Stillhouse Stories--Tunroom Tales by Gavin D. Smith

Author:Gavin D. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-906000-16-5
Publisher: Neil Wilson Publishing
Published: 2006-12-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

John Peterson – Production Director

TOURISTS HEARING OF LOCH LOMOND Distillery probably fondly imagine a bijou whisky-making facility, with maltings and pagodas and a pair of small stills, turning out a boutique, long-aged single malt of great rarity, lovingly hand-crafted on the shores of Scotland’s largest – and most accessible – loch. The reality is, however, altogether more industrial in appearance and scale, despite the southern shores of the loch in question being only a short distance away.

Just before you turn into the road leading to the Lomond Industrial Estate where Loch Lomond Distillery is located, you pass a magnificent, red sandstone edifice, built in 1907 as the public face of the large factory where the long-lost Argyll Motor Co Ltd manufactured cars. Today, however, there is nothing behind most of the frontage – the site has been cleared, apart from some buildings that house factory shop outlets – and viewed from the rear, the old Argyll factory frontage resembles something you might find on a movie set. It is all image, and no substance.

Loch Lomond Distillery was built in the mid-1960s, as Scotch whisky sales soared, and the plant itself could hardly present more of a contrast. Pretty it is not. Functional and effective it most certainly is. Visitors are not encouraged – this is a place of work, not a whisky theme park. All substance and very little image.

The romantic Highland distillery myth-busting continues when you meet Production Director John Peterson. He wears a white lab coat – no tweed jackets here – and this is a clear sign of intent. John is a chemist by training and qualification, and at work he dresses like one.

Born in Edinburgh to a Scottish mother and a father whose family originates in Sweden, hence the Scandinavian surname, John studied chemistry at Edinburgh University. ‘It was 1968,’ he recalls, ‘and it was the time when everyone was into rock bands. I didn’t play in one myself but I spent a lot of time with people who did. After graduating I did teacher training, and then decided I didn’t want to teach, so I went down to live with the band I’d been involved with at university, who were staying in a big farmhouse near Ipswich. I got a job in a factory making propellers, but that only lasted two weeks before I went to work as a chemist for Pauls Malt Ltd. The band failed and the members all went back to Edinburgh. One became a librarian.

‘I stayed in Suffolk with Paul’s for six years before leaving to work as a research chemist in the new “jumbo” Whitbread brewery in Luton, which opened in 1976. But it was a terrible time for industrial relations and I left in 1980. The brewery closed in 1984 and the site is now a supermarket.’

Among the many brands owned by Whitbread & Co Ltd was Long John blended whisky, and John says that, ‘This was served by the Strathclyde grain distillery in Glasgow and Tormore malt distillery up on Speyside.

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