A new face (beard) joins That Boutique-y Whisky Company to help direct our whisky into your glasses.
If you’ve been to any of the cracking UK whisky shows of the last 12 months, chances are you came across at least one bearded chap, sometimes two. Probably many - beards are very hip nowadays. However, we’re talking about two specific bearded chaps you’ll have seen behind our stands.
James Goggin has been championing That Boutique-y Whisky Company to date, but with all the whiskies we’ve been releasing and events we’ve been attending, it was clear he was going to need some help...
Step up Dave Worthington (off of Whisky Discovery). He joined us for Whisky Live London back in March, then went on to provide support for a number of the UK whisky shows during 2016. We’ve persuaded Dave to come on board to help fly the Boutique-y flag and to ‘get more liquid on lips!’, so you’ll be seeing a lot more of him!
Lots of folk have since asked if beards were part of That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s uniform. Of course not, but James and Dave are starting to become known as ‘the ZZ Top of whisky’. Also, while both own rather majestic beards, they’re not related, so please don’t encourage James to start calling Dave “dad”!
About Dave
Dave started the Whisky Discovery blog around Christmas 2011, a year after he started taking whisky seriously. He also discovered Twitter that Christmas, and has been a nuisance ever since. His first tweet posted on Boxing Day read “One year into my 'Voyage of Discovery', 27 different whiskies tasted and 21 on my shelf.” with a link to his fledgling blog.
His daughter, Kat, joined the Whisky Discovery blog in 2012, and they have gone on to be well known and respected in the whisky industry for their passion and knowledge. They’ve volunteered at whisky shows, and run a small whisky club in Bedford as well as holding tastings in their locale and beyond. Dave keeps a log of every new whisky experience and has gone on to taste almost 2000 different whiskies, with over 400 ‘discoveries’ for the last three years running.
Dave says “I jumped at the opportunity to help out James with their stand at last year’s Whisky Live London. I’d ‘worked’ the last three shows with Balcones and Wemyss Malts, and always enjoyed my time spent behind the counter. This led to being offered further opportunities throughout 2016, sharing my passion, alongside their award winning whiskies to people up and down the country.”
“I’m absolutely bowled over to be take up this new role with the brand. They’ve released some fabulous liquid to date and I’m really excited that I’m going to be able to share their story as well as some serious liquid with whisky lovers around the UK."
Five minutes with Dave Worthington...
Full Name: Simply David Worthington, we weren’t able to afford middle names back in the good old days. However I’m known as Dave, I only ever got called David when being told off by my Mum
Where originally from: My father was in the Royal Navy, so we moved a lot while growing up. I was born on the Mediterranean island of Malta moved to the UK when I was six or seven months old, initially in London, and then Hampshire before moving overseas again, spending two and a half years in Mauritius. I grew up as a beach urchin, enjoying Indian street food and getting up to all sorts of mischief. At the age of 11 I was brought back to earth, well the UK, and sent to school on the Suffolk coast, just South of Ipswich. It was a painful change!
Favourite Film: I’ve never really been a big film buff. I can’t even remember that last time I went to see a movie. However, I loved Donald Sutherland’s character, Sergeant Oddball, in Kelly’s Heroes. He had some great lines, including my favourite of all times “I'm drinking wine and eating cheese, and catching some rays, you know.” I’m still not sure if I watched the whole movie in one sitting through
Favourite Album: Music has always been a passion, I bought my first album just before my 12th Birthday, Deep Purple’s Machine Head. I say album, back then I only had a mono cassette player/recorder, but I still have the original cassette tape, nothing to play it on mind! My music collection is vast, but over the years I’ve digitised them all, downloading them to my iPod. Currently there are almost 33,000 tunes on it with a very eclectic mix. My current passion is jazz, both the greats and the new music coming through. I also collect music from countries I visit, and have a terrible collection of Thai pop, soundtracks from the old Bollywood movies I grew up with in Mauritius, as well as lots of Mexican rock. I’m a big Zappa and Beefheart fan too. While I have many favourite tracks or genres for certain times of the day, if I had to pick one album, it would be Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.
Hobbies: Up until very recently, outside of my ‘day job’ whisky was just a passionate hobby. I started the Whisky Discovery blog and spent a lot of time reading about whisky. I’m still buying whisky books today. Music has always been important and I’d rather have music or the radio on rather than the TV. I play the banjo, Bluegrass Scruggs style, badly, and have a Mandolin too for the odd Irish reel! Years ago I played Blues Harp and can still bend a note or two. I love rugby union and up until six years ago was coaching and refereeing youth teams, but my knees are not quite as good as they were. Nowadays it's just spectating, I can cope with sitting still for each 40 minute half!
After giving up smoking cigarettes for 20 years I started pipe smoking more recently. It’’s not a habit like cigarette smoking was, you can’t pop out for a quick pipe! They take at least 30 minutes to smoke, more often you need a good hour. I like to take my pipe out for a walk, sometimes with a hip flask. Oh, and we don’t smoke pipes, or cigars, we taste them.
Fact about you? I started out as a apprentice mechanical engineer in a shipyard in Southampton. I also spent seven years building luxury yachts in Thailand.
Favourite TBWC bottling: There’s been a few, I’m a sucker for a good Clynelish and that last batch (Batch 3) was a cracker. The single grains have really impressed me though, and if I had to pick a favourite, it’d have to be the first batch from the Girvan, a 52 Year Old, which is about as old a Girvan as you’d be able to taste (at that time) as the stills first ran on Christmas Day 1963
Favourite Event: In sport, and as a rugby fan, the Six Nations Championship is always a must watch for me. I’m an England supporter, but not a fanatic, I will always support the home nations against any other teams, and the British and Irish Lions tour is another key event for me.
Favourite Place: Having moved around a lot in my younger days I settle into places quite quickly. I’ve done a lot of business travel too and there are so many wonderful places around the world, but my favourite place is my kitchen table, when everyone is home (I’ve got three grown up children), the food, and banter, is classic comedy, simply the best!
Something you won’t know about Dave
Dave’s pretty good at lip reading. Years of abuse; riding motorbikes and loud music (he was a roadie for a heavy metal band for a while too) has left him hard of hearing, but he’s got bionic ears now so can hear the proverbial pin drop.
