Cask to Glass

“My palate has seen a lot of action,” confesses Fraser Campbell, whisky educator, brand consultant, drinks strategist. “I started off working in pubs in Speyside when I was 18. And that was pretty much it.”

Twenty seven years later Fraser is now the host and creator of Whisky Bytes, producing “snackable knowledge whisky videos”. His latest venture is One for the Road, a luxury chauffeur-driven tour and whisky tasting service, which launched earlier this year.

But as an 18-year-old pouring drams in a local pub in Forres in north east Scotland, Fraser says he learnt “the hard way not to pour water for the customer.”

“The first time I poured a whisky for someone, I added their water and drowned it and I had to duck.”

Despite an inauspicious start, Fraser “stuck with bars” as he puts he.

After five years in Australia, where “I fell back in love with Scottish whisky”, and two to three years in Spain, Fraser was offered a job as the global ambassador for Dewar’s Blended Scotch.

Whisky wasn’t on his horizon, but he explains, “When someone says to you, ‘Would you like to travel the world and talk about whisky for a living?’, well it takes you about ten seconds to make your mind up.”

“The thing that really drew me to Dewar’s was the story of Tommy Dewar, who was the son of the original founder John Dewar, who had the shop in Perth back in 1846. And Tommy was a pioneer in advertising, marketing, and kind of the first brand marketer in a lot of ways.

“He invented the first ever advert for a brand, just a few years after a cinematography was invented. There was a black and white movie based on an advert, which was a painting of these three ghosts coming out of a painting to grab a bottle of Dewar’s.

“So they turned that into a live action advert. So he was well ahead of his time. So that's kind of really what landed it for me.”

“I've always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit with a lot of things as well,” Fraser continues. “And I think the chance with Dewar’s came at a time when the brand was going through a lot of changes, going from what was perceived as an old man's blended Scotch whisky to a more progressive whisky for younger audiences.

“So it wasn't just the whisky, it was the idea to come in and be part of a change or a pivotal change in that history of that brand,” he concludes.

Join John as he discovers how Fraser went from rookie teenager to whisky polymath.

Listen in as they discuss whisky and regionality. (“It’s bonkers,” Fraser tells John, to suggest that “one massive 10,000 square mile region could produce one style and flavour” of whisky.)

Find out how the colour of whisky packaging can affect our perception of a whisky and how it will taste.

And enjoy a rambling conversation that wanders where it wants, reviving memories of scenic beauty and recalling experiences that can never be repeated.

After all Fraser says, "Whisky is a lot like music and a lot like food. It's about the occasion and who you're with and what you're doing."

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

Whisky and cheese?

It’s a simple question really: Do they pair well together?

Does a Gorgonzola go well with a smoky Bowmore? Or is it better with a sherry-flavoured Speyside? Say a Glenfarclas or a Tamdhu?

And what should you have with Gruyère?

Since lockdown, photographer Paul Bock and a brand marketer David Reid have been holding regular whisky and cheese soirees at Paul’s studio in Edinburgh.

Up to 70 guests at times. Some are in the industry. Some are just friends. And some don’t even like whisky.

“We invite people to come along, bring a bottle and bring a cheese,” David explains. “All the whisky goes on one table, and all the cheese goes on another.

“We don’t stipulate what kind of whisky it should be. It can be anything, but we try to get people to bring things that are a bit unusual.”

So nothing you’d find in major supermarket.

And then, once “you’ve put your bottle down, you’ve put your cheese down,” David continues, “it’s just a bit of a free for all.”

“It’s really about friendship and meeting new people, and I guess just experimenting and finding out, you know, does gorgonzola go with a Bowmore or does a hard salty cheese go better with a lighter fruitier whisky?

“It’s about people just finding out what works for them and chatting with each other and finding out what others think.”

“We’ve had whiskies,” Paul picks up, “from all over the world. Obviously Japan, Wales. We had some English whiskies recently. And Irish… quite a lot of Irish.”

“We’ve got a very committed attendee,” David adds, “who’s passionate about whisky and she’s also passionate about her home country which is Romania. So she’s now brought two different types of Romanian whisky which is, I must say, excellent.

“It’s called Carpathian Single Malt. And that goes beautifully with, I can’t remember exactly which cheese it goes best with, but I think it was maybe Brie.”

“It wouldn’t have occurred to many people to have cheese [with whisky],” Paul admits. “It’s often chocolate people think of with whisky. But people think, ‘Actually, let’s give it a go.’ And they’re often pleasantly surprised how well it does go.”

Join John as he explores what whiskies go with what cheeses.

Find out if they contrast or complement each other.

And pick up a few pointers from Paul and David, who, by their own admission, aren’t whisky or cheese experts, but who love the subtle combinations of taste and texture which only whisky and cheese can bring out.

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

“We’re going through a period of short-term volatility,” admits Mark Kent, CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association.

“Volatility which,” he says, “is partly to do with international trade conditions; partly to do with the domestic situation we find ourselves in.

“And you’ll know that we’ve had 17 percent duty increases; increases in energy costs, general costs of doing business at home, which is really acting as a brake on the industry.

“And then we’ve got tariffs and the US.”

A week ago HMRC, the UK’s tax agency, published the UK’s export statistics for 2025, including whisky which is the UK’s biggest food and drink export product.

“What these figures show,” Mark continues, “is we’re just under one percent down in terms of value across the world last year. And in terms of volume, we’re just over four percent down.”

That doesn’t sound too bad…

But, Mark cautions, “the big thing which sticks out is that since tariffs came into forces in the US, we’re 15 percent down in terms of volume that shipped to the US.”

Things may not have “fallen off a cliff”, as Mark puts it. “But at the moment,” he acknowledges, “we’re going through very choppy seas.”

“You just have to read the papers to see news about job losses, cutbacks in production, maltings which are closing. This is real stuff and this is affecting the Scottish economy and rural communities in particular.

“When I go and meet with farmers, they say: ‘What’s happening with India? What’s happening with the US? Because we’re getting less orders through for the malting barley…’ for example.

“And then you look right through the production chain to the hospitality industry. Hospitality is being hit. Tourism is being hit.”

So what does Mark make of report in the Scotsman newspaper that “almost one in five of all Scotland’s distilleries is in financial distress”?

“I read that; and I can quite believe that anecdotally, because when we speak to our members, they are very concerned and there are real issues.”

And these issues – or “headwinds” as Mark describes them – impact the entire supply chain.

Join John as he explores the state of the Scotch whisky industry with the man at the helm of its trade association.

Find out who’s most at risk.

Discover what Government interventions Mark believes will most help the sector.

And find out why, despite all his concerns, Mark is "still very confident about the long-term potential of the industry."

“I was having a discussion with somebody,” Mark concludes, “and I said, ‘I’m not an optimist. I’m not a pessimist. I’m a realist. And think that’s what we have to be. And we have to say things they are.

“I go back to how we started this. Long term, the potential is still there. We’ve got a great industry. It’s not going to go away. We’re going to see markets continue to grow.

“What we have to do is ensure that we have the support necessary to get to that longer term potential.”

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

Back in Series 1 Episode 5, Martin McAdam of Ardgowan Distillery joked that “the best thing you can do with whisky is put it in a cask, put it in a warehouse and never sell it because it’s increasing in value all the time.”

“The longer you can hold onto your whisky,” he told us, “the more valuable it becomes.”

On that premise you’d think that whisky is a sure-fire investment.

Well yes… and no…

As we’ve discussed on several occasions with our good friend Max McFarlane, former Master Blender at Edrington and now himself with Ardgowan, there are a lot of pitfalls when it comes to investing in whisky casks.

Primarily, Max says, because there are a lot of con-artists out there.

It’s an issue that’s been getting a lot of media attention over the last year or so. Most notably in the BBC’s TV documentary and podcast series Hunting the Whisky Bandits by Sam Poling.

Well a week ago, former Scotland and British & Irish Lions rugby international Ryan Grant, who now runs The Caledonian Cask Partnership, posted on LinkedIn that “the whisky cask world has a bit of a problem. It’s unregulated, and there’s a lot of misinformation”.

And he promised to share in coming posts what he’d learnt about:

Buying casks safely
What’s genuinely good value (and what isn’t)
Why honesty still matters in business

We couldn’t wait for his posts.

So, John caught up with Ryan again. (You may remember Ryan and Max McFarlane were part of our oh so impartial Seven Nations Whisky judging panel in Series 1 Episode 21 ahead of the Lions tour to Australia.)

Ultimately, Ryan says, every cask has to end up in a glass.

“Ninety nine percent of people that buy whisky for an investment will need to sell it back to the trade to get their money back because there comes a point where it has to go into a bottle.”

It may sound obvious, but Ryan says: “I see some stuff from companies that email out and they’ll say this cask will be X price and then in 10 years it will be X price. And I find that that’s quite inflated a lot of the time.

“A basic rule of thumb is that if that whisky at 10 years old on the shelf retails for £50, but the value of your cask works out at £70 a bottle, then it’s not a good investment.”

So do your due diligence; do your sums: “If it doesn’t translate from wood to into glass pricewise then it’s not going to happen.”

If in doubt, ask, he says.

Speak to people in the trade: producers or bottlers, “as opposed to someone who’s in a whisky investment company”.

“The whisky industry is so welcoming and everyone’s very friendly,” Ryan continues. “No-one’s going to shy you away from asking a question, ‘Look I’m about to do this. Do you think it’s a good idea?’”

Tune in to this week’s episode find out what Ryan’s red flags are when it comes to investing in whisky casks; what he thinks of the state current state of the whisky industry; and why he finds whisky so alluring.

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

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