Since I knew I would be heading down to Los Angeles this week, celebrating the release of our first-ever, distillery-direct import from Morrison-Bowmore distillers, I thought now would be the perfect time to sit down with their head of whisky creation, Mrs. Rachel Barrie. In November of 2011, Rachel, who had been celebrated for her role in creating the Uideadail and Corryvreckan single malts, left Ardbeg Distillery and moved over to Morrison-Bowmore. Now in charge of Bowmore's whisky creation, as well as Glen Garioch and Auchentoshan, Rachel has an entirely different palate of colors from which to paint. Listen as she discusses the memories and moments that each whisky represents to her, how whisky is inevitably linked to a place and time, and how slowing down and enjoying each of these moments eventually helps us all become better tasters.

This podcast episode can be downloaded here (right click or hold down "control" if you have a Mac) or on our Apple iTunes page. Previous episodes can be found in our podcast archive located on the right hand margin of the page. You can also listen via our embedded Flash player above.

-David Driscoll