A mere four years. My route into the industry has not followed any type of ‘normal’ or expected path. Barring an early and brief dalliance with cookery school (I’m still a handy home cook), I spent two decades working within technical public relations, mainly focussing on biomedical science and engineering. Whilst that experience was far from whisky-related – it also wasn’t a million miles away in terms of the some of the biological and industrial processes which underpin spirit production. I’ve always possessed something of a technical slate - however, this wasn’t ever an industry that I felt that I wanted to spend the entirety of my remaining career in.
Without a doubt my appointment as Director of Whisky Creation for Dunphail. Whilst the construction of the new distillery is the culmination of Founder and Master Distiller Dariusz Plazewski’s vision, it is also a hugely significant personal milestone for me. As well as a refocussing of my career it is also a reflection of the trust and confidence that the team has in my knowledge and expertise to lead from the start on the maturation and whisky development of a brand new distillery. Certainly a career highlight – but also real honour.
Possibly a hastily stolen Bells from my dad’s drinks cabinet – but the first whisky that I actively remember was Dewars White Label. In the late 90s part of my job at the time was running international conferences and exhibitions (within the mechanical engineering field). This involved a reasonable amount of work travel – and sometimes an unreasonable amount of free drinks whilst on planes