When Scotland got a last minute call up to the T20 Cricket World Cup in India, and I realised they'd be in Bangalore while I was here, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

So after watching Scotland in their warm-up game against Afghanistan from outside the ground (check out the vlog) I was invited to the team hotel the next day.

You might hear from my voice in this episode that even though I didn't get into the game, we were still in fine voice.

I caught up with Charles Paterson Head of Coms and All Rounder Michael Leask in the team hotel before they headed off to kick off their World Cup campaign.

This is a great insight into cricket, what it's like scrambling to get a team together, and how whisky plays it's role.

Fraser is based in India and represents The Glenlivet, Aberlour, Chivas Regal, Royal Salute and Ballantine’s. However, he is not on the podcast in an “official capacity”, therefore this was not a recording about his brands. This was a recording about him personally.

We talked about his journey into whisky, starting on the familiar path from behind the bar, to then working as a tour guide at The Glenlivet Distillery (we can talk and did talk about this), moving up to Speyside to live and breathe whisky, and then eventually moving out to India to become an International Brand Ambassador.

We recorded this episode in Tycoons Bar in Bangalore. Fraser is based in Delhi but flew to Bangalore to catch up, have some drams and record this episode.

He spoke about his experiences out in India, the differences that he’s noticed in the whisky world out in India versus in Scotland, and the Indian whisky market.

Fraser has visited 17 cities and 15 states in the 18 months that he’s been working as a brand ambassador out in India.

He also told a great story about trying some “whisky” made from replica illicit stills made from Glenfarclas stills blueprints, but a third of the size.

While I’m out in India, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to dive deep into Indian whisky and, the good folks at Paul John Distillery were more than happy to help.

After a flying visit into Goa to meet Master Distiller Michael D’Souza and get a full tour of the distillery (check out the vlog for this), I was invited to the Paul Hotel back in Bangalore for a chat and some drams with the Paul John Global Brand Ambassador Heemanshu Ashar.

Heemanshu talked me through his own beginnings and journey into whisky, and then talked about how Paul John started out.

Despite Paul John Distillery only being open from 2012, the whisky gets itself all over the world. But I wanted to know how it all started, and who is Paul John?

Heemanshu talked us through the origins of the business and explained about Mr Paul P John and the overall business John Distilleries. Blended Indian whisky, Indian wine and now Indian single malt.

Heemanshu was also kind enough to let me try the new 2025 Christmas Edition which is finished in a Cream Sherry Cask.

We’ve talked about getting Cody Reynolds back on the podcast for a long time. 

But the Angus Dundee Global Brand Ambassador is a busy man travelling the world spreading the good word of Glencadam and Tomintoul. 

Cody was our 5th episode when he first came on the podcast on the 9th of November 2023. 

He was our first Brand Ambassador to come onto the pod as well. 

One of the things that I remember most about that episdoe was Cody explaining the cycle of the whisky drinker. What makes that even more impressive is that even now, after 113 episode we are still referencing it. 

There was a good amount of whisky consumed before, during and after the podcast and Cody was kind enough to bring in a Swedish drink that I can still taste now. 

Cody has also birthed one of our next Games for the Pod with Cody Reynolds One Star Reviews!

Loads of fun on this one and lots of Glencadam, Tomintoul and general whisky chat. 

What better way to end the year than to sit down in the Diggers cellar with the owner, tuck into some drams and go through some of the best whiskies we've had this year.

We look back at what's been an amazing year for the podcast. We've had some great guests, had access to distilleries and hosted some really fun events.

We also look ahead to an exciting 2026 for Kev with the soon to be launched 'Diggers 2' down in Leith (name pending).

Thanks to everyone who's been part of the podcast for the last 12 months.

Happy New Year and here's to 2026 and plenty more drams and shenanigans.

Merry Christmas!

We had a quick Christmas catch-up in Diggers for a couple of drams (Ross had already had a few before he got there...) to lead into our North British Distillery Podcast recording.

We were given a very special gift from the guys at Royal Mile Whiskies which is something to look forward to in the new year and Ross gave us his top whiskies of 2025.

Hope you're having or had a great Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thanks for listening.

Cheers!

This week we have Pal of the Pod Cameron Ewen in for a chat about his now job, Christmas drams and whiskies of 2025.

We were back in the Dug Oot at Diggers for this one enjoying some drams, and festive whisky chat with Cam.

Cam talked us through his new role at Diageo and some of the amazing whiskies he gets to work with. Including old Brora and Port Ellon bottlings.

We also discuss what whiskies we'll be drinking over the Christmas festivities.

Enjoy

Raymond is the man behind the iconic Glencairn whisky glass and changed the way we drink whisky.

He isn't just Whisky Royalty, he's an absolute gentleman as well.

Spending time with Raymond and hearing his whisky stories was amazing.

In this episode we hear about how he started out, what made him decide to design a glass for drinking whisky, and the journey it's taken him on.

We also enjoyed a good few drams while we were at it!

Enjoy

This one was a lot of fun to record.

Sam Simmons was one of the first online whisky bloggers with his blog Dr Whisky starting back in the early 2000s.

That took him from writing about whisky to selling it, becoming the Global Brand Ambassador for Balvennie to becoming Head of Whisky for Atom Brands.

He's responsible for putting out releases to over 1 million people around the world. Looking for cool whisky concepts, bottling it and selling it.

Sam brought in some of his own projects with him for us to try including Wormtub 10 and the famous Dalry Milk North British bottling.

There's some great whisky chat in this podcast as well as plenty of laughs and good drams.

Enjoy

We were all back in the Diggers Vaults for a recording and a catch up with Chuck, Angus, myself Ross and Scott Moore.

Ross had literally just jumped off the plane returning from his trip across the pond to see his current mother and father-in-law and our USA Brand Ambassador was about to leave from his epic whisky trip to Scotland.

There were loads of drams on the barrel for this one. With plenty of whisky chat from Scott's trip, we had whisky samples sent over and lots of catching up to do.

We chatted about our trip to Glencadam Distillery as well as our epic Edinburgh Whisky Pub Crawl.

Loads of fun and nonsense on this one. Enjoy!