Charles tries award-winning whisky during Campbeltown visit

South Wales Argus

3 days ago

With wind and rain making the summer visit to Campbeltown feel like autumn, Charles readily sipped an award-winning 25-year-old single malt by the Glen Scotia distillery.
He wore his own King Charles III tartan kilt for the visit to the town which made its fortune producing whisky which was sold around the globe and is now making a resurgence.
Charles tastes a dram of 25-year-old Glen Scotia single malt whisky (Jane Barlow/PA)
More than a thousand people stood behind crash barriers to see the King tour the town.
He first visited the local farmer's market where he watched sheep being sheared, met charity and community organisations in the town hall where the distillery had a stand, and finally visited the harbour area.
Charles is known to like whisky produced using peat, which has a very distinctive flavour, and he asked Iain McAlister, master distiller and manager of Glen Scotia's distillery in Campbeltown: 'Is it a peaty one?' and was told it was not.
The King watched a sheep-shearing demonstration at the Campbeltown farmer's market (Andrew Milligan/PA)
He watched as a double measure from the whisky, costing more than £500 a bottle, was poured, and after taking a sip said: 'I'm always so amused by these people who describe these whiskys in the most amazing ways.'
On the distillery's website the whisky is described as having 'hints of vanilla oak interwoven with the subtle notes of sea spray and spicy aromatic fruits'.
Mr McAlister presented a bottle of the whisky to mark the visit and said afterwards: 'It doesn't get much better than this, having the King try our whisky.'
Charles visits NC McGeachy butchers shop in Campbeltown. Jane Barlow/PA
Outside well-wishers had waited in the rain to see the monarch who spent time shaking hands with people and when local Kevin Stone shouted out 'you're looking well', Charles, who is receiving ongoing cancer care, replied 'thank you'.
He stopped to visit a number of retailers including a fishmongers, butchers, fruit and veg store and Fetcha Chocolates run by chocolatier Fiona McArthur, who said last year she supplied vegan sweet treats for the famous Oscars goody bags.
She added: 'The King was asking how we made the chocolates and he was very excited about the Oscars when I told him, and we gifted him a box of chocolates.'
Earlier Charles watched 67-year-old Willie Skilling, livestock agent and sheep shearer, cutting off the fleece from a Scotch Mule sheep.
He wrestled with the animal and used a harness called a bungee that supported his back, telling the King 'this is what you call help the aged' and Charles replied: 'I must remember that'.
The King ended his visit by meeting a series of organisations from HM Coastguard to the RNLI and Sea Cadets by the harbour along with local nursery school children.