scotland. Richard Patterson can get his
• 30:26
  hands on a bodega. Yeah, because there will be,
• 30:29
  there will be distilleries that have.
• 30:31
  Yeah, very. Rare bodega cast so they can say
• 30:34
  this is because it's come from but as you know you'll know with
• 30:37
  this with Sherry, you know the bodega cast in a bodega solera
• 30:40
  system that cast may have been there for hundreds of.
• 30:42
  Years. 202 hundred years, some of them.
• 30:44
  Yeah. So they're not going to pass
• 30:45
  that up partly. But this is where, you know,
• 30:47
  when you look at whiskey now, when you're seeing these, you
• 30:50
  know, they're Sherry seasoned cast that are coming.
• 30:52
  And how long has the Sherry been in these casks before they're
• 30:55
  sent over? And for some of them, do they
• 30:56
  have a real? Do they?
• 30:57
  Have minimum minimum two years two years.
• 30:59
  The Conseco have now trademark Sherry cask in 2015, So the wine
• 31:05
  has to be minimum two years old. You can pay for older, yeah, and
• 31:10
  you can have it in for longer than two years and some people
• 31:13
  do it, but it will cost you. Well.
• 31:16
  Sherry really is the icing on the cake.
• 31:17
  Yes, it's the. Wood.
• 31:18
  Well, that's right, you know. Yeah, it's, yes, it's Robot that
• 31:21
  is contributing a lot of the fleet.
• 31:23
  Yeah. So sometimes people get a bit
• 31:24
  distracted. They do.
• 31:25
  Sherry Yeah, we've talked about the the Mark Thompson Podcast,
• 31:29
  Mark Thompson tasting that we went to and and it was, it was a
• 31:32
  Glenn. It was a Glenn for one.
• 31:34
  Yeah. And he had everyone here.
• 31:35
  It was like there was colour of this and he had everyone and to
• 31:38
  the point where there was people in the room arguing whether it
• 31:40
  was Pedro Jimenez or also. And then he dropped the
• 31:42
  bombshell and says that's that's European virgin.
• 31:44
  I was I was working that night and he says I've got cast sample
• 31:47
  for you stick your nose in that and I'll go.
• 31:50
  That's, that's not just Sherry, that's PX think that's, that's
• 31:53
  because it was so dark and everybody in the room said,
• 31:55
  well, obviously that's Sherry. And it was just virgin European
• 31:57
  oak. And it I had this, I did have
• 32:01
  spice that you'd expect from virgin oak, but it still had the
• 32:04
  spice that you would expect maybe from really high quality
• 32:06
  Sherry cast. So it just goes to show you
• 32:09
  that, yeah, the oak and that was I heard if it's a poor quality
• 32:13
  cask, no matter the quality of Sherry that's been in it
• 32:16
  previously. Yeah, yeah.
• 32:18
  You know, if it's a high quality oak cask then you're going to
• 32:20
  get flavour. Yeah, yeah.
• 32:22
  And and as I say, it is the icing on the cake.
• 32:24
  And we try to make sure that our our guides actually talk about
• 32:27
  that and talk about the wood, yeah.
• 32:29
  And the bourbon and the Sherry, but the fact that the wood is
• 32:32
  contributed. That's.
• 32:34
  It we've had a lot of new distilleries on recently and
• 32:36
  maybe people that are playing around with their distillate
• 32:38
  style, playing around with geese barley fermentation times and
• 32:42
  trying to move that needle a little bit and say, OK, we want
• 32:46
  distillery character as well. And it is something that when
• 32:48
  people come to learn about whiskey for the first time, if
• 32:51
  if you wanted a whiskey to taste a certain way, you could do that
• 32:54
  with cast. But we're seeing more and more
• 32:55
  distilleries now going well. This is our this is what we've
• 32:58
  got going for us. We should introduce the drams
• 33:00
  we've got because we've spoken a bit about Sherry.
• 33:02
  Lenka is very, very generously brought us a lot a drama long
• 33:05
  what have you, what we bring along to share with us.
• 33:07
  So you were asking what, 3 drums?
• 33:09
  Yeah, no. No, no, no.
• 33:11
  OK, brought us. Here.
• 33:13
  What about? So this is AI thought we should
• 33:15
  have something special from A leftover tasting I did last year
• 33:20
  and it is Royal Bracla 21 years old.
• 33:25
  I guess how how do you say that? Royal Bracla, Yeah.
• 33:31
  All of us so Paulo Cortado and Pedro Jimenez.
• 33:34
  Yeah, anytime you have any other tastings where you have leftover
• 33:37
  stock because we lovely now you I.
• 33:42
  Mean if we're talking about the drums in front of us.
• 33:44
  We've been up in the amber bar, which we've not mentioned yet.
• 33:46
  This is not just a tour. There's not somebody just come
• 33:49
  for a tour. It's a.
• 33:50
  Very strange, strange looking drama you've got in front.
• 33:52
  It is so fantastic restaurant just above us and whiskey bar
• 33:58
  one of the it's one of the unknown as somebody has lived in
• 34:02
  Edinburgh for the last 6-7 years.
• 34:04
  This was always a great spot to go to the Amber buy it was.
• 34:06
  Like 150 bottles of whiskey. It was a hidden gem, I don't
• 34:09
  know why. We talked about it.
• 34:10
  I think it was a good Reynolds episode.
• 34:12
  When I said about I, I, I, and I've said this to you guys
• 34:15
  before we start. So you're not shocked, you're
• 34:17
  not gonna check me out. But I, I said about like, you
• 34:20
  know, the, the impression that I always had on the Royal Mile and
• 34:24
  particularly a place like. Next to the castle.
• 34:27
  Yeah, as a tourist trap, right. And, you know, you'll go in
• 34:30
  there and it'll be a fortune and you'll get, you know.
• 34:33
  Yeah, that's it exactly. You know, and.
• 34:35
  Until you actually went and experienced it.
• 34:37
  You guys pulled me up, you pulled me up on it and the
• 34:39
  podcast said that as far from that, you know, and because and
• 34:42
  then the explanation about. The fact of it, the animal bars,
• 34:44
  one of the one of the best value bars, 100% has been for a long
• 34:48
  time. Boy went in for a drop, had a
• 34:49
  drama. Glenn Scotia.
• 34:51
  Double cash rum. Double cash rum and had it into
• 34:53
  that as a highball with a bit of soda.
• 34:55
  Water In my early days, you could say that I had a slight
• 34:57
  tendency towards Sherry as well. Yeah.
• 34:59
  And I drink Sherry. I remember I Yeah, drunk Sherry.
• 35:07
  That is true. Annoyed me.
• 35:09
  About the fact that you called me.
• 35:10
  But I, I remember crossing the city, leaving the boroughs and
• 35:13
  crossing the city to get a drama Valor dice from the Amber Bar
• 35:17
  because it was such good value. And I was 1819, I couldn't
• 35:19
  afford to spend lots, but I wanted to.
• 35:21
  I wanted an 18 year old. I said I want to treat myself
• 35:23
  and I thought it was a great spot.
• 35:24
  That royal bracket, that's an absolute belt.
• 35:27
  Brilliant. The new ball things I think
• 35:28
  they've done about 3 or 4 years ago done the Paolo Kurtado 18
• 35:31
  Ness Sherry 21 year old. Something we mentioned over a
• 35:35
  year ago was I don't know who the guests were talking about
• 35:39
  whiskey liqueurs. I was looking at the whiskey
• 35:42
  menu, QR code menu again, forward thinking, inclusive Aron
• 35:46
  Gold. I was like fan dabbing so.
• 35:49
  People who are listening and not watching, I'm doing for this.
• 35:51
  It's, it's, it's not, it's not a drama as we would expect.
• 35:54
  No, it's 17%. It is a whiskey cream liqueur.
• 35:58
  And I tell you what puts a smile on your face when you have it.
• 36:01
  And I think. It's delight.
• 36:03
  It's absolutely delightful. I'm a sucker.
• 36:05
  I want something whiskey related that makes you happy, and that
• 36:07
  certainly does it. Yeah.
• 36:08
  Then I've went with a tomato and cash strength.
• 36:10
  So I have recently visited distillery again, a distillery
• 36:13
  characteristic and style that I really like forming really long
• 36:17
  fermentation times. The cast strength is just as it
• 36:20
  should be. I really like it needs a bit of
• 36:22
  water. And I picked a DRAM for you too.
• 36:24
  Picked. A DRAM for me, yeah.
• 36:25
  So. We were discussing that Scotch
• 36:26
  Whiskey experience is owned by the industry and this is where
• 36:29
  my next question comes from, which is a long time.
• 36:32
  It was always official bottlings and pretty much as still
• 36:35
  predominantly official bottlings, which was great
• 36:37
  because you could come and learn all about a distillery to do
• 36:39
  those vertical tastings. I've got you a Edward Hour
• 36:44
  bottled by Secretary who owned Edward Hour.
• 36:47
  But it is an independent bottling of a distillery and it
• 36:52
  is something that you do see in the retail here now as well.
• 36:55
  Undisclosed Orkney's, undisclosed space aids.
• 37:00
  That's not something I ever seen in Swede before and I wasn't
• 37:03
  aware of something that you'd offered.
• 37:04
  Is it the undisclosed? Is it the signatory partnership?
• 37:08
  Yeah, no. And there was a huge boom
• 37:10
  obviously in independent bottling.
• 37:12
  So there used to be the established Gordon Macphails and
• 37:15
  and then suddenly there were loads of others.
• 37:17
  And we want to be inclusive, not exclusive.
• 37:22
  So as long as they abide by our one rule in that they cannot say
• 37:27
  on the bottle. Yep.
• 37:28
  Which just because that's confusing for our audience.
• 37:31
  Absolutely. Very confusing if they start
• 37:34
  saying this is a Macallan bottled by so and so and so.
• 37:39
  As long as it doesn't say that, then then we're.
• 37:41
  Happy, which is brilliant because you're getting these
• 37:43
  people because we all know how, how serious the labeling
• 37:45
  logistics. Are hang on a second.
• 37:47
  So on this drum it doesn't say edge though.
• 37:48
  Oh, no, So you've got you have an editor because they're owned
• 37:50
  by secretary, so they can say it so so that that's.
• 37:53
  Definitely. So that's fine.
• 37:54
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. However, there'd be like an
• 37:56
  undisclosed Orkney whatever they put bracket HP, but it's an
• 38:01
  undisclosed Dorkney for somebody that's coming in.
• 38:04
  I'd like something that's Sherry, like 17 year old that
• 38:06
  fits the market. But you're not confusing it with
• 38:10
  the 2 Orkney distilleries and trying to sell the same story.
• 38:15
  Three now, Ross. Can educate the public as well
• 38:18
  on that category of independent bothers.
• 38:21
  Yeah. So the guides are able to talk
• 38:24
  about that and we're reorganizing the shop a bit now
• 38:26
  because we've got so many. Yeah.
• 38:28
  So that we have a section that is.
• 38:30
  Independent, it's amazing. Yeah, but I guess.
• 38:32
  It's a shop. That's where I got this T-shirt,
• 38:34
  actually. It's a walking shop and honestly
• 38:37
  a dangerous, very, very good value, but also what makes it
• 38:40
  very dangerous. I started to normally end in the
• 38:43
  shop. I started today in the shop.
• 38:45
  And I have to say it was what Jake I could talked about the
• 38:51
  miniature selection. And he said that when he worked
• 38:54
  here, he sort of said, right, I want to I want to start making
• 38:57
  my way through these miniatures to try and get and because, and
• 39:00
  I suppose that's a great thing is having those smaller drums
• 39:03
  available. There'll be people that come in
• 39:06
  and go or first of all suitcase. How many bottles can actually
• 39:09
  take back in the suitcase? So if you've got such a massive
• 39:13
  variety of well priced miniatures, it's a great thing.
• 39:16
  To do it's in the retail is more generous of blends than any
• 39:22
  other whiskey details you're going to find in the capitals.
• 39:24
  I think it used to always be upstairs.
• 39:26
  I don't know if it still is, but you used to have people from all
• 39:29
  over the world. Again, we're speaking about the
• 39:31
  Indian market earlier this year, talking about the demand and the
• 39:35
  the tariffs etcetera that are already.
• 39:37
  And so if you've got your heart set on on having a Johnnie
• 39:40
  Walker, yeah, well, you can come in and see the brands that you
• 39:43
  recognize. What's my second DRAM?
• 39:45
  Well. That's your question.
• 39:46
  I explain the drams I've got here.
• 39:47
  So I went for an open 2024 special release.
• 39:51
  Excellent special. 10 year old, I think, I can't remember, but
• 39:56
  yeah, really, really nice. Open cast strength, 58% I think.
• 40:01
  Yeah, really, really nice. That kind of open, but amount of
• 40:05
  time. Great.
• 40:06
  I went for an Angus special next.
• 40:10
  I've gone for Eden Mill Sherry cask.
• 40:12
  Lovely. That's a bottle acquired when we
• 40:14
  did our episode up at Eden Mill. Yeah, many moons ago now show.
• 40:19
  It to Chris. Show it to Chris.
• 40:21
  I actually haven't opened that bottle yet.
• 40:22
  So the technical Angus. An Angus is a great is a great
• 40:28
  chance. That's a great chance for me to
• 40:29
  try that drama. But I've been there.
• 40:32
  A bit of funkiness actually. But yeah, nice.
• 40:34
  But what I got for you is I got you a.
• 40:39
  Please remember what you got, Magus.
• 40:41
  Vladnika Linta so lowland petered lowland malt.
• 40:45
  So thank you for, you know, giving your love for Pete.
• 40:50
  Yep, yourself. Favorite grammar table for me
• 40:52
  is. A really nice yeah.
• 40:53
  To say thank you so much for sharing.
• 40:55
  That Angela, you know, we've not, we've not spoken an awful
• 40:58
  lot to yourself. So wrestle that microphone off,
• 41:00
  Angus there. One of the great things when we
• 41:03
  speak to people who are two gays in it, and I think it stems from
• 41:07
  that Cody Reynolds episode and other people that we've spoken
• 41:10
  to us about approaching whiskey at so many different angles.
• 41:15
  And Link has kind of touched on that.
• 41:17
  So when you first joined, then what was the angle of whiskey
• 41:21
  that grabbed you that you thought?
• 41:22
  But there's so much you can talk about the chemistry, you can
• 41:25
  talk about the science, you can talk about the history, you can
• 41:27
  talk about cast maturation. Warehouse.
• 41:29
  Yeah, I love my warehouses. You can talk about all these
• 41:31
  kind of things. You can eat, flavor, all this
• 41:34
  kind of stuff. I would imagine as a tour guide,
• 41:36
  it'd be very difficult to try and cover everything, whereas if
• 41:39
  you hone in on something that makes it a little bit easier to
• 41:42
  sort of focus on. What was the one thing that
• 41:44
  really grabbed you about whiskey that made you so excited about
• 41:47
  being a tour operator? Tour Guide.
• 41:49
  So having started up at Glenfiddich, there was a lot of
• 41:52
  history around that brand. The, you know, being set up by
• 41:55
  William Grant, the connection to the family, the fact it was
• 41:58
  still in the family. I really like this sense of
• 42:03
  place as well. Obviously I've already said I'm
• 42:06
  I'm originally from space side. Which area space?
• 42:08
  Side are we village just outside Elgin not Elgin but just outside
• 42:12
  called accurate so but a lot of my family are from up that way
• 42:16
  What? Would be the closest distillery
• 42:18
  that you grew up beside then? It would have been Glen Murray
• 42:21
  but my grandparents stayed at Tom Naben which my grandda
• 42:26
  worked at Ben Renis Distillery, so they were the basically part
• 42:29
  of the distillery cottages there.
• 42:30
  So spent a lot of time in and around Aberlour, Kregelihi as
• 42:34
  well. So a lot of that side of the
• 42:36
  family work in the whiskey industry as well.
• 42:39
  I think coming down this week I was a bit overwhelmed having
• 42:42
  worked for a company that just, you know, we were only really
• 42:45
  speaking about Glenfiddich and Valveni up there in Duffton.
• 42:48
  So coming here and realising there were like hundreds of
• 42:52
  other brands that to get my head around was quite a thought to
• 42:56
  begin with. But I I loved the production
• 42:59
  process. So kind of knew inside out, did
• 43:01
  five seasons at Glenfidd. So I was confident with that.
• 43:05
  But I think it was the history side, the people and the stories
• 43:08
  behind it. That's just what captures my
• 43:11
  attention. Yeah, it's fascinating, 'cause
• 43:12
  I'm, I'm, I'm very similar. Like, I love, I'm a romanticist.
• 43:15
  I love the stories. I love all that.
• 43:17
  And then you meet someone like Jake Adku, because I couldn't
• 43:19
  careless about that. Yeah, I'm all about sensing
• 43:21
  science production. I'm like, I want to know about.
• 43:24
  I want to know about how that works.
• 43:26
  Well, that being said, at the weekend I had a couple of my
• 43:29
  pals from uni up in Stone Haven and we went to Fetter Care and
• 43:32
  Distillery and that was my 73rd distillery that I bought.
• 43:36
  And that some of the questions I was asking as a language student
• 43:39
  had my engineering pals go in. When did you become an engineer?
• 43:43
  What are you interested in this far?
• 43:45
  And I'm like, oh, it's all these wee things that make the
• 43:46
  difference and they couldn't believe how excited I was
• 43:49
  getting a bit of copper coil cooling system it.
• 43:53
  Does against people, I mean, it's copper contact.
• 43:55
  It's a thing that people just get really, really excited
• 43:57
  about, isn't? It and so knowing you've been to
• 43:59
  73 the stellarize, have you got a favorite?
• 44:03
  No like. Instead of saying a favorite
• 44:07
  distillery, a favorite tour, you could obviously squeeze the best
• 44:10
  tour in Scotland, obviously distillery tour.
• 44:14
  Well, obviously Glenfiddich has a big place in my heart, but I
• 44:17
  loved as a Glenfiddich tour guide, I loved going down to
• 44:20
  Balveni and going around the Maltens and.
• 44:22
  Getting to Balveni as well, I thought it was mock it.
• 44:25
  It was a proper working distillery.
• 44:28
  Listen confessions. I was also a cleaner at Balveni
• 44:31
  Distillery so. I.
• 44:34
  Wasn't involved in the actual cleaning of the distilleries,
• 44:36
  the offices, but. Offices were off Immaculate
• 44:40
  absolutely I was just thinking that, but I used I used to think
• 44:43
  so you had it was basically doing all the work for Ken Envy
• 44:46
  as well. I remember going in for the
• 44:47
  first time and not even really knowing about Ken Envy and going
• 44:51
  this is not what I thought Bob any would be like paper signs
• 44:54
  about this one. You know, washed back for Ken
• 44:56
  Envy, washed back for Bob any, you know, doing all that work
• 44:58
  was really interesting, but. Is is there a distillery you're
• 45:00
  desperate to visit? Is there 1 you need to text?
• 45:02
  Good question. Got one that's.
• 45:04
  A good question for all three years.
• 45:05
  I get to. So I'm really excited because
• 45:08
  one of the big ones for me and I've not been to yet is actually
• 45:11
  Glenard and we're going up there next, next month.
• 45:14
  So I'm quite excited, that part. Of the job effectively is the
• 45:18
  fact that like you have to learn about all the do you do you have
• 45:22
  to actively learn about new old distilleries or as many
• 45:25
  distilleries as possible? Find the quirkiness, find the
• 45:27
  differences so you can see because we do have people on the
• 45:30
  podcast again I'm not going to even try and name them, but I
• 45:34
  think it was Fraser soon as tried to say in the Facebook
• 45:36
  group who how many distilleries use one tub condensers yeah and
• 45:43
  things. So knowing being just being able
• 45:45
  to know that I've maybe some distilleries have both.
• 45:50
  You know, we're, you know. Yeah, I think for me the it's
• 45:54
  just that connection with the brand and being able to picture
• 45:56
  myself at the distillery when I'm then talking about the
• 45:58
  whiskey, beating a taste in or teaching the team, you know,
• 46:02
  there's loads of stuff that you can just share about it.
• 46:04
  Yeah. And with our visitors, it just
• 46:06
  adds like a, another level of authenticity that you know, you,
• 46:10
  you can picture that you can describe it in detail.
• 46:12
  And like I you mentioned Tomatin, like one of the things
• 46:15
  I loved about Tomatin was the Immaculate wider around the
• 46:19
  distillery. Someone really took their time
• 46:20
  putting that in place. And it's just there's daffy
• 46:23
  things you remember about the places that you go and you know,
• 46:26
  it is the same process that they're going through, same
• 46:29
  ingredients, but the variety that comes out of it.
• 46:32
  And just it's the passion of the people, like meeting the people
• 46:35
  who are actually making the product is just so lovely.
• 46:38
  And again, that sense of place, the the, the part it plays in
• 46:43
  the local community, how you know, especially in these rural
• 46:46
  areas, you know, like it's such a big thing for the the
• 46:49
  community. So.
• 46:49
  There's a question for Lenka and yourself maybe then, right?
• 46:52
  So let's just say a plucky Angus and he says first year
• 46:57
  university student. He's got a big mop head.
• 47:00
  He's a bit dopey. He's walking around.
• 47:02
  He's come in here and you said, you know what, we're going to
• 47:04
  give that Lady a chance. He's a university student that
• 47:08
  needs a job in Edinburgh. We're going to let him work
• 47:11
  through university and stuff. But if you were right here, if
• 47:13
  he was here, right? So when, when if Angus walks
• 47:16
  through the door and you said like he's he's a guy that we're
• 47:18
  going to give a bit of seasonal work to.
• 47:20
  What are you teaching him before you sent right, right before you
• 47:24
  go out, there you go. There's a there's a tour.
• 47:26
  Take them on the tour teaching us.
• 47:27
  What's the sort of key fundamentals that you guys know?
• 47:30
  Hit them with that and hit them with this.
• 47:32
  And then over the time that you work here, you'll pick up the
• 47:34
  the rest of it. Listen every day, like basically
• 47:37
  our job is to help the world fall in love with Scotch whisky,
• 47:40
  and that always starts with our team.
• 47:42
  And it's just the infectious enthusiasm that absolutely
• 47:46
  everyone in the business has. We focus on getting everyone up
• 47:50
  and trained on the tour. We get them to shadow other
• 47:53
  people's tours. They can see how, you know, like
• 47:56
  they're not all the same. They're unscripted.
• 47:58
  It's for the team to kind of put their own mark on it and
• 48:01
  whatever angle they want to go for.
• 48:03
  I mean, if you've been on the tour, you'll have seen, you
• 48:05
  know, there's there's key moments they have to hit.
• 48:08
  You can't be talking. Yeah.
• 48:09
  You can't be talking about the lowlands when you've got Isla on
• 48:11
  the screen. But they do have the freedom to
• 48:14
  put it into their own words. So they're comfortable with how
• 48:16
  they do that. But yeah, yeah, we get them on
• 48:19
  the I'll Passover to Lenka here, who runs and has been busy doing
• 48:23
  this today as well. But all three of us have in our
• 48:26
  time here have led the Scotch whiskey training schools.
• 48:28
  So all of the team go through that and I'll let Lenka tell you
• 48:31
  a bit more about the the training that we do.
• 48:35
  So in my experience, it takes the newbies about three months
• 48:39
  to feel comfortable talking about whiskey.
• 48:42
  But I was thinking about it today because I taught the
• 48:45
  Scotch whiskey training school to some of our new start, and
• 48:48
  it's very different to what it used to be like before.
• 48:51
  These guys all came with love of whiskey already, and they're in
• 48:55
  the early 20s. There was only one Scottish
• 48:59
  person. So we are very international,
• 49:02
  not just in our visitor profile. I think it's 80% international
• 49:06
  visitors, but quite a lot of international employees here.
• 49:09
  And yeah, we put them through the training school.
• 49:14
  It's great day learning about whiskey, all the basic things,
• 49:19
  kind of tasting, talking about the sensory appreciation because
• 49:23
  that's a big one. Production.
• 49:26
  All the rest, The shadow tours, we take them to a distillery.
• 49:31
  Used to be going Kinchi when I go to Holy Rood.
• 49:33
  Port of Leaf. Staff tastings.
• 49:36
  There was 1 happening as I was cleaning up Scotch whiskey
• 49:39
  training school. There were staff training,
• 49:41
  trying different whiskeys, they have a buddy they pass through
• 49:48
  exams. It's so we have 5 company values
• 49:55
  which we came up with together. I remember being in Castle Hill
• 49:58
  Room before we set out on this big refurbishment programme and
• 50:04
  these are authenticity, passion, people, learning, excellence and
• 50:08
  fun. Lincoln, you can't count.
• 50:10
  That's sex. Yeah, I've probably forget about
• 50:22
  the fun. But for me, learning is number
• 50:24
  1. I really love how much people
• 50:26
  learn here and how passionate people become and how they take
• 50:32
  the newbies under their wing. You know, it's a really, I
• 50:36
  always think of us as the mycelium for the world of Scotch
• 50:39
  whisky. I also think though, like a nod
• 50:42
  to Susan, like having a CEO who's so passionate about
• 50:45
  training and development, it's just one thing that there's so
• 50:49
  much commitment and for Susan to be involved in it herself.
• 50:52
  And Julie put together that training school, which we are
• 50:55
  now like running. But you know, it's just that to
• 50:59
  have someone leading the company with such a passion to develop,
• 51:03
  you know, the people around her, it's what makes I think I said.
• 51:06
  Tries Angela. But I have said it's the, IT is
• 51:10
  like I think you know, that it's the kind of the secret sauce
• 51:13
  behind me is just that to, to be so passionate and for everyone
• 51:18
  looking to just and inspire enthusios around them, it's just
• 51:21
  fabulous. All three of you have now been
• 51:22
  recognised by the wider industry.
• 51:24
  That's it is amazing that you you can start as a Saturday tour
• 51:27
  guide and have an influence and so many people who are visiting
• 51:31
  and so many people you and work with.
• 51:33
  You'd pick the picture of a young Angus wanting to learn it.
• 51:36
  My dad think was 42 and liked whiskey, didn't really know
• 51:41
  anything about it. Absolutely loved it.
• 51:44
  I think even like the handbook you used to get, he was like,
• 51:46
  this is the best whiskey book I've ever had.
• 51:48
  And that's, and this was the big, this is the big you had to
• 51:51
  learn to basically be a bit more comfortable to get on tours
• 51:54
  because, and I remember before I started working in whiskey, I
• 51:57
  was thinking, yeah, whiskey could be interesting.
• 51:59
  Him giving me his sweet handbook and said, well, listen, that's
• 52:02
  the best platform to learn from. So I've never worked here, but I
• 52:05
  had to do the reason. Susan, you know, I mean, after
• 52:10
  that wage rise, obviously talking out like this, but I
• 52:14
  have to say, you know, you could go into any business podcast or
• 52:20
  they'll talk about culture in the workplace.
• 52:22
  They'll talk about all these things and one of the key
• 52:23
  phrases you hear throwing around a lot is like planting trees as
• 52:27
  an organization. And I mean that in terms of
• 52:29
  planting trees with people. So what you're doing is you're
• 52:32
  and you're, you guys, you're, you're a great example of that
• 52:35
  in the fact since that you walked in here for the first
• 52:37
  Saturday and here you are still. And you've worked your way
• 52:40
  through the organization to where you are right now.
• 52:43
  And you then look at the guests that we've had and the people
• 52:45
  that we've maybe not had, but people within the industry.
• 52:48
  I mean, how, how many other people have maybe worked here
• 52:50
  that have gone on to become keepers of the Quay?
• 52:53
  How many other people have gone on to start working in industry
• 52:56
  or working in whiskey, creating whiskey?
• 52:58
  It must be immensely proud, but also like what a great thing
• 53:01
  that this this place has been able to achieve to be able to
• 53:04
  have that. Oh, I, I know.
• 53:06
  And I think it's one of the things that keeps all of us here
• 53:10
  is that kind of pride in seeing. And I think Angela's already
• 53:14
  said young team coming in. Yeah, not really necessarily
• 53:19
  interested in whiskey, doing degrees in various different
• 53:21
  things from medicine to history and then actually deciding they
• 53:26
  want a career in Scotch whiskey. It is hugely rewarding.
• 53:30
  How do you make because that was the thing I think you talked
• 53:33
  about Angus on the, the episode. You know that the quote, it was
• 53:36
  the fact that I can't remember what distillery you'd been to
• 53:39
  and you said that the the, the the lady that was taking you
• 53:42
  around. Interesting enough, this was
• 53:43
  Blood Neck. I'd rent that.
• 53:45
  Yeah. And I think she had a chemistry
• 53:46
  background. And so she was very, very
• 53:49
  interested in explaining. And she explained it very well.
• 53:52
  The chemistry behind the process of making whiskey.
• 53:56
  I have to admit, for me, it really flew over my head.
• 53:59
  Laura, my wife, really quite into chemistry.
• 54:02
  Found it really, really interesting.
• 54:03
  So, you know, obviously, you know, we've spoken even a little
• 54:07
  bit on this podcast how people are in some people are
• 54:09
  interested in history, some people are interested in the
• 54:11
  production, the science of it. And that's obviously a great
• 54:14
  thing about whiskey as well as that you can come, you can come
• 54:17
  to it from different yeah areas. But am I right in saying that
• 54:20
  passion that she still has? Oh, exactly.
• 54:22
  Despite exactly I'm not in the chemistry but at the same time.
• 54:26
  Exactly. People start talking about
• 54:28
  Amelie's. I'm going, you know?
• 54:31
  But you're right. The passion she had kept you
• 54:34
  engaged? Yeah.
• 54:35
  How, how, how do you do that? Like how do you guys, when
• 54:39
  people walk through the door now, what's very length has
• 54:43
  talked about already that people are actually walking through the
• 54:44
  door in their 20s. Who ordered it?
• 54:46
  And we've, we've mentioned that we live now in the age.
• 54:49
  I think Paul Main talked about it on the on the podcast.
• 54:52
  She was like, I was a whiskey geek in the 90s, so I had to buy
• 54:55
  books and I had to go to really obscure whiskey festivals.
• 54:59
  When if you went to whiskey festival in the, in the 90s, you
• 55:02
  would a bit of a weird, bit of an oddball, you know, 'cause
• 55:05
  you're like, oh, you're going a stuffy room with guys that
• 55:08
  probably stuck. And what about everyone was
• 55:12
  talking about, you know, cast types.
• 55:14
  And back then, you know, you couldn't openly talk about it
• 55:17
  too much because people like God, he's a bit bit full on with
• 55:19
  whiskey. Whereas now, you know, we're
• 55:21
  seeing this sort of like I said, we don't tick tock now and we
• 55:25
  have people getting involved in our tick tock.
• 55:27
  I'm thinking I'm too old for TikTok.
• 55:29
  But yeah, there's people on TikTok that are engaging with
• 55:31
  our content about whiskey. I I think it's kind of Angela.
• 55:34
  So the enthusiasm isn't it? Yeah, but how do you do it,
• 55:36
  though? What's this?
• 55:37
  What is that? What do you do when someone
• 55:39
  walks through the door? Do you, first of all, in the
• 55:41
  interview, do you have to look at someone that could be like,
• 55:43
  I'm looking at that person, I'm going.
• 55:45
  They can be enthusiastic about talk because all right, maybe
• 55:48
  some people are walking in already knowing about whiskey,
• 55:50
  but there'll be other people that walk through the door when
• 55:52
  neither job right. So how do you, how do you get
• 55:55
  that person to stand for a group of people and go, I love whiskey
• 55:58
  even though they've never liked whiskey before?
• 56:02
  That's not something we're worried about interview.
• 56:06
  What we're looking for is attitude.
• 56:08
  We're looking for someone that likes people and wants to speak
• 56:12
  to people and is genuinely interested in people.
• 56:14
  We can, absolutely. We know we can ignite that
• 56:17
  passion in whiskey. Doesn't matter who it is.
• 56:19
  I think I can't remember one person that's walked out here
• 56:22
  saying, well, I, I still don't like whiskey.
• 56:25
  So you know, once, once we've decided they're going to fit
• 56:28
  because they like people, they're going to talk to people.
• 56:31
  They they've got that dynamism and, you know, that enthusiasm.
• 56:35
  We know we can get them really on the whiskey.
• 56:37
  So if I walked in and said if I walked in in my interview and
• 56:40
  you said as a stipulation, do you like whiskey?
• 56:44
  And I'm going yeah, yeah, but I'm lying.
• 56:46
  Or are are do you comfortable enough for someone to say would
• 56:49
  perfectly No, absolutely not a. Question but and I think to this
• 56:53
  day, I don't obviously do so many interviews now, but to this
• 56:57
  day I think when they ask the question you say they say this
• 57:00
  has no relevance or bearing on whether you don't get the job or
• 57:03
  not, We're just interested to know so.
• 57:04
  What about yourself then? What?
• 57:05
  What brought you into there? Well it was through my
• 57:08
  languages. I was working at the what used
• 57:12
  to be called the Caledon Hotel at the weekend as a what used to
• 57:16
  be called the Chambermaid and it was in my view slave labour.
• 57:20
  I had thought I might like a career in hotels.
• 57:24
  That put me absolutely off ever working in a hotel.
• 57:28
  I can tell you now, I remember I got paid £1.98 an hour really
• 57:32
  and it was like a full 8 hour shift, no lunch break.
• 57:36
  So my, my mother spotted an advert in the paper for the
• 57:41
  Scotch Whiskey Heritage Centre as it was then called.
• 57:44
  It was about to open and they were recruiting and I was going
• 57:47
  to Edinburgh. You need to do languages.
• 57:49
  And then my mummy's like, well look you could get rid of that
• 57:52
  job and that would be a good job.
• 57:53
  You could use your languages. So I applied at that point.
• 57:56
  So it was purely as a means to use my languages and meet
• 58:00
  international visitors, but very quickly.
• 58:04
  And it was great because we're owned by the industry.
• 58:06
  You met all these amazing people, you know, Jim McHugh and
• 58:09
  Richard Patty. Well, as I said, your board is
• 58:11
  just a who's who of incredible people.
• 58:14
  And you, they were all so generous with their time and
• 58:17
  information. And were you a whiskey drinker
• 58:19
  before? No, absolutely not.
• 58:21
  Absolutely not. My dad had a cabinet that had
• 58:23
  some whiskey in it, but that was my only.
• 58:25
  Experience we are. Like I say again, I'm not in
• 58:27
  trapped labour, but we're going back to the 80s and.
• 58:30
  Yeah, OK. But as I say, like whiskey, like
• 58:35
  our sores I've talked about on the podcast.
• 58:37
  Leave at the point of Eve. But I talked about the I've
• 58:39
  talked in this podcast before and my dad worked in whiskey and
• 58:42
  hated whiskey, right? And he's.
• 58:45
  Ruined the mall things. Yeah, but, but, but, he said.
• 58:48
  I can. I hated whiskey.
• 58:50
  And then he talked about distilleries, and he's like,
• 58:52
  you've been. And again, through the time that
• 58:54
  he was working there, you're talking about 1985 to 1988.
• 58:58
  And he's saying, yeah, being the one distillery, you've been in
• 59:01
  them. All right, You've got a boring
• 59:02
  guy talking about a boring procedure that he found
• 59:06
  completely null and that. Was your attitude for some time.
• 59:08
  Was because I took that attitude and gone.
• 59:11
  Yeah, whiskey's whiskey, right? Three ingredients, same process.
• 59:15
  How can it be interesting? And there will have been a
• 59:17
  point, and you maybe know this point because of the industry
• 59:20
  that you're like where you're working between tourism and that
• 59:22
  where whiskey realized. Get your act together, because
• 59:25
  actually, as well as being a a product that people can drink
• 59:28
  and a product that we can explore in the world, it's also
• 59:30
  a product that we can bring people to.
• 59:32
  Stuart tech talks about Tora vague.
• 59:34
  We talk again, short, sharp elbows.
• 59:36
  I'm saying to him, I bet you Tora vague are breaking it
• 59:39
  because I, you know, sky now having two distilleries Diage,
• 59:43
  you'll be like, no, no, no, this island's only big enough for one
• 59:46
  of us. Bow something.
• 59:47
  And he said no, because guess what?
• 59:49
  Sky's loving it because now people are saying if you're
• 59:51
  going to come to sky, you might spend an extra night because now
• 59:54
  instead of going to tower Skirt, you're going to go to Tora
• 59:57
  vague. Guess what?
• 59:57
  Now it's you might do telescope Torreveg and Rassie and suddenly
• 1:00:02
  everyone's going. That's three extra days people
• 1:00:04
  will expect. So did you see in your period of
• 1:00:07
  time when that moment was when the industry kinda said, hang on
• 1:00:10
  a minute, let's get this right and let's really hit it?
• 1:00:13
  Yeah, I mean, I think it started around the time we opened
• 1:00:16
  because closely we were closely followed by Glenn Kinchy having
• 1:00:20
  a visitor centre. Glenn Fiddish had already had
• 1:00:23
  one, but it was kinda out of reach at that time for many
• 1:00:26
  visitors just because of the transport network.
• 1:00:28
  Yeah. And so it was about that time
• 1:00:31
  that it started to to roll and then give it 10 years more.
• 1:00:36
  There was a a real flurry for opening visitors and just.
• 1:00:40
  And they were the the the brilliant thing was they all
• 1:00:42
  hooked on something different. Yeah.
• 1:00:44
  Yeah. And the best way to learn about
• 1:00:46
  whisky, I think, as Angela mentioned, is to visit the
• 1:00:49
  distilleries because it's cement something unique in your head
• 1:00:53
  about that particular. Or stick that stick, a big piano
• 1:00:56
  on the floor. And they had it.
• 1:00:58
  They had it. The what was that?
• 1:00:59
  The Grouse experience? And you used to be able to jump
• 1:01:03
  on the on the piano and do that. Yeah.
• 1:01:05
  That's a good time to ask, 'cause we asked Angela, is it,
• 1:01:07
  what's the, what's the distillery you want to visit,
• 1:01:08
  Susan, that you've not visited? I I've visited quite a lot as
• 1:01:12
  well and so it it's probably. Over 70.
• 1:01:15
  Yeah. Nearer 8, yeah.
• 1:01:18
  Yeah, we have. We, we keep our run in total.
• 1:01:21
  I need to go back and look at mine, but it's probably the
• 1:01:23
  newer ones. Yeah.
• 1:01:24
  So the newer ones that are open that I've not had the chance to
• 1:01:26
  visit. So we run twice a year, we host
• 1:01:31
  and chair the Distillery Visitor Centre Managers Forum and it
• 1:01:35
  gives us the opportunity. We move it round so that it's
• 1:01:38
  fair and equitable for everybody.
• 1:01:41
  The people that attend love it because not only are we all
• 1:01:44
  sharing Intel in terms of tourism and visitors and
• 1:01:47
  products and problems and toilets and all the boring stuff
• 1:01:52
  as well, but we also take it as a learning journey.
• 1:01:55
  We get the opportunity to tour in that distillery.
• 1:01:57
  The poor guide that has to take us all right I.
• 1:02:02
  Remember feeling incredibly jealous of some of your stuff
• 1:02:05
  because you used to go to North British?
• 1:02:07
  Yes, because we still do that. And that's something that again,
• 1:02:10
  even people, the industry, grain distilleries just go, well, why
• 1:02:13
  would you go round a grain distillery?
• 1:02:14
  I've been whiskey long enough to be like, I really want to go
• 1:02:17
  round grain distillery. Yeah, no, it's great.
• 1:02:18
  North British are fantastic and they give us that opportunities
• 1:02:21
  to take the staff who've not been down.
• 1:02:23
  Yeah, in an evening usually to go round.
• 1:02:27
  And sometimes actually not that long ago it was Michelle Peetsey
• 1:02:30
  that was the operations director and she had worked here.
• 1:02:33
  So she took the movement and at the end she said, you know, my
• 1:02:36
  career started a Scottish whiskey experience.
• 1:02:39
  So that's just so, that's good. It so motivates.
• 1:02:42
  So what? Would be what are the new
• 1:02:43
  distilleries for you and like what?
• 1:02:44
  What distillery are you desperate to visit?
• 1:02:48
  So you've had Justine from Cask Whiskey on the podcast?
• 1:02:52
  Yes, twice. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:55
  So she started and logged on this Edema whiskey group, and
• 1:03:00
  I've been visiting distilleries. I think the new ones, they're
• 1:03:06
  interesting. We actually went to England in
• 1:03:08
  our last outing. And did you know there's 55?
• 1:03:12
  Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah.
• 1:03:14
  So we visited. Lance Morgan?
• 1:03:16
  Yeah. Big fan.
• 1:03:18
  Yeah. Really.
• 1:03:18
  Interesting setups, don't know. We'll put you on the spot there,
• 1:03:26
  yeah. I'll go anyway.
• 1:03:29
  Sherry Cast. It's a question for you, Susan,
• 1:03:31
  as well, is that, you know, we're talking about new
• 1:03:33
  distilleries, new independent distilleries.
• 1:03:35
  Now you're owned by the industry and that that's primarily the
• 1:03:39
  older companies that have been in the industry for a long, long
• 1:03:42
  time. How how do you engage with new
• 1:03:45
  independent distilleries about or do they approach you talking
• 1:03:49
  about bottles in your shop, bottles behind the bar, because
• 1:03:51
  obviously there are there are there is that you know, we've
• 1:03:53
  talked about independent bottlers moving with the times
• 1:03:56
  and the the you know, the state of the whiskey industry in
• 1:03:58
  Scotland changing I. Think it's also because it's
• 1:04:01
  really actually Scott Whiskey experience or the editor
• 1:04:03
  centers. It was before it wasn't.
• 1:04:06
  May be that easy hasn't you have all the distilleries on board
• 1:04:08
  straight away. There'd be some even sub
• 1:04:10
  distilleries now independent distilleries who who aren't, you
• 1:04:13
  know, part of the of the set up here.
• 1:04:15
  So a new distillery starts, new approach ends, and the approach
• 1:04:18
  here does that. So I mean our, our strategy is,
• 1:04:21
  is to and it's really an Angela and I job description to to
• 1:04:25
  approach new distilleries just to let them know we exist.
• 1:04:28
  Yeah, no, because really until they've got mature mall, they're
• 1:04:32
  not really going to become part of us because there's cost
• 1:04:35
  involved in. But having said that, because
• 1:04:39
  Angela and I are very busy. Having said that, we've we, we
• 1:04:43
  sometimes fail in terms of the distiller comes to us first, OK.
• 1:04:47
  So I think because now we're kind of known in the industry,
• 1:04:51
  it is great and it saves, it saves us a lot of hassle when
• 1:04:55
  they come to us first and we're delighted.
• 1:04:57
  There's a massive success stories for distilleries.
• 1:04:59
  It might not be particularly big in production.
• 1:05:02
  Think of Glide Scotia for example.
• 1:05:04
  When you do you just I've done, I think I've done standard tour
• 1:05:06
  here 6 times. Really.
• 1:05:08
  Yeah, and it's amazing. They'll claim that as he's
• 1:05:12
  worked here on a CV, did the Sweet, did the Sweet tour over
• 1:05:17
  six times. I mean before This is why I
• 1:05:20
  should come if you want to understand first and foremost,
• 1:05:23
  it's the most beautiful video on the regions of Scotland to ever
• 1:05:26
  seen your entire life. But learning is very fast,
• 1:05:28
  fundamental historic interpretations of whiskey
• 1:05:32
  regions. I don't think I'd ever had a
• 1:05:34
  camel tone before. I think the first Campbellton
• 1:05:35
  whiskey I ever had was in here and that Camel Tone whiskey was
• 1:05:39
  the only Camel Tone distillery that was that was part of Swift
• 1:05:42
  whiskey experience and I was sold on the brand having
• 1:05:45
  experienced it here. And I've been buying whiskey
• 1:05:48
  from from Glenscotia since then. So it is really interesting that
• 1:05:52
  even though Glenscotia had a very established distillery
• 1:05:55
  dating date or 1826, whatever it is, it's not a big brand
• 1:05:59
  globally necessarily. So it's amazing that impact it
• 1:06:02
  can have. And looking at the bar upstairs,
• 1:06:04
  we're looking at black, we're looking at what's a program.
• 1:06:07
  I think there's a lot on you to sell these Linders Abbey
• 1:06:09
  selection. Yeah, Eden.
• 1:06:11
  Well. It's distilleries that I've not
• 1:06:12
  visited yet. I can come here and I can do
• 1:06:15
  that kind of core range and get to discover the distillery.
• 1:06:18
  That must make a lot of sense now we're living in the age of
• 1:06:20
  new distilleries. You guys have seen that change.
• 1:06:23
  Yeah, I think you mentioned that.
• 1:06:25
  I don't know whether on the when we start to come back, you know,
• 1:06:29
  many years ago when this place started was people that go north
• 1:06:31
  as Sterling, you know, and now. And of course the great thing is
• 1:06:36
  you don't have to go north of Sterling to enjoy in Edinburgh.
• 1:06:38
  You could stay in Edinburgh, you could say you.
• 1:06:40
  Don't even have to go to East Lothian, yeah.
• 1:06:42
  But yeah, because up until was five years ago, yeah, longer
• 1:06:45
  than that, I don't know you, you would if you were in Edinburgh,
• 1:06:48
  Glenn Kincher was the place to go, whereas now that's.
• 1:06:50
  So funny you want to have it still has the Edinburgh.
• 1:06:54
  Yeah, the bottle and then we've got all these.
• 1:06:56
  But then I mean, look at like I'm saying we talk about
• 1:06:58
  eternity on Fife. Now you've you mentioned Linders
• 1:07:00
  Abbey, you've got all these different.
• 1:07:03
  So so somebody can fly into Edinburgh and Angela you'd
• 1:07:07
  mentioned about up to space I'd that way we we we we are
• 1:07:11
  terrible in this country for saying like a 2 1/2 hour drives
• 1:07:15
  miles away. You we Australians that will say
• 1:07:17
  I've got drives 2 1/2 hours to meet a neighbor.
• 1:07:19
  Yeah, like we've had Canadian team here before and like
• 1:07:22
  they're laughing, like the distances we're saying they have
• 1:07:25
  to travel. Well, well, literally, he said.
• 1:07:27
  So we've got a Memphis, Memphis, Memphis.
• 1:07:33
  And he said that, yeah, 3 hours to cross state lines to go to go
• 1:07:36
  to a liquor store because a different importer goes into
• 1:07:42
  that liquor store in that area. So he knows.
• 1:07:44
  And he also does his old dusty hunting where they'll try and
• 1:07:46
  find old bottles of the back of shelves.
• 1:07:49
  But yeah, even at that though, if you're here for five days as
• 1:07:52
  a as a tourist, an American, it's maybe Scotland for five
• 1:07:55
  days. And we're across the Ireland and
• 1:07:56
  we're down England and we're flying home.
• 1:07:58
  We're in Edinburgh maybe as a day to go all the way up to
• 1:08:02
  distillery. Now you can say, listen, you can
• 1:08:04
  stay in Edinburgh, go two or three or you could.
• 1:08:07
  And there's that. Do you see that people walk in
• 1:08:10
  sort of not really that keen on whiskey?
• 1:08:13
  Or maybe we may as well do it. We'll do the Edinburgh tour and
• 1:08:16
  suddenly they come in and go, right.
• 1:08:18
  How can where can I go now to find I want a distillery now
• 1:08:20
  because I've done that, I've done this experience.
• 1:08:22
  Yeah, and I think, again, that's something that's kept us here
• 1:08:26
  this long that, you know, people come in just ticking off that I,
• 1:08:30
  I did something with Scotch whiskey when I was in Scotland.
• 1:08:33
  And by the time they finish the tour and they're speaking to the
• 1:08:35
  bar staff, yeah, that often what they're saying is we're only
• 1:08:38
  here for like 2 days. Yeah, but we're already planning
• 1:08:42
  coming back and we're going to go further north.
• 1:08:44
  Yes, Where she's go. And attraction, not just a
• 1:08:46
  whiskey attraction. Yeah, well, absolutely.
• 1:08:49
  So the numbers, I mean, I don't know if that's what somebody's
• 1:08:51
  was, but the numbers of visitors, so.
• 1:08:53
  How many people do you normally on average for a year?
• 1:08:55
  What would you get bigger? What's?
• 1:08:56
  Your targets for an annual footfall in a place like so.
• 1:08:58
  Footfall actually round the tour about 225,000, but footfall of
• 1:09:04
  people engaging with us within the business.
• 1:09:07
  So taking that 225 out, it's about 400,000.
• 1:09:12
  From all over the world. From all over the world, 70%
• 1:09:14
  international biggest market is the US but but pre COVID was
• 1:09:21
  closely followed by China and China's coming back up.
• 1:09:24
  Yeah, Asian tourism is we all all fell months now in
• 1:09:27
  Edinburgh. Just been a change since before
• 1:09:29
  COVID, no? Yeah, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna
• 1:09:31
  speak with some we've we've talked a lot about.
• 1:09:33
  The tours because we didn't really go into it.
• 1:09:35
  Oh, no. OK, we'll talk the tours.
• 1:09:36
  I said I've done the standard tour many times and with what we
• 1:09:40
  spoke about this being a great introduction to Scotch whiskey,
• 1:09:42
  but Lenka, you can be really into your whiskey and come here
• 1:09:46
  and get some really interesting tours.
• 1:09:48
  What tours do you actually offer here and what do the tours
• 1:09:51
  entail? So we have the three basic
• 1:09:54
  silver, gold and platinum. They run every day all the time.
• 1:09:59
  And then the higher specialist tours experiences that I look
• 1:10:03
  after are we have blend your own whiskey experience that Susan
• 1:10:10
  and how long ago 10 years now. Well, it was.
• 1:10:15
  It was on a birthday. It wasn't it of us.
• 1:10:19
  And As for because? It's 20 and well, we've been
• 1:10:23
  running it before then I think must have come in.
• 1:10:26
  I remember we launched it in the Old Course Hotel, really, when
• 1:10:29
  the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions, we had all
• 1:10:31
  these attractions, so there was about, I don't know, 300 people
• 1:10:35
  there for dinner. We're all setting.
• 1:10:36
  So we were doing the entertainment pre dinner and we
• 1:10:39
  were launching this Blend Your Own.
• 1:10:41
  Honestly, I was cursing it because I had a team of about 8.
• 1:10:44
  It took us forever to set up all the equipment.
• 1:10:46
  Yeah, all the hotel staff hated us because we were messing up
• 1:10:49
  all the settings on that. So what?
• 1:10:51
  They were all So did they all have samples on their table?
• 1:10:54
  Yeah. We had and they were bottles and
• 1:10:57
  pleasure in so. Yeah, So what?
• 1:10:59
  Work the works. However, we knew it was gonna
• 1:11:01
  work because I have never seen adults so excited about mixing a
• 1:11:06
  few whiskeys together and sticking a label in a bottle.
• 1:11:09
  It's brilliant. It's.
• 1:11:10
  Very popular with the French market.
• 1:11:13
  I've got got a lot of big bookings for the French goods
• 1:11:15
  because you get to take away your unique.
• 1:11:17
  Yeah, yeah, bottle. And it's hands on and it's a lot
• 1:11:20
  about sensory. Yeah, we have an experience
• 1:11:24
  called Tasting Tales where we mix food and whisking,
• 1:11:27
  storytelling, just basically anything to engage people in the
• 1:11:31
  stories and in the sensory part of tasting, nosing.
• 1:11:37
  I find that people are completely present in the moment
• 1:11:41
  when they're doing that. They're not taking pictures,
• 1:11:44
  they're not doing recording, they're not, you know, they're
• 1:11:46
  just talking to each other. And the best thing about it is
• 1:11:50
  also if you get strangers together in a group like that,
• 1:11:53
  the friendship, the camaraderie and the engagement, the
• 1:11:57
  memories, creative memories. Well, I guess we, we were
• 1:12:02
  actually a tasting Greg Urquhart hosted a tasting that we were at
• 1:12:05
  where we did a blending session and what was very what was very
• 1:12:08
  interesting. Well, what was very interesting
• 1:12:10
  about that was, and it will be, I'll be interested in finding
• 1:12:13
  about from you guys as well. Because you're saying about
• 1:12:15
  people that come through the door, are they whiskey
• 1:12:18
  enthusiasts or are they are they are the tourists are coming in
• 1:12:22
  because in Scotland we have a very probably bad reputation for
• 1:12:26
  people in people who drink whiskey.
• 1:12:28
  Well, first of all, they'll get the one we hear a lot of blinds
• 1:12:30
  are naked blinds are crap because you know, single malts
• 1:12:34
  away to go blinded. Whiskey is rubbish and all that
• 1:12:36
  kind of stuff. Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest,
• 1:12:38
  Like there was there was interpretations that you build
• 1:12:41
  up through other people that you hear from.
• 1:12:43
  And yeah, I must admit, I used to think blinds, blinds one that
• 1:12:46
  didn't do it for me because I was going.
• 1:12:48
  Now, why would you have a blend when you can have a single mole
• 1:12:51
  then you do. And that evening that we were at
• 1:12:54
  was all people who were whiskey drinkers, and it was a surprise.
• 1:12:58
  So they came along to tasting. They didn't realize that part of
• 1:13:01
  the tasting that they would get to do is, by the way, halfway
• 1:13:04
  through this taste and you're going to all get to blend and
• 1:13:06
  we'll bottle this. And there was a few guys in
• 1:13:09
  there that because again, Greg, can you say I'm nicely talking
• 1:13:12
  about blend? You got guys be like my eye
• 1:13:14
  blinds. I'm in.
• 1:13:15
  I get single Maltz way to go. And it was a blended malt that
• 1:13:17
  we put together. And it was fascinating because I
• 1:13:21
  Greg mentioned on the podcast months ago, over a year ago,
• 1:13:25
  making flavour. That's what you get to do.
• 1:13:27
  When you're a science, yeah. You, but not just a science,
• 1:13:30
  it's just an enjoyable thing. You can suddenly say, you know
• 1:13:33
  what, I am going to blend the whiskey that I like the taste of
• 1:13:37
  it doesn't matter. And I Libby drove from Taman.
• 1:13:40
  She talked about that with her her bottling that she did.
• 1:13:43
  Where was it was there was that the, was that the Johnny Walker
• 1:13:47
  experience? Yeah.
• 1:13:48
  And she said like, that was one of her what 3 drams was.
• 1:13:51
  She said fortunately there's only one bottle of it, but it
• 1:13:53
  was the bottle that I got to blend.
• 1:13:54
  And yeah, and because I made it, I got to make a whiskey that I
• 1:13:57
  personally absolutely love because it hit every flavour
• 1:14:00
  point, every note that I enjoy. People would meet a grim from
• 1:14:03
  three years ago and he says, well, I only drink single malt
• 1:14:05
  and. Five or three years ago I was a
• 1:14:07
  bit more on. Point somebody saw a single Cash
• 1:14:09
  Cash strength and you say, well, none of these none of these
• 1:14:11
  sillies would be in business if it wasn't for Valentine's and
• 1:14:13
  white Mackay that kept kept the production going.
• 1:14:16
  That's building Bobby bars collection.
• 1:14:17
  I think the bottle he's happiest with so far.
• 1:14:20
  So Valentine's Seventeen 1980s. Valentine's daft and.
• 1:14:23
  I got got it for 40 lbs on auction for 17 year old artist
• 1:14:26
  in 1980s. I had I watched 40% and I know
• 1:14:30
  that if you're really into Westgate, that's you can
• 1:14:32
  criticize that if you choose to criticize that, but that's some
• 1:14:35
  liquid history. It's thought provoking and it's
• 1:14:38
  important. And actually I've just spoken
• 1:14:40
  with the regions in this, my discovery of Campbelltown and
• 1:14:42
  this building. But I think you offer a blend as
• 1:14:45
  well. Do you offer a blend as well?
• 1:14:46
  And, and that that taste and experience and, and a lot of the
• 1:14:49
  tour is about the green, the malt, showing how blends are
• 1:14:53
  made, etcetera. We're not even spoken about the
• 1:14:56
  most glamorous part of the Scottish experience, which is
• 1:14:58
  this whiskey room, this whiskey collection.
• 1:15:01
  How how did that come about? Because it it probably one of
• 1:15:04
  the highlights of the tour is this room that you go into and
• 1:15:07
  for anyone that has done it or has a.
• 1:15:08
  Lot to be locked in that room. It's an incredible, incredible
• 1:15:11
  collection. I mean we, we, we went in,
• 1:15:14
  Graham and I. Was like deeply aware of it
• 1:15:15
  instead of fashion shark going around, yeah, it's just bottles.
• 1:15:19
  There's a story I told on the very first episode we did about
• 1:15:22
  a bottle a blended A blend I had I saw in Japan.
• 1:15:27
  I'm from having grew up in Harrington.
• 1:15:28
  There's a a blended A blended whiskey called Haddington House.
• 1:15:33
  And we went in. I said, I'm wondering if it's in
• 1:15:35
  this connection. There's a bottle of Harrington
• 1:15:36
  House and sure enough, there it is.
• 1:15:39
  So that just shows you the kind of extent.
• 1:15:42
  It was a Brazilian. It was a Brazil.
• 1:15:43
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so it was Clive V Days who
• 1:15:46
  got in touch with us way back to say that he really wanted his
• 1:15:52
  collection to come back to Scotland and he really wanted
• 1:15:55
  people to enjoy it. So he wanted it to be on display
• 1:15:58
  to the public and and to be perfectly honest and at the time
• 1:16:03
  there was no way we could have afforded to buy the collection
• 1:16:06
  from him and transport it and pay the duty to bring it back
• 1:16:10
  into the country and build a vault to house it.
• 1:16:15
  So Diageo stepped in and said, well look, if we buy it and we
• 1:16:19
  transport it and we deal with the duty, if you house it and
• 1:16:23
  look after it, then let's do this.
• 1:16:26
  So that's what happens. So we have a rolling 10 year
• 1:16:30
  loan from Diageo. How many bottles are in that?
• 1:16:33
  So there are 3000, 180, four, 300. 83,380. 4 So it was a good
• 1:16:41
  day for the Exchequer when they came back home.
• 1:16:45
  I know. And the thing, the thing was we,
• 1:16:48
  we were the Aggio explained that it was really like a work of
• 1:16:51
  art. Yeah.
• 1:16:52
  Yeah, museum piece and and they said it wasn't even worth the
• 1:16:56
  paperwork to try and get them to ignore the duty.
• 1:17:01
  So he ended up just paying the duty, which was horrific, to
• 1:17:04
  bring it back, yes. And is is is a chap still alive?
• 1:17:07
  Is he still alive in Kent? He actually passed away just a
• 1:17:10
  couple of years ago now. Not even that.
• 1:17:12
  Just last year last. Yeah, but he was able to come
• 1:17:15
  back. He came twice to see it, didn't
• 1:17:18
  he? The first time he saw it.
• 1:17:20
  I wish I had thought I should have had Kleenex tissues there
• 1:17:23
  because it was emotional. I bet for him to see it because
• 1:17:26
  he'd had it in his house on wooden shelves.
• 1:17:30
  It wasn't. It wasn't buying glass.
• 1:17:32
  It wasn't lit particularly well. And then when he came in and saw
• 1:17:36
  that, I mean, it's really. Emotional.
• 1:17:37
  His legacy is there forever. Now that whiskey.
• 1:17:39
  Collection, yeah, I think, I think it really he was so
• 1:17:42
  pleased and especially then to meet us and to know that it was
• 1:17:46
  going to be looked after. Looking after.
• 1:17:48
  That meant a lot to him and and to his sons to this.
• 1:17:50
  Day his son came yeah, he's still going to go yeah, yeah,
• 1:17:53
  yeah. That's a it's the wow moment of
• 1:17:57
  the IT is, and it's the Eureka moment for many people.
• 1:18:00
  You give them all that story, all the background, they choose
• 1:18:04
  their own whiskey and then they're in this even.
• 1:18:06
  The way the doors open, yeah. And The thing is, what's nice
• 1:18:09
  are. There any bottles in that
• 1:18:11
  collection that you point out you know or any in that of
• 1:18:15
  special significant. Angela's not in the way she
• 1:18:17
  knows. She knows exactly what is it.
• 1:18:18
  What, three? Well, yeah, this.
• 1:18:19
  Is 384, which we've all been tasked with cleaning?
• 1:18:24
  Yeah, over the last years as well.
• 1:18:27
  So it's a real privilege, you think, You know, a cleaning task
• 1:18:30
  is usually quite boring, but it's a real honour to get that
• 1:18:32
  close to the bottles to read the stories.
• 1:18:35
  It is. It's.
• 1:18:36
  Is there still bottles that you'll walk past to go cut it?
• 1:18:39
  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
• 1:18:41
  But it's really interesting because there's ones because we
• 1:18:43
  get that up close to them, like you'll you'll point ones out to
• 1:18:48
  the team that they've never seen before.
• 1:18:51
  Collection of about four that have got glass animals, like
• 1:18:55
  blown into the glass of the muscle and like some of the team
• 1:18:58
  have never noticed that. There's other stories like
• 1:19:01
  again, like going back to Glenn finish.
• 1:19:03
  There's the Janet she'd Roberts bottling and when we worked at
• 1:19:07
  the distillery it's either I've been 110th birthday or 100th
• 1:19:12
  birthday and everyone working at the distillery was gifted a
• 1:19:15
  bottle at the time and 1 is that those are in the collection, but
• 1:19:19
  I've also got. Really, that's cool.
• 1:19:22
  So you can say I mean that's that's the nice thing about that
• 1:19:25
  collection is there's it's not, I mean there's there's
• 1:19:28
  certainly, definitely bottles in there that you're going never
• 1:19:31
  heard or seen that, but there's also plenty of bottles that like
• 1:19:33
  and yeah. And I think that's what's quite
• 1:19:36
  nice about it is like there'll be people that have got like
• 1:19:39
  when I went in there, like Ballantine holds a special place
• 1:19:41
  for me through the family connections.
• 1:19:43
  So instantly I'm looking for all the Ballantines bottles and I'm
• 1:19:46
  good God, that's an old one there and, and all this kind of
• 1:19:48
  stuff. And there'll be loads of people
• 1:19:49
  that are saying, you know, you've got David lines.
• 1:19:52
  He was looking for the Glenn Geeries and you'll what's 1
• 1:19:54
  truck care absolutely loves he's.
• 1:19:56
  Big Glenn talkers. Glenn Talkers again.
• 1:19:57
  Yeah, it's your. Classic one where it's like, I
• 1:19:59
  remember that. Yeah, it's on my granny.
• 1:20:01
  That's everything. So that's why you can't just
• 1:20:03
  walk past that, because what happens is you'll walk past.
• 1:20:06
  You go quite die. There's an old grand bottle that
• 1:20:08
  I can remember seeing on my granddad's but you know, do.
• 1:20:11
  You know, when we asked the public, so we did a big survey
• 1:20:13
  because we were redoing the whole tour at the time and that
• 1:20:15
  that was going to be part of it. And we asked the public if they
• 1:20:18
  would like to see a large collection of whiskey.
• 1:20:20
  And it was absolutely no, not interest.
• 1:20:23
  Yeah. But we had a gut feeling that
• 1:20:25
  they didn't know what they actually wanted.
• 1:20:28
  So we ran with it, took that risk.
• 1:20:32
  And I remember as we were, because we placed the collection
• 1:20:35
  and Christine McCafferty, the archivist at Diageo, she came
• 1:20:39
  over and we were all in the collection placing it and the
• 1:20:42
  contractors were still working in the gallery area.
• 1:20:45
  And up until that point, I mean, we'd been chatty, but every day
• 1:20:48
  kind of chatty, never asked about whiskey.
• 1:20:51
  But once we started placing that collection and they started
• 1:20:54
  seeing bottles, they're like, Oh, my granddaughter.
• 1:20:56
  Where's? That and, oh, that and, and I
• 1:20:58
  knew at that point we all, it was really going to work.
• 1:21:02
  Yeah. Because they were not interested
• 1:21:04
  in whiskey, but already they were seeing things and they were
• 1:21:07
  like, oh, that looks amazing. Yeah, that's fascinating.
• 1:21:09
  You got favorite bottle in the collection, Susan?
• 1:21:12
  OK, I, I, I see bottles that I don't think I've seen for ages,
• 1:21:16
  but I, it's when you get industry in there and they're
• 1:21:21
  telling the stories behind the bottles that are not on the
• 1:21:23
  labels, that's when it gets really interesting.
• 1:21:26
  Come on, I'm being like, I can't believe you've got that limit
• 1:21:28
  like. Well, I yeah, Richard has and
• 1:21:31
  and Willie Tate, he used to be do.
• 1:21:33
  You have to put do you have to put like like rubber sheets on
• 1:21:36
  the floor when he's in in case he does his swirl around and.
• 1:21:39
  Finds out and. I've heard a story about your
• 1:21:41
  carpet and and I have. The most expensive carpet in the
• 1:21:44
  world? Yeah, we are.
• 1:21:46
  Just laying in that carpet and he was on the board of
• 1:21:48
  directors. And.
• 1:21:49
  You. Am I right?
• 1:21:50
  Am I right in saying he was on it was maybe to sell his fear of
• 1:21:53
  staff training and you'd warned him I should have got a new
• 1:21:55
  carpet and and and am I right? Am I right in saying that he one
• 1:21:59
  of a young member of staff? This is the way it was told to
• 1:22:03
  me that a young member of staff was part of the training and he
• 1:22:06
  gave the glass to him and said Chuck this out to put that on
• 1:22:10
  the carpet. And so this new tour guides put
• 1:22:12
  it on the carpet and he's and he's.
• 1:22:16
  Not the way I remember it. He basically said it wasn't me.
• 1:22:19
  Richard was defiant and Richard went ahead and threw the
• 1:22:22
  whiskey. But I was holding a bucket, so I
• 1:22:27
  managed to get some of it, not all of it.
• 1:22:31
  And the next morning, Richard appeared with carpet cleaner.
• 1:22:35
  These are the characters, aren't they?
• 1:22:39
  Like, what's your what's your favorite bottle in Clive's
• 1:22:41
  collection? So I would say I remember a lot
• 1:22:45
  of the bottles, the way they tasted.
• 1:22:49
  There's a 12 year old Grand Moringer that was released for
• 1:22:51
  the Millennium, OK, that I bought and opened and drunk as I
• 1:22:55
  will, all of my bottles quite right.
• 1:22:57
  But I still remember how beautiful that was.
• 1:22:59
  And there's a bottle of 18 year old Grand Reserva McAllen that I
• 1:23:02
  also remember how we tasted. It's a bottle of Abbott
• 1:23:06
  Provenance. That was one of my Eureka
• 1:23:08
  moments. And I remember that taste.
• 1:23:11
  It's like liquid poetry. Yeah.
• 1:23:13
  You don't forget how it made you feel.
• 1:23:15
  So yeah. Yeah.
• 1:23:16
  That that would be my. Favorite.
• 1:23:18
  Boss, Well, one of the things I want to ask you, you all because
• 1:23:20
  you've worked in the industry for so long, but also, I mean,
• 1:23:23
  it's, it's it's wrong to have to talk about it.
• 1:23:26
  But the stigma of females working in the whiskey industry.
• 1:23:29
  And first of all, from your one point of view, Lenka, is that
• 1:23:32
  there'll be people that are being like, well, first of all,
• 1:23:35
  a lassie and second of all, a formal lassie.
• 1:23:38
  So how difficult has that been for yourself coming over and,
• 1:23:42
  you know, trying to speak about whiskey and you know so much
• 1:23:45
  about it, but yet there'll be there will be people out there
• 1:23:47
  that go, Nah, Nah, I can't. You don't love it.
• 1:23:50
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's a a good challenge
• 1:23:54
  and generally, I guess, you know, I do love talking about
• 1:23:57
  it, but I also quite like. People.
• 1:24:01
  Right, it's never been an issue. Yeah.
• 1:24:05
  Good. I mean the the initial reaction
• 1:24:07
  and I must say they are usually Scottish men.
• 1:24:12
  Yeah, because I mean that, look, let's be honest, right?
• 1:24:14
  We will talk about Mayor Big Cameron, you and if you were to
• 1:24:17
  draw a guy right, that was a Scotch whiskey sort of person.
• 1:24:22
  Right, you ask an American to draw Scotsman.
• 1:24:24
  Yeah, but ginger guy were killed on right?
• 1:24:27
  It comes bounding over here. It says how are you doing?
• 1:24:29
  Want to talk about whiskey? Brilliant.
• 1:24:31
  Or I think we slaughtered Mark Thompson on one of the episodes
• 1:24:35
  where it was like a guy in a tweed suit sitting backfire with
• 1:24:38
  two point or spaniels swallowing a drive around with a cigar.
• 1:24:42
  I've spoken in the back, show it to Mark Thompson, but again,
• 1:24:45
  that kind of thing. Speaks to an old guy saying I'll
• 1:24:48
  have a time. The villain, please, because
• 1:24:50
  that's the only whiskey that doesn't put colouring in their
• 1:24:52
  whiskey. And that's the case that
• 1:24:54
  somebody's told them that. And he's then told 100 people
• 1:24:56
  that because he believes it to be true.
• 1:24:58
  And I think there's just this kind of self, maybe self
• 1:25:00
  entitled. Of course.
• 1:25:01
  But you guys, I mean the industry and then the world has
• 1:25:04
  changed massively for the better I would say from from that.
• 1:25:07
  Point Scotch whiskey. Now all the blenders are women.
• 1:25:11
  Well, yeah, there's got to be something with it.
• 1:25:14
  No, but you know, we had as Andrew Murphy from the the
• 1:25:20
  Scotch Malt Whiskey Society, Yes.
• 1:25:22
  And he was talking about he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a gay man.
• 1:25:26
  And he was talking openly about the LGBTQ community and whiskey
• 1:25:29
  and inclusivity and how the SMWS are very proactive on that.
• 1:25:34
  I'm desperate to go to drag me to the whiskey taste.
• 1:25:37
  And a drag, a drag tasted. Yeah, brilliant.
• 1:25:40
  But yeah, we did joke that as inclusive as whiskey as it was,
• 1:25:43
  Angus, myself and and Andrew, there's still 33 white men with
• 1:25:47
  beard sit and talking, talking about whiskey, you know, but but
• 1:25:51
  you from the 80s through to now, you know, going through the
• 1:25:55
  challenges you'll have had. First of all, starting out as a
• 1:25:57
  Saturday tour guide all the way through it.
• 1:26:00
  Is it something that you've you've you've come across quite
• 1:26:03
  a lot? Yeah, I would agree with Linka.
• 1:26:06
  I never saw it as a disadvantage.
• 1:26:08
  In fact, it was almost an advantage being female because
• 1:26:13
  once you've you've proven to people you knew about whiskey,
• 1:26:17
  they were actually far more interested than had it been
• 1:26:20
  Scottish bloke and I yeah, you know what, Because they were
• 1:26:23
  interested in how did you get into whiskey.
• 1:26:25
  So it always turned to your advantage.
• 1:26:29
  I wouldn't say it did mean you had to kind of dig in for 10
• 1:26:33
  minutes. Yeah.
• 1:26:34
  And yeah, you got their attention, but.
• 1:26:36
  After that you just say Anthony Spaceside, so.
• 1:26:39
  Have you got that? But that always felt but no, I
• 1:26:43
  think I've been really lucky in working at Glenfiddich and Libby
• 1:26:46
  Lafferty was in charge of the visitor experience at that time.
• 1:26:50
  Absolutely. Like, amazing.
• 1:26:53
  And then to come down here like, you know, season.
• 1:26:56
  Season. Yes, it was like heading it all
• 1:26:58
  up and working in the. The DVC side of.
• 1:27:02
  It with the distillery managers ring or visitor centre monitors.
• 1:27:06
  Like. People like Linda Mellis from
• 1:27:09
  Diageo, Colin Mitchell from Shivas, there were, there were
• 1:27:13
  just so many like, like women doing great things in Western
• 1:27:17
  all through the time of I've been here.
• 1:27:19
  That would always have given you the confidence that.
• 1:27:21
  Yeah, it didn't, it didn't feel like a thing, but you know, I'm
• 1:27:24
  still like, it's really disappointing that I know like
• 1:27:27
  our team still get that. You know, if there's like, if
• 1:27:30
  there's two of them behind the bar, the question goes to the
• 1:27:33
  guy and yeah. And it's just, I'm really
• 1:27:36
  pleased that we've got such a supportive team here and the
• 1:27:39
  like, the meals in our team are really good at kind of ensuring
• 1:27:44
  that the the team are involved in that conversation.
• 1:27:47
  There's really. Inclusivity for a very brief
• 1:27:49
  time. And I remember my gentleman
• 1:27:53
  saying I'd like a young man to serve me and then not being able
• 1:27:55
  to answer this question and then going to have to go and answer
• 1:27:58
  my question to say I need to ask Lindsay.
• 1:28:00
  She'll know this. Yeah, I.
• 1:28:03
  Tasting over at our hotel and open and Ross, he is our head of
• 1:28:08
  facilities in IT had been my chauffeur for the night and I'd
• 1:28:11
  conducted the tasting and then at the end of the tasting people
• 1:28:15
  were queuing up to speak to Ross and ask him questions and he was
• 1:28:18
  like, I'm our driver. Like that was.
• 1:28:21
  Like you need to go and. Speak to her, Tom and Monique
• 1:28:23
  when they worked at the shop. In Carnage.
• 1:28:25
  Whiskey shop and they both worked together and they were
• 1:28:27
  both, you know, as a couple at the time.
• 1:28:29
  Well, I, I thought with that, I was going to the old Einstein
• 1:28:32
  story, that one one, you know, he had a driver and he, when
• 1:28:35
  he's doing lecture tours of America and his driver was full
• 1:28:40
  story. His driver was so knowledgeable.
• 1:28:43
  And one day he was feeling a bit under the weather and he said, I
• 1:28:45
  can't do this, but I can't let everyone that's come to see me
• 1:28:47
  down. And this guy delivered the the
• 1:28:51
  lecture and at the end there was AQ and A and someone asked him a
• 1:28:55
  very complicated question and he said, well, that's such an easy
• 1:28:58
  question. Even my chauffeur will be able
• 1:29:00
  to answer this question. But.
• 1:29:02
  Yeah, Tom. 'S Tom and make a.
• 1:29:04
  Tourist saying I'd like a whiskey, A woman's whiskey.
• 1:29:06
  Right, well, basically it was an American tourist optimore.
• 1:29:09
  Yeah, what? Well, because they would say I
• 1:29:11
  need something to take back to my wife.
• 1:29:12
  What would you recommend as a a whiskey for a woman?
• 1:29:15
  And what he was saying was basically like his flavour
• 1:29:18
  profile. He liked the sweet, the light,
• 1:29:19
  easygoing stuff, but many she loved the heavily she was.
• 1:29:22
  Optimore. Yeah, and you know, if you
• 1:29:25
  suddenly said that, you know, more females and it'll be
• 1:29:29
  interesting because we are going to come to our, what, 3 jams?
• 1:29:32
  We've had more females talking about peated whiskey and our
• 1:29:34
  what, 3? We've had more what, 3 peated
• 1:29:36
  whiskers and what, 3 jams from female guests than we've had
• 1:29:39
  from male guests. Now, there'll be plenty of
• 1:29:41
  people that say strong peated whiskey, pets, hairs on your
• 1:29:43
  chest, laddie, something like that.
• 1:29:45
  But actually, you know, it's so it's impossible to actually no.
• 1:29:48
  And I think as we've seen, and it was Megan Brown.
• 1:29:52
  Megan Brown, Yeah. It was that the feature with BBC
• 1:29:55
  about females having a stronger more likelihood of super taste.
• 1:30:00
  And I've said it, but before we happen to my wife, she she
• 1:30:04
  actually has we update for the podcast systems she's had.
• 1:30:07
  She had the Dalai milk N British.
• 1:30:10
  She like it finished it this time.
• 1:30:11
  So it's the first drum she's fully finished herself, but she
• 1:30:15
  has said I want to try it. I want to get in.
• 1:30:17
  But what would happen beforehand was I would say I'd pour a drum.
• 1:30:19
  I would. I can't no things.
• 1:30:22
  Not your. Flavors I can't do it.
• 1:30:24
  I would pour it. I would say right I'd I'd get
• 1:30:27
  the the tasting notes up. I say go and smell that time we
• 1:30:30
  get and if there was 5 flavour tasting notes in there should
• 1:30:33
  get 3 or 4 of them out of out of the five and I'm going.
• 1:30:36
  Very personal as well. But it is it's, it's one of
• 1:30:38
  those things that is, yeah. It is amazing, but we are
• 1:30:41
  approaching that time because we have effectively what 9 drams to
• 1:30:45
  get. There and I'm and also we'll say
• 1:30:47
  thanks for your pick. We could do 10 podcasts if you
• 1:30:50
  feel ladies, to be honest. Well, I just got away with us a
• 1:30:52
  little bit. I've offered you know, if you
• 1:30:54
  ever want to invite Angus, Ross and myself probably I guess
• 1:30:57
  myself. Ross is about my little right.
• 1:31:00
  Don't be like to ask a question and if it but if you wanted us
• 1:31:03
  to, we would happily get Ali Baxter to train us up to to
• 1:31:08
  deliver that. If he's qualified to train you.
• 1:31:13
  The last time Ali was on the podcast, and he was great, a
• 1:31:15
  great brand and master for the Scott Scottish Whisk experience
• 1:31:19
  was was it was a New Year's episode?
• 1:31:21
  Yeah, that's right. And it was actually, we recorded
• 1:31:24
  that on the day that you guys were doing your Distillers Fair.
• 1:31:27
  And he did kind of say, well, look, I'll be doing the Stars
• 1:31:31
  fair and there's a good chance I might have a drama too.
• 1:31:33
  I said no, no, that's fine. And then he kind of messaged me
• 1:31:36
  on Instagram that day. We're saying like, listen, I've
• 1:31:39
  had, I've had a few and we've gone to the pub afterwards.
• 1:31:41
  I'm not going to make it for a podcast, so that's fine.
• 1:31:43
  We just turned up and then Ali backs it out nowhere Just Rock
• 1:31:46
  said. And he's he's he triggered song
• 1:31:48
  for for an old Langside stink at the bells as well.
• 1:31:52
  So it's. Also, great time when this comes
• 1:31:54
  out. Congratulations, Ali.
• 1:31:55
  Oh, he's just got engaged as well.
• 1:31:56
  He's got. Engaged.
• 1:31:57
  Yeah. Well done, Well done.
• 1:32:00
  Yeah, absolutely. So right.
• 1:32:01
  What we're going to do, how are we going to do is we're going to
• 1:32:03
  do one what, 3 drums each? Just go around.
• 1:32:05
  Are we going to go? No, we're doing the three drums,
• 1:32:08
  but we're going to do one run drum per person per time.
• 1:32:11
  So what we'll do is we'll start with yourself, we'll start with
• 1:32:14
  you, Susan. We'll go nice and easy.
• 1:32:15
  Start with CEO. That's a bit so or what 3 drams,
• 1:32:19
  any 3 drams. So we'll get your your first
• 1:32:22
  one, then we'll go Angela and Lenka.
• 1:32:24
  Okay, well you've just talked about women like Anila.
• 1:32:26
  So my first one is Anila and we were talking about it earlier
• 1:32:32
  and, and a lot of what makes drums stand out is where you
• 1:32:37
  tasted it and who you were with. Yes.
• 1:32:39
  So my first one takes me right back to my early days when I was
• 1:32:44
  initially learning lots to alarm.
• 1:32:47
  But Jim McEwan was definitely one of the people that taught me
• 1:32:51
  a lot about whiskey and it was the first time I'd been out on
• 1:32:53
  Isle Up and I was with Jim. And also, I don't know if you
• 1:32:58
  know Alan Wardrock, who's now with Ian MacLeod.
• 1:33:00
  Alan was there in his early days, so you can imagine there
• 1:33:05
  were a few drums. But and Christine Logan, who is
• 1:33:09
  now the Lady of the Isles, was at Walmart at the time and we
• 1:33:12
  were all sitting round the peat fire and we were drinking.
• 1:33:15
  The 17 year old Bulmore to this day is a drum that I hunker
• 1:33:22
  after because obviously it's not around anymore, but it was an
• 1:33:28
  amazing drama. Was this one insight of the
• 1:33:29
  distillery? Pretty much, yeah.
• 1:33:32
  And oh, in the. Sorry in the.
• 1:33:33
  Distillery sitting around a a peat fire just all chatting
• 1:33:38
  about the drama and and Jim was wonderful, answering every
• 1:33:41
  question he'd throw at him and it was just an amazing
• 1:33:44
  experience. I say yeah, it.
• 1:33:47
  Was a great. Yes, and.
• 1:33:48
  Follow that one up from. From your own point of view as
• 1:33:50
  well, like the names you're mentioning, being in the
• 1:33:54
  building, in this building at a time when the whole industry was
• 1:33:58
  involved, it would have felt like a very exciting time.
• 1:34:01
  But you're, you're mentioned, you could rattle off name after
• 1:34:04
  name of people that in the whiskey industry threw them all.
• 1:34:11
  And at that time must have felt very new and excitement to be
• 1:34:15
  able to sit like, like you said, sit in the big fire of these
• 1:34:18
  guys. Yeah, but to this day I feel so
• 1:34:20
  trivialized. To.
• 1:34:21
  Have met all these people and who so generously share their
• 1:34:25
  time and information and enthusiasm, which is, you know,
• 1:34:29
  really helped me and hopefully I've passed on a lot to new team
• 1:34:33
  that. Is there something about the age
• 1:34:36
  statement of 17 that sits with people like so old pony, old
• 1:34:43
  pony 17, that's been our big 17, right?
• 1:34:47
  I would say I will yeah, I would say I was actually talking about
• 1:34:50
  it yesterday with there was a friend of the podcast, the
• 1:34:53
  ginger boy Hamish. We were talking about it and I I
• 1:34:55
  was saying that a drama that I've not really spoken an awful
• 1:34:58
  lot about, but I bought a Glenn Farkle 17 on the options so.
• 1:35:03
  Discontinued. Again, I remember, remember
• 1:35:05
  drinking every day. It was yeah.
• 1:35:08
  But I don't know is it something that.
• 1:35:11
  I just think, I think that. Is interesting.
• 1:35:13
  There's a 7 because it's not an age statement that you normally
• 1:35:16
  see. But well.
• 1:35:18
  Could it? Could there be an argument right
• 1:35:20
  now? Angus came out with a little bit
• 1:35:22
  of an 8. Year old single malt for the
• 1:35:23
  first release. Of course, absolutely no
• 1:35:25
  Fantastic. But Angus came out with a bit of
• 1:35:27
  a cynical argument. When Glen Alec, he changed their
• 1:35:31
  their their branding. The change the fonts.
• 1:35:34
  Fonts and everything like that. And you, you sort of remember
• 1:35:37
  you said that, you know, is it within a distillery's best
• 1:35:40
  interest that when they change their branding first batches
• 1:35:43
  that come out, they put their really, really good stuff in
• 1:35:46
  there. So people will go.
• 1:35:48
  I remember that because it's sort of that that reckon.
• 1:35:51
  And is there something with 17? No, Maybe that's it, right?
• 1:35:55
  Everything 17, although I do like the argument of of the
• 1:35:58
  first batch being the best batch.
• 1:36:00
  I bought my dad Tam do bat strength one maybe a year ago
• 1:36:05
  because he spoke about getting it in the Swee shop 10 years ago
• 1:36:11
  when they'd just done it, getting it at an amazing price
• 1:36:13
  and bull more Tempest as well. Another discontinued whiskey
• 1:36:17
  that he said I think was as a cash strength board and bourbon
• 1:36:21
  that I think he said that he's got a good staff rate for and
• 1:36:25
  that he kind of fell in love with.
• 1:36:26
  But no, I don't think 17's significant.
• 1:36:29
  I'm going. To I'm going.
• 1:36:30
  To carry that flag when it comes up.
• 1:36:31
  Yeah. Angela, what's your what's your
• 1:36:32
  first story? It's funny, we've already
• 1:36:34
  mentioned Ali Baxter. We kind of play podcast bingo,
• 1:36:38
  the pair of us. So how often will he mention
• 1:36:41
  Glen Murray and how often will I mention Glenfiddich and my next
• 1:36:46
  drum? So Ali will not be disappointed
• 1:36:48
  this evening. So my first one, I've kind of
• 1:36:51
  looked at my journey through whiskey and so I've chosen Ben
• 1:36:57
  Renis 15. So I mentioned both my granddad
• 1:37:00
  and my uncle worked as marshmen up at Ben Renis distillery.
• 1:37:07
  It was my Granda Craig, but we always called him Granda Ben
• 1:37:09
  because they stayed up at the Ben.
• 1:37:11
  So that's the whole thing around that.
• 1:37:15
  So whenever I have a Ben Renis 15, it's just a such a strong
• 1:37:19
  connection to that side of the family.
• 1:37:23
  Also, it's a great whiskey because not many people know
• 1:37:26
  about it. So I remember being at a
• 1:37:28
  Springsteen concert in Hyde Park and I had it as my hit flash
• 1:37:31
  drum and just sharing it with people.
• 1:37:34
  And to have people tell me now that they still look out for Ben
• 1:37:38
  and his 15 because it was such a a great experience, Like Season
• 1:37:41
  said, where you have it, who you're with, what's going on,
• 1:37:44
  and that was just really memorable.
• 1:37:47
  Yeah, absolutely. Hip flash drams are an
• 1:37:50
  interesting choice. I would I was speaking to who
• 1:37:54
  who was a. Lot from between these 9.
• 1:37:56
  Stories No, no hip flash drams are.
• 1:37:57
  It's an interesting talk about because you gotta pick the right
• 1:37:59
  DRAM where if it warms up, it still tastes very, very good.
• 1:38:02
  It's a sight. There's a there's a lot to hip
• 1:38:04
  flash drive. You're at a wedding all day,
• 1:38:05
  right? If you're not a wedding all day,
• 1:38:07
  right, and you've got a hip flask and you're maybe keeping
• 1:38:09
  it in your chest pocket, yeah, that's going to warm up.
• 1:38:11
  Especially if you're doing a dashing white Sergeant.
• 1:38:14
  Yeah, exactly. You're at Springsteen concert,
• 1:38:16
  you're getting a big legs, haven't you?
• 1:38:18
  Right. So it.
• 1:38:18
  Was the last YouTube well your wedding in India perhaps
• 1:38:21
  showing? What do you feel a hip flask for
• 1:38:23
  a wedding in? India we had quite a weird well,
• 1:38:24
  we didn't have hip. I had a hip flask, but we also
• 1:38:26
  had, I've told her the pod Baldwell 15 Bob.
• 1:38:30
  We had a Glen FedEx travel exclusive because we we had them
• 1:38:34
  and behind plants around the hotel.
• 1:38:36
  Because it was really expensive. Because that's what I brought to
• 1:38:39
  the table anyway. I very used, I very really use a
• 1:38:42
  hip flask, but I was meeting up with old school friends, but two
• 1:38:44
  weeks ago and I opened my first bottle of the Whiskey Stories
• 1:38:47
  Blend 25 to meet some old school friends and say this is a bottle
• 1:38:50
  we've done for this. Well, a few few of those bottles
• 1:38:52
  still available. Like what's your first story?
• 1:38:57
  Well, I'm going to go back to Isla like Susan.
• 1:38:59
  So this summer it'll be 30 years.
• 1:39:03
  I met my husband and I went back to study in Czech Republic and
• 1:39:08
  he would come and visit me as often as he could.
• 1:39:12
  And for some bizarre reason, not being a whiskey drinker, he
• 1:39:15
  would always have a bottle of 10 year old lofrogue with him.
• 1:39:19
  Which, you know, you could barely get Johnnie Walker at
• 1:39:23
  label in Czechoslovic Socialist Federative Republic then.
• 1:39:27
  So I was very intrigued. I can't say I liked it the first
• 1:39:31
  time. I remember sitting around in the
• 1:39:34
  blocks of flats with my flatmates going, what is this?
• 1:39:39
  Yeah, But third time we were all hooked, really.
• 1:39:44
  And I actually remember when I came here for an interview in
• 1:39:47
  March 1999 and it was Alistair interviewed me for some reason
• 1:39:51
  and he asked me, do you drink any whiskey?
• 1:39:54
  That's. Right.
• 1:39:56
  Yeah, I. Like talking about that whiskey
• 1:39:58
  to this day because there's so many cool stories.
• 1:40:00
  Bessie Williamson. Legend.
• 1:40:02
  Would love to have her at my fantasy dinner table.
• 1:40:05
  Right. Then you've got the Prohibition.
• 1:40:07
  Oh, yeah. And yeah, I don't know why Mark
• 1:40:09
  chose it. It has a strong shelf shout.
• 1:40:12
  And I only got him into his skin, locked down.
• 1:40:15
  Not very long. But so, but he so he wasn't a
• 1:40:18
  whiskey drinker, but he would drink that any time he came in.
• 1:40:20
  Not until COVID. Yeah, I mean he would have a
• 1:40:23
  drama, but not like actively look for whiskey.
• 1:40:27
  And what was it? Because obviously, like the
• 1:40:29
  Czech Republic are well known for their for their beer.
• 1:40:31
  Absolutely. So what's the whiskey scene like
• 1:40:33
  over? There.
• 1:40:33
  Oh, it's a burgeoning Yeah, There's a lot of whiskey geeks.
• 1:40:37
  I know all the big figureheads. Yeah, because they've all been
• 1:40:40
  here. They come here and then they'll
• 1:40:43
  go back and go, right? We're all in on.
• 1:40:45
  We're all in on that. Yeah, they come here to the bar
• 1:40:47
  specifically and to the Amber restaurant, which is just a
• 1:40:50
  fantastic Scottish restaurant grade value.
• 1:40:52
  So I know most of them. There are distilleries.
• 1:40:55
  There's probably about 10 Czech whiskey distilleries.
• 1:40:58
  They have festivals. Yeah, it's.
• 1:41:01
  And is there a sort of a go to flavour profile that you would
• 1:41:04
  maybe say that the the the, because it's always interesting
• 1:41:07
  like spoke to Moore Reynolds, who talked about like what the
• 1:41:11
  Swedish like, you know, that kind of more meatier, smoky air
• 1:41:16
  kind of flavour profilers are sort of.
• 1:41:19
  Bold and expensive all. Right.
• 1:41:24
  Well, we had that. We had a Floyd 16, all the
• 1:41:26
  Russell Sherry battle from Pintail on our indie bottler
• 1:41:29
  spotlight. It was it was a cracker Lafroy
• 1:41:33
  named named, which you don't often get.
• 1:41:35
  You wouldn't get in the shop here, would you?
• 1:41:38
  As an independent bottler again, I'm just saying battler.
• 1:41:41
  Exactly. OK, brilliant.
• 1:41:43
  Right, Susan? So I'm going to go for a blind
• 1:41:46
  now and again. It's it's about an experience
• 1:41:49
  because when we were about to turn 21 as a business, it was
• 1:41:55
  the first time we were allowed to bottle our own whiskey.
• 1:41:57
  So we were never, it was always part of the deal.
• 1:41:59
  We would never sell our own sweet whiskey because it would
• 1:42:03
  compete with the distillers. But as we approached 21, the
• 1:42:06
  board had a chat and we agreed we would bottle up a blend
• 1:42:10
  because that was appropriate for us and it would come from
• 1:42:14
  obviously all of the distillers. And William Grants agreed to do
• 1:42:20
  that for us. And they invited myself and
• 1:42:22
  Julie, who's currently our marketing director, out to to
• 1:42:27
  decide what the blend was going to be.
• 1:42:29
  Now we thought we were going out to Strathclyde Park to like
• 1:42:33
  maybe try a couple of lens that Brian Kinsman was putting
• 1:42:36
  together and then decide which one we wanted.
• 1:42:39
  When we arrived. It was phenomenal.
• 1:42:42
  Brian had set up his whole lab. There were about 100 bottles and
• 1:42:46
  he was like, right, tell me what you want in it.
• 1:42:49
  So Julian, we spent, we spent pretty much the whole day there
• 1:42:55
  and, and just pulling out whiskeys and he let us put
• 1:42:58
  together 3 and and we came down to 2.
• 1:43:02
  And ultimately the only difference between these two was
• 1:43:05
  1% lyfroid. Interesting, really 1% lyfroid.
• 1:43:08
  But it made all the, it made the blend deeper.
• 1:43:12
  It just gave it more depth, depth and intensity, I suppose.
• 1:43:18
  However, we chose the other one because we knew we had to sell
• 1:43:21
  it. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:43:23
  So we went, we went with the other one.
• 1:43:25
  But it was so interesting when it was such a great learning
• 1:43:28
  experience and such a privilege to be be allowed to do that.
• 1:43:31
  Brian and I have to say the 21 year old and I feel, I feel
• 1:43:35
  arrogant in saying, I mean Brian had a lot to do with it, but
• 1:43:39
  seeing it was, it was a fantastic 21 year.
• 1:43:41
  Old. So what was that?
• 1:43:42
  Was that? What was that called then?
• 1:43:43
  It was. Called the 21 year old
• 1:43:45
  anniversary. The Scotch was sweet.
• 1:43:48
  We call it the sweet. We call it the sweet well.
• 1:43:50
  That's easier for me to spell. 21.
• 1:43:53
  Year olds. Brilliant.
• 1:43:54
  Absolutely. OK, Angela.
• 1:43:57
  So I feel like maybe the three of us should have consulted on
• 1:44:00
  this before we we did this. And but I was meant to go on
• 1:44:04
  that trip as well. I was asked to go along on it
• 1:44:07
  but I was being super conscientious and said that my
• 1:44:09
  workload was too much and I regret that to this day.
• 1:44:13
  However, in 2009 I got invited to go back up to Glenfiddich
• 1:44:18
  Distillery and do a very similar experience with David Stewart.
• 1:44:23
  So it was the 40 year anniversary of the visitor
• 1:44:27
  centre at the the distillery. So they had former guides that
• 1:44:31
  were still in the industry were invited back and although not
• 1:44:36
  working for competitors. So that's where I was an
• 1:44:38
  advantage working here. And I remember going back up And
• 1:44:42
  so kind of current team and some of the former team got together
• 1:44:46
  and we got to select a cask which was then bottled as the
• 1:44:50
  anniversary blend or sorry, anniversary malt for the, the
• 1:44:54
  DVC there. So that was a Glenfiddich 1975,
• 1:45:02
  which I think bad, eh, I, I think it ended up being like a,
• 1:45:05
  like a 34 year old and it was amazing.
• 1:45:08
  We tried it on the day. I am very much like Linka.
• 1:45:12
  I don't have like a collection of bottles.
• 1:45:14
  I buy my whiskey to drink, but I've yet to open that bottle.
• 1:45:18
  I'm saving it. I knew you'd ask me and I had it
• 1:45:22
  looked up on my phone and it was something, it was a Sherry cost
• 1:45:26
  finish, but I can't remember. It was like a like a first fill
• 1:45:30
  something or other. But yeah, it was pretty.
• 1:45:34
  I will. I think you're a bit like me,
• 1:45:37
  but you buy bottles to drink, but you just tend to buy bottles
• 1:45:41
  faster than you can drink them, so there is always something
• 1:45:44
  that remains right? Well, it'll remain unopened
• 1:45:48
  because up at my mum and dad's because none of them drink
• 1:45:50
  whiskey and I don't want to spoil it on like a the end of a
• 1:45:53
  night out when you just bring people back and you don't really
• 1:45:56
  appreciate it. It feels like 1.
• 1:45:57
  I want I. Appreciate sometimes bottles I
• 1:46:00
  say sorry, I should I say that I'll I mean they might not be
• 1:46:03
  open now, but I'm waiting for a good.
• 1:46:05
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:46:06
  That's a. Cracking.
• 1:46:07
  I mean, yeah, that's a great. That's a cracking.
• 1:46:11
  It's a. Good lead on actually, because I
• 1:46:14
  once brought my husband here to have a dinner and the restaurant
• 1:46:18
  and that was still, you know, I was still looking for that
• 1:46:20
  whiskey to have his Eureka moment and I thought he might
• 1:46:26
  like this 30 year old Dalmo Pedro Jimenez finish.
• 1:46:31
  It was a special bottling, it was a long time ago because that
• 1:46:35
  bottle I remember was about £100.
• 1:46:38
  Yeah. So that's that's.
• 1:46:44
  Yeah. For the 30 year old Dalmorphy
• 1:46:47
  XL? For now, yeah.
• 1:46:49
  He loved it. I spotted in the shop that it
• 1:46:52
  was kind of finishing so I bought 2 and.
• 1:46:56
  Money was spent back then. I know and we decided that we
• 1:46:59
  would open one. I won mark 10:50 and we totally
• 1:47:02
  forgot about it. And then one day we were eating
• 1:47:04
  and I spotted the bottle on the. Yeah. 50 So we opened it.
• 1:47:09
  I mean, we checked how much we could have sold it for, which
• 1:47:12
  was a bit of a mistake, but. And can you tell us or do you
• 1:47:15
  want to tell us? Oh, it was like 1000 lbs.
• 1:47:17
  Really. Yeah, that's incredible.
• 1:47:19
  Yeah, look at that. But we opened it and you know
• 1:47:20
  what? We had it in the house for over
• 1:47:22
  a year and it was a special DRAM people got on a special occasion
• 1:47:27
  and we had grown men in tears as to how beautiful it was.
• 1:47:33
  It's really good to open these special bottles with special
• 1:47:37
  people and share those memories because people still remind us
• 1:47:41
  about it. Yeah.
• 1:47:42
  That's nice. Yeah, it's a nice thing to do.
• 1:47:44
  And if you were to measure for over a year, if you were to say
• 1:47:47
  right, and on the 1st of January, I'm going to have my
• 1:47:50
  first DRAM, I have a very nice bottle and I'm not going to
• 1:47:53
  touch it until I have a nice thing to drink to celebrate.
• 1:47:57
  And over the year, you'll be able to walk past and look and
• 1:47:59
  go up. I'm 1/4 of the way through that
• 1:48:01
  and I must, you know, I'm having a sad year or you're going
• 1:48:04
  bloody hell. But then the best thing about it
• 1:48:06
  is if you're not having a great time, you're like, right, So
• 1:48:08
  that it's gotta get finished. We've got a drink that's a.
• 1:48:10
  Great. That's a great.
• 1:48:11
  That's a lot. And I wept when you just told me
• 1:48:14
  the press that. Hi, that's why grown men are
• 1:48:16
  crying over that. Yeah, we podcast.
• 1:48:18
  Let's just cry that you paid £100 for that and.
• 1:48:20
  Susan. I've just realised it's another
• 1:48:24
  Aila and that wasn't deliberate but again it was about the place
• 1:48:28
  and the people. I can't remember why I was over.
• 1:48:31
  I think we were doing a whiskey school somewhere there.
• 1:48:35
  But I got the chance to go up and meet John McClellan up at
• 1:48:39
  Bun. I haven't distillery and I was
• 1:48:40
  sitting in his office and he's like try this and it was a 40
• 1:48:44
  year old bun I haven't and obviously not beauty.
• 1:48:47
  There's Bun I haven't traditionally isn't and it was
• 1:48:50
  absolutely phenomenal and I think it's probably why today
• 1:48:54
  one of one of my my go to drums is 18 year old Bunner having all
• 1:48:58
  of it. So you're putting the 40 down?
• 1:49:00
  Putting the 40 down. I think that's the third.
• 1:49:02
  Yeah. Well, it sounds like this was a
• 1:49:05
  sample that that Susan was given rather than the official 40
• 1:49:09
  Which. I know, but so, I mean, you're
• 1:49:11
  not gonna you're not gonna do what you did to come when Susan
• 1:49:14
  says been having 40. Cameron, Cameron said been
• 1:49:16
  having 40 is best drum I've ever had.
• 1:49:18
  I said no, it's not. So your favorite then?
• 1:49:20
  There was an argument on the podcast.
• 1:49:22
  You're telling me what my favorite drama is?
• 1:49:25
  And roughly, yeah. And it turned out, but
• 1:49:27
  previously is that. Yeah, actually you're right.
• 1:49:28
  There was a long more and more of that otherwise.
• 1:49:30
  Mark Thompson talked about having 4040.
• 1:49:32
  Yeah, but been having 40 would be one of my.
• 1:49:34
  Emotions that I'm actually really starting to open up to as
• 1:49:38
  well. Heartbreaking when you go to the
• 1:49:40
  distillery and everybody that works here calls it Bon Haven't
• 1:49:43
  and you've been and you've been calling it been having for your
• 1:49:45
  entire career. Tell her I love been having I'm
• 1:49:48
  the same as you've been having 18 fantastic whiskey everybody
• 1:49:51
  at the distillery or watch some say bon haven't really I'm going
• 1:49:54
  there next month and I'm gonna I'm already upset about that.
• 1:49:57
  You can't wait to get there but yeah it's like yeah, yeah.
• 1:50:02
  Terrible right story, Angela final.
• 1:50:07
  Right. So we've come from childhood
• 1:50:09
  space side through to Glenfiddich.
• 1:50:12
  So for my time it's sweetie. One of the favorite things about
• 1:50:16
  my job is when we get to go to the distillery visitor centre
• 1:50:19
  manager meetings, and my absolute favorites are the ones
• 1:50:23
  on the islands. So we did Taliska and Tora Vague
• 1:50:28
  and Rossi. That was epic.
• 1:50:30
  That was a really good trip. But the most memorable one for
• 1:50:34
  me would be up in Orkney where Patricia Retson was hosting us.
• 1:50:39
  And we went for a beautiful meal.
• 1:50:41
  And then we got into this minibus and we're up to the top
• 1:50:45
  of this hill at the back of Kirkwall and there was the most
• 1:50:48
  gorgeous sunset going down across the Highlands.
• 1:50:51
  And she gave us all Highland Park. 18 and it was nearly
• 1:50:55
  midnight it. Was yeah, but it was yeah.
• 1:50:59
  It would have been June time, I think.
• 1:51:00
  And just surrounded by like the best group of folk, you know,
• 1:51:05
  they are the best meetings that we have getting to see so much
• 1:51:09
  as Scotland, which I love. I know you.
• 1:51:12
  Know. Spicy.
• 1:51:15
  They're so memorable. And you're just reminded, you
• 1:51:18
  know, like, like, I've got a wee thing up on my desk upstairs
• 1:51:21
  that says relax, you're saving PDFs, not lives, you know, just
• 1:51:24
  to keep focus. But actually, you don't really
• 1:51:26
  need it because you're making the world fall in love with
• 1:51:28
  Scotch whiskey every single day. And it's such an amazing job and
• 1:51:32
  such a privilege. But to get moments like that and
• 1:51:35
  just the access we get to the industry in this role is just
• 1:51:38
  phenomenal. I absolutely love, love what I
• 1:51:41
  do. Yeah.
• 1:51:41
  Next time you do one of them, you need a podcast to come and
• 1:51:43
  follow you up right? We'll take the cameras.
• 1:51:46
  We'll just Angela's journey. We'll go all the way there.
• 1:51:49
  Start from you when you wake up in the morning, have your first
• 1:51:51
  coffee to midnight when you're watching the sunset with a
• 1:51:54
  highlight. We'll be there to cover the
• 1:51:55
  whole thing as a. Feature.
• 1:51:57
  I don't only think how much of that you'd be able to actually
• 1:52:00
  show our broadcast, right? Fantastic.
• 1:52:03
  Thanks for sharing it. Thank you.
• 1:52:05
  So I thought I should have an EX bourbon matured whiskey for my
• 1:52:10
  last one as well, just to complete the trilogy.
• 1:52:15
  And I would go for there was a Glenmorangie cellar #13 a long
• 1:52:21
  time ago. Do you remember it?
• 1:52:22
  It was so beautiful. And I bought a bottle to go to
• 1:52:28
  India to visit friends I made here during the festival.
• 1:52:32
  And that's one of the things I love about living in Edinburgh
• 1:52:34
  and in Scotland and being plugged in into the whiskey
• 1:52:39
  industry, you know, everywhere I go on the Whiskey linker.
• 1:52:42
  So I chose this particular bottle and stayed with a lovely
• 1:52:47
  girl called Gayatri and her family and in Delhi.
• 1:52:51
  New Delhi, yeah, a long time ago, 12 or 20 years ago.
• 1:52:55
  And we shared that, shared stories.
• 1:52:58
  And I still, again, I remember that flavour so well.
• 1:53:02
  And I felt very privileged to be able to bring that bit of
• 1:53:05
  Scotland to them. Whiskey is obviously a massive
• 1:53:09
  in India because the export market by volume at the moment.
• 1:53:14
  And yeah, it's, I'm really fortunate finding this job in a
• 1:53:19
  job centre because it's in a job centre.
• 1:53:23
  Yeah, in a job centre. I found it.
• 1:53:27
  But yeah, it made me kind of it. I learned about Scotland's
• 1:53:30
  history, geography. I made friends through it.
• 1:53:33
  It's just been such a privilege. That's fantastic.
• 1:53:36
  No, thank you. Thank you so much for having us.
• 1:53:38
  Thank you for sharing your stories I think.
• 1:53:40
  We'll have three better ambassadors for Scotland and for
• 1:53:42
  Scotch whiskey that that's it's amazing.
• 1:53:44
  And what what a great podcast, fantastic stories.
• 1:53:51
  And the consistent theme of the stories is drinking whiskey with
• 1:53:53
  the right people. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:53:55
  And the, that, you know, we, we can't stress enough, you know
• 1:53:58
  how many people we've already had on the podcast to talk about
• 1:54:01
  it. But I think when it boils down
• 1:54:02
  and you, you mentioned that about whiskey's a people's
• 1:54:06
  thing. You know, it's, it's nice to
• 1:54:08
  have a drama on your own, but it's even better to have it when
• 1:54:10
  you're surrounded by people and to be able to you impact so
• 1:54:15
  many. You know, the Scotch whisky
• 1:54:16
  experience impact so many people not and and I'm talking about
• 1:54:19
  all right, there's every single person you're going to walk
• 1:54:21
  through the door will have have an impact, but the people at
• 1:54:23
  work, you know, we you just have to look at the to.
• 1:54:26
  Transform the industry. Yeah, you just have to look.
• 1:54:28
  Certainly for the UK, you look at the UK tea with Scotch whisky
• 1:54:32
  it is. It's getting a lot of control.
• 1:54:34
  How many of them have been influenced?
• 1:54:35
  I know. Susan Morrison here.
• 1:54:37
  I know. Exactly the the godmother of
• 1:54:40
  Scotch whisky. The Fairy Godmother.
• 1:54:44
  It is amazing. And if people haven't been here
• 1:54:47
  before, you're open pretty much every day of the year, right?
• 1:54:51
  Yeah, every day except Christmas Day.
• 1:54:53
  Yeah. Don't come on French rugby day
• 1:54:54
  that would be. Yeah, don't.
• 1:54:55
  Come on, French. French Rugby Day is busiest day
• 1:54:57
  of the year. But in terms of so we have a, we
• 1:55:00
  have a big listenership of people who are probably whiskey
• 1:55:03
  drinkers that will say, why would I want to come on a tour
• 1:55:07
  to learn about whiskey? Because you'll be learning.
• 1:55:08
  They might learn about the things they already learn about.
• 1:55:10
  But what would you say to the person like myself who would
• 1:55:13
  have said not going to bother going to escort whiskey?
• 1:55:15
  It's a tourist trap. Or it's that anything for the
• 1:55:18
  people who are listening that go, you know what?
• 1:55:19
  They're already listening to a very niche whiskey podcast.
• 1:55:23
  So what what different tours, if you could say, right, if you
• 1:55:26
  don't want to come in and learn about this is what barley is and
• 1:55:28
  this is what you know, this is the three ingredients and all
• 1:55:30
  that kind of stuff. What can somebody who is already
• 1:55:33
  a, a, a fairly, you know, season, season person that likes
• 1:55:37
  our whiskey, What other things have you got available here?
• 1:55:39
  Because it's not just for the the general tourists.
• 1:55:41
  I don't really know. Restaurant food, yeah, food is
• 1:55:44
  fantastic. Wendy and her team, just
• 1:55:47
  amazing. All of our team is very long
• 1:55:51
  serving. We're not the only ones.
• 1:55:52
  Yeah, yeah, of course. Who have been here for so long
• 1:55:55
  Rose and Bob from the maintenance department started
• 1:55:59
  say nearest V Wendy over 20 years Julie started.
• 1:56:03
  Yeah, she's over 25. Also, people.
• 1:56:07
  You know, Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was the youngest female
• 1:56:13
  master of the. And she's been here for longer
• 1:56:16
  than me, so 28 years. Yeah.
• 1:56:18
  The restaurant is fantastic. The bar you've already.
• 1:56:21
  Met. Over 500 different brands and
• 1:56:23
  the team is so passionate. Lending experience.
• 1:56:25
  Make your own western experience.
• 1:56:26
  Sounds like a better me too. Like the Angela and I won, we
• 1:56:30
  were going out one night to the theatre, do you remember?
• 1:56:32
  And we thought oh let's do Taste of Scotland 'cause the Taste of
• 1:56:35
  Scotland menu and it's just phenomenal.
• 1:56:38
  So we sat up number and you get 3 main courses in little pots.
• 1:56:43
  So maybe it might be trout, a wee bit venison and something
• 1:56:45
  else and then, sorry, you get 3 starters first and then you get
• 1:56:49
  3 main courses and then you get your dessert match with a drum
• 1:56:53
  and it's just, it's no hassle, you don't have to bother looking
• 1:56:57
  at the menu and it's phenomenal food.
• 1:56:59
  Yeah. And I would say as well, like
• 1:57:01
  just coming in and speaking to our team, be it in the bar
• 1:57:05
  number or in the shop. And the one thing is with our
• 1:57:08
  team, they get so passionate about the project and you know,
• 1:57:12
  we're set up to basically convert people to Scotch whisky.
• 1:57:14
  That's what we want to do. We want to, you know, get them
• 1:57:17
  inspired, enthused about the product and you know, they are
• 1:57:21
  just looking to showcase that knowledge and they want to speak
• 1:57:24
  to people and take that kind of deeper dive into it.
• 1:57:27
  So come in and just meet the staff and you know, have those
• 1:57:31
  conversations with the team because they love talking about
• 1:57:34
  Scotch whisky. And how could people find either
• 1:57:36
  yourselves, you know, on Instagram or social media and
• 1:57:41
  also Scotch whisky experience? What's the best way for people
• 1:57:44
  to get engaged on the website, on the website about yourselves
• 1:57:47
  individually, You're you've got your own social media platform
• 1:57:49
  you want to push. No, one of the team asked me
• 1:57:53
  earlier on, they're like, are you calling yourself an
• 1:57:55
  influencer? And I was like, I have called
• 1:57:57
  myself an influencer, but no, I'm not do.
• 1:57:59
  You have a tik. T.O.K No, I want TikTok far too
• 1:58:02
  much. But no, I think, yeah, just
• 1:58:06
  through the website and we've got, you know, the the Scotch
• 1:58:09
  whisky experience and Amber are active on Instagram, Facebook,
• 1:58:13
  There's loads of ways that you can engage with us.
• 1:58:15
  Brilliant. And the great thing about the
• 1:58:17
  Scots whiskey experience is I built the castle right next to
• 1:58:19
  you as well. I know it was very.
• 1:58:21
  Hard, brilliant. Blinker yourself is your social
• 1:58:26
  media. You're all right with that.
• 1:58:27
  Not all right with that. Fine.
• 1:58:28
  Fantastic. That's fine.
• 1:58:29
  OK. That's why you don't get back to
• 1:58:34
  me. Thank you so much.
• 1:58:36
  Thanks for the drums. Thanks for having us.
• 1:58:37
  Thanks for the conversations. Thanks to everybody who listens
• 1:58:40
  to the podcast. Member gave us five stars.
• 1:58:42
  Keep passing the pod. Get involved.
• 1:58:44
  We've got the newsletter now. Just subscribe to the newsletter
• 1:58:46
  and loads and loads of cool sort of unique content that we'll be
• 1:58:49
  doing. We've got interviews with
• 1:58:50
  different people that been on the podcast for the only
• 1:58:53
  newsletter guys get get on the Facebook group.
• 1:58:55
  It's for fantastic weekend drum roll call every Friday, 6:30
• 1:58:59
  doesn't have to. You don't just post your DRAM,
• 1:59:01
  just post your DRAM. You had Lance Morgan the other
• 1:59:03
  day. They are talking about it on the
• 1:59:04
  podcast. I live down in England.
• 1:59:06
  I don't get access to the whiskies that you have.
• 1:59:08
  I don't have a digger from the corner from me.
• 1:59:09
  I can't just go in there and try it.
• 1:59:11
  So I take your recommendations as what's good to buy so I don't
• 1:59:14
  waste my money. So if he says what he sees, what
• 1:59:17
  people are putting in the weekend DRAM roll call, he'll
• 1:59:19
  say right, I'll go and source that whiskey and buy.
• 1:59:21
  That's what kind of the thing we're.
• 1:59:22
  Looking meet enthusiasts from around the world who all listen
• 1:59:25
  to our Pesh. Everybody's had a good time.
• 1:59:27
  Thank you for watching Give us Yes.
• 1:59:29
  Yes, on the YouTube channel as well.
• 1:59:31
  Yeah, and check out the instantly distillery stuff as
• 1:59:34
  well. An absolutely fantastic episode
• 1:59:36
  that we did there, I guess. Absolutely dead himself in the
• 1:59:40
  sample room when he had to do the grain or malt challenge.
• 1:59:42
  You'll see that if you've not already seen it.
• 1:59:44
  But thank you very much, Susan. Very well, thank you for coming
• 1:59:46
  on. All the very best.
• 1:59:48
  Cheers, Sandra. Cheers, well done.
• 1:59:53
  Oh. God, that was getting long.
• 1:59:54
  I was worried. I.
• 1:59:55
  Was getting there.