"Nothing will get between a man and his whisky," insists Fred Maitland of East Coast Whisky.

Fred's a psychotherapist.

But he also provides whisky tastings and runs tours to distilleries around Scotland. And he believes whisky keeps us connected.

"It's about friendship and hobby," he tells John in this episode. "It's an incredible stimulant for conversation, for good feelings, for community, for warmth. And I've seen it time and time again."

But it must be respected, he adds. It's not for "chugging back."

Fred's tasted three to four thousand whiskies over the last ten years. Though he says: "I certainly haven't owned them all. But it's been an amazing adventure."

So what does he recommend? "I always rate a Talisker 10, because I think it tells you everything about whisky."

Of course there's also Highland Park, Glenfiddich, Springbank 10, Clynelish 14, Lindores (featured in episode 12)... And if he can get it Brora. Definitely Brora.

And don't forget, he says, whisky goes well with food: scallops, oysters, venison. "You can pair a whole range of different foods with whisky of different kinds."

So put you feet up. Pour yourself a dram. And tune in.

Slàinte!

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Socials:

@C2GWhisky

@JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes

Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)

Vocals: Andrea Cunningham

Guitars: John Beattie

Bass: Alasdair Vann

Drums: Alan Hamilton

Bagpipes: Calum McColl

Accordion: Gary Innes

Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie

Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland

Special thanks: The Piper Whisky Bar, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, Scotland

Follow The Piper on Facebook to keep up to date about tastings and other events

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They're all about The Draam at Isle of Raasay Distillery.

It's their signature single malt, based on a six-cask recipe created by founder and Master Distiller, Alasdair Day. It's 80% of what they produce.

"We wanted to make a Hebridean whisky," Alasdair tells John in this episode.

Hebridean?

"Something lightly peated," Alasdair explains. "So not unpeated, not heavily peated. But somewhere in between."

"A rugged windswept island off an island, you need that peaty characteristic," he continues.

But Alasdair and co-founder Bill Dobbie also wanted a "dark fruit character", like Bowmore from the 1960s and early 1970s.

So Alasdair decided to produce both peated and unpeatead spirit, and to mature these individual spirits separately in rye whiskey casks, virgin Chinkapin oak casks and Bordeaux red wine casks and then vat them together. Having designed the whisky, they designed the process to the make it, "and then gave the design to the architect to put the building round the process."

In 2017, the first licensed distillery on Raasay began production.

Establishing a distillery on a tiny island east of the Isle of Skye on Scotland's west coast was far from what Alasdair envisioned when he first went into the whisky business.

"My great grandfather had been a whisky blender in Coldstream," he says.

Now Coldstream's a small town on the Scottish border with England, not known for any whisky tradition. But in 2009, Alasdair inherited his great grandfather's cellar book which contained recipes for blended whisky dating from 1899 to 1916 and he decided to recreate some, buying casks of fully mature whisky to blend together...

But why don't you let Alasdair tell the story himself?

Pour yourself a dram - or Draam - and listen in as Alasdair tells John the story of Isle of Raasay Distillery; explains the different flavours imparted by all the different barrels they use; and extols the beauty of one of Scotland's lesser known islands.

Oh and by the way, Alasdair claims Raasay Distillery has the best distillery view in the world... well maybe. But when you've heard his claim, you can be the judge.

Slàinte!

-------

Socials:

@C2GWhisky

@JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes

Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)

Vocals: Andrea Cunningham

Guitars: John Beattie

Bass: Alasdair Vann

Drums: Alan Hamilton

Bagpipes: Calum McColl

Accordion: Gary Innes

Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie

Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland

Special thanks: The Piper Whisky Bar, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, Scotland

Follow The Piper on Facebook to keep up to date about tastings and other events

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"I'm a whisky nerd," admits Andrew Symington the owner of Edradour Distillery. "That's how I got involved in the business. I love the different flavours."

Edradour, near Pitlochry in Highland Perthshire, is one of Scotland's smallest distilleries and, Andrew says, Scotland's "last traditional farm distillery".

Andrew's been in the whisky business for almost 40 years, both as the owner of Edradour and as an independent bottler with his Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky company bottling “single, single, single malt". That's malts produced by a single distillery, from a single distillation and a single cask.

And in this episode he tells John how Edradour, established 200 years ago in 1825, had "illegal origins", when local farmers would create a literal smoke screen by lighting fires to throw off the Government's excisemen looking for for the plume from illicit stills; how the distillery's "very small, short dumpy stills" make a "heavy oily spirit" which goes into Edradour's range of non-peated and heavily peated malt whiskies; how he uses traditional sherry and bourbon casks as well as red wine barrels from Bordeaux, Burgundy and Amarone; and how the Scotch whisky industry is facing "headwinds": the cost of living crisis, the effects of Brexit, over-production and over-pricing, global supply chain issues, the threat of US tariffs, and increasingly international competition.

But he says: "As long as we're not greedy; as long as we keep the heritage there, Scotch whisky still has a good future."

So pour yourself a wee dram and tune in as John and Andrew talk whisky.

Slàinte!

-------

Socials:

@C2GWhisky

@JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes

Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)

Vocals: Andrea Cunningham

Guitars: John Beattie

Bass: Alasdair Vann

Drums: Alan Hamilton

Bagpipes: Calum McColl

Accordion: Gary Innes

Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie

Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland

Special thanks: The Piper Whisky Bar, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, Scotland

Follow The Piper on Facebook to keep up to date about tastings and other events

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.