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Shedache

A quick update but mainly a slow moan…

By crikey. It’s been one of those weeks where my already grey hair must have gone at least two tones greyer.

Orders not turning up, labels going south, delays, losses, and fiendish accounting software that’s designed to make someone’s job easier, just not mine. We all have them. Weeks that need not exist, days that can ‘do one’, hours that won’t be missed, minutes to forget and seconds that change everything.

Such moments are why whisky was invented (don’t look that up). And after a good dram we can find it in ourselves to remind our defeated brain that it’ll be alright on the night.

The culmination of events that proceed any final feature are fraught and rarely go smoothly, but generally you’ll never know. Most of the time, to provide professional dignity and make us look like exciting entrepreneurs, we only show you the final product in all its shiny, gleaming glory. Behind the scenes we probably look more like bumbling idiots who really ought to get a grip and could do with brushing up on Excel. To be honest, it’s probably somewhere in-between – entrepreneurs who are reasonably interesting and can cover the basic Microsoft programmes. Reality can be dull.

Point is, two fabulous bottlings are coming your way imminently. They will just appear one day and you can buy them. That’s it.

No need to take the sheen off with a healthy dose of reality. Last thing I want you to do is look at the bottle and think, ‘I wonder if they had any easily avoidable problems with the labels?’ or ‘How have they adjusted their business model to link in with the rising prices of raw materials such as glass?’.

No. You should look at the bottle and wonder only at the story and history of each expression, tasting the joy of whisky and relaxing as the emerging flavours remind you of your favourite times, people and places.

For me each bottling is a story of stress, disasters, illogical logistics, people not doing exactly what I was thinking and instead doing what I said, and all sorts of nonsense to do something that seems so simple. And this week is a timely reminder that you should never work with children, animals, humans, computers, sticky things, scissors and hot liquids.

There’s some cool stuff we get to to do too though. When Matt’s latest label artwork drops into my inbox, I get tingle of excitement. When a new sample from one of our own casks arrives there’s an enjoyable nervous tension before we try it. When a retailer tells us they love our stuff and they’d like to stock it, it’s a great feeling of achievement. And finding the cask you’re looking for is like Christmas2. Best of all is a customer waxing lyrical about our whisky, that makes us very happy indeed. So we have genuinely fun weeks…

But some weeks can fuck off and this is one of them!

One of the fabulous bottlings…
The other fabulous bottling…

Oh and is the week commencing 22nd of November okay for the new Ardmore 12 PX and the Aultmore 11 year old sherry bomb?
Good. We’ll do that then.
Pending no more weeks like this one in the interim.

2 replies on “Shedache”

Love the honesty. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns and as tough as it is, it will all be worth it in the end. I just love that you’re down to earth and don’t hide it, nice to know I’m not alone with stuff going wrong.

Thanks Max. I reckon if it’s not going wrong, somethings wrong!!! Tough weeks are what make the good weeks shine so as much as we hate them, we need them. Keeps us grounded. :O)

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