Meet the stockist series #5 – Ferit from The Highland Whisky Shop

Ferit, thank you for participating in our blog series! The Highland Whisky Shop is located on Castle Street in the heart of Inverness, just across from the recently renovated Inverness Castle.

Your support for GlenWyvis releases over the years has been invaluable. Your shop also features a diverse selection of other local brands. Do you believe that supporting local gives you a competitive advantage?

Supporting local brands has been a priority for us since the day Highland Whisky Shop opened. Our local regulars and customers visiting the Highlands alike often ask for local products that they cannot easily find elsewhere, so offering a carefully selected range of local spirits including single malts and gins is a very important part of what we do.

Many whisky shops, including The Highland Whisky Shop, are well-presented, showcasing a wide array of whiskies in a contemporary manner. Your shop looks fantastic! Did you play a significant role in the shop’s design?

Thank you very much for your kind words! It’s particularly rewarding to hear that, especially as we did not work with a professional design company when designing the shop. Our aim was to create a space with plenty of room for customers, while also making sure the bottles could truly stand out on the shelves. We always receive a positive feedback from customers which means a great deal to us. It motivates us to keep the shop fresh, inviting and up to date.

We love the bar area in your shop, which allows you to host in-store tastings and experiences. We’re also grateful for your generosity in letting us hold our launch event for our next whisky bottling. Are you interested in hosting more private events in the future?

We have a small tasting area for whisky flights and bespoke tastings which is particularly popular during the summer season. Although we have not hosted many private events before, we were keen to support our local, community-owned GlenWyvis Distillery on this occasion, and we are delighted to be involved in such a special launch event.

Congratulations on your recent expansion with the opening of The Aviemore Whisky Shop! Do you plan to offer in-store tastings there similar to those in Inverness? If so, are there any upcoming tastings you’d like to highlight?

This summer will be the first season for Aviemore Whisky Shop, and we are incredibly excited about it. We plan to offer a similar tasting experience, including whisky flights and ticketed tastings with whisky brands. Our first series of events will be barrel-top tastings during the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival at the end of April and beginning of May.

Your selection of whiskies and gins spans various regions, from the Highlands to Japan and America. Do you have a favourite region?

While we stock a broad selection of whiskies from different countries at the Highland Whisky Shop, my personal preference has always been single malt Scotch whisky. My particular favourites are unpeated, sherried malts from Speyside.

In your spare time, do you attend whisky events? If so, do you have a favourite one?

I always love attending whisky events, as they are a wonderful opportunity to catch up with friends from the industry and enjoy some truly exceptional drams. Glasgow Whisky Festival is one of my favourite events in Scotland, and I also very much enjoy visiting Islay during the Jazz Festival. On the international side, The Whisky Show in London and Whisky Live in Paris are both fantastic events that I always enjoy attending.

As a local businessman expanding your offerings, would you ever consider organising industry events in the local area?

I would love to become more involved in organising whisky events in the Highlands, both personally and as a local business. However, I also know that creating successful events requires a great deal of hard work and dedication. Hopefully, there will be opportunities to do so in the near future.

You provide personalised gin and whisky flights. If you had to select a whisky flight for yourself, what four drams would you choose?

We offer a wide range of whisky and gin flights at Highland Whisky Shop. If I had to choose my own personal whisky flight, I would pick one dram from each whisky region of Scotland and enjoy the wonderful variety of flavours and styles.

Your store and online shop offer a wide range of limited releases. Do you have a favourite among them?

It is extremely difficult to choose just one limited edition release, as there have been so many outstanding bottlings. Of the more recent ones, two that I particularly enjoyed were GlenAllachie’s 17 Year Old Mizunara & Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish and Tomatin’s Graham Eunson Legacy Makers.

You have backed many GlenWyvis releases; do you have a favourite among them? If so, which one stands out to you the most?

One standout for me was GlenWyvis’ Highland Exclusive single cask release, which was a phenomenal dram.

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