Whisky Stories Podcast

We met Howard a year ago up in Dornoch and when he contacted us to let us know he was coming back, we had to meet up for a couple of drams.

We managed to sneak a recording in on Saturday morning in Diggers before the Independent Whisky Festival in Leith. It was an early start, but we still managed some 'breakfast drams'.

Howard talked us through how he started out as a Whisky Importer in the U.S, the challenges of getting whisky into America, how he selects the brands he works with, and why he decided to look at Independent Distilleries and Bottlers rather than going main stream.

This is a fascinating insight and the drams were fantastic too.

The first Whisky Stories Spotlight event of 2026 was a special one!

Not only were we christening the new Diggers Leith with the first tasting in the pub, we were also getting to try a BRAND NEW Single Malt from Aberargie Distillery.

Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers are Blenders, Bottlers and Distillers. And Good Pal of the Pod Tam Cuthbert came along to share some great drams with us and tell their story.

We enjoyed a Carn Mor Linkwood, Aberargie Inaugural Release, Old Perth and Mac-Talla.

Another cracking night with a room full of people enjoying the great drams.

This week it's a luxury podcast.

Tim Walker has been a keen listener of the pod since the early days, and we've been trying to get him on for a long time.

Thankfully, he finally agreed. And he brought drams with him!!

Tim is the National Account Manager in Scotland for the Luxury On Trade.

What that means is that he sells very expensive whisky to people like Ross who sells it on to other people.

And speaking of Ross, it was great to have him back on the pod for this one. He was also able to give his own thoughts and insight into the wonderful world of luxury whisky.

Enjoy!

This week we have good Pal of the Pod back on for some good old whisky chat.

Where is the whisky industry right now? We reacted to the big news coming out of Diageo and tried to work out if this is good news for the consumer.

The art of blending and can we do it in the cellar at Diggers? We put Greg's consultancy skills to the test.

And a real treat with some Dram Jam sent in for us to sample.

This week we were back in the Diggers Cellar joined by Shona Gillespie aka Shona Sips from Loch Lomond Group.

We chatted about Glenscotia, re-branding, Loch Lomond's 11 different spirit types and what's going on in the Scotch Whisky Industry right now.

Shona was kind enough to bring drams and samples along with her and we really enjoyed the new Glenscotia 12 release.

This week we were recording our first ever episoed in the NEW Digger Leith which only opened a few days ago.

The first half of this episode was recorded during a power cut. But we had plenty of drams to get through, so we lit some candles, poured some drams and got chatting. This week we had really good 'Pal of the Pod' Fraser Souness on to talk us through what's happening at Gordon & Macpahil, the latest chat on the new Cairn Distillerly inaugural release AND I had brought back some Indian goodies. We tried some 'whisky cartons' which ended up with very mixed reviews as well as some proper Indian single malt from Pujl John and Indrie. Enhjoy

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.