Opening presents on Christmas morning seldom leads to surprises when you are 80 years old —
Ofcourse Helen wouldn’t claim to be anywhere near eighty but as I found earlier – that a Christmas present of tickets for her and a Harry Potter loving friend on the Jacobite steam train from Oban over the Glenfinnan Viaduct to Mallaig left her speechless for once —
On this occasion I’m the octogenarian who was left speechless when I was gifted a very special Single Malt Whisky from a distillery I helped build from scratch as a young man barely turned twenty – intent on making his way in the world —
Deanston distillery on the banks of the River Tieth had been built as a cotton mill initially but it’s five floors weren’t needed for a change of use to whisky distilling. The lower two floors had to come out to make room for the new copper stills so I was sent in with my cutting gear to see if the cast iron beams and columns carrying the individual floors could be removed without the entire edifice collapsing around me and the assembled throng of architects and interested financial parties —
Despite the fact that the many columns supporting each individual floor were stacked on top of one another – end-on all the way to the top – something must have gone right —
for here I am – almost sixty years on – about to sip a Single Malt from Deanston Distillery – specially casked for 12yrs – initially in ex-bourbon casks and finished in French calvados casks (an apple cider brandy) —
Don’t be fooled by the orange juice in the pic – that was in the prosecco after we had opened the presents from family and friends – even Loki got a new dinosaur —
This release was bottled in 2007 which means it was casked in 1995 – another milestone for me as that was the year my Ducati ran at Daytona with a young Neil Hodgson aboard and I also worked around the world that year with Neil’s WCM team when he was riding the vicious 500cc four cyl two strokes against the likes of Kevin Schwantz – Mick Doohan et al in the 500cc World Championships —
P.S. I was to be involved at the distillery with various companies off and on for the next few years – installing support steelwork – welding steam pipes and the boring bit .. installing miles of steel racking piece-meal in the warehouses to hold the countless barrels of whisky over the next sixty years or whatever —
Until the miners strikes a few years later there was no shortage of engineering work of all types in Scotland – as one door closed there was another held wide open for you just down the road.
Changed days 🙃
P.S.S. That specially casked single malt whisky – bottled at a blow your head off 57.3adv was among the finest I’ve ever tasted — I do hope there are a few bottles left 😋 👍
from-a-distance 