Company:Ardbeg Distillery
Job:
Visitor Centre Manager
Website:
Socials:
@Ardbeg
How long have you been working in the whisky industry?
As long as a well matured, rare older whisky. Well rounded,
expensive and sagacious! This equates to 26 years in the hospitality of whisky.
Being a Highlands girl originally, I came to it by default, never by design,
and was interviewed initially for the role as Visitor Centre manager of Glenmorangie
Distillery by Dr Bill Lumsden back in 1996.
I managed to get a hard hat and steel toe capped boots and
engineer a move to Ardbeg Distillery on Islay when the company bought it for
£7m in 1997. My job was not so much in ‘the industry’ as in liquid hospitality.
We didn’t talk about brands or core ranges or single casks
or bloggers. Consumers were responsive to change and Ardbeg was in the right
place at the right time. Getting to the distillery on Islay in 1997 when it was
simply a historic building was intoxicating. I was very lucky and have loved the
cut and thrust of visitor centre life ever since!
What has been your biggest career highlight to date?
A cliché but too many to mention! Every Ardbeg festival day fills
my heart with joy - and of course a little fear as we prepare. Bringing the Islay
Festival of Malt and Music to a close is a biggie too. Surrounded by your whisky
tribe, your whole team dressed up, the local community, consumers, wider
colleagues, helpers, magnificent music, the aroma of Arbroath smokies in the
air – it’s an almost feral or primal feeling and I wish I could bottle it to
release when times are tough!
Can you remember your first dram, and indeed what it was?
Yes. My papa was a cardiologist in Glasgow, and he often had
bottles of whisky given to him as presents from colleagues or patients. One of
the first sips I remember was Laphroaig when I was really wee. I wish I could say
I loved it, but I definitely did not. Neither did he as it happens!
What does whisky mean to you?
The word whisky embraces so much more than what is produced.
Going back a step, if I had not serendipitously seen the advert for the job at
Glenmorangie Distillery, I would not have met my husband and not had my kids.
The opportunity to move to Islay would not have transpired and I may never have
set foot on the island. I would not have met the fabulous and countless team
members I have worked with over the years – watching young people arrive in the
‘whisky industry’ shy and reserved and watch them grow into knowledgeable, warm
and confident humans.
Countless colleagues from whom I have learned so much,
consumers and visitors to the distillery who have enriched my life, nights out,
nights in, road trips and whisky shows, an understanding of chemistry and
geology, how to write a risk assessment and cut peats. How to converse with
individuals from all walks of life across the globe, an understanding and
intuition about visitor expectations, how to organise a whisky festival and how
to clean a toilet till it gleams!
Where would you like to see yourself in five years’ time?
Somewhere near the Transfagarasan in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania or the Seward Highway in Alaska with Dugga, my partner, a killer
play list and a well-preserved camper van. A well-stocked bar of single malts
and loads of smelly cheese.
Perhaps that’s a dream! In reality heading for retirement –
lord feels like 5 minutes since I started. And I will have written my epic
whisky murder mystery novel. It’s been maturing a loooong time!
