The Distilled Team

Industry Expertise

We have built up our experience over many years. In the 1990’s, David and Leonie worked for a large drinks retailing company where they received extensive wine and spirits training. In 2003 they purchased their own wine and whisky retailing business, The Wine Shop in the market town of Leek in Staffordshire.

Independent Bottling and Brand Development

In 2005 The Wine Shop launched The Queen of the Moorlands single malt whisky and began to bottle single casks under the independent Rare Cask label. This put the shop on the whisky map and enthusiasts from all over the world began to visit and buy rare whiskies.

The shop and the whiskies began to receive exceptional reviews and began to grow a reputation very quickly. By this time David had fallen in love with the island of Islay and Caol Ila single malt whisky.

Lagavulin, Caol Ila and Kilchoman Distilleries

In 2012, David moved to Islay where he managed the busy visitor centres at both Lagavulin and Caol Ila Distilleries. Here he met Justina, each shared a passion for Islay whiskies, Caol Ila in particular. David and Justina began designing and delivering new distillery tastings and experiences to the ever growing number of enthusiasts visiting the island each year and were very much involved in managing events for thousands of visitors at the distillery open days at the Islay Whisky Festival (Feis Ile) and at the Lagavulin Jazz Festival.

Leonie moved to Islay in March 2013 and was appointed as Visitor Centre and Marketing Manager for Kilchoman Distillery. As well as managing the visitor centre at Kilchoman, Leonie travelled throughout Europe to host tastings in retail outlets and whisky festivals.

In October 2013 David became Distillery Manager at Caol Ila. A dream come true for a fan of Caol Ila single malt whisky.

Whisky Festivals, Masterclasses and Events

Working for such iconic distilleries gave us the opportunity to work at large scale drinks industry events and festivals overseas and we found ourselves travelling extensively, spreading the Islay whisky word around Europe and further afield. This experience coupled with the fact that we worked very much at the coal face of spirit production sets us apart from our competitors.

We are very proud of the fact that we’ve actually distilled and been involved with producing and marketing fantastic world class products and we’ve experienced what it is like to live and to work in the world’s most famous whisky destination, the Isle of Islay. Oh and we love good single malt Scotch whisky!

We are not mixologists, we are not bartenders, and we are not tied to any brands. We present whiskies that have been distilled with integrity and passion at places we have lived or worked or at places we have visited and loved.

Our events are fun, informative and above all authentic.

We very much hope to see you at a whisky experience soon!

Slainte

The Distilled Team