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Welcome to Insert Buzzword, the podcast that breaks through business buzzwords to explore the genuine stories behind peoples journeys. In the heart of Scotland, we venture into the lives of entrepreneurs and business professionals, uncovering the unique challenges and triumphs that define their paths.
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Alex Thomson: Unveiling the Essence of Scottish Whisky Heritage – A Tale of Tradition, Tours, and Transformative Career Paths
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Whisk your senses away to the story-rich glens of Scotland as we traverse the history and heart of whiskey production with Glenturret Distillery's very own, Alex Thomson. With a family legacy steeped in distilling that dates back to 1772, Alex regales us with tales from the past and his current role at the helm of visitor experience. His insights paint a vivid picture of the heritage that continues to shape the world of whiskey tourism, as well as the personal anecdotes that reveal the evolution of a family deeply rooted in the craft.
Step into the world-renowned Glenturret, where tradition meets ambition in one of Scotland's smallest yet most revered distilleries. Discover the artistry behind their spirits, guided by the legendary whiskey maker Bob Dalgarno, and peek into the elegant realm of their Michelin-starred restaurant, where fine dining becomes an inclusive celebration of Scottish flavors. This episode not only raises a glass to the meticulous craft of whiskey making but also to the individuals whose passion and dedication ferment into every bottle.
Our conversation takes unexpected turns, exploring the transitions we face in our career journeys and the personal growth that often blooms from such changes. From rugby fields to whiskey casks, Alex opens up about the courage and resilience needed to navigate life's career shifts, the familial bonds that shape our identities, and the quiet moments of relaxation that balance the intensity of a life devoted to one's passions. Join us for an episode that's as much an ode to the spirited culture of Scotland as it is a toast to the resilience and adaptability that mark the milestones of success.
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Pleasure to have you on this evening, alex. I'm Jeremy, one of the co-hosts. Tristan's screen is now going completely black. Delighted to have you on this evening, alex. I'm sure Tristan will join us when he can. I don't know you at all. Tristan would usually give us a little bit of an intro as to who the guest is, but given that it's just me, yeah, yeah, really keen to know who you are, what you do and where you've ended up. Where you've ended up do you know what?
Speaker 2:personally, jeremy, I'd rather not look at tristan, so I think this, uh, this is an ideal solution for me, but um see him all the time I know it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:But no thanks so much for having me on. I'm excited to be here and talk a little bit about my my journey. So I'll give myself an intro, seeing as Tristan's not here. So my name is Alex Thompson. I'm a visitor attraction manager at the Glen Turret Distillery. So we are the oldest operating distillery in Scotland. We've been going since 1763. So we're 261 years young this year. 261 years young this year, um, so my role kind of encompasses a lot. So we, you know, we take in the tours which we. We get about between about 45 and 55 000 visitors a year on the tourist side.
Speaker 2:So that's obviously yeah it's a pretty, pretty busy old experience, um, and you know it's tours of the distillery, it's tastings, um, and we have the shop as well, which comes under my remit too, which is obviously a big part of it as well Whiskey shop, you know, gift shop, all that kind of thing coming under it.
Speaker 1:Nice, interesting. So with that, alex, what is your background? Like, how, yeah, I mean how far back would you like to go? How did you end up doing that?
Speaker 2:Well, we can go quite far back. To be fair, it all starts in 1772, um which I'm generally not joking um. So I'm uh, I'm a farmer's son originally, um. I grew up, uh, just about five miles outside aberfeldy, um, in a little village called grantley. Um family have been farming in the in the same area for generations a good sort of 500-odd years, as far as we can figure out. Jeez, yeah, we're kind of dug into the area like ticks. Basically there's a wee church on the family farm called St Mary's Kirk and me and my cousins used to play amongst the gravestones as children, which is quite morbid actually when you think about it as an adult. But one of the gravestones is for my six-times great-grandfather, james Thompson, who died in 1780. James died, he was buried there in 1784. But James was actually arrested in 1772 for illegally producing whiskey and I like to think that's kind of where. But James was actually arrested in 1772 for illegally producing whiskey, wow, and I like to think that's kind of where my whiskey journey starts, basically.
Speaker 1:So you weren't kidding hundreds of years ago? Yeah it was.
Speaker 2:You know it's in the blood. And then I was kind of always aware of whiskey. Growing up the family had a distillery on the farm until 1910. The family had a distillery on the farm until 1910. The last sort of owner and distiller was my great-great-great-grandfather, who was also an Alexander Thomson. So you know I said that shut in 1910 with the tax hikes from David Lloyd George but sort of different branches of the family stayed in the whiskey industry. There was a famous sort of blending office in perth called peter thompson's blend, which was quite a big name in blended whiskey. Um, and from that I don't know if you've seen there's a new independent bottler, started in the last, uh last about 18 months now, um called finn thompson whiskey just, and you might have seen some of the stuff posted about that. So fin Finn's something like my third cousin, twice removed or something like that. He's descended from the blending side and I'm descended from the single malt side.
Speaker 2:Whiskey was always kind of around. Growing up and growing up in Highland Perthshire I just assumed that the only whiskey that existed was Dewar's Bells or Grouse, because those were the brands that were around and probably much like Tristan and probably yourself as well, jeremy, growing up, seeing the famous grouse written across the front of the Scotland shirt and all that, it was just, it was a big part of life really, um, and then, when I was finishing school, I didn't really have any idea what I wanted to do in life. Uh, I knew that I liked history and I knew that I was quite good at talking, as I'm probably evidencing right now. So I actually got a summer job at Blair Castle as a tour guide and loved it Absolutely, fell in love with tourism as an industry, decided to move to Edinburgh uh, travel and tourism at edinburgh college and then international tourism management at napier university. And while I was doing that, I was just looking for a student job and happened to, happened, uh, handed. You know, back in the day your mom used to say just go and hand your cv out to places and, and I did that.
Speaker 2:This was 2013. And the only place that called me back was the Scottish Whiskey Experience and at 18 years old, I got offered a job as a tour guide there and that just opened my eyes to the whisky industry and I've kind of never really looked back, apart from sort of one brief hiatus working for Scottish Rugby. It's kind of just always been. Always been whiskey and tourism.
Speaker 1:Since then really wow and with that, I guess, like my question, and with that family history going back hundreds of years of farming, was that never an option for you?
Speaker 2:like it was like my, my dad's. My dad's kind of recently retired from the farm but I loved growing up on a farm and I loved kind of the connection with the land and I've always really felt that because you know, it's the family farm and we've been there for so many generations. But farming never, it was never for me. Farming never, it was never for me. Um, my mom's a city girl, my mom's from Glasgow, and I think that probably wore off on me a bit too much. Um, I'm very lucky actually, my dad has been incredibly supportive of that.
Speaker 2:Um, I probably was too disinterested in farming for a long time. Um, we're actually now I am actually quite interested in it. But you know I'm there's a lot of farmers kids out there who are forced into farming and don't feel like they're ever given a choice. But I'm very lucky with my dad that he was never. He never forced me into it and he's very, very interested in what I'm doing now, very proud of what I'm doing now, but, um, you know, I still kind of view it as a facet of farming, you know, because where's whiskey without barley?
Speaker 1:amazing and I, like you've, from a family with a hundred years worth of history and pedigree into a whiskey brand that is equally as old. How does that sort of sense of responsibility, custodianship of these legacies, no, it's, it's, you've used the right word there custodian.
Speaker 2:We, um, we talk about it a lot at glen turret because, um, you know, as I said, we've been around for for 261 years and there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that. Every decision that we make is made with the past and the future in mind of are we, are we honest, honouring the legacy of Glen Tarret, but also are we future proofing ourselves? Our distillery manager, who I'm sure you will have met before Tristan, ian Rennick. I love hearing Ian talk about the distillery and he's so'm sure you will have met before Tristan Ian Rennick.
Speaker 2:I love hearing Ian talk about the distillery and he's so passionate about the place. He's been there for something like 20, 26, 27 years now and is born and raised in Crieff. Ian talks about that all the time of. You know, we don't own Glen Tarret, we just look after it. Basically, and, yeah, he's a very inspirational leader and he's he's, he's right in that, you know, um, so I my background being in history, tourism originally, and then trans translating that into whiskey, glentara was a good fit for me, because I get to prattle on about the 18th century sometimes, but still with the focus on whiskey, um. So yeah, I can really tie those two passions together, which is brilliant that's cool um and like one more before I welcome tristan back into the room.
Speaker 1:We don't have to, it's fine. I'm not like I could go all night on this. This is awesome. Um, how, how does that? Is there tension between planning for the future, being aware of the past, and the new owners like do they have that in mind as well? Are they like so, I mean, are they in it for the next 200 years? Or is this just something that they does that make sense without what? No, 100, 100.
Speaker 2:So no, I I'm happy to talk about that and I I'm happy to talk about it because I've got a very positive answer, I would say. So just a bit of background on that. We were owned by Edrington up until 2019. We were part of the wider Edrington umbrella, working with Famous Grouse primarily was our main association, but within the Edrington Malts umbrella 2019, we were sold to Joint Venture, 50% owned by Silvio Denz and the Lalique Group and 50% by Hans-Jörg Wies, who's a Swiss-American gentleman.
Speaker 2:The big focus that the two of them took and Silvio kind of from one side and Hans-Jörg from the other side was Silvio's focus is in is in finding these historic properties that he thinks aren't necessarily being used to their potential. Um, so what he saw with glentara, which I think is an amazing vision to have seen, is the oldest distillery in scotland with all this storied history and all these lovely traditional practices, but no one had really heard of it before. And you know we think about Bushmills as being marketed as the oldest whiskey distillery in the world and all that kind of thing. And you know that's what they focus the brand on and actually, because of the market position of Glen Turret, it was not seen as a big market single malt, and a lot of that was down to the volumes produced. So silvio, as an example, has just bought a hotel in zurich called the villa florhoff, which is, I believe it's one of the oldest hotels in switzerland and was closed and was going to ruin and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:And, and you know, he saw that and thought, well, what a shame. Like this is this amazing storied building that's seen hundreds of years worth of history and it's just not being lived up to its potential. And that's that's what you saw with glint turret and hans york from the other side. What hans york is really focused on is the sustainability aspect. And actually how can we make whiskey in a way that honors those traditions without killing the planet? And whiskey's always been a bit of a leader in sustainability. You know it takes a lot of energy to produce whiskey and at the end of the day, we're Scottish Anywhere that we can save a penny or two is always going to be good, but we have a big focus on sustainability on site and we're trying to do that while balancing the tradition, which is tricky.
Speaker 2:We've got the right people in those positions. So, ian, our distillery manager, and then our project manager is a person called Lucy Armstrong, who Whiskey Magazine recently named as their Sustainability Officer of the Year. Just some of the projects they've done over the last couple of years, like one of them was replacing the mash tun, and that alone is going to save us over a million litres of water a year. But what we didn't do is we didn't put in a mash tun, that was just fully automated. We kept that human element into it while using the best parts of technology to make it more sustainable. And that, yeah, that's fully been driven by the owners and allowed by the owners, which is fantastic.
Speaker 1:So I had the pleasure of visiting glenn, the glenn turret, with tristan, um, and what I mean. Yeah, you do get a real sense of that history when you're there. Yeah, um, I'm really fascinated with the like how big is? So I'm not a whiskey expert, I don't know the terminologies. I'll lay that right out before we even go into this. There's a room full of barrels somewhere, or casks. How big and how old are some of those casks?
Speaker 2:We would be classed as a small distillery. There's about 150 operating distilleries in Scotland these days. According to the Whiskey Yearbook which comes out every year the 2024 edition we're within the 20 smallest distilleries in Scotland, which is, you know. We haven't done that on purpose, necessarily. That's just what we are. We measure distillery size in what's called LPA, which is liters per annum, and that is purely the new make spirit.
Speaker 2:Um, so it's the clear liquid that flows off the still. It's kind of a. It's one of these horrible little tricky things that people in the whiskey industry like to say is actually, a distillery doesn't make whiskey. A distillery makes new make spirit. A warehouse makes whiskey. Um, so your, your biggest distilleries, inies in Scotland are going to be producing 15 to 20 million litres of pure alcohol a year.
Speaker 2:We're producing what was it? Under previous owners? We were about 100,000. Last year we were 220,000. This year we're on target for 324,000 is what we're aiming for this year. So that's a big increase. It's huge growth. But that, compared to 20 million, is still not a lot. So the warehouses on site are they're traditional warehouses, the ones that you saw there, what's called Dunnage warehouses, where the casks are laid on an earthen floor. We've got six of them on site and between them there'll be sorry, anywhere between 5,000 and 6,000 casks between those warehouses. But again to put that into some context, in the whole of Scotland there are about 26 million casks of whisky. There are enough casks in the whole country for every member of the population, including children, to be given 5 and to have some left over.
Speaker 3:So now I'm back in the room and joining the session. It's been interesting to hear your initial journey and then now time at Glen Turret. You've mentioned Ian Renwick a few times. Do you have other mentors at Glen Turret who really learned about being spirited?
Speaker 2:The first person I ever spoke to at Glen Turret was John Laurie, who was the managing director of Glen Turret. John and I met actually on a Zoom call. So one of the things I do outside of Glen Turret is I'm a judge for the World Drinks Awards. So through Whiskey Magazine and I remember it was deepest, darkest lockdown we were figuring out how we could judge whiskeys in lockdown, which they came up with a very elegant solution of. They would send you a pack of 20 miniatures of whiskey and you would all join a Zoom call and judge whiskeys together. It was great fun. We'd start these sessions at like 10 o'clock in the morning, sitting in your spare room drinking whiskey at 10 am on a Zoom call. It was a wonderful time. Covid.
Speaker 2:I remember one of the first COVID sessions I joined. There was four of us in the group, but when I joined the only other person who was on the call was John Laurie. At the time I was working at Aberfeldy Distillery, which is obviously just over the hill, and I'd never met John before, I'd never interacted with John before, and it came up in the bottom of the screen John Laurie, glen Turret. So I started asking him so what's Glen Turret like and all that. At the time they were going through the renovation after the new owners had taken over. So he kind of talked me through the vision and you know kind of some of the stuff I just told you guys already about what the owners saw and the potential that they saw in the place and I remember just being like super, super captivated by it. Um, so when the opportunity came up to move to glinturret it was kind of a no-brainer. I kind of snatched it with both hands really and John's been great from a lot of aspects. I think the main one for me is actually realizing the back office things required for a business. You know we've been discussing staffing a lot recently and and kind of seasonal staffing and how we balance staffing around tour numbers and all that. And actually the insight that john's given of how we, how we balance actually the demands of the visitor center versus staffing needs and all that kind of thing and how we can work with sort of internal stakeholders in the business to make that work, has actually been really interesting and given me a lot of insight actually into how a business properly works. So, john, john was a big one. You probably will have seen.
Speaker 2:Tristan John's actually leaving us now. He's a traitor. He's way back to Edrington. It's been a long road for John at Glen Turret and the biggest thing was he was commuting a 114 mile round trip every day. He was a Monday to Friday in the office kind of guy, which really shows his dedication at the place. So yeah, he's got us to where we are now. Like the whole brand position is really because of John. So you know we'll miss him and we wish him well. But yeah, he's been a big part of my journey at Glen Turret. You know we'll miss him and we wish him well, but yeah, he's been a big part of my journey at Glen Turret.
Speaker 2:And then from the whiskey side, sort of out with Ian. We work with Bob Dalgarno who's the whiskey maker for Glen Turret, previously the whiskey maker for McAllen. I love working with Bob. Bob's great. He's a character is our Bob. He's an Aberdeenshire barley farmer who happened to be quite good at whiskey and has all the mannerisms of an Aberdeenshire barley farmer. Him and I get on quite well because we're both just farmers at heart and can take a ribbing and take a bit of stick. But Bob is brilliant. I like to think I've got a reasonably good nose for whiskey. So Bob and I have quite a lot of good chats and you know his little office is on site and if he's working on something and you pop in and have a chat with him, he's always really keen to share what he's working on and give it to people and and let them have a little, a little smell of it. Um, so I've learned a lot from him.
Speaker 2:And then, lastly, I would say, um, my sort of direct manager at Glen Turret is a guy called Colin Hart, and Colin's a very understated guy. In whiskey people are quite good at shouting about themselves and it doesn't come naturally to Colin, I don't think. But Colin's done some amazing things. He used to run Ondine in Edinburgh and he's opened up bars and he's won cocktail awards and all that kind of thing. So he was brought on board as food and beverage manager for the Glen Turret when the rebrand happened and then ended up becoming operations manager. I've never seen someone juggle so many plates successfully than Colin. You look at the tours, the shop, the restaurant, the cafe, the house they all come under Colin's remit and they all keep spinning. So he's doing a good job and, yeah, take a lot from seeing that.
Speaker 3:When someone like John leaves, does that make you a future or are you a Glen Turret?
Speaker 2:life. I don't know, it's a tricky one. I've been at Glen Turret now for two and a half years and I love it and I can't see myself moving on anytime soon. But you know, things come up in life. You never know. Yeah, life changes. When I finished uni, if you'd told me that I'd be living back in Perthshire before I was 30, I absolutely would not have believed you. And then I moved back to Perthshire when I was what? 25, something like that. Yeah, totally came out of the blue moving back to Perthshire, but job opportunities were kind of too good really. Um, no, I, I, the opportunities I have at Glint are amazing.
Speaker 2:And one thing we're working on at the moment with, um, uh, one of my colleagues in production, fiona McDonald. Um, again, you probably know a bit Tristan, um, so fiona joined us as a production operator, um just about a year and a half ago now, and fiona's got a background in food science. So one thing that fiona's working on is is looking at sensory analysis and how we, how we analyze our spirit and how we keep that consistency in our spirit, because at the end of the day, we can put it in as nice a bottle as we like, but the spirit has to be good. You know, know, the bottle gets people to try it. The quality gets people to come back. So we're really focusing at the moment on the quality of our new make spirit, because a cask can only cover up so much. If the new make isn't good, and we're very lucky, the new make that we produce is lovely, but we need to keep that up and understand why the new make is the way it is.
Speaker 2:So Fiona has been tasked with kind of leading that sensory analysis. Fiona and I work quite well together. So she's putting together a sensory panel at the moment and obviously my background with judging like that's something that I'm working towards, sort of any way that I can help her in that definitely be keen for. So who knows, we joke all the time that she's going to run the sensory panel. I'm going to be part of it and then one day we'll be the whiskey-making team and all that kind of thing. So it's an amazing industry whiskey. You can be in every side, from stock management to talking about it to running the restaurant and all that kind of thing. Yeah, opportunities are endless really.
Speaker 3:It to running the restaurant and all that kind of thing. It's uh, yeah, opportunities are endless really, do you have aspirations to move into the whiskey making side of things?
Speaker 2:I don't really know. It's something I'd never really thought about until probably the last year or so, but, um, yeah, it's, it's a, it's a part of the industry that fascinates me. Um, when I worked at jurors, um, I got to see a bit of the process and understand it a little bit better. Their, their master blender, uh, is a woman called stephanie mcleod who has one master blender of the year, something like four or five years in a row, which is amazing. And you know, the insight that I got from her and even just brief conversations with her was was fascinating and actually looking at really what goes into producing that bottle of whiskey that we all take for granted that sits on the shelf. So, yeah, it would. It would be a cool, a cool avenue to to explore.
Speaker 2:And actually the great thing is, you know, I I got into whiskey for two reasons I like talking and I like a dram, and, um, the great thing is whiskey makers and master blenders, um, have become brand of masters now. So, you know, 50 years ago nobody knew and nobody cared who was in the lab making johnny walker or jurors or whatever, but now we expect these people to front the brands as well. Um, and stephanie's one of the real proponents of that, and Jim Beveridge, who just retired at Johnny Walker, was big on that as well, and David Stewart from Balvenie, and these people became public figures as well as blenders. So never say never.
Speaker 1:And with the restaurant, is it two Michelin stars at this point?
Speaker 2:Two Michelin star. Yeah, so we just got our second Michelin star in February, just gone. So I've spent the whole day at this conference today saying our Michelin star restaurant and having to go. Sorry, our two Michelin star restaurant. It just sounds like I'm bragging, but it's generally. I just keep forgetting because it's so recent. Oh, it's mad. The team up there, the team up there are just. They blow me away, the team up there. I was very lucky recently.
Speaker 2:I was part of a conference at Glen Eagles recently and coincidentally, the conference ended with dinner at the restaurant and so I joined the group and went and had dinner. And you, you know you get desensitized to things when you work with them so often and you know I hear about the restaurant every day. My partner actually works in the restaurant, so I I sort of hear about it every day and but you forget when you're, when you're on the customer facing side of it and you're eating the food and you're being served and you're getting the chat from the guys that actually were. You know we're leading the culinary conversation in Scotland, which is amazing.
Speaker 1:Best in the world. Yeah, it's worrying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were. National Restaurant Awards named us as the number one restaurant in Scotland last year, so incredible.
Speaker 1:Insane. So for me, working in the kitchen is where I would say I learned teamwork in the kitchen. Um, and it was. It was fine dining, so we were, we were inspected. I am never got a rosette or an award, but it was all like. So I'm always fascinated about kitchens, like gordon ramsay kitchen nightmares or whatnot. Yeah, it's good, it's TV, but actually seeing a team like that operate at that really really high level and being consistent, yeah, I find it fascinating. So yeah, my question would be like what's it like being around that sort of brand experience where the level is like it just doesn't get any higher? What's the pressure like to just always be representing a brand at that level?
Speaker 2:yeah, totally, and you know the the restaurant almost drives the standards across the business. You know, um, in in visitor attractions we have high standards. But actually seeing it from the michelin level has made me realize that visitor attractions across scotland we all need to raise our standards. When I first joined, the sommelier in the restaurant was a chap called Julien Beltzong. He's gone back to work for Lalique now, but Julien had worked at two and three Michelin star venues across the world and his standards were just impeccable and that opened up a lot for me in terms of how we need to be operating at that level.
Speaker 2:And you know it's, it's it's almost the mantra of something like that as if, well, it's not perfect, we don't do it. Like you know, if it's not going to hit those standards, then we're just not going to do it. And it's things like you know. We have a lovely salon area in the restaurant where you can sit and enjoy a cocktail and all that kind of stuff. And actually we could make a lot more money if we, if we, were to serve food on there as well. We could have more lunch tables and all that kind of thing, but you'd have to sit and lean and have lunch on a little table and that's just, that's not quality, so we don't do it. Um, and it's, it's holding yourself to those standards, that it's holding yourself to those standards. It's holding yourself to a higher standard than actually what is expected of you is the sort of baseline I would say.
Speaker 1:Incredible, I guess, like the tours that come and visit in my head. So I enjoyed walking around, but I felt like I was somewhere where I don't know if I'm appropriately dressed. Um, is there a certain element that, like, is intimidating for people to come to a place like this? Uh, off a bus or yeah, so we get.
Speaker 2:We do hear that a lot um, sorry, I'm just gonna cough quick um, we do hear that a lot of people saying, uh oh, I'm so sorry, I don't feel like I should be here, and all that kind of thing. But actually we want to create a relaxed environment and we don't. We don't want people to feel out of place because you know, our chefing team aren't like that. You know they're not. They're not elitist. Our chefing team at all, it's a chefing team from all over the world, from different cultural backgrounds. You know, our head chef, alex, is from Greece. One of our commie chefs is from Estonia. We've got a commie chef from Australia, one from China.
Speaker 2:Our executive chef, mark, is from Glasgow, slightly less exotic but still exciting. Our pastry chef, kayleigh, is from Scotland as well. We've got Anna, who's from Ireland. I think I've got everybody. So they're a team of really interesting backgrounds and they're not a bunch of snobs. Yeah, they're just not like that as people. Although we are fine dining and it is very experiential, we want people to feel welcome. We see it in the restaurant all the time. A lot of people will get dolled up to the nines to come in and look absolutely fantastic, and some people just want to come in in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and fine. We're never going to turn anyone away because of how they've turned up looking.
Speaker 3:I'll remember that.
Speaker 2:That's about to say no. Sorry, have I unleashed something bad there?
Speaker 1:Oh, no, no, no, it's like I won't need to wear a suit if I come and have dinner.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. I feel bad sometimes because if I'm having an office day, if I'm on the floor, I'll wear a shirt and a blazer and all that kind of thing. But if I know that I'm having an office day and I'm going to be stock counting or something like that, I'll just put on a hoodie it's a branded hoodie still, but it's a hoodie and then inevitably every day that I put a hoodie on, I have to go up to the restaurant for something and I have to walk through the middle of a two michelin style restaurant in a hoodie and I'm just like sorry, sorry, sorry. But actually no one, no one cares. And you know, we, we put these. Yeah, it's an idea that fine dining has to be snobby and I, yeah, it's not. It's not an idea that I think we have.
Speaker 2:Like you know, one of our, one of our dessert courses that we do in the restaurant is a is a sweetie box and it's this amazing thing. It's this big sort of wooden box with the handle on the top and it's like a transformer. You turn the handle and it sort of spins and all these little drawers pop out and everything. It's absolutely amazing. But all the sweets are made by Kayleigh, our pastry chef, and one of the sweets that is in there is like a cola bottle but it's made from sauterne. It's insane, it's so good. But every so often Mark will make a special batch that's made from Buckfast Because, again, mark's from glasgow, he loves buckfast.
Speaker 2:So you know, we, we keep that. We we kind of keep those nice little scottish elements going throughout it. And yeah, it's, it's an awesome place to be and like the buzz around the place after winning second michelin star was was amazing. Like I watched it at home with um, with my partner who I said that works in the restaurant, and you know I'd love to say that I can take any credit for winning the michelin star. It was nothing to do with me the second michelin star, nothing to do with me, me whatsoever. But I was in tears watching it because I know what these guys put into it. Like I've seen the effort that the team go to under the leadership of Mark and they just deserve it. They deserve every accolade that they're getting.
Speaker 1:Before I throw it back to Tristan, the inspection process. I'm assuming it's like it's completely random, you've no idea that someone's coming, or like is there a certain degree of like you know that you're about to be inspected?
Speaker 2:nope, totally random. Um, yeah, wow, yeah, totally random. Restaurants will try and look out for signs. Um, we do the same with visit scotland for tours. Um, you get suspicions sometimes. I remember when I was working at Blair Castle I figured out that someone was a Visit Scotland inspector and it was because she was asking me really really very niche questions and it was like she was testing my knowledge and almost testing my patience a little bit and seeing if I was happy to delve into these niche questions. And then I had a name badge on. But as she away, she went I'm sorry, what was your name? And as soon as she said that, I was like visit Scotland, visit Scotland, and you know. And then she was in the end um, so did you pass? We did five stars, obviously. Um, so the the idea behind it is completely anonymous, because you should treat every customer like they're a Michelin inspector, I'd say, because of consistency at that high level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, and they'll have their suspicions sometimes and they'll think that maybe that person over there might be a Michelin inspector, because maybe they'll ask a specific question or they'll you know whatever. But yeah, no, there's no way of knowing whatsoever. We were quite rigorously inspected last year, I believe we had a couple of inspections and the suspicion from the team was when you get a couple of inspections, it normally means something's changing. So we thought there was a chance we might get a second star based off of almost how many inspections we were getting. But you can't speculate until until it happens, and it was.
Speaker 2:It was quite tricky. In the weeks leading up to it. I was going to conferences and I was doing a Scotsman food and drink podcast and everyone was asking are you getting a second star in February? And deep down I was thinking well, they probably are, because I knew about the inspections and I could see the level that they were working at. But the worst thing we could have done was gone, oh, yeah, yeah, we're getting a second star and then not get one, um, cause then we just look like idiots, basically. So, yeah, it was, uh, it was the period between November and February, uh, when we initially got invited to the awards and then when the awards actually happened was it was a pretty, pretty stressful couple months, but it paid off in the end.
Speaker 1:Incredible.
Speaker 3:Permission to ask questions, jeremy, please. It's only fair, thank you. Thank you. We've heard, I guess, some of your successes, the kind of journey to date, but is there any obstacles or moments in your journey thus far that you'd be happy to share?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, coming out of uni, I think we all go through a little bit coming out of uni. It's that suddenly, oh my God, right, I've got to figure out what I want to do now and I briefly mentioned Scottish rugby earlier. I got a job straight out of uni working full time for Scottish rugby, running the stadium tour, and you know I've got a huge passion for rugby Not playing anymore, as Tristan and I have discussed many times, too old and too fat for that. Now my passion for the game is massive. My friends take the mick out of me for being the stat nerd and all that kind of thing. That was a dream job. Running the stadium tour. I literally just got paid to talk about rugby, free tickets to the matches and I got to speak to Chris Patterson every day and all that kind of thing. That was awesome.
Speaker 2:But it was kind of after about a year I was struggling a lot just personally and professionally. I was feeling a lot just personally and professionally. I was feeling a bit unfulfilled professionally and I think it was after that that I realized that actually whiskey and history were the things that were my passion for work and as much as I loved rugby, rugby was my escape from work and I was finding myself not wanting to watch rugby at the weekend because I thought about work when I watched rugby and all that kind of thing. And it was really tough and kind of having to almost have that conversation with yourself of, right, well, you thought you were going to love this job and you hate it, and that doesn't make you a failure and and you know, and and sort of everything that comes with that was really tough.
Speaker 2:And moving back up to Perthshire for a job at Aberfelly Distillery, it was like, okay, well, I've gone away to uni and I've done uni and loved that and got this amazing job for Scottish rugby. But here I go, moving back up home and moving in with my mum and dad and working at the local distillery. It did take me a little bit to get past the feeling of, oh well, I've failed, being in edinburgh, um, but actually the job at aberfeldy was great and it really reignited my, my passion for whiskey tourism and tourism in general. Um, and you know, through that job I got the job that I'm in now. So you know it was a tough period to go through, but, yeah, it got me where I am now. So it was a net positive in the end.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's amazing. Certainly by the end of it anyway, we got there, I can certainly relate to going through experiences like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is tough and even you know in in personal things, at the time, my dad was retiring from the farm at the time and was sort of going through that process and you know, family farms are tricky because, uh, your family become your business partners, which is, uh, which is always difficult, um, and think farms are kind of the last, it's the last inherited job, almost farmers no one goes. Your dad was a lawyer, so you'll be a lawyer, it's just not seen. And my dad had a lot of health issues and was retiring from the farm kind of off the back of that and farming was his life and was his identity. So there was, you know, he had a bit of a crisis of identity throughout that and that was difficult to be part of, you know. So yeah, it was a tough old time but it's definitely come out of it stronger.
Speaker 3:What was your partner at the time? Were you with your partner.
Speaker 2:No, we weren't together at the time actually. So we had met, but we weren't together. So we were working While I was at uni. I was doing a bit of Royal Mile tour guiding and a bit of freelance whiskey tasting and all that kind of thing, and she worked in the ticketing for that company and I was doing some of the tours. But we had met, but we weren't together. We didn't actually start seeing each other until I moved back up to the Highlands. Yeah, it was tricky.
Speaker 2:We kind of officially started being in a relationship in February 2020, which was wonderful timing. A month into our relationship, lockdown happened and four out of the first six months of our relationship, we were legally not allowed to see each other. So, again, that's probably one of these things that our relationship came out of that so much stronger that it might have done otherwise. Um, you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder and, yeah, four years later, we own a house together and have a cat together and all that kind of thing. So that's yeah, that's a success story of adversity as well, I guess yeah, definitely pass it back over to you, jeremy yeah, I'm interested about the farm.
Speaker 1:So far, farming, uh, although I studied architecture, agricultural development was what I focused on in different countries. Yep, um, and my dad is also recently retired and I think it would be fair to say he's gone through a similar crisis of identity where I don't know if it's like our parents generation I mean, it was a career for life, right like you were working, however many decades in the same job and when you retire, it's like, well, that's now no longer me as a person, um, but the question is so, who took on the farm from your dad?
Speaker 2:So the farm it's quite a big family. So dad was one of four boys. The farm was owned by my grandfather and my great uncle and my grandmother. So one of the brothers died about 20 years ago. So my dad and the other two brothers had been running the farm between the three of them, with my gran and my great uncle kind of still owning shares and still being involved. So when dad retired it was basically they bought him out of his shares of the farm. So it's still my two uncles on the farm between them and they've both got sons who are very engaged with the farm.
Speaker 2:And yeah, it's in safe hands is the thing. It's going to continue. As I said, it's one of the last professions where you know you don't work as a farmer, you are a farmer. That's the thing. And yeah, as I said earlier, like I'm always very I was kind of myself very lucky that if farming had been what I wanted to do, I would have been afforded every opportunity to do it. But it was. It was never for me and I still get to, you know, dip in and out, like dad and I own a tractor together.
Speaker 2:Um, so every so often I'll go back on the weekends and we'll tinker away at the engine and stuff like that, um, so it's. It's funny, my, my partner's actually a kiwi. Um, her mum moved over to new zealand, uh in her in her 20s and her mum was the daughter of a scottish sheep farmer. And now Louise has moved back from New Zealand and is now with the son of a Scottish sheep farmer. It's funny how cyclic all these things are. But yeah, as I'm getting a little bit older, I'm seeing more of the merits of just being a sheep farmer. And I keep saying we've got a little back garden in our house and I keep saying to Louise you know we could get a couple of yows out there. And you know we could get a couple of yows out there and, uh, you know they would keep the grass down and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:It's just like annoy the neighbors at the same time, she's like we live in a semi-detached house in the middle of a town. We're not getting sheep. It's like, come on, it'll be great, and like we can, we can offer them out to the neighbors to keep their grass down. It'll be brilliant. But uh, yeah. So I don't know. I could see myself one day having a wee, a wee bit of land somewhere in a couple of a couple of hours on the land. Who knows?
Speaker 1:amazing um personal questions on this one, then. So one that I I know that we'd like to ask, like what advice would you give your younger self now that you have some of the experience that you have on the about?
Speaker 3:oh uh, it's strange asking someone so young that question I know I look about 40.
Speaker 2:I'm actually only 29, which is disgusting. Um, oh, what advice would I give my younger self? Um, just stick at it. I think there's been a lot of times in my in my career where I've thought I'm making the wrong decision and I'm headed in the wrong direction, and a couple of identity crises along the way. Stick at it and don't let anyone ever tell you that you care too much. There's been a couple of times in my career where I've thought I'm the only one in this bloody place that cares. Not, maybe not to that extent, but yeah, there's been a couple of times where I've definitely cared too. I've thought I cared too much, and actually that's just. You know, set your own standards and stick to them. Yeah, if that makes any sense, yeah.
Speaker 1:I've been in jobs where I've felt the same if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been in jobs where I've felt the same. Yeah, it's tricky because we all, you know, we all- work to this.
Speaker 1:I said I was paying attention. We're seeing the same problem.
Speaker 2:You know, we all work to different levels and there's 100% been aspects where people have probably looked at me and gone. Why doesn't this guy just sort himself out or shut up more likely? But yeah, I care very deeply about Scotch whisky and about Scotland as a product and I'm very lucky that my job is basically just telling people how great Scotland is, because I'm very passionate about this country and I've sometimes probably been viewed as getting a bit carried away with that, but yeah, don't apologize for that.
Speaker 1:And the people coming off the tour buses. Which country are the most receptive to that?
Speaker 2:I mean Americans love it and I loveicans for that, like I. A lot of people moan about the american tourism market, which I've never liked, because, you know, since since walter scott packaged up scotland for george the fourth in 1822, we've essentially been packaging up scotland for tourists ever since then. And and actually you, there's a cultural argument of is that a good thing? Are we? You know we're putting Gaelic on menus in tourist restaurants while cutting funding to it in schools and stuff like that, and is that a good thing culturally? But the Americans and the Canadians and even people like Australians and New Zealanders feel such a deep cultural connection to Scotland and in a lot of ways that a lot of Scottish people don't. And I love that.
Speaker 2:I love being able to share my passion and share my knowledge with Scotland, with people that are interested and invested in care, and it's one of the things we really have at Glen Turret is every distillery has got to have a unique selling point.
Speaker 2:You know, the Isle of Assay is the first legal distillery on the Isle of Assay, aberfeldy is the only distillery built by the Dewar family, and all that. But what we've got at Glen Turret is we're the oldest working distillery in Scotland and no one else can have that, basically, and I love sharing the fact with them that our distillery is older than their country and it blows their minds and I love it and they immediately they're like that and they're like right, we're in, we're passionate and we love it. It's great and, yeah, they're such a fun market to work with, because they've spent all this money to come over here and they've seen Braveheart and they've read Outlander and they've read all the guidebooks and they just care so deeply about it. And we're quite cynical as Scots a lot of the time. I'm looking at you here, tristan, and actually getting a better perspective on just how cool all the things around us are is brilliant.
Speaker 1:Class Tristan.
Speaker 3:If you could describe Glen Turret in one word, what would you use?
Speaker 2:Authentic.
Speaker 3:That might relate to the end question as well.
Speaker 2:There's no frills, no bells and whistles, even with the restaurant. Nothing's done for the sake of doing it. Everything's done for a reason. You look at our production. When we're taking our spirit cuts, we're still doing it using hydrometers and thermometers rather than using um, rather than using probes in the in the pipe, and actually that's to allow us to be flexible with our spirit cuts and it's to allow the guys to tailor peated and unpeated spirit to flavor profiles and all that kind of thing. So we're not just doing it so that we can say we're cutting by hand. We're doing it because we want to be able to tinker with our spirit. And you know, nothing's yeah, nothing's done for the sake of it yeah, I can attest to that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, even as an outsider, you've drank enough of it, you know, as an outsider. You've drank enough of it, you know. Definitely I can't wait for anything, right, what?
Speaker 2:are your future plans and goals? So we've got a big year coming up. This is, I think, going to be a huge year for Scottish tourism in general and for whisky. We are looking ahead at all the projections. We're pre-covid numbers and we're probably probably going to excel pre-covid numbers.
Speaker 2:Maybe the last year is pre-covid, so for me it's about the next year is about managing that transition back to pre-COVID numbers while maintaining the standards that we've set during COVID. So I've got an amazing team around me. My tour team that I've got around me at the moment are just fantastic and they're so passionate about Glen Turret and just about giving that warm Scottish welcome which we all prize so much. So for me it's just about inspiring that team and keeping those standards high and just giving that experience to all the visitors Out with that.
Speaker 2:As I mentioned earlier on developing, working with Fiona to help develop sensory panels and all that kind of thing is a big is a big goal of mine anyway that I can support fiona. I'm looking forward to getting to do and, um, just develop myself within the industry. It's a it's an awesome, awesome industry and I'll never hope, I never take for granted how cool it is to just get to work in whiskey at the end of the day. You said earlier on of what would I tell my younger self? And one thing I've been thinking about a lot recently is, as I said, I'm 30 at the end of this year. If I'd been able to say to 18-year-old Alex, you're going to turn 30, working as a visitor center manager in the oldest distillery in Scotland, he'd have been blown away to think that I'd get that opportunity by the time I'm 30. So it's about staying grateful for that, I guess, is the challenge.
Speaker 3:Amazing. If this was your last day on earth, what would you want to say to your friends and family?
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Christ Wow that wasn't on the list. I like it, though. Hang on, let me finish this dram first, tristan. Jesus, oh, I don't know. Sorry for being an arse. I guess I'm quite difficult to live with a lot of the time, I don't know. Just, thank you for supporting me.
Speaker 2:I was quite an annoying teenager. I wasn't a difficult teenager. I was was quite an annoying teenager. I wasn't a difficult teenager. I was quite an annoying teenager, um, and I didn't know what I wanted to do, and you know I was, didn't want to be a farmer and all that. And I know my mom and dad were just so supportive throughout all that of well, okay, you don't want to do that.
Speaker 2:But what if we look into this and all that? And you know, I've got an older sister who we have an amazing relationship, and she's got a wee boy who's just turned two at the weekend, which he literally looks like me at two, which is hilarious. He also you'll love this, tristan. He doesn't call me Uncle Alex, he calls me Big Ek, which is hilarious. Um, he also. You'll love this, tristan. Uh, he doesn't call me uncle alex, he calls me big egg, which is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:So when me and when me and louise go and visit it's, auntie lulu and big egg, which I love it it's and we're teaching them how. We're teaching them how to fist bump now. So you go in and you go, ruru, can big egg have a fist bump? And he's like, yeah, um, it's the best, I love it. So you know just the support that's come from them. And then, obviously, like you know, louise is just incredible. Like I work a lot, like I give a lot to my work because I love it, and like last summer especially, I was pulling 10, 11, 12 hour days, five days a week, going in on my days off and all that kind of thing. And, and you know, she never complained, um, you know, cause she understood that how passionate about it I was and how much I cared about it and she was so incredibly supportive throughout that. Um, and, yeah, she's just just the best. I couldn't do without her. So, yeah, sorry for being an arse and thanks for the support, I think. I think I'd boil that down, basically that's good.
Speaker 1:So between those long hours in the summer, like what does a an ideal downtime break look like for you, alex?
Speaker 2:uh, as I sort of said off, mike, I'm a big gamer. Um, I uh. Yeah, I've always, I've always loved video games. Again, I'm showing my age here, but I got a playstation one for my, I think, fifth birthday or something like that. I remember long, long nights playing crash bandicoot, crash bandicoot and tomb raider and all that kind of thing. So, yeah, a lot of games. I said very, very into my rugby. I've recently been trying to get off my arse and do a bit more fitness so I've started running again and it's just, you know, the mental health benefits of that are actually really annoying, because you know people are right and it's annoying.
Speaker 1:Oh, tristan, yes, yesterday I've missed my swim. So swimming something I've got into every morning half six, half an hour, five days a week. I missed it yesterday and it ruined my day. Oh, it totally throws you off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, like I said, I was at a con. I was at a conference today and they've got a great gym facility at the hotel I'm at, so we had an hour or two between the conference finishing and dinner starting. So I went for a run on the treadmill and I went for a swim and I feel brand new, like I was shattered after that conference, but I feel absolutely brand new, like I won't go to bed soon because I've got an early start in the morning, but I just want to go back down to the bar and start socializing again. But no, so it's that and I.
Speaker 2:This sounds really daft for someone who works in whiskey, but I kind of fell out of drinking whiskey in a big way a while ago, so I'm reconnecting with whiskey almost. So my kind of ideal evening is Louise and I at home play a bit of video games, watch a film together, have a dram and just relax. Like you know, life is busy and hectic and I should probably say that my ideal evening is like being in a cocktail bar and all that kind of thing, because I'm still in my 20s, but I think the older I've got, the more I've realized that actually the nights that you really appreciate are actually just those quiet knights.
Speaker 2:And yeah, that would be it for me.
Speaker 3:Is this Louise's game, or is this something that you do by yourself?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm trying, Believe me, I'm trying. I got her into Minecraft for a little bit, which was good. So she was playing a bit of Minecraft. It's tricky gaming. You forget how much of it becomes instinctive after a while. You know not having to look at the controller and all that kind of thing. But no, she's getting into it and, like during the second lockdown, we were living together and in hindsight, it was a miracle she stayed with me throughout this period, because we spent like four months just sitting in the house while I played assassin's creed origins and she watched um and I had a lovely time and she probably didn't. But, um, no, she's. Yeah, little bits here and there, I would say it's a shame there's not a decent rugby game.
Speaker 2:No, I know. Do you know? I get hurt every time. Every time a new rugby game gets released, I bloody buy it, and then it's crap. I've got Rugby Challenge 3, whatever one the most recent one was. I've got Rugby 20,. I've got Rugby 22 and they're all absolutely pants. Rugby 24 is coming out soon and I'm ready to be hurt again fair.
Speaker 3:Jeremy, wrap up buddy let's do it so.
Speaker 1:Name of the podcast. Insert buzzwords. Um, do you have either a favorite or a buzzword from your work that you really don't like to hear? Can be favorite or least favorite.
Speaker 2:I mean, probably we can't do that. Yeah, I don't like to hear we can't do that. I like to hear well, how can we work towards that? Or how can we look at that, we're a very immediate company, which is great. When we look at that, we're a very immediate company, which is great. So, you know, we'll catch up on that later. Company and yeah, I don't like phrases like that, we can't do that, we'll catch up on that later.
Speaker 1:It's, let's figure this out now and let's get it going Amazing, awesome. And with that, alex, it has been a real pleasure to have you on again. You'll be our second whiskey expert and I've left completely enthused about the whole thing and have a real passion for it for scotland again. Um, but yeah, appreciate everybody. Listening been a pleasure, as always, and we look forward to welcoming the next guest next time. Thanks very much, alex. Again thanks, gents.
