It’s a welcome occupational hazard, being one of the largest whisky retailers on the web, that from time to time, distilleries, distributors and agents will want to show you ‘where it all comes from’ so to speak…
Recently, Master of Malt were fortunate enough to be invited on a trip to see the working distilleries of Balblair, Knockdhu (where An Cnoc whisky is made) and Old Pulteney. What made this trip slightly different from many others that we’ve been on over the years is that it was an all-expenses paid trip organised solely for whisky bloggers.
Also present on the trip were:
Mark Connelly – WhiskyWhiskyWhisky & Glasgow’s Whisky Festival
Chris Hoban – Edinburgh Whisky Blog (and Master of Malt’s Scottish Sales Manager)
Jason Johnstone-Yellin – Guid Scotch Drink
Johan van Samang – Onversneden
James Saxon – Scotch Odyssey Blog
Karen Taylor and Matt Chambers – Whisky for Everyone
Keith Wood – Whisky Emporium
To be honest, observations about the quality of the whisky, the distilleries, and the hospitality extended by both Inverhouse themselves, and the various distillery managers would simply be duplicating the (excellent) comments by all of the above bloggers (a particularly comprehensive review of all the distillery visits with tasting notes can be found on Whisky for Everyone).
The trip was wonderful, as they always are. The whiskies were fantastic in their own unique and individual ways. The Morangie House hotel is very nice indeed, well worth a visit.
The one thing that really stood out about this trip though, was the fact that it was a trip organised for bloggers, by an ex-blogger now managing social media (Lucas from Edinburgh Whisky Blog now works for Inverhouse).
We came away from the trip with two firm impressions:
Firstly – the industry appears to be waking up in a big way to the fact that Amateur bloggers hold a huge amount of sway with consumers. The fact that a blogger doesn’t happen to work in the whisky industry is certainly not an indictment against their level of knowledge, or their commitment or contribution to it. Many of the bloggers we’ve encountered (both on this trip and elsewhere) have levels of knowledge and enthusiasm which would astound many of those working in the industry, and we at Master of Malt applaud their contribution.
Secondly – Inverhouse have done a clever thing indeed by employing someone with as much standing in the blogosphere as Lucas. I think we can expect some pretty exciting stuff from them in the fullness of time, and look forward hugely to seeing what’s up their sleeve.
-The Chaps at Master of Malt –
