World Whisky Day founder sets new record

World Whisky Day founder, Blair Bowman, visited a record number of whisky distilleries in one day, collecting bottles for a raffle in aid of water charity, Just a Drop.

In 17 hours, Bowman and his team completed The Great Whisky Distillery Challenge, visiting a total of 60 distilleries, beginning at Balblair distillery and finishing at the Aberfeldy distillery in Perthshire.

They collected 56 bottles from all of the distilleries that bottle their own whisky. The collection will be the main prize in a raffle taking place on Friday 2 June in aid of water development charity, Just a Drop.

Commenting on the endeavour, Bowman said: “It’s an incredible event. As far as we are aware, no-one has even attempted to set a record like this before and, despite meticulous planning, there was always a risk that we might not get to all 60 of the distilleries on the day. We couldn’t afford for a single thing to go wrong. It just needed a few tractors or caravans to hold us up and we would have been under pressure.”

“All the money raised from the raffle is going to Just a Drop, which brings clean water to some of the poorest communities in the world. The word ‘whisky’ means ‘water of life’ in Gaelic, so it felt like a fitting challenge. We’re hopeful that it will help raise a lot of money for such a deserving cause.”

Fiona Jeffery OBE, founder and chairman of Just a Drop, added: “The more money raised, the more communities we can support by providing access to one of life’s absolute necessities: a supply of clean water, which empowers people to lead healthier, safer and more productive lives, so please dig deep and support this great event.”

“As a fellow Scot and founder of a water charity, I also couldn’t be more proud for Just a Drop to be associated with this awesome challenge, as the relationship between water and whisky is so unique”.

Ticket sales close at midnight on Thursday 1 June.

World Whisky Day, which invites participants to try a dram (in whatever form) and celebrate whisk(e)y, will take place again next year on Saturday 19 May.