Calum Rae started his career training as a sound engineer and touring with bands. Later he joined Eden Mill St Andrews, where he had stints as a packaging assistant and a tour guide. He then became a brewer, where he developed his interest in specialty yeast and malts. Moving back to whisky, Rae was part of the commissioning team for Leith’s Bonnington Distillery. He later joined Holyrood, a distillery he calls “Willy Wonka’s booze factory”. He started as a senior distiller, moving up to assistant distillery manager, then in 2023 took on his current role of distillery manager.

Whisky #1

Holyrood

Embra

We love that Edinburgh is like the gateway to whisky in Scotland. You land here and you go off to the Lowlands, the Highlands, Speyside, and Campbeltown. I was thinking we needed a gateway to peat. I wanted to make a whisky that if you know somebody who doesn’t like peated whiskies, chances are they might go, ‘Oh, that’s actually not too bad.’ I love the fact that it’s quite soft, but still has strong Highland peat, sweet barbecue smoke flavours. You’ve got a lovely fruity element coming through from the wine yeasts and old brewing yeasts that we have in there. Then we’ve got a really small sliver of chocolate malt, which is great for just adding an extra deep note to it.

Whisky #2

The Balvenie

Caribbean Cask 14 Years Old

This is very much how I got into whisky. It was the first one that I fell in love with, and is still one that I recommend to people fairly often if they’re like, ‘What’s this whisky thing all about?’ It’s got lovely classic rum flavours coming through, that fruity element that can help. If you know somebody who is a rum drinker, and is getting into whisky, I would always say give this a go, and chances are that will match their taste buds. It’s a good-value whisky. You get loads of great flavour, and it’s not breaking the bank. If I’m on my desert island, I’ll be knocking into that one fairly quickly as my survival whisky.

Whisky #3

Glenglassaugh

Sandend

I’m a huge fan of the recent Glenglassaugh Sandend release. It’s got this beautiful, soft, kind of almost a slightly salty taste to it. It feels coastal, which is very much their thing, and it’s a great example of having a strong identity for a whisky. A good friend of mine worked on it, so it’s also a nice thing for me. Whisky’s a very small world; you meet people somewhere and you see them years down the line somewhere else. It’s really great that you can kind of keep tabs on each other. Super proud of the work that they did on this; it’s a really great whisky.

Whisky #4

Glenfarclas

15 Years Old

I’m a big fan of Glenfarclas. We’ve been lucky enough to have the team come and see our place. It’s always funny when you get people coming in from a well-established distillery and then they go, ‘You guys get to do loads of cool stuff, we’re super jealous.’ The 15 Years Old Glenfarclas sherry-cask finish is great. I’ve polished off many of those bottles in my time with my dad, and it’s always a good time. It’s so drinkable; your classic sherry-cask whisky.

Whisky #5

Strathearn

Single Malt

This is another distillery that is a bit of a kindred spirit with ours. They’re also using Maris Otter, which is a heritage malt that we’ve done lots of work with here, and it’s just a biscuit bomb. It’s like you smash up a bag of Digestives, and blend them in a whisky. I love that kind of character. My brewing background means I’m a really big fan of strong malty, biscuity kind of flavours and things. That’s a great example of what we’re going to start to see coming into the whisky industry as these old varieties of barley inject new flavours and ideas into distilleries. The work that we’ve done here with Maris Otter, Chevallier, Hana, and Plumage Archer, is incredible. Don’t get me wrong, you realise why they fell out of fashion because you don’t quite get the amount of alcohol that you get from a modern variety, but the flavour and the texture is so unique and interesting that that gets me really excited about what we do, and it gets me even more excited when I see our friends and colleagues doing something similar.

Luxury item

Guitar

It’s a bit clichéd, but I’ll probably take a guitar. That will keep me amused for a while, and, also, no one has to listen to me warbling away, so it’s a win-win. I can write my songs in peace, and I’m not bothering anyone. Couple of drams deep, get the guitar out, and see how it’s going — that’s made or broken many nights before, and will probably do the same on the Caskaway island.