Afleveringen
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This week, we were joined by the brilliant Stuart Baxter—aka Barley Baxter—Global Spirits Ambassador for International Beverage, covering iconic Scotch whisky brands like Old Pulteney, Speyburn, Balblair, and anCnoc.
Stuart’s whisky journey began with the Chivas Ambassador Programme, and since then, he’s travelled the globe sharing drams and stories. One highlight? His wild time working in India—including that unforgettable night as the only guest in an entire hotel.
We dived into the history of Old Pulteney Distillery, including the wild days of prohibition in Scotland when the distillery was—believe it or not—used as a morgue.
Stuart brought some fantastic whiskies for us to try, including a dram from Speyburn, which only opened its doors to visitors in the last three years. With its drum maltings from 1905—the first distillery to install them—it’s now firmly on my must-visit distillery list.
We were also lucky enough to sample a rare staff-only bottling from Balmenach, and a surprise dram from New Zealand—Cardrona Single Malt Whisky.
And if that wasn’t enough, we even uncovered the bizarre connection between Dr Seuss and a drunken duck in a kilt...
An episode packed with whisky, scotch, distillery stories, global adventures, and big laughs.
Enjoy! 🥃🌍🦆
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This week, we bring you the final episode from our epic Whisky Stories road trip up north—and we’re wrapping it up in style with a private tour of Tomatin Distillery.
Located in the heart of the Highlands, Tomatin is a Highland Distillery with a rich history and a reputation for producing some truly exceptional Scotch whisky. We were lucky enough to get access-all-areas, diving deep into the production process, the history of the distillery, and of course… sampling whisky straight from the cask in their oldest warehouse.
Along the way, we kept the fun going with a few of our favourite games—Mystery Distillery and Play Your Distilleries Right—and we also heard the chaotic tale of Chuck’s mad dash to the airport after one too many drams the night before his flight to Japan.
This episode is packed with great laughs, brilliant insight, and some stunning Tomatin whisky. A huge thanks to the team at Tomatin Distillery for the warm welcome and the unforgettable experience.
Enjoy!
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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We’re back in Dornoch for Episode 2 of our Highland whisky adventure, and this time, Phil and Simon Thompson gave us the full behind-the-scenes tour of everything they’ve built—and everything that’s still to come.
We started at the heart of it all: the Dornoch Distillery, tucked away in the back garden of Dornoch Castle. This tiny distillery—built in an old storage building—is one of the smallest in the world, but what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in character and craftsmanship.
The lads walked us through their whisky-making ethos, from using heritage barley and old-school yeast strains, to how they push their tiny stills to get the character they’re after.
Then it was a short stroll through the town to visit their bonded warehouse, where they store, bottle, and label both their independent releases under Thompson Bros and their own Dornoch Distillery whisky.
We also got a sneak peek into their exciting new project—Mystery Distillery—and we’re already buzzing for what’s to come.
After a quick browse in their bottle shop, we made our way to the site of their next big venture: the future home of the Struie Distillery. Phill and Simon shared the vision behind the build and how whisky fans can get involved through their crowdfunding campaign.
And of course, we wrapped it all up back at the Dornoch Castle bar, enjoying some cracking whiskies... and some seriously questionable opinions about how to eat French pastries.
Another brilliant episode full of whisky, scotch whisky, whisky history, and a look into the future Highland whisky.
Enjoy
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We hit the road for a true Highland whisky adventure as the Whisky Stories Grand Tour to Dornoch begins!
Leaving Edinburgh bright and early at 7am, we jumped in the Whisky Wagon and headed north. After a quick stop at Tomatin Distillery (more on that in a future episode!), we made our way to Dornoch to meet the brilliant Phill and Simon Thompson—aka the Thompson Bros.
Phill and Simon welcomed us with open arms for the weekend and gave us the full story behind their incredible journey—from bottling 1930s-era whisky on their parents’ kitchen table, to launching their own line of independent bottlings, building the tiny but mighty Dornoch Distillery, and now planning their bold next step: the brand-new Struie Distillery.
We stayed at the beautiful Dornoch Castle, enjoyed a cracking evening in the cellar with the lads, and were treated to some amazing whiskies and proper Highland hospitality.
This is just Episode 1 of our Dornoch adventure—stay tuned for Part 2 next week, and trust us, you won't want to miss it.
Enjoy! 🥃🏰🔥
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This week, we welcomed back Justine Hazlehurst, co-founder and organiser of the Fife Whisky Festival, to talk about the success of this year’s festival, which took place over three whisky-filled days in March.
Our conversation sparked an interesting debate—should Fife become its own independent whisky region in Scotland? With the growing number of Fife whisky distilleries and the success of the Fife Whisky Festival, the idea is certainly worth exploring!
But Justine wasn’t just here to talk about the festival—she’s also just written and published a whisky book, and it’s one that dives deep into one of the most infamous events in Scotch Whisky history: The Pattison Crash of the 1890s.
The Pattison Brothers have made frequent appearances on the podcast, but Justine has uncovered the full, fascinating story in her new book, Opening the Case: Opening The Case: The Affairs of Pattisons' Whisky.
Their shady accounting practices, lavish spending, and African Grey parrots trained to advertise their whisky nearly brought Scotch Whisky to its knees.
This episode is packed with whisky history, Fife Whisky, whisky scandals, and plenty of great chat.
Enjoy! 🥃📖🔥
Where to buy the book -
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Hazel MacLeod was the third episode that we recorded back when we were just getting started. At that time, she was working for William Grant & Sons in Business Development.
Now she works for Woven Whisky as their Whisky Specialist.
Hazel is so much fun and a great laugh. We recorded this episode in the Whisky Bunker underneath the Athletic Arms and heard all about the cool and exciting things Woven are doing.
The Highball competition sounds like a lot of fun and we would be desperate to get involved in sampling some of the highballs made by the 10 bars taking part in the competition.
We also got a chance to try the new 'spirit' coffee and whisky blend Woven have done in collaboration with Project Coffee.
This episode was a great laugh, full of some good chat and whisky.
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What a night we had recording this episode!
Iain Forteath and Cameron McPherson had been delivering a training tasting night at the Athletic Arms for the staff so we were able to get a great chat with them after.
And what a chat it was. Iain and Cameron both talked us through their careers and journey's in whisky.
From becoming the youngest Master Blender in whisky at the time, Iain has always had a knack of tasting whisky and talks us through his processes when it comes to identifying flavour.
Cameron has followed the traditional path we have seen with so many guests having started at the Scotch Whisky Experience and forging his own pathway in the Whisky Industry as BA with Angus Dundee Distillers.
This was a lot of fun to record and there were some great Glencadam and Tomintoul drams on offer while we recorded.
Enjoy
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This was an episode of firsts for us on the Whisky Stories Pod.
We had never done an episode in a bonded warehouse, Angus and I had never sampled whisky straight from a cask in a warehouse, and we'd never visited an Indy Bottler before.
But in this episode we ticked off all those boxes and lots more.
Gregor kindly invited us along to his warehouse and bottling plant in Dalgety Bay, Fife to let us learn all about the Independent Bottlers Lady of the Glen.
There is so much going on in this episode, not only are we in a bonded warehouse drinking drams from the cask, we get to hear all about how Gregor got started, how he built the business from just 2 casks to over 400 casks, exporting whisky into international markets and we sampled from the only Solera Cask system in Scotland!
We also got to try their exclusive Fife Whisky Festival bottling which has a very obvious 'spelling error' on the label and heard some great whisky stories.
What a night this was. Enjoy
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This is a very random episode with just the 3 of us, some drams and back in the tiny room sandwiched nicely between the gents toilets and the bar.
Unfortunately, for the first time ever, we had a guest call off last minute for this episode, so we were left to amuse ourselves for this one.
Thankfully Ross has made a full recovery from his death bed and Angus was back from Japan bearing bottle shaped gifts.
We also tested out our new (potentially one episode only) feature 'Play your Distilleries Right' game.
As usual, loads of whisky chat, some great laughs and lovely drams.
Enjoy
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This was a wild and very funny episode to record.
With Angus out in Japan and Ross on his sick bed, we drafted in the help of friends of the podcast Fraser Souness and Chuck Kerr as co-hosts with our guest Curtis Moran from Scotch Bar in the Balmoral Hotel.
Curtis has nearly had as many jobs as Ross, but it was Ross who told Curtis that he HAD to take the job at Scotch when Ross left.
I was extremely out numbered tonight with Fraser and Curtis both working together at Scotch and Chuck Kerr having worked there previously.
We had so much to chat about as well as just general nonsense you'd expect when we all got together in Diggers with drams and microphones in front of us.
Enjoy
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We always have a great time when George and Rachel Keeble are involved and when there's 6 amazing whiskies to enjoy as well it's even better!
This was the first Indy Bottler Spotlight of the year and our 5th ever. It was also the first time we've done one on a Friday night. It was the last night of January which always calls for a celebration in my mind.
George and Rachel took us through an incredible 6 dram lineup from their whisky brand Fragrant Drops and what a lineup it was.
Carsebridge 48yo
Japanese Blend
Glen Grant 21yo
Inchgower 14yo
Linkwood 8yo
Ardmore 14yo
So much fun and loads of great stories, interesting whisky chat and one of the best 'Wanky Tasting Notes' we've had!
Enjoy
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This was a first for the podcast!
Our very own private distillery tour at Port of Leith Distillery with the one of the co-founders Ian Stirling.
Not many people decide to start distilling in their back garden. And fewer people decide to take it from there to opening their very own distillery.
But Ian Stirling and Paddy Fletcher did just that.
This was a fantastic experience getting to walk around one of the few 'vertical distilleries' in the world with the man who was part of coming up with the idea and concept of owning and opening a distillery in Leith.
We learnt so much about the importance of yeast and barley types, fermentation times and the challenges associated with trying to open and run a multi-million pound distillery.
As well as being a fully functional distillery which is producing spirit, Port of Leith Distillery is a very popular visitor centre and we were treated to a behind the scenes, VIP tour as well as enjoying a dram in the Board Room.
A very enjoyable episode to record and Ian was full of great stories and loads of whisky production chat.
Enjoy
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This was our first episode back in Diggers recording for 2025 and it was great to be back in our spiritual home.
We were joined by 2 guests this week - Stephen Woodcock who is Head of Whisky Creation and Stocks for Glen Turner and we had a last minute call up for Les Mason who is founder of the Arctic Whisky Club, and is about to head out to the Arctic on some exciting adventures.
Stephen has had an incredible journey and career in whisky. Starting off as a chemist with no real inclination for a dram, he found himself managing a cooperage site for Diageo and from there began an amazing journey which has taken him to working in some amazing distilleries and being part of some very big and significant projects.
Stephen is now working with Glen Turner which is best known for owning Glen Moray and Cutty Sark. His stories are full of insight and humour. I can see why his longest whisky tour took 7 hours and we could have easily chatted long into the night about his experiences in the industry and hearing about some of the projects he has been involved in.
Les is a firefighter by day but also works with his friend who specialises in adventure events and taking groups up mountains and off to the Arctic Circle. On Sunday 26th Jan he will be flying out to Finland to be a guide for multiple groups of people trekking three days through some of the coldest and harshest conditions in the world. But he'll be doing it with a Whisky Stories 25 yo Blend in his bag.
While on these trips the other guides have made it a little tradition to bring a bottle with them so that they can enjoy a dram or two around the campfire in the minus 30 degree weather.
As always this was a lot of fun to record and the drams and chat flowed nicely.
Enjoy
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Just before Christmas, Angus and Graeme headed along Queen Street in Edinburgh to meet Andrew Murphy who is the Venue Supervisor for the Queen Street bar but has also worked in the SMWS Vaults down in Leith and is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and their whisky.
Andrew also talks us through the importance of diversity within the whisky world, as a gay man, he is very keen to promote the LGBTQ community within the whisky industry and put on a special 'Drag me to the Whisky Tasting'. Better get the lipstick and high heels looked out for this years tasting!
We had some great drams and Andrew talked us through the amazing story of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and how it was founded and has grown to a massive global organisation, yet still holds on to the founding principles of flavour first.
Enjoy
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Happy New Year from the Whisky Stories Podcast!
What a year it's been and there was no better way to end 2024 than to sit in the Dug Oot back room in the Athletic Arms sandwiched nicely between the bar and the gents toilets, drinking drams, having lots of laughs and looking back on the year.
We had former guests Ali Baxter from Scotch Whisky Experience and Chuck Kerr in with us for this one and we spent the last hour and 40 mins (or so) of 2024 looking back on some of our whisky highlights of the year, remembering some of the great whisky stories that we've heard and the whiskies that we've sampled.
A few sore heads on New Years Day...
Happy New Year and enjoy.
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We've probably all seen or heard about these online competitions where you can win a huge prize by just buying a ticket for a couple of pounds. But how do they actually work and are they real?
We caught up with John and Scott Lang (they're not brothers, just pals) from The Collectors Club.
Every week they give away thousands of pounds worth of whisky prizes to the people who enter their competitions. Whisky bottles ranging from £50 all the way to £30,000 worth!
These lads have approached whisky from an angle where it's being appreciated as a collectable item rather than something that can be drank. However, they are both quick to point out that they both enjoy drinking and sharing drams just as much as collecting them.
In this episode we found out how 2 pals shared a journey into whisky, found themselves interested in the collecting side of things and then ended up creating a business where people can win some incredible whisky bottles and prizes through their competitions.
John and Scott were great company and brought in some fantastic drams for us to enjoy during this recording. They explained exactly how The Collectors Club Competitions works and talked about how they both found a shared passions for whisky at the same time which has taken them on a wild ride.
Enjoy
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In this episode we were underground with Simon Smith in The Lost Close in Edinburgh.
This was the second time we've had Simon on the podcast to share his views, stories and wealth of knowledge on world whisky with us.
Simon has such a passion and enthusiasm for whisky, it makes him so easy to chat to and listen to.
He is running a pop-up bar in The Lost Close which has some incredible whisky to enjoy, picked by Simon. Old blends, strange old bottlings and really interesting international whisky. If you're in and around Edinburgh, it's well worth a visit. - https://www.instagram.com/the_desert_isle/profilecard/?igsh=dGt5eHZxNDNjejQ5
As well as running the pop-up bar, Simon is also working with whisky brands and other venues to help with collaborations and to curate their whisky collections. He's had some great success with the The George Hotel Inveraray. We were lucky enough to sample his recent collaboration with the hotel and Ardnamurchan Distillery.
He is also hosting one of his very popular Burns Nights at Saint Lukes in Glasgow on the 22nd of Jan. As per Simon's usual way of things, he likes to approach Burns in a totally different way and talk about the connections between Burns and whisky. Tickets still available here.
Simon has been a great friend of the show, a regular cameo on our ventures out and about and will definitely be back on for a third episode. This was a lot of fun recording in the old dark tunnels from hundreds of years ago under the city centre, and the whisky was fantastic too.
Find out more about Simon's work with Whisky and Cynicism - whiskyandcynicism.com
Enjoy
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For this episode we were underground in the deep and dark Diggers Whisky Vaults with Cameron Ewen - The Scotch Cam and Moa Reynolds - Swedish Whisky Girl to talk all about their new book that was released last month - The Balmoral Guide to Scotch Whisky.
It was great to catch up with Cam again and we really enjoyed meeting Moa for the first time and hearing all about her journey from Sweden that led her to literally marrying into whisky with her 'current husband' Cody Reynolds.
Moa started an her Swedish Whisky Girl social media accounts as a way to show her on journey into the wonderful world of whisky and it soon picked up a lot of popularity. Now she has been able to give up her day job and works full time showcasing whisky brands and working on some really exciting projects.
Projects like the new book that has been co-written by herself and Cam.
The book is a guide to the Scottish Whisky available in the famous Balmoral Hotel Whisky Bar- Scotch which Cameron is the manager of.
Cameron has collated his top whiskies behind the bar and written his own notes on the liquid and flavours while Moa has dived into the distilleries and writes about the interesting points about these whiskies as well as busting some whisky myths.
We also discussed the incredible news that Diggers are now doing Whisky Take-Aways!
This was so much fun to record and it's always nice when a guest puts and keeps Ross in his place!
Enjoy
Buy the book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/SCOTCH-Balmoral-guide-Scottish-whisky/dp/1784729515
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This was our fourth Indy Bottler Spotlight and we were back and packed into the Snug in the Athletic Arms once again.
This was by far the busiest live event that we have done and it was great to see so many new faces coming along.
Greg Urquhart knows how to deliver a tasting. I've now been to 4 tastings that he's hosted and each one has it's very own unique twist on it and this one was no exception.
Greg told us all about his journey into the wonderful world of whisky and also talked us through his role within the business and how manages the ever growing cast inventory and bottling processes at Gleann Mor Spirits.
In this Rare Find tasting we were treated to:
🥃 Aberfeldy 13yo
🥃 Aultmore 14yo
🥃 Deanston 18yo
🥃 Medium Peated Islay 11yo
🥃 Mystery Dram
The highlight of the night for us was the unveiling of our very own Rare Find Whisky Stories Podcast Whisky!
The Mystery Dram on the evening was a collaboration bottling that we have been quietly working in in the background.
A 25 year old blend made up of 3 Speyside Single Malts and a Lowland Grain. This is an absolute belter and still on sale for only £85 for a bottle.
Order now - https://rarefindwhisky.co.uk/whiskystories25
Hope you enjoy!
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We were back in the Athletic Arms with drams in front of us and Chuck Kerr back in to tell us more about his whisky travels around the world.
We were also joined by Ant Crowther who is the bar manager at the Last Word whisky and cocktail bar in Edinburgh.
We talked about whisky cocktails and heard how Angus likes to make his version of an Old Fashioned.
Lots of drams, some great stories and plenty of good whisky chat.
Enjoy
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