THE organisers of a newly launched whisky club failed in their attempt to break a world record for an online whisky tasting event.

They were, however, over the moon to launch 1775 Whisky Passport, attracting whisky aficionados from across the globe, including Australia, Canada, South Africa, France and Spain, as well as a strong cohort of locals.

Graham Blaikie, owner of the Mercat Bar & Grill in Whitecraig; Neil Forbes, from Haddington, who set up Saltire Executive Golf and Travel; and Grzegorz Wozny, an IT specialist from Edinburgh, who runs Simple Office Support in the Capital, recently launched their new venture at the Mercat.

The world record attempt for most viewers for a whisky tasting live stream on a bespoke platform also took place at the launch, with plans to try a second time in the future.

The evening was hosted by Mr Blaikie and Mr Forbes, whose show featured whisky expert Dr Bill Lumsden, director of distilling, whisky creation and whisky stocks at Glenmorangie.

Mr Blaikie said: “We are completely over the moon to have launched our new whisky club.

“It was such an incredible buzz, bringing together people from all over the world with a shared passion for the dram and a real interest in joining up with like-minded, single malt lovers and learning more about this wonderful water of life through our whisky tasting session.

“Unfortunately, we narrowly missed breaking the world record but we plan to go for it again in the future.

“And the incredible feedback we got from our live, online audience on the night certainly made up for it.

“Our aim with 1775 Whisky Passport is to share our passion and knowledge of single malt whiskies with others.

“We feel there is a real space for an organisation like ours, which can bring whisky lovers together, in a more fun yet still informative manner – where we treat our members like best friends and friendships evolve through our shared passion for our national drink.

“Going forward, myself and Neil will run our virtual whisky tasting at 8.30pm every week throughout September, then every fortnight.

“We’ll hand pick a selection of malts to explore together and encourage our viewers to interact with us and, for those in Europe wishing to try our selected whiskies, these can be pre-purchased on our website.

“As we move out of lockdown, we plan to have good old-fashioned round-the-table tastings with special guest appearances from master blenders, member trips to distilleries, discounts off entry and purchases at distilleries as well as money off food and drink venues across the country, and for the £25 annual membership fee, we will give people a 1775 whisky glass, miniature dram and plant an oak tree on joining.”

Join at 1775whiskypassport.com