Whisky Stories Podcast

It's always good to catch up with Mark Thomson. In this episode, we dived into brand advocacy and asked if the Scotch Whisky Industry are moving away from it and whether that's a good thing or not. Mark is an award winning Brand Ambassador and has worked with massive global brands as well as smaller independent ones. He's also working with brands on a contract basis to help with advocacy and training. But are we losing the Brand Ambassador? And what does Mark think?Enjoy!

This is a belter of an episode. Another Master Blender on the podcast and Julieann Fernandez gave us an amazing insight working for CVH. As well as being responsible for signing off on all the single malt and blended releases from the distilleries, she also travels the world representing the brands and talking to people about Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Tobermoray and Ledaig. We were also joined by Luke Fenton who is the Head of On Trade in the UK for CVH. So Julieann is responsible for getting the releases out and Luke is responsible for getting them sold. We were through in Glasgow for this one and managed to pop in quickly to the Pot Still Pub in Glasgow for a dram before and enjoyed some drams during the recording. Enjoy this one, it's an epic.

We were back in Diggers for a catchup and debrief from our Islay trip. This one got a bit messier than intended, but it was good to be back in the cellar chatting drams and telling Ross about how good the Islay trip was. We went through our own personal highlights from Islay, rated the distilleries on whisky, experience and merch. We answered listener questions and tucked into some fantastic drams.

Part 2 of our Islay extravaganza took us to Bunnahabhain Distillery and we got a chance to sit down and have some drams with the legendary David Brodie. David has been a tour guide at Bunnahabhain Distillery for 11 years and his Warehouse 9 Tastings have become famous. David talked us through his own journey and how he found himself moving to Islay and falling in love with the island and the whisky. From working in the bank to delivering tastings and tours. David shared drams and stories with us from his own whisky journey and the distillery. Enjoy

This is part of our FULL Islay Experience! We headed over to Islay and our first stop was Kilchoman Distillery. After a lovely tour and plenty of drams, we sat down with James Wills who is the Marketing and Sales Man as well as being son of the Founder Anthony Wills. James talked us through the whole history of Kilchoman Distillery, what it was like growing up around the distillery, accidentally setting the kiln on fire, the ethos behind 100% Islay barley, and the connection between Islay and the Land Rover. You don't often get the chance to sit outside a working distillery, drinking drams and recording a podcast episode. Enjoy!

Brian Kinsman is the Master Blender for William Grant & Sons. That means he is responsible for overseeing some of the biggest whisky brands in the world. Glenfiddich, The Balvenie, Grants, Monkey Shoulder, and now The Famous Grouse. He's only the 6th Glenfiddich Malt Master in nearly 140 years. He's worked within the William Grant & Sons Business for over 25 years, and his name is on every bottle of Glenfiddich sold around the world. We chat all about his career, his role, cask sniffer dogs, and what it means to be part of the biggest selling Single Malt in the world.This is a biggy. Strap in, pour a dram and enjoy this.

Mike McGinty is the Brand Home Manager for John Dewars & Sons. That means a big part of his job is to take people to the distilleries owned by Dewars and tell them the amazing stories about them. Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigallachie, Macduff, and Royal Brackla all fall under his remit. And in this episode he told us the stories behind them all. Why is Dewars so popular in America? Mike explained how a gift to an American President helped create that popularity. What makes Dewars Double Double so special?What distillery has the kinkiest lyne arms?Mike has so many amazing and fun whisky stories, this was a classic night in the Diggers Cellar enjoying drams and great whisky chat.

We've all seen the labels on bottles and seen brands promoting that they are finalists or winners of whisky awards. But what does that actually mean? And what goes into winning a whisky award?John Boyle is the man who's job it is to start putting the Scottish Whisky Awards together each year. Getting brands to submit entries, bringing in sponsors, and putting on a MASSIVE tasting session for judges. This was a great insight into the work that goes into the Scottish Whisky Awards.

What is it that makes Tamnavulin so popular?To celebrate 60 years of the distillery, we held a birthday party for Tamnavulin and got to try some incredible whisky. Whisky Maker Kirsty Hodge and Distillery Manager Trevor Milne came down to Diggers Leith for the party and brought along some whisky goodies. It's not every day you get to try 50. year old whisky, so the final dram of the night was a real treat. But it was the 16 year old sample from what could be something to look forward to in the future that stole the show. There's so much in this episode to unpack and enjoy.

What does working in an Edinburgh City Centre whisky shop teach you about whisky?David Agnew is the Manager of The Whisky Shop on Multrees Walk in Edinburgh City Centre. He's also the man who first started teaching Ross Barr about whisky. This turned into one of my favourite nights recording. David has his own unique way when it comes to talking about whisky. He's seen the trends of new distilleries and launches, to popular styles and flavours, and he's seen the changes in prices and consumer behaviour. This was a lot of fun to record and there's some great dram chat in this.

I love listening to Alex Thomson talking about history, whisky, and Scottish Hospitality.And there's plenty of that on this episode.Since the last time Alex was on the podcast he's since left his role at Glenturret and has set up his own business with a focus on delivering authentic Scottish experiences with a focus on the Perthshire area. Alex has plenty of amazing whisky stories and is also a member of the Athol Highlanders which is a private Scottish army. It was great catching up with him again.

This is the second time we've interviewed Gregor Hannah from Lady of the Glen Independent Bottlers. And if there's one thing I know about him, he just says it as it is. This episode is one of the best insights I've ever had on Independent Bottling. How he started the business, growing the business to the point of bringing in a Brand Ambassador Paul McKendrick, and searching for markets to sell their whisky. This was our May Indy Bottler Spotlight tasting with a live audience, we went through their latest releases and even got our very own One of One bottle from the ONLY Solera Cask System in Scotland.

It was just the boys in for some drams and a catch up for this week. We haven't had an episode with just the 4 of us this year! So it was good to get us all in the back room at Diggers, get some drams and answer some listener questions. There's a lot to unpack in this, there's questions ranging from our dream distillery visit to who would win in a whisky triathlon.Turns out Chuck's dad is now a listener, so hello Mr Kerr.Ross is off to America with the Current Wife. So if anyone at Iron Fish Distillery is listening, hook him up. Pour a dram and enjoy this.

This is the second time we've had Finn Thomson on the podcast. The first time was for our second Indy Bottler Spotlight. But we wanted to sit down with Finn and dive into his fascinating whisky family history which dates all the way back to 1772. Illicit stills, blending, buying casks, and carrying on the family business. We hear all about how Finn decided to set up his very own whisky business and the work that goes into starting a whisky brand. He even brought in some of the new bottles for his latest project with the Scotland Tartan Army for the World Cup. These are the Official Tartan Army bottlings. They look and taste fantastic, and at the time of the podcast going out, they are on sale to buy. If there are any left. Enjoy

It was a big night at Mother Superior for our Whisky Stories LIVE event with Adelphi and Ardnamurchan. After our trip to the distillery, it was great to sit down with a group on a Friday night and go through a great lineup which included our very own hand picked cask sample we drew on our trip to the distillery. We had Calum Rafferty and Connie MacDonald in representing Adelphi and Ardnamurchan and they brought some great drams along with them. Another great night with loads of laughs and great whisky.

This is the big one. Dr. Emma Walker is the Master Blender for Johnnie Walker. That's got to be the biggest job in whisky. She is responsible for blending and signing off on all Johnnie Walker products and she talked us through the whole process. Getting to sit down and have some drams with Emma has been one of the best experiences I've had since starting the podcast. Hearing her explain the magnitude of the job that she has, managing 11 million casks of whisky, maintaining the quality and consistency of a product that's sold all over the world, and creating exciting new releases for new individual markets. This podcast was a proper insight into one of the biggest drinks brands in the world.

This week we were joined by whisky royalty. Raymond Davidson is the man behind the iconic glass used around the world to drink whisky. In this episode we heard how he came up with the concept for the Glencairn whisky glass which has changed the way that whisky is served and tasted all over the world. Raymond isn't just an icon in the Scotch Whisky world, he's a gentleman and it was amazing to spend time with him and hear his whisky stories. Enjoy

This week's episode is with Andrew Lennie who is the Global Whisky Specialist for Whyte & Mackay. This episode is actually part of our collaboration with Whyte & Mackay to celebrate the 60th anniversary for Tamnavulin Distillery. In this episode we hear about how Andrew got into whisky and worked his way to becoming the Global Whisky Specialist for Whyte & Mackay. We talked about the whole Whyte & Mackay portfolio which includes The Dalmore, Jura, Fettercairn and Tamnavulin. We talked about the incredible stat that Jura and Tamnavulin are number 1 and number 2 best seeling single malt whisky in the UK for off-trade in volume and value which is mental. Jura being number 1 and Tamnavulin being number 2. We also spoke about the unique still cooling system at Fettercairn as well as their use of Scottish oak which is really interesting. Ross had the Fettercairn 18 which is 100% finished in Scottish oak. We also got a chance to try the 2 NEW and EXCLUSIVE Tamnavulin Special releases. One being the 25 year old celebration single cask for the 60th anniversary which was actually distilled and put into the cask in 2000 when the distillery was mothballed and we also tried their single cask release for Spirit of Speyside Festival which will only be available at the distillery for the 1 week that it is open to the public during the festival.

Anyone who knows the pod will know that we never ignore barley chat. However, we've had Master Blenders, Distillers, Distillery Owners and Founders on the pod, but never had a Maltster. David Hannah is Head of Distillery Sales - Global for Muntons Malt. Basically, it's his job to travel around the world talking to Distillery Managers and selling them malted barley. David said that it might not be the sexiest part of the process, but it's definitely the most important. And we deep dive into the world of malting in this episode. This was a lot of fun to record, David is a keen listener of the pod and we had a few more drams after recording.

We're BIG fans of Old Pulteney on the pod. But we don't know enough about it. So we had Flora Outram who is a Brand Ambassador for International Beverage. She covers everything in their portfolio from New Zealand whisky and vodka, Thai Single Malt and all of their Scotch brands. Thankfully for us, Old Pulteney is one of the brands she covers. We tried some great drams and heard about the amazing history of the distillery which is turning 200 years old this year. Prohibition in Scotland, salinity tasting notes and loads of laughs. This was a lot of fun to record.

We're HUGE fans of Ardnamurchan on the podcast. So it made sense for us to find out the story of how it started.Alex Bruce is the Managing Director of Ardnamurchan and Adelphi.In this episode he talks us through how he started out at Adelphi in 2004 with nothing more than a black book of contacts, a filing cabinet, fax machine and 3 casks. From there he grew Adelphi into a premium highly sought after Independent Bottler and then made the decision it was time to build a distillery. This was a lot of fun and there were some amazing drams he was kind enough to bring in with him.

We met Howard a year ago up in Dornoch and when he contacted us to let us know he was coming back, we had to meet up for a couple of drams. We managed to sneak a recording in on Saturday morning in Diggers before the Independent Whisky Festival in Leith. It was an early start, but we still managed some 'breakfast drams'. Howard talked us through how he started out as a Whisky Importer in the U.S, the challenges of getting whisky into America, how he selects the brands he works with, and why he decided to look at Independent Distilleries and Bottlers rather than going main stream. This is a fascinating insight and the drams were fantastic too.

The first Whisky Stories Spotlight event of 2026 was a special one! Not only were we christening the new Diggers Leith with the first tasting in the pub, we were also getting to try a BRAND NEW Single Malt from Aberargie Distillery.Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers are Blenders, Bottlers and Distillers. And Good Pal of the Pod Tam Cuthbert came along to share some great drams with us and tell their story. We enjoyed a Carn Mor Linkwood, Aberargie Inaugural Release, Old Perth and Mac-Talla.Another cracking night with a room full of people enjoying the great drams.

This week it's a luxury podcast. Tim Walker has been a keen listener of the pod since the early days, and we've been trying to get him on for a long time. Thankfully, he finally agreed. And he brought drams with him!!Tim is the National Account Manager in Scotland for the Luxury On Trade. What that means is that he sells very expensive whisky to people like Ross who sells it on to other people. And speaking of Ross, it was great to have him back on the pod for this one. He was also able to give his own thoughts and insight into the wonderful world of luxury whisky. Enjoy!

This week we have good Pal of the Pod back on for some good old whisky chat. Where is the whisky industry right now? We reacted to the big news coming out of Diageo and tried to work out if this is good news for the consumer. The art of blending and can we do it in the cellar at Diggers? We put Greg's consultancy skills to the test. And a real treat with some Dram Jam sent in for us to sample.

This week we were back in the Diggers Cellar joined by Shona Gillespie aka Shona Sips from Loch Lomond Group. We chatted about Glenscotia, re-branding, Loch Lomond's 11 different spirit types and what's going on in the Scotch Whisky Industry right now. Shona was kind enough to bring drams and samples along with her and we really enjoyed the new Glenscotia 12 release.

This week we were recording our first ever episoed in the NEW Digger Leith which only opened a few days ago. The first half of this episode was recorded during a power cut. But we had plenty of drams to get through, so we lit some candles, poured some drams and got chatting. This week we had really good 'Pal of the Pod' Fraser Souness on to talk us through what's happening at Gordon & Macpahil, the latest chat on the new Cairn Distillerly inaugural release AND I had brought back some Indian goodies. We tried some 'whisky cartons' which ended up with very mixed reviews as well as some proper Indian single malt from Pujl John and Indrie. Enhjoy

When Scotland got a last minute call up to the T20 Cricket World Cup in India, and I realised they'd be in Bangalore while I was here, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. So after watching Scotland in their warm-up game against Afghanistan from outside the ground (check out the vlog) I was invited to the team hotel the next day. You might hear from my voice in this episode that even though I didn't get into the game, we were still in fine voice. I caught up with Charles Paterson Head of Coms and All Rounder Michael Leask in the team hotel before they headed off to kick off their World Cup campaign. This is a great insight into cricket, what it's like scrambling to get a team together, and how whisky plays it's role.

Fraser is based in India and represents The Glenlivet, Aberlour, Chivas Regal, Royal Salute and Ballantine’s. However, he is not on the podcast in an “official capacity”, therefore this was not a recording about his brands. This was a recording about him personally.We talked about his journey into whisky, starting on the familiar path from behind the bar, to then working as a tour guide at The Glenlivet Distillery (we can talk and did talk about this), moving up to Speyside to live and breathe whisky, and then eventually moving out to India to become an International Brand Ambassador.We recorded this episode in Tycoons Bar in Bangalore. Fraser is based in Delhi but flew to Bangalore to catch up, have some drams and record this episode.He spoke about his experiences out in India, the differences that he’s noticed in the whisky world out in India versus in Scotland, and the Indian whisky market.Fraser has visited 17 cities and 15 states in the 18 months that he’s been working as a brand ambassador out in India.He also told a great story about trying some “whisky” made from replica illicit stills made from Glenfarclas stills blueprints, but a third of the size.

While I’m out in India, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to dive deep into Indian whisky and, the good folks at Paul John Distillery were more than happy to help.After a flying visit into Goa to meet Master Distiller Michael D’Souza and get a full tour of the distillery (check out the vlog for this), I was invited to the Paul Hotel back in Bangalore for a chat and some drams with the Paul John Global Brand Ambassador Heemanshu Ashar.Heemanshu talked me through his own beginnings and journey into whisky, and then talked about how Paul John started out.Despite Paul John Distillery only being open from 2012, the whisky gets itself all over the world. But I wanted to know how it all started, and who is Paul John?Heemanshu talked us through the origins of the business and explained about Mr Paul P John and the overall business John Distilleries. Blended Indian whisky, Indian wine and now Indian single malt.Heemanshu was also kind enough to let me try the new 2025 Christmas Edition which is finished in a Cream Sherry Cask.

We’ve talked about getting Cody Reynolds back on the podcast for a long time. But the Angus Dundee Global Brand Ambassador is a busy man travelling the world spreading the good word of Glencadam and Tomintoul. Cody was our 5th episode when he first came on the podcast on the 9th of November 2023. He was our first Brand Ambassador to come onto the pod as well. One of the things that I remember most about that episdoe was Cody explaining the cycle of the whisky drinker. What makes that even more impressive is that even now, after 113 episode we are still referencing it. There was a good amount of whisky consumed before, during and after the podcast and Cody was kind enough to bring in a Swedish drink that I can still taste now. Cody has also birthed one of our next Games for the Pod with Cody Reynolds One Star Reviews!Loads of fun on this one and lots of Glencadam, Tomintoul and general whisky chat. 

What better way to end the year than to sit down in the Diggers cellar with the owner, tuck into some drams and go through some of the best whiskies we've had this year. We look back at what's been an amazing year for the podcast. We've had some great guests, had access to distilleries and hosted some really fun events. We also look ahead to an exciting 2026 for Kev with the soon to be launched 'Diggers 2' down in Leith (name pending). Thanks to everyone who's been part of the podcast for the last 12 months. Happy New Year and here's to 2026 and plenty more drams and shenanigans.

Merry Christmas! We had a quick Christmas catch-up in Diggers for a couple of drams (Ross had already had a few before he got there...) to lead into our North British Distillery Podcast recording. We were given a very special gift from the guys at Royal Mile Whiskies which is something to look forward to in the new year and Ross gave us his top whiskies of 2025. Hope you're having or had a great Christmas and Happy New Year. Thanks for listening. Cheers!

This week we have Pal of the Pod Cameron Ewen in for a chat about his now job, Christmas drams and whiskies of 2025. We were back in the Dug Oot at Diggers for this one enjoying some drams, and festive whisky chat with Cam. Cam talked us through his new role at Diageo and some of the amazing whiskies he gets to work with. Including old Brora and Port Ellon bottlings. We also discuss what whiskies we'll be drinking over the Christmas festivities. Enjoy

Raymond is the man behind the iconic Glencairn whisky glass and changed the way we drink whisky.He isn't just Whisky Royalty, he's an absolute gentleman as well. Spending time with Raymond and hearing his whisky stories was amazing. In this episode we hear about how he started out, what made him decide to design a glass for drinking whisky, and the journey it's taken him on. We also enjoyed a good few drams while we were at it!Enjoy

This one was a lot of fun to record. Sam Simmons was one of the first online whisky bloggers with his blog Dr Whisky starting back in the early 2000s. That took him from writing about whisky to selling it, becoming the Global Brand Ambassador for Balvennie to becoming Head of Whisky for Atom Brands. He's responsible for putting out releases to over 1 million people around the world. Looking for cool whisky concepts, bottling it and selling it. Sam brought in some of his own projects with him for us to try including Wormtub 10 and the famous Dalry Milk North British bottling. There's some great whisky chat in this podcast as well as plenty of laughs and good drams. Enjoy

We were all back in the Diggers Vaults for a recording and a catch up with Chuck, Angus, myself Ross and Scott Moore. Ross had literally just jumped off the plane returning from his trip across the pond to see his current mother and father-in-law and our USA Brand Ambassador was about to leave from his epic whisky trip to Scotland. There were loads of drams on the barrel for this one. With plenty of whisky chat from Scott's trip, we had whisky samples sent over and lots of catching up to do. We chatted about our trip to Glencadam Distillery as well as our epic Edinburgh Whisky Pub Crawl. Loads of fun and nonsense on this one. Enjoy!

How do you start a distillery on tiny island off the coast of Scotland?We sat down with Isle of Raasay Co-founder and Master Distiller Alasdair Day and UK Sales Manager Gregor Hunter to hear the story. Alasdair talks us through how he got into whisky through his family history connections and how things sparked from blending to distilling. We also talked about life on the island and what the distillery is doing for the local economy and growing the island population. The lads also brought in some fantastic drams for us to try including Isle of Raasay newmake and the first ever peated single grain whisky to be bottled. Enjoy!

It's our birthday and to celebrate we put on a BIG Birthday Bash last Friday night at Uno Mas. And what a night it was! We had 55 guests, 6 brands and 7 whiskies on the lineup. There were party games and Ali Baxter Whisky Stories Bingo. And we even had our own cask of whisky which was rolled in and hand filled on the night in the bar. A huge thanks to everyone for coming along and being part of the special occasion and to our brands. Woven InchDairnie Holyrood Tri-Carragh Glengoyne Woodrow's of Edinburgh This is a wild one. Enjoy

We were invited along to have a look around at the Woodrow's of Edinburgh warehouse with Pals of the Pod Woody and Megan. It's always nice to get an invited into a bonded warehouse and last night we were treated to some great drams straight from the cask. We were also sampling some whisky which will be our next Exclusive Whisky Stories Bottling!!Woody and Megan were great hosts and as always gave us great chat and quality drams.

Arthur has been in the whisky industry for over 20 years. He's been the buyer of Scotch Malt Whisky Society and then worked his way up to Managing Director of Royal Mile Whiskies. There's not a cask that Arthur has bought that he doesn't remember. He's been involved in buying and selling some incredible whiskies throughout his career. Being part of the growth of the SMWS and Royal Mile Whiskies has made him one of the most influential people within the Scotch Whisky Industry. He was responsible for what RMW would buy and how they would sell it. He also loves talking about the history of whisky and some of the myths that surround it. He has a YouTube Channel with Dave Broom called The Liquid Antiquarian. There's a lot of good whisky industry chat in this one. Enjoy!

Dougal Gordon is the Brand Ambassador to Scotland for one of the best selling brands in the world, Glenfiddich. But he's also the 6th generation of the Grant Family to work in the business. This is an episode I've been trying to make happen, and it was worth the wait. In this episode, we get the full family history, stories of how Glenfiddich moved into becoming the top selling single malt all over the world, building distilleries against time lines and sponsoring F1 teams. Plus Dougal was very kind not to come along empty handed as well! Pour a dram and enjoy this cracker!

We’ve never had a wrestler on the podcast before. I didn’t think there were many connections between whisky and wrestling. Until I met Sam Barbour a few weeks ago who explained that he is a sales exec for La Martiniquaise who own Glen Moray and Cutty Sark. We’re HUGE fans of Glen Moray on the podcast.And have talked a lot about the distillery, the variety of different cask releases and the quality of whisky and price. So when we got Sam on, we thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about Cutty Sark as well as his alter wrestling ego - SBX. He flogs whisky through the day and wrestles in the evening. Sam is a wrestler who takes part in special wrestling events throughout Scotland. And he’s invited us along to his up coming charity wrestling night ‘WrestleMonia!’ Which is rising money for Movember. Angus might even put his favourite leotard on for this one! The fact that we can seamlessly talk about wrestling and whisky shows just how far this podcast has come over the last 100 episodes. Sam also brought in snacks and we got a sneak peak and taste of the soon to be released Glen Moray Forbidden Fruit Calvados Cask. A lot of fun recording this one.

This was the big one for us. Episode 100!It's crazy to think that we've been doing this for so long already, but we made it to a century of podcast episodes. Angus, Ross and I were back in Diggers in the cellar drinking drams and chatting nonsense. We had some cracking whisky on this weeks episode which included some American Single Cask Single Malt as well as sampled of the new 2025 Ardnamerica Release. Ross brought some goodies as well to celebrate the big occasion. We answered listener questions as well which ranged from what whisky we would use to fight off a bear to our best and worst whisky we've had since starting the pod. Another cracking night chatting about whisky and enjoying some good drams.

This was a cracking night. We were joined by Pal of the Pod Fraser Souness who was taking us through a 6 dram G&M lineup. Recorded in front of a 'live studio audience' in Diggers, we had special guest appearances from listener Launce Morgan and his 'current wife' Sandra. Big Cameron Ewen was also in the audience with his whisky lad Ross Barr. Drams on the night:🥃 Distillery Label Glenburgie 25🥃 CC Craigellachie 2009 - UK exclusive🥃 CC Benriach 1999🥃 Upcoming CC Glenturret 2007 cask sample🥃 Distillery Label Ardmore 2000🥃 CC Upper Balblair 1993Well done to Fraser for putting on a great lineup and giving us some great whisky chat and stories. Thanks to everyone who came along. Enjoy

This week, we were back out and about and heading west! We haven't ventured too far west in the two years of the podcast, so we decided to jump on a train to Helensburgh for the Lomond and Clyde Whisky Festival.But instead of just rocking up with a lanyard and enjoying some drams, we decided to team up with the Collector Club Competitions lads, John and Scott, to do some giveaways of our own.So, we packed our dartboard and wheel of fortune and came up with some challenges for people to try and win some whisky!The good news is that nothing got broken and no one got injured! This episode has a bit of everything: we recorded our first-ever podcast on the train through and back, we caught up with Glen from Whyte and Mackay who chatted about Dalmore and Fettercairn, and we got a sit-down dram with Marcos from Brave New Spirits.A lot was going on in this episode, but it's well worth a listen and was a load of fun to record.

We were back out and about for this episode on our Ian Macleod big day out. Not only were we given full access to the distillery and taken on our own tour with Gordon Dundas, we were also treated to The Malt Master Experience and hosted by good Pal of the Pod Jake Adcook. Jake is part of the blending team for Ian Macleod Distillers, which means he knows a thing or two about how to blend Glengoyne. He talked us through his processes of blending whisky while we had a go at blending our very own versions of Glengoyne. We put our efforts to the test had to select our own favourites blind. Who do you think would be the best Master Blender of the Whisky Stories Podcast?

Hoose Drams with Mark Thomson!This is the first time we've ever recorded in someone's house before!When Angus and I saw Mark Thomson had put his house on the market, we were desperate to get in for a wee look around. So we turned up with a camera, a couple of mics, and some drams.This one was a lot of fun. Mark reflected on his career, which has taken him from working in female fashion, Cafe Mambo in Ibiza (didn't know that about him), working as a Brand Ambassador for Glenfiddich, and an Independent Bottler.Mark's got some great stories, but he also gave us a great insight into the whisky industry and the challenges that brands are facing. We spoke about the importance of a Brand Ambassador and what's involved in working for a major brand like Glenfiddich.The episode covers it all, including:Delivering training sessions in NigeriaWhisky industry trendsComparing the value of new distilleries and the older originalsHow to break into the Glenfiddich Blending RoomIt's just three people sitting in a kitchen, enjoying drams and having some whisky chat. We brought along the Tomatin 6 year old virgin oak distillery hand-fill, the Glen Moray House Distillery Exclusive, and my bottle of Lindores Abbey. Mark, in turn, opened up his new bottle of Tomatin 18.There's so much in this episode to enjoy. Sit back, pour a dram, and enjoy!

Get 15% off the following tours and experiences:Rosebank Reawakening £25 before discountRosebank Discovered £50 before discountRosebank Rekindled £95 before discountThe Residency: Tamdhu Whisky Maker £110 before discountUse discount code: WSP15As part of Whisky Stories x Rosebank, we got a chance to sit down with Gordon Dundas - Brand Development and Advocacy Director at Ian Macleod Distillers.Gordon is responsible for all of the brands under the IMD umbrella which includes Rosebank, Glengoyne, Tamdhu, Lagan Bay and Una. As well as Edinburgh Gin and the blended brands like Isle of Skye.We recorded this in the Rosebank Distillery just after our amazing access all areas tour and enjoyed drinking a Glengoyne 18, Tamdhu Distillery Exclusive Hand Fill and a Rosebank 32.Gordon talked us through his career in whisky from the Whisky Magazine to working in Taiwan as a brand ambassador.He's travelled the world talking about whisky and gave us a great insight into the plans ahead for the new Islay laggan Bay Distillery as well as the history of Rosebank.Jake Adcook also joined us to talk us through the whiskies and production which was a great insight.

This episode is a packed-out catch-up filled with incredible news and a whole lot of chat. We're back in our spiritual home at The Diggers and have some major news to share right at the start!We've secured an exclusive 15% discount for our listeners on tours at the revived Rosebank Distillery. We break down just how good a deal this is, especially with a dram of the 32-year-old Rosebank on offer!In the episode, we also dive into:The highly anticipated return of Scapa 16 Year Old and whether it lives up to its legendary reputation.A lively debate on what makes a distillery "cool," with arguments for Springbank, InchDairnie, and the Thompson Brothers.A blind tasting of a Mystery Malt from Batch 2! Can we guess what's in the bottle?A fun fantasy about what our own independent bottling company would be and which distillery we'd approach for casks.The craziest cask finishes we can imagine, from Irn-Bru to Buckfast.This is a fun, off-the-cuff episode filled with plenty of laughs and even more great whisky.Get 15% off your Rosebank tour with code: WSP15You can also check out our visit to the distillery here:Rosebank Distillery Tour - A Day with Ian Macleod Distillers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.