Christies say cheers to a century of distilling

THE Christie family know what makes a dram good drink and so they should – they have four generations of distilling experience.

The first member of the whisky-loving clan to learn the art was John Christie who joined Edinburgh’s Glenkinchie Distillery in the early 1920s.

While prohibition banned Americans from enjoying a tipple, John and his colleagues were busy making cask after cask of whisky for lucky Brits.

And such was the boom in business that the firm were able to employ him for four decades and take on his sons Adam, Jock and Edward during that time.

It looked like the family’s involvement with the firm had ended when Adam retired, aged 60, in the early 1980s.

That was until his son, also Adam, joined the firm in 1990.

Nowadays Adam junior, 56, works with his own son, Shawn, 30, at the distillery – ensuring the Christie’s involvement has gone on for almost 100 years with many more to come.

Shawn said that despite the decades-long involvement his family has had with the firm they haven’t managed to keep any bottles from those early days.

He joked: “I think my family like a dram, so anything they got I think they must have drunk.”

Shawn said he used to watch his dad working at Glenkinchie Distillery in East Lothian when he was a boy and wondered what it would be like to follow in his footsteps.

He said: “We lived in a cottage that was 20 meters from the distillery. I would come down and watch him work away. I would go in and follow him about.

“A job came up at the distillery four years ago and luckily I got it.”

And it turns out Shawn and Adam aren’t the only family member working in the industry or looking to get into the trade.

Shawn said: “My cousin, who is ages with me, would love to get in to keep the family tradition going.

“Also, my sister Emily works for the Scottish Malt Society. She absolutely loves it.”