Alan Powell was planning on retiring in 2021. The 63-year-old who acts as consultant to investors in new distilleries says he has never been more busy.
In a period that has included a pandemic that stopped travel and kept people at home, whisky has been surprisingly resilient.
The number of distilleries in the country's five producing regions is at its highest since the second world war, according to the Scotch Whiskey Association. Last month a cask of rare whisky was sold for a record £16 million to a collector in Asia, a surge in demand from less mature markets.
Home consumption made up for the interruption in tourism and sales at bars and restaurants, which led to a shortage of some vintages of a product that can't be replaced quickly.
Powell said that he was busy even during Covid. New entrants are taking advantage of the situation.
Scotch whisky accounted for 75% of Scottish food and drink exports, 22% of UK food and drink exports, and 1% of all UK goods exports last year.
It was one of the main drivers of an increase in UK drink exports to over $7 billion. By the end of May, Scotch exports had reached £2.2 billion, which is close to the level of the previous year.
In order to establish themselves as premium purchases overseas, many British drinks brands have drawn on their heritage image.
Two Edinburgh residents are building a distillery that they say will be able to produce 400,000 litres of alcohol a year.
They found that a longer production schedule can have drawbacks for people with short-term investments.
The distillery site was laughed at by institutional investors.
They turned to smaller investors in order to complete the fundraise for the distillery, while a campaign that closed at the end of July attracted more than 500 investors.
The Whisky Exchange was started by the Singh brothers in 1999.
They sold the company to Pernod Ricard in 2021 and are now expanding into production through their distillery business. The brothers are building a distillery and buying a brand from a French company.
It will take years before the increased capacity catches up with demand because you can't just turn the tap on.
The more than 35,000 members of the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society are owned by the Artisanal Spirits Company. The high end of the market could be worth as much as $4.3 billion, according to the managing director.
The company reported a 50 per cent increase in sales in China in July.
The current economic situation is surmounted by the desirability of what we have to offer.
The long-term nature of the industry meant it was able to defy short-term economic fluctuations, as shown by the 40 percent increase in exports at the height of the financial crisis.
The long-term vision meant that some of the bumps in the road were lessened.
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