Ben Birdsall is the author of the much talked about book Whisky Burn. Ben is a whisky enthusiast, painter and Vespa 50 rider, but I’m told not in that order. His painting is mostly of landscapes and the occasional commissioned portrait. He likes to mix Vespa riding with painting by taking out small boards and doing oil sketches of the landscapes that catch his eye along the journey. The trips can be anything from half an hour to three weeks! So….
…come with me, let’s meet Ben. Let me take you on a journey through the idyllic landscape of the Scottish isles and its many distilleries. Well actually, it’s Ben’s journey, he will be telling the story, so enjoy.
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I decided to write Whisky Burn because I had just finished a Vespa tour book about Italy and was looking for something different. I thought about going around Ireland, and the distilleries came to mind, but there were only four distilleries at the time. So then I chose Scotland, that has over a hundred distilleries, and almost half of them accommodate visitors. I researched the book by reading up on the distilleries and asking permission to visit. Mostly the managers, production staff or visitors’ centre staff were happy to take me round. The trip itself took 21 days, and the text was based on the notes drafted on my travels. I spent another year getting the book together.
I suppose the most challenging part was the very British weather. Sometimes I was soaked really to the skin by the end of the day, and I was camping so I really was at the mercy of the elements.
Consequently, it made the whisky go down better..! I never drank when I was visiting the distilleries, for obvious reasons, but took back samples to try at the campsite. This had two benefits, one was that I didn’t drink and drive, the other was that I was rarely alone – someone usually happened by to help me with the tastings. Funny that!…
The most enjoyable parts were in the western highlands, riding all day with hardly meeting a car on the road – Bliss. Also the Islands were a treat, the atmosphere on Islay in particular is something special – calm, welcoming “Ileachs’ with a total lack of reserve.
The journey started in Glasgow, took me across to the Western Isles of Arran, Islay, Jura, Mull, then up to Skye, back down through the highlands to Pitlochry, over the Cairngorms to Speyside, via Inverness along the firths as far as John o’Groats and finally to the most northerly distilleries in the UK on Orkney.
Whiskey has always intrigued me. The word comes from ‘Uisce Beatha’, the ‘water of life’. My Irish grandmother used to rub ‘poitin’ (Irish moonshine) on her arthritic legs, or at least that is what she said she used it for. For centuries whiskey has played an integral part in the culture, traditions and national identity of both Scotland and Ireland, and though it has become a multi-million pound industry, the distilleries still maintain that atmosphere of a hand-crafted product, which I think is quite unique in big business today.
Once, I asked a well-known whiskey connoisseur what his favourite whiskey was, and he gave me the best answer yet: the whiskey you buy me. But so much depends on who you drink a whisky with, where you are, what mood you are in, the weather and the time of year. In winter, I would take a smokey Islay whiskey, in spring something from highlands, and after dinner on a warm summer’s night a fruity Speysider would hit the mark – but, like the man said, it is always down to the whisky you buy me…
Living here, I came to understand that the Swiss are great connoisseurs of Whisky, and there are several Swiss distilleries making very decent whiskies. Before the trip to Scotland, as a prologue to the book, I asked Carl Locher if he would show me round his Appenzell distillery, and that was interesting to see his small-scale setup there. I think the Swiss appreciate the culture of Scotland and whisky for the open spaces and high peaks, fresh air, rivers and lakes, and the easy pace of life. In some ways, both countries are quite similar, and in others very different.
Scotland isn’t the only nation that makes whisky, the Irish have been doing it for even longer. The first mention of distillation in Ireland (1324) predates that of Scotland by 170 years, and it is believed that Irish monks first brought the secrets of the alembic to the British Isles. So my next book is about a similar trip I did last summer around the distilleries of Ireland, again by Vespa, camping, painting, getting rained on, etc. The Irish whiskey industry (they spell it with an ‘e’) has been in the doldrums for the last fifty years, but it is coming back to the fore. Since I first considered the trip, back in the day when there were a mere four distilleries, last summer I visited sixteen working distilleries, and about the same amount again are in the planning stages. It is a very special time in Irish distilling; very much a case of ‘watch this space’.
Writing the book I realised how much you can learn from visiting the distilleries. It is a craft, but it is also an art. Many of the older generation of distillers have a scant disregard for the science behind what they do. If you ask them why they do one thing in a particular way, they will answer that they have always done it that way. The people I met during my tours were the highlights of the trip, and that is what I have tried to convey in “Whisky Burn”, together with my impressions of the landscape, trying to give a picture of my experience. It is a travelogue, and a guide, and it will hopefully inspire you the reader and others to make the journey too.
Whisky Burn is available in Switzerland at Stocker bookshops, and also through Mark Chesterfield at The Whisky Experience, besides online shops and the book’s own website, www.whiskyburn.com. My other books include an Irish novel, “Blue Charm”, and other Vespa travel books “Tuscany by Vespa” and “Umbria by Vespa”.
“Whiskey Burn – the distilleries of Ireland by Vespa” will be published later this summer. After that? Well, I think a trip to the Japanese distilleries would be interesting, or the Bourbon distilleries of Kentucky, but I might have to organise a Harley for that..!
Here are some shots of Ben made during his research into his book.
Here is a link to some of Ben’s landscape paintings on his trip to the Scottish Isles.
I like to be able to say that I had a glass, however small, of a fabulous Scottish malt as I write this blog, but instead I had a very good malt from the other side of the world – Nikka Whisky from the barrel. A very delightful malt which I’m sure Ben will enjoy on his travels to Japan. Nevertheless, it was my way of embracing Ben’s journey and experience. I will endeavour to have another small glass when I revisit Ben’s book – Whisky Burn. I highly recommend this joint activity. Trust me, it will get you itchy feet to make that journey. Thank you Ben.
Oh, the photography angle! Away from the commercial aspects of course, check out my instagram account on my love for landscape beauties at @pringle_stuff.
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