Cask to Glass

Word of Richie Gray’s First Fifteen has been getting around, “to the point where,” the Scottish rugby and American football coach says, “I never even thought to myself you’d be getting the calls you’ve been getting over the last two or three weeks.”

And Richie’s had his share of high impact phone calls. The Springboks in 2014. The Miami Dolphins in 2016. Fiji in 2020. And the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023.

He’s the Collision King. A training innovator and coaching entrepreneur whose contact and collision methodologies and training aids are used across world rugby and the NFL. 24 out of 32 NFL teams use his system.

But it’s his passion for whisky now prompting the phone calls. And it’s putting pressure on him to make “some big decisions” this year.

“When’s it going to auction?” his callers are asking. “When’s it going to auction?”

It is a wooden cabinet with inlaid brass linking rugby and whisky, an idea that came to Richie as he and some rugby friends were sitting round the barbecue in France having glass of wine.

“I said,” Richie explains, “You know what? You need to finish with a malt. I’m a Scotsman. A proud Scotsman. Malt whisky has been part of your life. Your old rugby committee men would have a whisky. You were brought up on whisky. Sometimes you had whisky at half-time.

“So I said, I want to create the most collectible rugby malt piece on the planet. And we’re all rolling about laughing and they were all like: ‘What are you gonna do?’

“And it started. It started.”

Richie teamed up with Anthony Wills from Kilchoman Distillery on Islay (featured in Season 1 Episode 8 of Cask to Glass in March 2025).

Now Richie’s never been to Islay.

But he learnt that Anthony’s farm-to-bottle distillery had a sign in one of the fields saying Rugby Park Field, so called Anthony told him, because “that’s where the first ever game of rugby took place on Islay. It was given by the farmer to the rugby club to start their journey as a rugby team.”

Together they came up with Kilchoman RugbyField Malt, a limited-edition 9 year old single cask malt. Just 245 bottles released in 2022.

“And this is like the punch,” Richie says. “I said: ‘I’m willing to do all the work for this and set it up and whatever, but I would like the first 15 bottles, because I’m going to do something with them eventually when I’ve got the time.”

“One thing led to another,” Richie continues. “And on the day we released it, the Wills family from Kilchoman sent me down the first 15. So it sat and it sat there for the last three years, until maybe mid 2025 and I then I thought: ‘Right. Here we go.

“I’d always had this idea in my head,” Richie tells John. “I wanted to create a phenomenal Scottish oak cabinet.

“I wanted Glencairn glasses at the top. I wanted 15 bottles in there, like a team sheet in some ways.

“And I wanted it all done in Scottish Gaelic, you know. A’ Chiad 15.

“The 1st 15.

“And then, I can’t say it in Gaelic, but it’s ‘Where the spirits of the legends come to play.’ Because I always like the Field of Dreams film.”

And just like the movie says: “If you build it, he will come…”

Word’s got out. And Richie’s phone won’t stop ringing.

“The world of malt whisky must bloody move quickly,” he chuckles.

Will he auction it? And how much is it worth?

Richie’s coy on both those counts. But he admit, “The whole thing’s insured for a six-figure sum. And it’s had to be insured for that. And it’s not a low six-figure sum just because we couldn’t come up with a price because you just don’t know…”

Tune in to catch the full story.

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

The quickest way to get to Dunnet Bay Distillery by road from almost anywhere in Scotland is to take the A9 north about as far as it can go.

Just before Thurso, hang a right east bound onto the A836, follow the road and you can't go wrong. The disitillery's housed in a rennovated 19th century mill built out of Caithness stone - the same stone that was used to refurbish Boston Harbour on the other side of the Atlantic.

But beware.

If you miss the distillery, you'll quickly find yourself heading south again, almost the way you came.

That's because Dunnet Bay is almost as far north as you can get on mainland Britain. Just a little bit past the distillery, there's a left turn that will take you to Dunnet Head the real northernmost part of Britain.

The disitillery is the brainchild of Martin and Claire Murray, Caithness locals who, after years away in Aberdeen, the south of France and west Africa, had a "real yearning to come home."

Martin was an engineer who'd worked for Total and BP in the oil and gas industry. But that yearning for home kept calling. "So," Martin says, "whilst I was working with BP, we set up a gin distillery. The goal at the time back then was to get enough money to pay our bills so that we could move home and bring our kids up in an area that we were brought up and that we loved.

"So really our goal was to create two jobs. One for me. And one for my wife Claire."

That was back in 2013. Though the dream had begun in 2008 when Martin looked at buying the old Castletown Mill, built in 1818, and turning it into a whisky distillery.

"But I couldn't do it," he says. "We were the classic case of no experience, no qualifications, and not enough money."

Six years later the Murrays launched Rock Rose Gin which Martin says, "just flew out the door. We sold our first year's production in 12 weeks. And we were up to 110,000 bottles within five years.

"Then we got the option in 2020 to buy an old mill, the mill I talked about in 2008. And at that point we had the skills, experience and qualifications to do it. So we took it on.

"I had an agreement with Claire, where at any point during the project she asked me to walk away, I would. We decided that we would just take it by milestones. So the agreement was, okay, let's try and get planning permission and walk away at that point. We can walk away with our heads held high because we've done something that nobody else has done before.

"Then it was, can we get a building mooring [ie special permission from the Crown Estate in Scotland]? And then can we get the site structure and services in place? So we did that. We went through all the milestones and then the last one was: do we want to build it?

"And that was actually the easiest one because we'd done all the other milestones. And we started on site with the main project in January [2024]. And we've taken a 200 year old mill that was totally knackered and now we've opened a restaurant a month ago [November 2025]. We've opened our shop. And it's quite incredible. You know it's just an awesome place to come back to life."

But whisky's a long term venture and Martin and Claire are just starting out on their next milestone.

It will be called Stannergill Whisky, from the old Norse for "stone valley."

It's a long way off yet. But the last mile is always the farthest.

Join Martin as he tells John about his milestones along the road to whisky production. They've taken him from oil to gin to vodka to rum and a restaurant.

So here's to Martin and Claire Murray's Caithness spirit...

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

What if there was Skyscanner for whisky and distillery tours? A one-stop-shop where you could find, compare and book your next whisky or other alcohol tourism experience?

That's the concept behind Sip Seekers, the brain child of Victoria Miller, aka Scottish Whisky Girl on Instagram.

"I was up north probably nearly two years ago now," Victoria explains, "and I was sat at breakfast and I thought: 'I want to see a distillery today.' And I started loading different tabs on my phone for different tours even at the same distillery, assessing different kind of tour options; whether I wanted to do the VIP one or the normal...

"And I realised that we're definitely overcomplicating that search process and that booking process. And I thought if it could all be pulled together on one kind of search platform, it would be much more simple and likely get far more bookings fo the distilleries And so many brands and distilleries have invested a lot in their visitor centres and then they were not actually reaching.

"So I was actually horrified to learn 79 percent of overnight visitors don't make it to a distillery tour when they visit Scotland. So my kind of goal is to allow people to come on the platform. They can search by availability, location, rating. We're adding kind of accessibility, child-friendly tours and assess the best options for them."

Sip Seekers launched in the beginning of December and Victoria has signed up 50 distilleries and other alcohol tourism experiences including three distilleries previously featured on Cask to Glass: Raasay, Nc'Nean and Lindores.

Her target customers are those 79 percent of overnight visitors who don't visit a distillery during their visit, and locals - "people who are based in Scotland, who when it's on their doorstep, don't take advantage."

"We want to raise awareness to those people," Victoria continues, "and get them visiting and engaging with distilleries, because the real advantage - and there's talk at the moment of tough times in the industry and things - the real advantage of getting people into distilleries is, you know, they engage with brands and they learn abou the stories and they then go home and tell their friends as well, and often buy a bottle."

Victoria really got into whisky in 2014 when her father Paul, the founder of Eden Mill Distillery near St Andrews in Fife, took the team to Islay. It was her first serious whisky tasting experience and fuelled a love of peaty whiskies.

So what distilleries does Victoria believe are must visit before the summer of 2026?

Raasay!

It's on her bucket list. "I'm ashamed to say I've not been to Raasay and I need to go over. It looks absolutely stunning and it's on our platform. So I'll need to get over there and hopefully on a night that they've got space."

Other distilleries?

In Edinburgh there's Holyrood Distillery and Summerhall "that does Pickering's gin". In Glasgow there's Clydeside. "And then if you want to do a wee road trip, you've got Galloway Distillery, Sam Heughan's new distillery."

And what whisky should you try before the summer?

Ledaig... "It's got a kind of lighter peat; grassier notes. But I had that in a port finish, which was really interesting because you've got that kind of soft peat notes and then you've also got the kind of juicy port finish. And I think it's good for this time of year, for the kind of colder winter night."

So pour yourself a dram and tune in.

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

Welcome to Series 2 of Cask to Glass the Whisky Podcast with John Beattie.

We're back after a break because of illness and then Christmas and New Year. And we're raring to go for 2026!

But where is the Scotch and global whisky industry headed in the next year?

Throughout 2025, John heard from various whisky insiders about their concerns for the immediate future of the industry. But there are more and more warnings about the state of the sector. Last month Jim Beam announced it would suspend production of bourbon at its main site in Kentucky for the whole of 2026. Days later the Financial Times reported that "tariffs and cost of living pressures leave undrunk whisky galore" in Scotland.

"Customers," the FT suggested, "are buying less and choosing cheaper brands, risking jobs in [the] Scotch industry."

So in this episode, John speaks to Scottish investigative journalist Ian Fraser, who's been digging around and speaking to industry insiders.

"I think the industry is in trouble," he tells John. " There was a massive boom in whisky which ended in 2022; which was exaggerated by the Covid pandemic when people were staying home and drinking more expensive bottles of Scotch and other whiskies. And I think there was a bit of a lack of realism within the industry. There was a srot of assumption that this golden period that the whisky industry went through was going to last forever. And it clearly hasn't."

Total exports of Scotch whisky, Ian says, are down from £6.2 billion in 2022 to around £5.4 billion in 2024.

"What has caused this downturn," he asks? "It's difficult to really know. But there's certainly been a lack of consumer confidence, which I think evaporated after Covid. There's inflation. There's war in Ukraine, which has closed the Russian market. There are doubts over the Chinese market, which hasn't performed quite as well as people were hoping."

"All the major Scotch whisky companies," Ian continues, "are suffering falls in sales, falls in profits. And the newer ones I think, which established themselves in the last decade or so are perhaps the most vulnerable to these factors and this downturn in the industry."

And while Ian maintains "the margins are very strong in Scotch" and he doesn't think anyone "is actually loss making yet - certainly among the established player", he cautions that the share prices of the large groups have "been in freefall".

They're down 60 and 70 percent in some cases, he says.

"We haven't seen any massive bad news in the industry in terms of companies going bust or distilleries completely closing, or administrations or whatever," Ian says; people in the industry he's spoken to say, "They're on the way."

Join John and Ian as they discuss what 2026 might hold for the Scotch whisky industry:

Was there an over-exuberance in period to to 2022?
Have too many distilleries and producers chased premium prices?
Is there an oversupply of whisky maturing in warehouses?
Could there be "a race to the bottom" in terms of pricing?
Are there still some markets holding up?
What's the optimum price for a bottle of whisky?
Can the industry pick itself up and move forward?
And who's best placed to suceed?

Pour yourself a dram, and tune in.

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

Unfortunately, John's had a seasonal bug. Nothing serious. But it's taken it's toll on his voice.

We're very sorry we're unable to bring you this week's episode.

John's on the mend, and he hopes to be back next week.

Thanks for listening to Cask to Glass.

Apologies once again.

Catch you next time.

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