I created my dream job, and now I meet people all over the world who did the same thing.
After decades of a career developing advertising creative, I figured out what my dream job would be.
It would be a mix of Hunter S. Thompson, Sherlock Holmes, and Anthony Bourdain, except with whisky, which they all loved. Whisky is a great medium for finding stories. It’s the lubrication of human communication. There’s the old joke, “No great story ever began with a salad.” When we share a glass of whisky with a friend, stories flow.
For The Still Life Stories, I’d travel the world and immerse myself in distilleries, get to know the people, the towns and villages, and share their stories.
And after a year of spending anywhere from a week to over a month at distilleries in small villages, on islands, and in great cities, I’d see a recurring pattern.
At each distillery, I’d meet people who spent the first half of their lives in a career that treated them well until they had their Whisky Epiphany.
“I must start a distillery and make great whisky and other spirits.”
Then they’d leave their job and go on to start their own distillery. When I meet them, they’ve been at it long enough to have aged spirits in their lineup. And everyone I’ve gotten to know is glad they trusted their instincts and took the leap.
My dream job, it turned out, was to get to know the brave and creative souls all over the world who created their own dream jobs.
Peter and his son, Matt Bowyer had been collecting whisky casks for years. Peter had a good eye for great whisky, and he’d buy casks and age them. Eventually, they both decided to buy a building in Duns, Scotland, a lovely village in the Scottish Borders region, and turn it into a real business. Now they’ve got hundreds of casks, from ancient to new, and they blend and mature the charges in their care, creating fabulous whiskies for Fort Glen.
William McHenry founded McHenry Distillery in a remote piece of forest in Port Arthur, Tasmania, on land that came with its own spring to make Tasmanian whisky and gins. We call it The Inconvenient Distillery because it’s hard to find for tourists, but the water that flows from Alison Springs, right there on the distillery grounds, is utterly sublime. So, it’s worth the journey.
Jaynie Kean’s family farm was in the path of progress in Jackton, Scotland, just south of Glasgow so they started building houses on some of the farmland, and the family decided to build a distillery and make whisky and use barley they could grow and water from their own well, which was discovered with a dowsing rod.
Peter Bignell of Belgrove Distillery had fixed a 200-year-old flour mill in nearby Bothwell, Tasmania, and watched the rebuilding of the distillery at Clyde Mill, and decided it looked like an interesting process. Then he had a bumper crop of rye with no market, so he decided to turn it into whisky and built his own distillery.
Jan Hinrichsen had grown up on the family farm on Fohr Island, off the coast of Germany in the North Sea. The farm had been in the family since the 1600s and had been a dairy farm until Jan realized there wasn’t much future for his children in dairy farming, so he sold his dairy cows and built a distillery to turn the organic barley he grew into Frisian Whisky. Now he travels the world taking his whisky to festivals and picking up awards.
Paul Shand was a scientist. A geologist for government entities in Scotland and Australia, out doing field work all over the world when he had his Whisky Epiphany and built a distillery in the hills above Adelaide. He envisioned whisky-making as the work of a modern-day alchemist-wizard and is creating magical spirits.
Lee Etherington was a farmer in the mountains outside Sydney when he discovered finger limes, a unique lime native to Australia. He planted hundreds of trees and now makes Finger Lime Gin with little lime “caviar” floating in the gin. Every bottle takes a year to make, with many of the botanicals grown right on Etherington’s farm.
Ian Schmidt made flagpoles and got to know Vic Orlow, a mailman, while picking their kids up from school. One day, Vic mentioned that he had found a still he wanted to buy and try his hand at making whisky. Ian already had a still that had belonged to his grandfather, so they agreed to use it and make a batch. They’re lucky they didn’t blow up the house. Now they’re making whisky, rum and vodka in a beautiful distillery in the Adelaide Hills that’s become a popular meeting place for the local community.
Marty and Ed Svehla had the idea of starting a distillery for years and eventually built a still in their garage, where it is today. Marty has a PhD in Biomedical Science and still does research, but making their own brand of uniquely Australian gins and rums has turned Banks and Solander into a true premium brand. The commute is easy, just walk across the backyard.
Dan Poynter and Aaron Somerville started Sumpoynt distillery in a garage that used to store VW parts. They built their own stills from scratch in a suburb of Adelaide, Australia. It’s not a tourist destination, but their own machining and welding skills, along with a deep understanding of the mysteries of distilling, are creating truly memorable whiskies. They both keep their day jobs and make whiskies to age in oak proving you can take small steps to a dream.
Ross Mace bought the Lawrenny estate and farm back in the 1990s and got the idea to build a distillery when Bill Lark, the acknowledged founder of the Tasmanian whisky industry, was fishing on the river behind the estate. He had a long talk with Ross about how the property would make a great distillery, with a pristine river on one side and large barley fields on the other, with a huge barn between them. Ross liked the idea and turned the spectacular property into a worldwide destination for tours of the formal gardens and a taste of the wonderful whiskies they’re producing.
Every distiller I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know had been aging the idea in the back of their minds for years, until some button out in the universe pushed it to the front, and it happened. And none of them ever looked back.
Maybe it’s like wanting to get into the arts, music, or painting. We may yearn for that life but take the safe route.
“Oh, it’ll be a lot of fun, but you’ll never make any money…”
So we take the safe route. Get a job that we may like, but it’s not our dream job. Then one day, we’ve built enough safety in our lives and paid enough bills that we kick it all to the curb to go live the life we really want.
It’s not about the money.
My decision to walk the Earth for The Still Life Stories wasn’t about the money. If I break even after three months at a time of writing and editing video every day in fascinating places, I’m good. I paid my dues, I paid my mortgage, now I get to pay my soul.
And that’s a recurring theme I’ve discovered in the distillers.
They didn’t make that great leap, dreaming of becoming rich. They did it to enjoy the rest of their lives. They did it to do something wildly scientific and creative. Something that’s a perfect mix of ancient alchemy and magic with a touch of “I wonder what would happen if I do this?”
These folks are my tribe. While the spirits industry can be a path to riches. Plenty of movie and rock stars start celebrity brands and make a lot of money, but that’s a different story. That’s a money story, not a story worth telling around a campfire in the middle of a cold desert night. If you can throw a lot of money at a brand, it’ll probably take off, but for us regular humans, it’s a totally different story to bootstrap an idea into reality and then grow it, an inch at a time, into a sustaining business.
The stories of the distilleries and the visionaries and daredevils who willed them into existence are the stories I want to find and share.
And along with sharing their stories, I find the magic that was waiting to be discovered. Decades in advertising taught me to look far below the surface of each client, find that mystical Capo d’Astro Bar that nobody had noticed, and bring it to light. See each tree in the forest. Be the detective. Whisky is about the hidden stories that matter.
I always find a new language for their brand. New ideas that set them apart. Some brands have a magical terroir; it’s the water, the grain, the location, or the weather. Or, maybe it’s the alchemist who could conjure up a spirit nobody else could envision.
Every distillery has its own unique story.
So, The Still Life Stories will continue to explore the great, independent distilleries of the world. Every country and culture has a traditional spirit, and most have their own unique whiskies. There are still so many stories to find and share.
Slante’ y’all.
