Mark Gillespie, founder and host of WhiskyCast

Knock Tales Whisky Podcast with Gordon Bruce

What do you say to the ‘Podfather’ of the whisky world when he’s a guest on your own podcast? In this episode of Knock Tales, Gordon settles his nerves and finds out, when he hosts Mark Gillespie, podcasting legend and founder of WhiskyCast who has close to 900 episodes to his name…and counting.

Having been a WhiskyCast guest, Gordon enjoys turning the tables on Mark to hear his story: the night he first fell in love with single malt and how it led to a lifetime spent tasting, discovering and sharing whisky stories from around the world. He also lifts the lid on WhiskyCast’s enduring success and how he came up with the idea of starting one of whisky’s first shows (at a time when ‘what’s a podcast’ was a frequently asked question).

The chat turns to craft, why traditional methods and the human touch won’t be going out of fashion any time soon, and why it’s so important to inspire and mentor new generations of whisky makers. Gordon also reveals the two bits of technology he actually admires (note: neither of these has anything to do with whisky making).

In their different ways, whisky for Mark and Gordon is work. But, they also agree it’s one of life’s great pleasures, sipping and savouring the pride that distillery teams have put into making it, and remembering that life is good.

There’s also a surprise for Gordon at the end when Mark reveals the one, very special bottle of whisky in his collection that he covets the most - but will never open (which turns out to have been crafted at Knockdhu).