Master distiller John McDougall is one of very few people who has made whisky in every one of Scotland’s distilling regions – that’s Campbeltown, Islay, Highland, Speyside and Lowland — for iconic brands like Laphroaig, Balvenie and Springbank.
More recently, he’s had a hand in the Australian whisky industry, helping winemaker John Casella set up the production of Morris Whisky in Victoria, which we talked about on the podcast https://drinksadventures.com.au/2021/08/10/morris-whisky-rutherglen-casella-family-brands/ (in 2021) with John Casella, Michael Sergeant and Darren Peck of Morris.
The Morris project brought John McDougall back to Australia recently and I managed to get some time with him to record this interview about his distinguished 60-year career.
We’ll come to Morris a bit later on in this interview, a front-row account of the renaissance of single malt, as seen by one man from literally every corner of Scotland.