In Your Shoes - Jamie Morrison

I’ve been working at Glenturret now for over 7 years, I started on 18th March 2015. You could say that day changed my life, I’ve never looked back and I’ve loved the journey I’ve been on. Long may it continue. My first job here was as a tour guide, I quickly fell in love with the place and well as they say, the rest is history. The distillery has afforded me some amazing opportunities to meet people from all over the world, travel far and wide & I genuinely believe it’s the best office in the world.

Monday

Today, I am working in our whisky sample room on site, analysing samples of our new make spirit to see if there is a discernible difference in the aroma and flavour depending on what variety of barley was used in the distillation. I find this kind of data collection fascinating, the nuance between the aromas, the fact that a variable I used to think of as so simple (the barley) can change the flavour of our spirit. I’m really enjoying getting to this level of detail in my understanding of how our distillery process works. It allows me as brand ambassador to go out into market and have, in my opinion, much more meaningful conversations. The more I learn and understand, the more I can talk to our consumers about!.

Tuesday

I’m really looking forward to today, myself and a couple of my colleagues are hosting a cigar launch event at the distillery in collaboration with Davidoff cigars. There will be  around 30 people and we’ve got a whisky tasting lined up which I’ll lead. The group are arriving at about 11am and I will be with them until they finish dinner which is likely to be around 11pm. It sounds like a long day, however, I love what I do and getting to talk to people about our distillery and what we do here is something I’m really passionate about.

We are starting up at the boathouse which sits on Loch Turret which is where we source the water to make our whisky. Its astoundingly beautiful up there and no matter what time of year I always get a sense of calm and serenity up there. We’re incredibly lucky to have such natural beauty surrounding us in Scotland and being able to share that with others whilst enjoying a dram of The Glenturret is my idea of a perfect work day!

Wednesday

This morning I’m sorting out the kit that I need for tonight. I’m heading over to St Andrews to host a Glenturret whisky paired dinner with St Andrews Links Trust. I need to consider how many whiskies we are pairing, make sure I have some marketing literature with me, think about timings to make sure I am there to assist with set up etc. I’m actually a wee bit nervous about this one, it’s the first proper whisky dinner I’ve done post covid (where almost everything has been virtual) so I’m both really looking forward to it and slightly nervous. I know its going to be a great night, I know the team at Links Trust fairly well now, having worked with them on a couple of occasions so it will be great to see them all again.

Thursday

Today, I’m back on site and working in our bonded warehouses. One of my favourite things to do is be inside our warehouses! The smell, is absolutely tremendous. I’ve learnt a great deal about our casks recently from working in the warehouses and its made me appreciate the casks a whole lot more. I can recognise different sizes of casks, from barrels to wine casks & firkins to port pipes and it’s been a great way to spend time doing something new whilst also learning at the same time. Believe me when I tell you, the casks are a lot harder to move than they look! My more experienced colleagues in the team move them around like dice. For me so far the casks are cumbersome, awkward and always ready to roll in the exact opposite direction to where I’m trying to get them to go. A tiring day for sure, however, I love that my job has such variation. There’s certainly no two days the same.

Friday

As part of my role, I work closely with our whisky maker. Today, I’m working to write tasting notes for our 2022 range of whiskies. I do this by first nosing or smelling the sample, taking notes on its aroma and finally myself and the whisky maker will sit and refine these notes until we come up with the final note that could ultimately end up on packaging, marketing material and maybe even a bottle label. It can often be a laborious task to nail the perfect line but when you hit it, you know. It’s a very subjective thing tasting notes, my understanding of a smell is likely to be entirely different to yours and I’ve always been very aware of that when talking to our consumers about aromas and flavour. It’s one of the parts of my job I love the most, nosing samples. Each cask is a completely independent being, no two are the same and that’s what I love about it. You never quite know what you are going to get. From caramelised apple to tropical fruit salad or beach bonfire to smoky bacon, its all possible.