"I didn't set Nc'Nean up to appeal to women," admits Annabel Thomas, founder of Nc'Nean Distillery, "but you know, I think maybe because my story ends up being told, because we have equal parts men and women working at the company, we do get probably more attention from women than maybe other brands."

"That being said," she continues, "more than half of our consumers are still men, which reflects the reality of the whisky industry today."

And while Annabel insists "there's no logical reason" why women shouldn't drink or work in whisky, she's quick to point out there's a lot of "rebalancing to be done"; even "if you look at the industry and who the blenders are in some of the biggest and the smallest companies, [and you see] they're often women."

Women like Diageo's Emma Walker, Master Blender for Johnnie Walker.

Still when Annabel began her Nc'Nean journey in 2012, she "didn't want make a whisky that was traditional and like all the others."

"I wanted to make a whisky," she says "that did something different and attracted a new crowd and could tell a different story." Most importantly she wanted to make a sustainable whisky, that's 100% organic: "Part of our mission, aside from making delicious whisky, is too do good for people and the planet."

So Annabel built Nc'Nean on a parcel of land on the Morvern Peninsula overlooking the Isle of Mull on the west coast of Scotland.

By her own admission, "It's very remote". Incredibly beautiful, but remote: after travelling north for two and half hours from Glasgow, past Loch Lomond and through Glencoe, almost as far as Fort William, "you take the little Corran ferry across the Corran Narrows.

"You're greeted with a double track road to begin with," Annabel continues, "but very shortly that turns into a single track road. And you drive for about an hour on a single track road up to the tip of the Morven Peninsula. And then the road runs out and you drive on a track for a mile and then you get to the distillery. And we have a nice barrel halfway along that track that says: 'Nearly there'."

In this episode, Annabel tells John about:

• the founding principles of Nc'Nean ("be kind to the environment");
• experimenting with different yeasts "not originally designed for whisky distillation";
• breaking into new markets;
• the current business climate and its challenges;
• passing places and the etiquette of driving on single track roads in rural Scotland ("you must wave");
• and of course, Nc'Nean's whiskies like Huntress Lemon Meadow ("just the perfect summer whisky").

Slàinte!

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Socials:

@C2GWhisky

@JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes

Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)

Vocals: Andrea Cunningham

Guitars: John Beattie

Bass: Alasdair Vann

Drums: Alan Hamilton

Bagpipes: Calum McColl

Accordion: Gary Innes

Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie

Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland

Special thanks: The Piper Whisky Bar, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, Scotland

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