Cask & Still Issue 3

Standing in the crystal-clear water of the Dee, just up the river from the Royal Lochnagar Distillery, with my hip flask in my jacket pocket and a fishing rod in my hand, I mused about the many uses for whisky. At the beginning of every season it’s traditional to pour a dram into the river to bless it and bring luck.
I and my fishing companion had just enough Springbank Green 12-year-old left from the night before to make a wish. Inevitably it didn’t come true, and no salmon were harmed in the making of our two-day expedition.
Scotland’s national drink is woven into the fabric of our world in such a wide variety of ways that we often barely notice it. This issue is testament to the way in which whisky seeps in to our lives, whether in Scotland or in farther flung lands. We have an artist who paints extraordinary images from the water of life, a cook who flavours her food with it and novellists who use it for inspiration and plotlines. Whisky, it seems, infuses our very existence.
If I doubted that, I looked at my bedside table this morning and was brought up with a start. The book I’m reading is a racy little thriller by Denzil Meyrick called Whisky From Small Glasses and I hadn’t even clocked the connection. Slàinte!

EDITOR Richard Bath