A record-breaking dash round 60 of Scotland’s distilleries will gather a unique whisky collection to be raffled for charity.
Update
The Great Whisky Distillery Challenge was completed successfully – thanks to the distillers, to everyone who helped in the process and of course to everyone who bought a ticket.
World Whisky Day founder, Blair Bowman, will attempt to visit a record-breaking 60 whisky distilleries across Scotland in one day while gathering a unique collection of whiskies to be raffled for charity.
The record attempt will help World Whisky Day’s charity partner, the international water development charity Just a Drop, deliver accessible, clean, safe water and health and sanitation programmes to where it is needed most.
The Challenge is taking place on Monday 15 May in the run up to World Whisky Day. Blair and his support team will set off from the appropriately named Balblair Distillery in Ross-shire and finish around 17 hours later at Aberfeldy Distillery in Perthshire. All the whisky collected on the day will then be offered as the main prize in a raffle, with all proceeds going to Just a Drop. Tickets cost just £1 each!
“It’s going to be a fantastic event,” said Blair. “As far as we are aware, no-one has attempted to set a record like this before and, despite meticulous planning, there is always a risk that we might not get to all 60 of the distilleries on the day. We can’t afford for a single thing to go wrong. It just needs a few tractors or caravans to hold us up and we will be under pressure.
“All the money raised will go to Just a Drop, which supports water projects in some of the poorest communities in the world. The word Whisky, in Gaelic means ‘water of life’, so this seemed like an appropriate challenge and hopefully it will help raise a lot of money for such a deserving cause.”
Years in the planning
The idea for the event came from Willie Wallace, who has been running whisky tours in Scotland for 20 years. Willie said: “It’s been many years in the planning. I feel sure that, with the amazing support of the distillers and our other sponsors, we can make a difference to the fantastic work of Just a Drop and have some fun along the way.”
The 60 distilleries taking part in the Great Whisky Distillery Challenge have been asked to donate a bottle of whisky. As not all the distilleries to be visited bottle their own brand whisky the team hopes to end up with around 50 bottles.* This unique collection of whisky will then be offered as the main prize in the raffle and Scottish Routes, a tour company based in Edinburgh, has also kindly donated two four-day whisky tours for two people to Speyside as additional prizes. 10 more raffle winners will receive copies of Blair Bowman’s new book, The Pocket Guide to Whisky.
Fiona Jeffrey, founder of Just a Drop, said: “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.”
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Twitter feed: @tgwdc
Instagram page: www.instagram.com/distillery_challenge/
* Note: the whisky can only be delivered to an address in the UK.
