Barrogill, the first North Highland blend, is selected by Prince Charles himself
Watercolours, children's books, organic farming, ideal village building, faith defending, explaining to ignorant pharmacists and doctors how narrow-minded they are – is there anything Charles Windsor doesn't do royally well?
The Duke of Rothesay (just one of his amazing titles!) has taken time out from chatting to his carrots and is now blending some whisky instead.
It may be a first for HRH, but it's a first for blends too – there has never been a blend of whiskies from the North Highlands on the market. Back in 2005, HRH launched the North Highland Initiative, which sought to promote tourism and goods and heritage buildings from the North Highlands. It's an area, he wrote in The Press and Journal, that has "played a part in my life ever since I was a small boy and used to visit my grandmother each year at the Castle of Mey."
The initiative has already benefited farmers across the region as their labelled beef, lamb and (another of the Prince's successful campaigns) mutton has been supplied through supermarkets across the country. This eventually became the Mey Selections range, and the Barrogill North Highland Blended Malt is released as part of that range.
Inver House Distillers, which produces Old Pulteney, Balblair, anCnoc and Speyburn, is also producing the new blend, launched to coincide with the opening of the Castle of Mey's new visitor centre and tea room, in the castle that the late Queen Mother rescued from ruin.
As the local Royal base, it also gave its name to the food range that Barrogill is now part of.
As the first North Highland blended malt, it gives a regional answer to the likes of Black Bottle, a blend of the whiskies of Islay favoured by whisky aficionados.
The blend that the Prince has selected "has a full-bodied, floral and fruity aroma. Its sweet and spicy flavour and warm peaty undertone leave a long-lasting finish to the palate, which is complex yet balanced."
Nice choice. He even painted the picture of Mey Castle for the Barrogill whisky label.
RRP £19.99 Enquiries 0845 838 0488 mey-selections.com