When John Laurie used to hear the words ‘whisky’ and ‘tourism’ uttered in the same breath, it conjured images of perfunctory distillery tours with a swift exit through a gift shop laden with predictable trinkets. “It was all shortbread tins, bagpipers and tartan,” he says.
Laurie, a whisky fan with a professional background in the leisure industry, is managing director of The Glenturret distillery. Founded on the banks of the River Turret in Perthshire in 1763, it claims to be Scotland’s oldest working distillery.
By the time Laurie arrived at The Glenturret in 2017, its visitor attraction was successful enough — attracting up to 250,000 a year, generally via coach from nearby Edinburgh for what became known as The Famous Grouse Experience. At the time, the company that owned The Glenturret also owned the Famous Grouse whisky brand.
But when The Glenturret was put up for sale in 2018, Laurie spied an opportunity. Aware of a bubbling demand for a more evolved, higher-end experience, he took advantage of a buyout in 2019 by Swiss luxury goods company the Lalique Group.
Over £5m of investment later, The Glenturret is a distillery transformed. As well as revamping the tours to dive
