It all started with The Angels’ Share, Ken Loach’s film named for the phrase that describes the small percentage of whisky that evaporates from a cask over the course of the maturation process. This concept sparked a conversation between Tom Young and his daughter Karen Somerville that ultimately led them to design the Whisky Angel, a small glass figure that holds a dram within it.
“Distilleries all over Scotland talk about the angels’ share and we thought about creating something that represented that. What would it look like?
"That was the catalyst for our business, we used our glass-blowing expertise and design tools to personalise the figures. It was a gift that represented whisky and Scotland” Karen says.
To capture a measure of whisky in molten glass was an innovation: “It was a difficult process but once it’s in there it’s never going to evaporate. It’s always going to be the end share.
"Some people have heels of a bottle left and they will work with us to put it in an angel that’s belongs to them forever, it might be connected to a wedding or a favourite dram for somebody that’s passed away.
"There are collectors who are interested in the special editions we create with distillers but also it can be a very personal gift.”
The family business continued to develop a range of glassware based around the angels’ share legend and other accessories for whisky drinkers: “I started going to whisky festivals and that is where the water dropper came from when I was watching the tasting experience.
"It’s become our best-selling product which we ship all over the world. We designed our own spirit glass which was part of my own love of whisky and understanding of the industry.
"We are always thinking about little gadgets and things that are part of the ceremony of enjoying whisky.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here