Introducing Founder’s Highlights
Regular update
from Dan

This week marks the first in what will hopefully be a regular series of random thoughts, impressions and musings which my marketing team suggested is called “Founder’s Highlights”.

When the idea was suggested to me, I immediately agreed since – as anyone who’s met me knows – I love nothing more than sharing the ups, downs, joys and challenges of the amazing journey we’ve been on for over 10 years ever since I first had the idea to open a distillery in the Cotswolds.

September is always a busy month as the late Summer torpor gives way to the busiest time of year and the start of the “whisky season”.  Highlights of last week included an excellent “day in trade”, meeting with bartenders and shop owners in London with our brilliant new brand ambassador Katie.  It’s been too long since I last did this and there is truly no better way to spend your time as a founder  as it involves direct contact with customers and consumers, and also a chance to take the pulse of the market and understand whether our brand remains relevant (the answer to which I can happily report seemed to be a resounding “yes”!).

The second half of the week was spent in Edinburgh attending the annual Worshipful Company of Distillers’ Scottish Dinner at the Signet Library, where as Renter Warden I had the honour to personally greet over 200 guests representing the breadth of the whisky industry.  There were also visits to the new Port of Leith Distillery as well as the wonderful Holyrood Distillery.  Port of Leith – a 9-story purpose built vertical whisky distillery – is one of the few projects that is so ambitious as to make me feel comforted I’m not the biggest dreamer of them all.  Holyrood’s experimental quirkiness and use of novel yeasts and mashbills was equally fascinating and inspiring.

This week has been focused on finalising work on our exciting wetlands effluent management project, on reviewing business development and challenges faced in the difficult current sales environment, and lastly on reviewing our “wood program” for next year, i.e. the casks we’ll need to have on hand to fill the projected amount of whisky we plan to produce.  That is by far the most satisfying job as it’s all about the future, and the endless possibilities of the different whiskies we’ll be nurturing over the years to come.

I hope you’ve all had a good week and I promise that future missives will be shorter!

Cheers
Dan