“Could you introduce me to the person in charge of the whole lot?”
Having travelled to Edinburgh in the late 1990s without much of a plan, Anssi Pyysing asked a taxi driver to transport him to the nearest distillery, Glenkinchie. Already owner of a brewery and restaurant, he had plans to build a whisky distillery in his hometown of Lahti, Finland. It was to become the first of its kind after changes in Finnish law removed the state monopoly on alcohol production in 1995. But Pyysing needed help and outside expertise to realise his plans, so he approached a Glenkinchie tour guide and inquired about the distillery manager – a gamble that would ultimately pay off.
Pyysing had always been a go-getter, working in local strawberry fields at the age of 10, buying his first bicycle from the money he made selling crabs, then pedalling from one job to the next as a gardener. Growing up a stone’s throw
