On this special partner episode of Scran we are talking about all things Angus. A region often associated with smoked fish and soft fruit - Rosalind found both when she visited but also a lot more.
First stop was to meet with Helen and Wouter Margaroli of Rae's of Montrose. Rosalind went along to their beautiful rural cottage for a cookery lesson and to chat about their private catering business as well as the innovative experiences they offer like foraging tours and location dining.
After some hard work it was time for a drink and so on to Arbikie Distillery. This distillery is unlike any we've featured before, they produce Gin, Vodka and Rye Whisky but do it in the most sustainable way possible. They have really gone to extreme lengths to ensure what they are doing is streets ahead of many distilleries when it comes to saving the planet. Brand Ambassador, Gilbert Ionescu gave Rosalind a tour of the distillery and she sat down with John Stirling, one of the founders, to find out how it all came about.
Finally, Rosalind paid a visit to Charleton Farm. This is an amazing destination attraction which was taken over by Graeme and Lisa McColl four years ago. They have transformed the business and expanded it dramatically whilst still operating a fully functioning farm. Graeme outlined their vision and the hard work that's going into achieving it.
Angus is a great destination for a short break or day trip and the food and drink is excellent. For more information on any of the businesses that featured in this episode and many more please go to visitangus.com.
Rae's of Montrose - https://raesmontrose.com/
Arbikie Distillery - https://arbikie.com/
Charleton Farm - https://charleton-farm.co.uk/
First stop was to meet with Helen and Wouter Margaroli of Rae's of Montrose. Rosalind went along to their beautiful rural cottage for a cookery lesson and to chat about their private catering business as well as the innovative experiences they offer like foraging tours and location dining.
After some hard work it was time for a drink and so on to Arbikie Distillery. This distillery is unlike any we've featured before, they produce Gin, Vodka and Rye Whisky but do it in the most sustainable way possible. They have really gone to extreme lengths to ensure what they are doing is streets ahead of many distilleries when it comes to saving the planet. Brand Ambassador, Gilbert Ionescu gave Rosalind a tour of the distillery and she sat down with John Stirling, one of the founders, to find out how it all came about.
Finally, Rosalind paid a visit to Charleton Farm. This is an amazing destination attraction which was taken over by Graeme and Lisa McColl four years ago. They have transformed the business and expanded it dramatically whilst still operating a fully functioning farm. Graeme outlined their vision and the hard work that's going into achieving it.
Angus is a great destination for a short break or day trip and the food and drink is excellent. For more information on any of the businesses that featured in this episode and many more please go to visitangus.com.
Rae's of Montrose - https://raesmontrose.com/
Arbikie Distillery - https://arbikie.com/
Charleton Farm - https://charleton-farm.co.uk/
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Scran, the podcast passionate about the Scottish food and drink scene.
00:08I'm your host, Ros and Erskine, and on this special partner episode we are talking about
00:12all things Angus. A region often associated with smoked fish and soft fruit, I found both
00:17when I went there for a visit, but also a lot more besides.
00:23Angus has some really beautiful coastline and rolling landscape that's the perfect
00:26backdrop for tucking into some delicious Scran.
00:29My first stop on my visit was to meet Helen and Wouter Margaroli of Rays of Montrose.
00:34I went along to their beautiful rural cottage for a cookery lesson and to chat about their
00:38private catering business as well as the innovative experiences they offer, like foraging tours
00:43and location dining.
00:45There's something that really doesn't click here, that we're eating Scottish food in Holland
00:49and eating Dutch food in Scotland. If you want to see a change, you should be the change.
00:56After some hard work, it was time for a drink and so on to our Beaky distillery. I was truly
01:00fascinated by this distillery, unlike any I have been to before. They produce gin, vodka
01:06and rye whisky, but do it in the most sustainable way possible. They have really gone to extreme
01:10lengths to ensure that what they're doing is streets ahead of many distilleries when
01:14it comes to saving the planet.
01:16Brand ambassador Gilbert Iannoscu gave me a tour of the distillery and I sat down with
01:20John Stirling, one of the founders, to find out how it all came about.
01:25My brother found an ancient map that's 1794, where it had our Beaky distillery on it, which
01:31we didn't actually know when we started the distillery, which is amazing. Then we found
01:36reference in Inverkeel in the local graveyard, a distiller at our Beaky. So we've got this
01:40history of actually distilling at our Beaky.
01:44Finally, although the weather let me down, I paid a visit to Charlton Farm. This is an
01:51amazing destination attraction, which was taken over by Graham and Lisa McCall four
01:54years ago. They have transformed the business and expanded it dramatically while still operating
01:59a fully functioning farm. Graham outlined their vision and the hard work that's gone
02:04into achieving it.
02:07On the first day that we ever did strawberry tarts here on the farm, we posted it on social
02:12media and we sold 1,300 strawberry tarts on the first day. We were slightly gobsmacked,
02:17it has to be said. There was people coming to us saying, I stopped what I was doing in
02:21the middle of High Street because I got the message to say the tarts were out and up they
02:24came and they went away with like a dozen of them at a time.
02:30I'm here with Helen and Wouter in their home in Angus and we're about to have a cookery
02:36lesson which I'm really excited about. There's some lovely smells happening already. Wouter,
02:40could you tell me what we're going to be doing?
02:42So we're going to make an arbo smoky rillette today. So we're first going to take the bones
02:47out of the smoky and then we're going to chop up some herbs and mix it with some creme
02:50fraiche and eat it with some old cakes. First we're going to rip off the tail. We're going
02:54to make a small incision where the fishmongers already took the guts out. Thank you, because
03:01that would have been an experience. We're going to fold them open and I'm going to slowly
03:08press down the main bone and as you can see it comes away from the fish meat and then
03:18slowly peel that away. They cure the fish in salt and then they tie it together with
03:25the tails with a piece of rope and then they hang it over bowls right above the smoke,
03:31right above the fire and that way it's so heavenly smoked basically.
03:36It's really famous from our broth. It's been there for like hundreds of years. It's nice
03:43to actually cook with or make something with this because it's not something that we get
03:47quite often back home.
03:50So then when we've got the main bone out, we're just going to take away the little bits
03:56of bone on the back.
03:58Yeah, it looks more than what you might think when you see them like that. Now that you've
04:02opened it up it looks like there's a lot more meat than you would expect.
04:06So then you just slowly peel away the meat and feel for little bones.
04:13Okay, thank you. So because it's cured, you can eat it right away?
04:17Yeah, and it's fully cooked as well. So it's a hot smoked haddock.
04:21Mmm, it's delicious. It's really sweet.
04:26So then you just keep going until it's all off basically. But then still here you will
04:32have the little fine bones so you need to be really careful that you don't get them
04:36in because as soon as you start mixing this, they'll get the bones through.
04:39So that's the kind of darker bit at the side?
04:41Yeah, so this would be the chest cavity. And a great thing that you could do with all the
04:45skin and bones, you can make a very nice stock and use it in like a risotto dish or something.
04:51So you basically, apart from using the knife to kind of open it, you've just done that
04:54all with your hands. It looks pretty straightforward. You're an expert obviously, but you can do
04:58that yourself at home quite easily.
05:00Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Just be mindful of the bones when eating. But no, it's no
05:05hassle at all.
05:06Yeah, and it was really easy to take the majority of the big stuff out. Because people get put
05:10off by fish because of the bones, don't they?
05:13Take some parsley from our garden.
05:17It's all of this from your garden?
05:19Everything except the dill and the wild garlic later on.
05:23Okay.
05:24I'm going to quickly chop that. Chives, flat leaf parsley, some dill and then later on
05:31we're going to add some pepper, salt and crème fraîche.
05:34So is this the type of thing that you guys would do for your sort of private events as
05:40well as a cookery class? Or is it just specifically something you would teach people to do?
05:44Yeah, we try really hard to do some of the dishes that we serve at the private dinners,
05:48that we do them as cookery classes because especially some of our loyal clients, they
05:52really like to see how we make the dishes they know that they like. We do it for a few
05:56things this one. It's a really lovely dish and it's so local. I think it's a really nice
06:01way of showcasing what we do.
06:02For anyone that doesn't know your business, could you just tell us a little bit about
06:06how you came to be doing what you do?
06:08So we opened a restaurant in Montrose a few years ago, which we now no longer have as
06:13we've sort of evolved over time. The restaurant was really challenging to sort of keep our
06:18heads above water with costs and things like that. So now we do private chef, private dining
06:23and bookable experiences, which is great and it's totally just been a whirlwind of change
06:29in the way that how we work and it's been a really positive change for us. So we do
06:33a lot of bookable experiences, which is things like the cookery class. We do some open fire
06:39cooking experiences as well on the beach and in forests, foraging walks, different stuff
06:43like that. Angus has such a rich larder that it's really nice to be able to have so much
06:48that we can use here.
06:49And do you find, I mean, people are looking more for these types of experiences, you know,
06:53people are obviously still going out to eat, but then a little bit extra with the foraging
06:56walks and things. Do you find people are quite surprised by how much comes from Angus?
07:02Definitely, definitely. I think that we sort of undersell ourselves sometimes, that we're
07:07not really that well known as a region in Scotland. And I'm so proud of being from here.
07:12I think the stuff that we have is amazing. We're almost like a big Scotland in miniature
07:16and we have the land, we have the sea, we have the agriculture, we have the history
07:19of fishing like you see with the Smoky, that I think that people are really surprised by
07:23how much we can offer in this little place.
07:26Okay, so what are we doing now?
07:27Chopped all the herbs, we added them to the lovely flaky meat of the Smoky, we added some
07:32creme fraiche, some seasoning, pepper and salt, and now we're mixing it together.
07:38Thank you very much. This is great, this is going to be my breakfast.
07:41So we've got a little local oat cake there as well, just underneath it. That's normally
07:45how we would serve it in our private dining.
07:49It's delicious, really good. Really simple as well.
07:54So you have the salty smokiness of the fish, which goes great with fresh herbs, and a little
07:59bit of sourness from the creme fraiche. And normally in the private caterings you would
08:03add some sliced green apple with it, so it basically touches all corners.
08:06It's delicious, really good, and very easy, which is good. And they're quite recently
08:12priced, Arbroath Smokies.
08:13For the two of them, we bought them from the fish house in Arbroath. They're a great supporter
08:18of local produce and I think for the two of them it was £8.40.
08:21What's the main difference cooking out with the restaurant, and what do you enjoy better?
08:26The positive side of doing the private catering is that every dinner party or every event
08:33is different, and because we tailor our menus to our clients, it has the potential to be
08:39a different menu every time we make something, which is great.
08:43On the slightly more anxiety-inducing side, sometimes you go to a venue where you haven't
08:48been before, so you want to be over-prepared to take as much appliances and equipment that
08:54you might need, because you don't know where you're going to end up. But it's definitely
08:59a lot of fun, and for a chef, there's so much more passion going into it because you're
09:04not doing the same menu repetitively every week behind each other. Even if you would
09:08change with the seasons, a season takes three months. It's for me a very good fit, I would
09:14say.
09:15I love Scottish produce. There's a little anecdote I often say, which is we went out
09:20for this amazing meal in a restaurant called John Dory, it's a fish restaurant in Amsterdam,
09:26and we asked where they had caught one of the, I can't remember what fish it was, but
09:29it was haddock or something, and they said, oh, there's this tiny fishing town in Scotland
09:33called Arbroath, and I'm going, why are we, like, we're in Amsterdam, why are we having
09:38food from Arbroath? And then we came back on holiday to visit my family in Scotland,
09:42and we went out for dinner at a restaurant, and when they put the plate down, they said
09:46to the waiter, oh, these vegetables were grown in Holland. And we were going, there's something
09:50that really doesn't click here, that we're eating Scottish food in Holland and eating
09:54Dutch food in Scotland, and if you want to see a change, you should be the change. So
09:59that's why we ended up opening the restaurant in the first place and then evolved into this.
10:03Yeah, but that's also mad. I mean, I remember going to a seafood market in France, and it
10:08might have been Scottish salmon, and it was just like, why?
10:13We have the best produce in the world as a country. I firmly believe that. It's incredible.
10:17It's so fresh, and we have such a wide variety of stuff. Take care of the land, and it'll
10:22take care of you kind of thing.
10:23So you've talked about different products from here. I think one that people would recognise
10:27that you can see a lot of places is Aberdeen Angus.
10:30Yeah, I think that's a really famous one from around here originally. I mean, we've obviously
10:35got our PGI status food, which is the Arbro Smoky, which we're all incredibly proud of,
10:39this wee smoked fish going all across the world. We have so many different things here.
10:43Those tatties are so creamy and lovely and fluffy, and they're just from along here.
10:49We have so many foraged ingredients. We have great mushrooms. We have fabulous agriculture
10:55in general, and we also have a really, really great distilling culture and some fabulous
11:00spirits that are from here.
11:01And that just adds to the up-and-coming sort of food tourism. I mean, I think in the last
11:05couple of years Visit Scotland have said quite a large percentage of people are coming to
11:09Scotland for some kind of food or drink experience.
11:12The amount of spending that's gone up on food tourism in our area is incredible and much
11:17deserved, and I think that people are really looking for things that are authentic and
11:20that they can really get their hands dirty with and really take part in, and it's such
11:25an interesting way of learning about the history and the culture of a place because our food
11:29is so intrinsic to us. It's something we do every day that sometimes you don't even
11:33think about it, but it's such a huge part of our history and who we are as a region.
11:40So you mentioned they offer foraging as well, so can you tell us a bit about that?
11:43So we do a foraging walk where we go with a foraging expert. Vaught's a great chef,
11:48but I wouldn't always trust him. It sort of depends on the season, the weather and things,
11:54but we do a coastal walk or a forestry walk. So if you do the forestry walk, some of the
11:58things you'll find are, like today we've got some penny buns, some chantarelle mushrooms,
12:04some wild garlic. There's a lot of greenery, some salad leaves, things like that. Some
12:09berries even, occasionally. With the coastal walks it's sort of more, yeah, seafood based
12:15and seaweed and things like that.
12:16So as well as the private dining and events, do you do larger catering?
12:20Yeah, so as the sort of private chef aspect of it, we do a lot with estates and castles.
12:25So Vaughter will do like shooting weekends or occasionally work with exclusive use venues.
12:30So if someone's maybe renting out a castle or a venue with a lot of bedrooms, then we'll
12:35go over and we'll stay and do sort of a whole day service with them. It's for multiple days
12:41sometimes.
12:42Anyone famous?
12:43We have to sign NDAs.
12:44That must be really exciting though, because it sounds very, very varied, everything you're
12:51doing.
12:53I think that's probably one of our favourite things about it, is you're just so free to
12:57do. I think the biggest thing a chef wants is to cook what they want to cook, and this
13:00gives Vaughter that opportunity to just cook exactly what he wants and what our clients
13:05want, so everyone's happy.
13:06I am just a huge supporter of our local producers and the things that they can do. So I sit
13:13on our regional food group steering group, and I'm also a director of our local tourism
13:18cooperative.
13:19And what kind of things does that entail? Is it just sort of food tourism, like a bit
13:23more awareness of what's going on around the area in terms of food?
13:26We promote and grow our local food and drink industry. So we represent our members who
13:30are made up of producers and hospitality venues, tourism venues, all sorts of different things,
13:38and we deliver larger scale projects in order to do that.
13:42What do you have coming up for the rest of the year 2025?
13:46So we're launching our Lobsters at Lunan experience, which is an open fire cooking
13:50experience and dinner on the beach. So you sit in the dunes and have fresh lobster, and
13:55we're really excited about that. We've got two Bickerville foraging walks coming up as
14:00well, a coastal and a forestry, and just lots of weddings and lovely private dinings that
14:05we're so excited to do.
14:06It's been a pleasure being with you guys today. Thank you so much for having us, and
14:09all the best for the year ahead.
14:10Thank you so much for coming to see us. It was lovely having you guys.
14:16Wouter taught me how to make gnocchi on my visit too, using local potatoes and herbs
14:20they had foraged themselves. It was such a fun experience and the gnocchi was awesome.
14:25Producer Kelly asked Wouter how I did.
14:28Well, she did fantastic. Really, really excited about the smokies and her gnocchi is amazing.
14:35And I'm clipping that and I'm sending it to the chat.
14:40I'm blushing. And also, to my friends who don't think I can make gnocchi, I've now proved
14:45you wrong.
14:46On to my next stop, Arbeaky. Here's Gilbert, who is my tour guide for the visit.
14:53It's my pleasure to welcome you to the technical part of your visit, and welcome to the east
14:57coast of Scotland. And we shall start our tour today by first and foremost disclosing
15:01why Arbeaky is classed as a highland, as the distillery is quite tricky. Geographically
15:05speaking, we are not in the highlands. Obviously, from a distillation point of view, we are.
15:10And nevertheless, taking a look at this map, we're going to observe that Scotland is divided
15:14in five separate distillation regions, the Highlands, Lowlands, Speyside, Camelton and
15:17Islay, well known for the distillation of the Scotch whisky. And for Arbeaky to be classed
15:23as a highland is to be included in that area that starts just on the border of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
15:27Gilbert is one of the most knowledgeable tour guides and brand ambassadors I've had the
15:30pleasure of meeting. We could do a whole other episode just on what he shared with me on
15:34the tour. But for the purpose of today's episode, I'm going to just bring you some of the highlights.
15:40One of the most defining crops on our estate is the potato, which in a proportion of 85%
15:44is getting sold. However, 15 to 20% they are always getting rejected in the grading process
15:50being classed as wonky vegetables. No one wants them. The supermarkets don't want a
15:55misshape or a misweight potato. Therefore, they were bound to destruction. OK, so the
16:01brothers were thinking rather than just paying the company to dispose of this waste, we can
16:05definitely keep them back. And with the help of a distiller, we can transform them into
16:08new genes and vodkas. So with this thought in mind and aiming to become one of the most
16:13sustainable distilleries in the world, our first step in order to become sustainable
16:17and green was to first and foremost convert a dairy into a distillery. So getting rid
16:23of all the cattle stock, we are starting the conversion of the old cattle barn into a distillery.
16:29And in 2015, we are starting the distillation with the first commercial potato vodka that
16:33we're going to have the chance to taste today called Tati Bogle, which is what the slang
16:37stands for, scarecrow. OK, so this vodka was distilled. Originally, the recipe included
16:43three variations of potatoes, Mary's Piper, King Edward and Coltra. Obviously, they were
16:47wonky and we managed to distill the first commercial potato vodka in Scotland. And this
16:52project was followed by obviously two whiskeys. As each and every good distillery in Scotland
16:57and especially in the Highlands, we should start and we started with a single malt, which
17:01requires a bigger period of maturation. And we continue with a very courageous project
17:06aiming to resurrect the distillation of the Scotch rye whiskey after more than 200 years
17:12since it was stopped from production in Scotland. And if we know a couple of things about the
17:16international whiskeys, if you want to call them such, you know that the rye whiskey doesn't
17:20have at first glance doesn't have anything to do with Scotland because it was born in
17:241750 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and it was distilled by the Americans using a mash mill
17:29containing rye in a proportion of 59 percent, 39 percent corn and nevertheless, the rest
17:35up to 100 molted barley. However, the Scots weren't so far behind US because this type
17:40of whiskey was distilled and it was recorded back in 1880, somewhere around the Glasgow
17:45area, the distillery, which was once called the Port Dundas. And the Scots were distilling
17:50rye back in those times using a mash mill, pretty similar with 60 percent rye, 25 percent
17:56wheat and 15 percent malted barley. So you spot the thing that in order to replace the
18:01corn, which is non-existent in Scotland, which brings the enzymes in the acidity for
18:06the rye, which is so poor in sugars and starches, the Scots were replacing with malted barley
18:10and wheat. So we were proud to become the first distillery to bring back the rye. And
18:15nevertheless, behind us now, there are another three distilleries which are distilling rye.
18:19One of them is Bucladic, the second one is Inchderney, and this year we're going to mark
18:23the fourth release of a rye whiskey in Scotland, which is going to be launched by Isle of Tiree
18:28distillery on the edge of the Atlantic.
18:35Our second step on our sustainability journey was to find another method of fertilizing
18:40the fields. Luckily, our master distiller, which is a doctor in botany, her name is Kirstie
18:44Black, Dr. Kirstie Black, also part of the 10 Women Distillers in Forbes chart. She was
18:49having a PhD ready when she joined our team studying the usage of the legume family plants
18:54as nitrogen fixing plants. So from a range of plants such as the peas, the beans, the
19:01chickpeas, they are having the most extraordinary capability to capture all the unused nitrogen
19:07from the atmosphere and multiplies it in the plant's laboratory and return the favour to
19:12the ground. We decided to go along with the peas and use this method in a process which
19:17in farm language is called intercropping. You can plant the nitrogen fixing plant in
19:22the same field with your barley or with your rye as the case may be. And in such a manner,
19:28you don't need to use any synthetic stuff. Everything is going to be definitely fertilized
19:33naturally. And after the harvest period is finished, it's so easy to plough back the
19:38roots of the peas into the soil, oversaturating the soil with more nitrogen for the next crop
19:42to take over. And just to close the chain of sustainability surrounding this humble
19:46plant, we can definitely think from a distiller perspective that the only thing that you need
19:52in order to start the distillation is a sugar and a starch. And guess what? The peas,
19:55they have them both. So we decided to go along with this project and create the first range
20:00of climatopositive white spirits in the world, which is called nadar, which is Scottish Gaelic
20:04mixed nature. The first climatopositive gin and vodka in the world, which starts its life
20:09as a plant in the soil, bringing us the nitrogen and finishing as a crystal clear liquid is going
20:14to give us a carbon, a negative carbon footprint of minus 1 kilo 540 grams of CO2 out of the
20:20atmosphere. So basically it's giving back to the nature more than it takes. And after this
20:26project was concluded, we managed to secure the award for excellence and sustainability in the
20:32Scottish Whiskey Awards 2024 in Glasgow. And we decided that the journey shouldn't stop there.
20:38Our ethos is a little bit different. We are a filter bottle distillery. We are proud to
20:44soak, grow, nurture, harvest and distill pretty much everything that is coming from our lands.
20:49And if I may extend this ethos, I can definitely say that we are keen to have
20:54pretty much all of the taste, but none of the environmental impact.
20:59Yeah, so we've just had the talk about the history of the distillery, but behind us where we're
21:05sitting is Lunan Bay and yeah, it's just wide open expansive fields and then the sea and the
21:12beach and it looks wonderful. Yeah, I can see why on a really sunny day this would be a very
21:17beautiful outlook. Here's my chat with one of the founders of our BK, John Stirling.
21:30This space is amazing. So we're in the Stirling suite, which you just walk in and see that big
21:34window and the views and it's really cool. Yeah, it was probably the only thing that
21:38came out of COVID that during COVID we built our visitor experience and it's on two levels.
21:44The one below is all about field to bottle, farm table to bottle and a lot of wood, concrete,
21:51all local joinery people. We just basically from as close as we could get to the distillery
21:56outwards, we use people in the local area, which during COVID turned out to be a fantastic choice.
22:02And then upstairs, the Stirling suite, it's more old school whiskey. You know, we've got a cigar
22:08room, the views downstairs are fantastic. Upstairs, they're even better. We're lucky
22:13with our location, it overlooks Lunan Bay and it's always gorgeous, whether it's a beautiful
22:17sunny day or the North Sea is playing up and you're getting the changing colours. We're lucky
22:23here. I think even amongst all the distillers of some great places, this has got to be one of the
22:28best in Scotland. Yeah, definitely. So our BK, can you tell us about the name? Yeah, so our BK is
22:34the family farm and when we started up our distillery, I've already started the build and
22:39then my brother found out an ancient map that's 1794, where it had our BK distillery on it,
22:46which we didn't actually know when we started the distillery, which is amazing. And we actually,
22:51I thought he's just maybe he's a good marketeer, maybe he just made it up, but we've actually got
22:55a map from 1794. Then we found reference in Inverkeel in the local graveyard, that is a
23:01distiller at our BK graveyard. So we've got this history of actually distilling at our BK
23:07Jacobite time. So there's probably a few illicit still, so there's not that many records.
23:12And obviously there's a large gap between then and now, but it gives us that bit of history
23:16and that bit of farm history. So that's been fantastic. We've searched where the name comes
23:20from and the name more than likely is Viking. So there's a lot of Viking readers coming down here
23:25and that was the name given to the farm. So that's where our BK comes from. That's amazing.
23:29So we've had a little brief tour and we've heard a little bit about the past history of how the
23:35family came to be here, but could you just tell anyone that hasn't heard the podcast before
23:39the more modern history of your business and the farm?
23:42Yeah, definitely. I'll start. So it was 2013, 14, where I came from a background. So I used to
23:51bore people to death. I was an accountant with KPMG. One of my brothers, he was in the whiskey
23:58industry, Ian. So he had a bit of background of that. And then my brother, David, he was more
24:03marketing. And we basically got a bit drunk one night and decided, why don't we go back to the
24:09basics of whiskey distilling, which was farm-based, utilizing waste products and create a really
24:18sustainable distillery. And in the cold light of day, we'd looked at the kind of business plan and
24:24we had the space. We had everything to do with agriculture as the way we wanted to
24:29create our distillery. And we had all the core elements. What we were missing was a distiller.
24:36And luckily we got Kirstie Black, who's now Dr. Kirstie Black. So she was the final
24:41piece in the jigsaw. And this was 2013, 14. We built the distillery within a year, produced in
24:482015. And as they say, the rest is history, or hopefully we've got a lot of history to come.
24:54Yeah, it's amazing. The father was a cow shed as well, just walking through it. And you can still
24:58see that's what it was. It's really cool to see. Yeah, I would say it's what's paid dividends in
25:022013, 14. We had our vision, which has actually not really changed. It was about reducing waste,
25:08being kinder to the environment, being more sustainable, where sustainability barely existed
25:14in 2013. Now it's to the forefront of so many businesses being kinder to the planet. And one
25:21of the other aspects of that, so it was utilising existing sheds, how even then we reduced our waste
25:28down to a minimum. And actually, when I look back and we were going through this process,
25:33we look back to what my dad had farmed in the 1960s, and they were far better at looking after
25:39the fields and the planet than we were in modern agriculture. And so we've heard a little bit about
25:44the sustainability and different processes, but could you give us an overview of your
25:48sustainability plan? Yeah, I would say the first and most important is a simple ethos.
25:56So our ethos from the very start has been, how can we be kinder to the environment? How can we
26:03do things in a better way? How can we reduce waste? And what does that involve? So
26:08we try and get that culture to go throughout everyone in the company. And therefore,
26:12we're constantly looking at how we can actually do things better. And that is the number one
26:19aspect, I think, that everyone can look at, because there are commercial pressures and realities,
26:23and people say, well, I can't afford to do this. And in many aspects, that may well be true,
26:28but there's small things you can do. You don't have to use plastics, you can recycle more,
26:33you can look at how you can reduce any kind of waste and reuse and repurpose. And I think that's
26:39the number one aspect. And once you have that ethos, and you start looking at the major aspects,
26:46and the major aspects, we're lucky for us is the fact that we have a farm and the biggest change
26:52you can make in terms of climate change is what happens in the farm. And it's what people avoid
26:57it, because it's, you know, in terms of your different scopes, it's the hardest scope to
27:02control, the hardest scope to change. But we've always addressed that head on. An example is our
27:08Dargin, the fact that it's pea based, climate positive, and that the aspect of that is
27:14utilising peas or legumes more in a rotation. And if the UK tomorrow, turned over 10% of their land
27:22to legume growing, you'd reduce the CO2 output dramatically. And I think that's one of the major
27:29things that needs to happen. Because you've been so at the forefront of this in distilling,
27:32do you have people come to visit you? Is it anything kind of open source? Or is it, you know,
27:36a bit of an open book to help other, maybe smaller businesses become a bit greener?
27:41Yeah, I think that's what we've always been very good at. I mean, and also, you know, credit to
27:46the whisky industry. It's the best industry I've ever worked in. When we started up and set up,
27:52we'd help from all the distilleries, they were all really supportive that going back, this is the way
27:58things used to be done, you know, how cool is that? And we're very small, and we don't really
28:02compete with the big guys. But they were incredibly supportive. But I think that's
28:07because a lot of them are from more rural communities, whether it's up in Speyside or
28:11Ireland appreciate our whole ethos of what we were trying to do. But from the very start,
28:16we've always been very open. We've worked with Kirsty in particular, with a lot of universities
28:21with the Hutton Institute. So we encourage people to come here and actually see what we're doing. So
28:27that's distilleries in Scotland, that's universities, that's people in the interest
28:31in sustainability. And people throughout the world are now coming. And we we are open about
28:36what we do. There's nothing we're trying to hide or any secrets, you know, so and I think the more
28:42we can impart good process that we've learned, and we're learning from other people as well,
28:47the better. So yeah, we encourage people to come and see and understand what we're doing. And we
28:52get ideas from people as well on that. So you've got people coming visit to learn but also people
28:57come in as kind of tourists and you're in a really lovely location here. Is it important for
29:01you to help add to that kind of food and drink tourism in Angus? Yeah, when we initially did our
29:07business plan is going way back, we didn't realise I suppose, the importance of doing something like
29:12a visitor experience. I mean, that is very good for a brand, it's very good for us to get the
29:17message out. But since we built this, you know, the number of people that have come here have
29:22surprised us. We look at the local area and the tourists. So local, national, but international
29:29as well. So whether it's America or China or Germany, we've got a steady flow of people that
29:34come here. We've added our Ood houses. So we've got accommodation here as well on site, which is
29:40important for us because if people are drinking, they want to walk home. So we've actually looking
29:46at the whole tourist industry and realising actually the importance to us but also as a
29:52country to the country and we've seen that in whisky a lot. There's a lot more whisky tourism
29:57but where we're based in Angus, you know, we've got the Angus Glens at the back, we've got Lunan Bay
30:03that's absolutely fantastic. We've got obviously our whisky industry and then we've got local
30:07places like Glamis Castle, you know, you've got ACDC fans that are coming to the region. There's a
30:12whole diverse group of people from everywhere that comes and when we analyse where they're
30:17coming from, it is surprising, all corners of the world. So it's been fantastic that way.
30:21Nice. So I've tried Nadar Gin and the Highland Rye PX cask and they're both specifically Nadar
30:28but also at the time Rye were like leaders in their field. Can you talk a bit about that and
30:33also what we can expect in the future? As a distillery, we're small and agile and
30:37we've always been highly innovative. When we were developing Spirits, we looked at a couple in
30:43particular. The Highland Rye is very interesting because that was the first Rye Scotch in over 200
30:50years and it was a kind of died out Scotch whisky. Rye whisky became quite important in terms of
30:57Canada and North America where it's more associated with. There's a few new distilleries in Europe now
31:03producing but we looked at what was growing here and Rye was growing here so we thought,
31:08why don't we grow Rye? So we went back, produced Rye. We produced, as I said, the first Rye in 200
31:14years and now I think there's five or six distilleries in Scotland now producing it but
31:18you've got to wait a bit when you're doing that. So we're a world leader in Rye Scotch and that
31:24is a market we see that we really need to develop. We're gradually going out to more countries with
31:29it and people are showing a real interest. It also hits a slightly younger market, a more diverse
31:34market, which is exactly the market we're really aiming at. We've recognised for that but at the
31:39same time, I can never get past Nadar because it was a world first in terms of climate positive
31:45spirits. It pushed the boundaries. We are now into America with it so the Marriott Group in terms of
31:54Ritz-Carlton and WTEL have now taken that on as mandatory. We're in the Dubai market where it's in
32:02La Closse but what we're looking at, we realised at the very start of our journey, we're looking
32:06to get to engage with sort of bigger groups to say actually this is so unique, it's so different,
32:12apart from tasting great, it actually makes a difference and pushes your sustainability agenda
32:18to the very top and that's what we want to do. So we want people to come and actually recognise
32:22what we've done and take that out to the market and when we did it, we haven't taken any IP out
32:29in it so we want people to actually say producing spirits from peas or legumes is actually a really,
32:37really good thing to do in terms of sustainability and other people to take that challenge up and
32:42actually produce their own. That would be our ultimate goal but in the short term, the next
32:4712 to 24 months, it's really to take our product out in the UK but also to the world market and say
32:55actually this is a world-leading spirit, you need to be starting to buy it.
32:59Nice, well thank you very much, it's been really interesting, thank you.
33:02Fantastic, yeah, it's been fun.
33:07Here's a little more from Gilbert's tour of the distillery.
33:09Now in this stage, it's worth to mention that everyone is looking now for carbon capturing
33:14and this is in our future plans to do. With carbon capturing, it's pretty much
33:19three trajectories that you can take, you can give it to a nice factory which is going to transform
33:23your CO2 into ice or a fire extinguisher company which is ready to load it into their extinguisher
33:29or a very, very used method and it's becoming more and more access is to give it to a fizzy
33:35becoming more and more access is to give it to a fizzy drink company which can use the CO2 coming
33:41from your fermentation in carbonating the fizzies, so carbonating their cans.
33:47So this is pretty much in our future plans to do. So from the beginning to the end,
33:52we are looking for four or five points of recycling in each and every station,
33:56looking to keep a tight waste management control. Obviously, we can speak about the fact that
34:02in the latest years, we are switching to no glass. So pretty much as you can see over there,
34:07those are the canisters which are going with green transportation. We are having our electric van
34:12which is going to allow the consumer and nevertheless the customers to get rid of the
34:17of the glass, so not using so much glass. If they're going to still continue to use glass,
34:22the glass is compostable and nevertheless all the labels and the inks are naturally
34:28implant based. So pretty much we were thinking about each and every bits and bobs regarding the
34:34brand. I was really very impressed by the lengths Arbic here going to, to be as sustainable as
34:43possible. It will be interesting to see how many other distilleries follow suit.
34:48The next calling point in my visit was the fascinating and fun
34:51Charlton Farm where I sat down with owner Graham McCall.
34:54We're here now in what was an old stable block sitting at a table and where horses would have
34:59once been kept. Yes, indeed. It's really, really lovely next to a lovely rolling fire.
35:03We were going to record outside but it's a bit too windy. So for anyone that's never been here
35:07before, could you just take us back and tell us how the business kind of came about?
35:10Charlton Farm has been here in many guises since 1840 and then for the last 75 years before we
35:18took over, it had been in the McQuiston family. They wanted to retire and myself and my wife
35:24stupidly came down to have a look at it. We then got quickly called into Covid. It took us a year
35:29to get funding sorted for that and then on March 2021 we took over the farm.
35:37And so you're a sort of multi-functional venue. So we're here now in the cafe which was those
35:43stables. Can you tell us about other things that you do and what people can expect?
35:50The farm is quite diverse. So we are a working farm. We're a diverse fruit farm. So it's a pick
35:55your own fruit farm mainly here. So we do everything from strawberries, raspberries,
35:59apples, pears, cherries, plums, Christmas trees, pumpkins and pretty much everything in between
36:03that is soft and top fruit. We also have the restaurant. So we have a 200 seater restaurant
36:08play park, has a takeaway pod in it. We've got holiday accommodation on the farm. We've
36:12got a farming gift shop and we've got a wedding venue as well on the farm.
36:17So as well as farming?
36:18As well as farming, yes. So a lot going on.
36:21So did you come from a farming background?
36:23We did not, no. We've had to learn how to farm. So we were able to do some of the other things
36:28but the last four years has been a challenge. Previous owners were great. They came down and
36:32help us and we've got a sort of bank of agronomists that come and help us as well.
36:37As well as just sort of research all the time. And my eldest son who turns 20 today actually,
36:44he is our full-time farmer along with Callum who is also turning 20 very soon
36:49and he full-time farms here as well.
36:52So was a lot of this already established before you took over?
36:56There were bits of it that were here but not necessarily how they are now. So the farm was
37:02really only open six months a year under the previous owners but that didn't seem right to us
37:08especially for job security for all of our staff. We employ 36 members of staff every week which
37:14goes up to 65 in the sort of peak seasons and we wanted to make sure that we were good employers
37:20with that. So we took the decision to open 12 months of the year and we changed a lot. We've
37:25changed the food, we've changed the menus, we've included holiday accommodation which wasn't here
37:30and we've put in our events venue as well.
37:32So I'm sitting here and I can see your upcoming events and you were saying
37:35earlier when we were talking that it's a destination so can you talk about that as well?
37:40Yeah so our destination, we have a lot of visitors come here every year. We don't know the exact
37:44number, we did count them one year and it was somewhere between 200 and a quarter of a million
37:48people that came to the farm which is a lot of people. They mainly happen in our peak seasons
37:54so summer, October and Easter that's when we get our big, big and Christmas, we get our sort of
37:59big spikes of people here at the farm. But we are always putting events on so this weekend we've got
38:05our birthday weekend and we've got dinosaurs coming, we've got a barbecue on, we've got
38:11smoked meats on and it's always just trying to think of different fresh ways to make sure that
38:16people come all year. So we'll do steak nights and here we always do events like Valentine's
38:22evening. We'll do tapas evenings and we'll do tapas and prosecco or we'll do platters and
38:28prosecco. So it's always making sure that there's things happening all the time on the farm to
38:32make sure that we're drawing people here all the time and then we're now just expanding our farm
38:37tours on the farm as well. That will include our animals, our pigs, our goats, our highland cows,
38:42tours of the fruit that's growing at the time as well as doing other bits and pieces with tours and
38:48we do things with school children as well. We have about 19 to 20 schools come and visit us every
38:53year also. And so what would you say has been the biggest learning curve in the last four years?
38:57I mean for us it's farming. So we didn't know how to farm. We've had losses, we've lost
39:05entire crops of strawberries and had to think on our feet how we then get a crop of strawberries
39:10here from February when there is none to June when you need to have strawberries for a pick
39:16your own farm. A pick your own strawberry farm because that's what people knew us for. Without
39:20strawberries it's not going to be a good year. So we had to learn irrigation quickly, we had to learn
39:25polytunnels quickly, we had to learn how to put them up, take them down, planting them, the
39:29differences of temperature in the air for spraying, all these kind of things. So farming has definitely
39:34been the the biggest challenge for us without doubt. And were the old owners not like what are
39:39you doing? A little bit I think. We get on exceptionally well with them. We got on well
39:44with them from the very first time that we viewed here because things were in Covid. But even before
39:49we bought the farm my son was coming down. He had one day out of school that he was coming down to
39:54learn farming. We would come down every Saturday and Sunday how to learn it as well. So for that
39:58year whilst we were getting funding in place in a new world if you like because it was a Covid
40:03world and banks didn't want to lend to hospitality businesses they didn't want to lend to farming and
40:08we were trying to buy business that was both. It was interesting whilst that was all happening in
40:14the background we were learning farming we were learning how to deal with fruit and pumpkins and
40:18Christmas trees and everything in between all of that and working out how we would expand the shop
40:23and to become more of a farm and gift shop as opposed to just selling the fruit produce that
40:27it did for a very small period of time in the year. And you mentioned the shop there so what
40:33do you sell? We sell our own produce so we do our all of our own berries in there our own asparagus
40:39at Christmas time we do our Christmas trees that don't go through the shop but they're through the
40:43shop if you like. And then anything that we don't grow ourselves we then try and do as local as
40:49possible we've come to realise that local is Scotland actually and with some of the gifts
40:55local is actually UK but with our produce we try and keep as much of it to local as possible our
41:01fresh produce we will get from local farmers around about if we don't grow it ourselves so
41:07all of our potatoes leeks all of those kind of things will come locally. We try and stay as
41:12seasonal as possible you'll get asparagus here between April and June because we grow it that
41:16is the season. We have our own honey on site which we have we're hoping to get into the shop
41:21this year we were growing the colonies for pollination last year and so hopefully the
41:27top boxes will go on and we'll get honeycomb in the shop this year as well so we use honey from
41:32Moray and also from Cove in Aberdeen at the moment. It's amazing the array of fruit and
41:37produce in Angus. Yeah Angus has got a lot to offer so there's obviously lots of soft fruit
41:42there's lots of arable happens here as well there's so many producers we we are just going
41:47through our licensing process at the moment for the shop and we will then be able to have our
41:51local gins in we'll have local spirits in so we'll use the Jimbo they will use our Bikki we'll use
41:56Angus Alchemy and so all of those guys will then be available within our shop as well so it's not
42:01it's not just food there is food and drink in Angus and there's a wealth of knowledge and a
42:06massive product range within Angus so I think Angus Punch is pretty much above its weight
42:12we'll be able to stock as much of that as possible in the shop going forward especially
42:16as we expand the size of that. So do you have any future plans you can share are you just starting?
42:20Yeah I think this year there's there's a little bit of consolidation happening but we are also
42:25hoping to expand our holiday accommodation so we're looking to go into our walled garden
42:31we're just looking at what that does and what that means cost-wise so that we can then go to
42:36planning with that and then from there look at how we then expand our shop offering and make that
42:42footprint just a little bit bigger for ourselves but working within the constraints of a park
42:47listed building. And your holiday accommodation what do you have now is it like? So we used to
42:52have two on this farm we're down to one at the moment because Lisa's mum and dad moved into one
42:56of them and we are then looking to put in up to another eight three and two bedrooms into our
43:04walled garden which is the old walled garden of Charlottetown House so it's just got the history
43:08on it and there's an old heated wall that they used to put grapes in on the on the glass house
43:14so there's again there's lots of history within the area that we're going to be doing that on
43:20which is just another one of these things that is an extra draw to people because people love the
43:25history of the farm and if it's got a story and you tell the story well then there's no questioning
43:30it adds to your destination without any shadow of a doubt. Yeah because you were saying there was
43:34an old hospital on site? Yes yeah because the where we're sitting right now is the stable block of
43:39Charlottetown House when Charlottetown House then became the hospital the day before the NHS was
43:44formed and then from there it became the refugee centre as well after the hospital closed and then
43:52it was bought over and then burnt down and now it's actually there's nothing there other than a
43:56big open space but the history behind Charlottetown House and the ice houses that are still there in the
44:01forests is huge. It's fascinating you know you're saying like if there's a story and history that
44:06helps become a destination does that alleviate some of the challenges of getting yourself out
44:10there? Yeah I think again we were quite lucky when we took over we took over the current social media
44:15that was there so when we do do social media here it does work and it does reach way past our
44:21following. It is powerful there's no question of that other than that I do have a challenge of how
44:26we get out what we do. We're part of Scottish Agri-tourism which helps as well because then
44:33you're then straight into Visit Scotland and then we're also with our farm tours this year we're
44:38going up to the networking event up in the P&J arena for the travel trade so that we're going
44:44because we're now travel trade ready here that's because we sit in a perfect place for it because
44:48we're halfway between Dundee we're halfway between Aberdeen they've all got up and coming
44:53cruise ships coming in all the time so because of that that 45 minute journey from both
44:59we sit in a really good place for that and actually what our tour offering is is perfect
45:04because they all are looking for that authentic farm country experience and that's what we think
45:11we'll be we're able to give here. And I hear you're famous for one product in particular? We are here
45:15on the farm we do strawberry tarts here on the farm and we don't just do strawberry tarts we do
45:19a lot of them we probably do between 45 and 60,000 I don't know I'd have to have the exact number off
45:26of our system but it's round about that number every year and that is in the restaurant to also
45:31in our shop that people come and take away. On the first day that we ever did strawberry tarts
45:35here on the farm posted it on social media and we sold 1300 strawberry tarts in the first day
45:42we were slightly gobsmacked it has to be said there was people coming to us saying I stopped
45:46what I was doing in the middle of high street because I got the message to say the tarts were
45:49out and they came and they went away with like a dozen of them at a time it's an amazing again
45:54amazing way of using social media and we sell tens of thousands of them every year. Wow and when can
46:00you start to buy them? So this year it will be from the 1st of April that they go live so from
46:05the very first day of Easter holidays. Okay well that's well timed. Right through to the end of
46:10September. We'll need to come back for the goats and the tarts. Absolutely. Thank you very much. No problem.
46:19Charlton Farm is an amazing destination attraction available for all sorts of
46:23events and weddings too. You'll find out more on their website.
46:30Before I go I was really impressed with all that Angus has to offer and it was wonderful to find
46:35out more about its rich food and drink industry, the produce and the experiences that make it a
46:39great destination. You'll find out more information about all the businesses that
46:43feature on today's episode and many more by going to www.visitangus.com
46:51Thanks to my guests for being on this episode and thanks to you too for listening.
46:54Please remember to rate, review and subscribe so you never miss an episode of Scran.
46:59Scran is co-produced and hosted by me Rosan Dersgan and co-produced, edited and mixed by Kelly Crichton.