Taste of Terroir

Throughout his decades-long career, Mark Reynier has become something akin to a religious figurehead in the world of whisky. The son of a wine merchant – who would ask his children to identify the wine in their glasses at dinner time – Reynier’s first job was cleaning bottles before they were filled and labelled.

This was long before he got into the business of selling wine himself, after which he discovered whisky by accident and was blown away by the flavours he encountered in bottles of single malt Scotch distilled in the 1950s, ‘60s and early ‘70s. He recalls being overcome by the profound realisation that something truly world-beating, gastronomically speaking, was made right here in the UK. “And nobody knew!” he exclaims, admitting that the thought of that lightbulb moment still makes him tingle.

His giddy enthusiasm for wine and spirits endures to this day and has had a profound impact on his career and reputation. His entrepreneurial projects, which have included the founding of independent bottler Murray McDavid, the re-establishment of Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay, and, most recently, the creation of Waterford Distillery in Ireland and Renegade Rum Distillery on