20th August 2020

If there was ever a good time to start a new company, doing it whilst Kate was heavily pregnant with our new daughter Jo, throughout a global pandemic and just prior to the joy of Brexit this is certainly not what most people would call an ideal time.

That said things have progressed relatively smoothly for us, with all legal documents etc now being in place and thanks to the huge support we have received from the Crowdfunder we are able to start at a possibly faster pace than we would otherwise have been able to.

This has all been a steep learning curve for us but we have had some amazing help from many people in the industry that have helped us get to a stage where we are very close to releasing our first whisky! Who would have thought that you need marine insurance for delivering whisky by land? Who knew that the size of the words Single Malt Whisky on a label have to be as prominent if not more than the distillery name? To be honest not many people going by a lot of labels I have seen! Getting your labels to comply with legal requirements certainly does turn you into a bit of a label geek. Who knew that you can’t get a licence for your upstairs office unless you have disabled access toilets up stairs - disabled access to the first floor is not necessary though! These are just some of the things that we have had to deal with but so far we have survived to tell the tale and not had too many disagreements.

I have been surprised at how well Kate and I have managed to work together, particularly whilst home schooling a rather stubborn 5yo so I think we will both be raising a dram or two the day that school goes back!

We have set some rules though to make sure we continue working well together, on all design and creative stuff Kate has the final say, and I get the final say on all the whisky stuff - unless of course Kate disagrees!

The wait for our first bottling will soon be over, it has been amazing seeing everyone sharing their pictures on social media in our T-shirts but once we have that first bottle in our hands (well glasses – no hand selections here) or walk into a shop or a bar that stocks our products that truly will be a happy day.

I certainly look forward to sharing many drams with you all in the future and am pleased that so many of you are following us on our journey.

Mark
August 2020