ByPuja Gupta

September 11, 2019 (IANSlife) His first encounter with whisky was at the age of 7 when he visited a distillery in Scotland. Fraser Campbell, who is the global brand ambassador of world renown blended whisky brand Dewar’s, has completed 20 years since he started his career in the drinks and bartending industry.

Campbell, however, says his appreciation towards whisky started after he became a bartender. “I was studying in a university and working part time. Once I graduated, I started bartending and got immersed in cocktails… And it was the time of resurgence of the cocktail which coincided quite nice with what I thought of,” said Campbell who was on his maiden visit to India for a whisky cocktail blending session here.

The Speyside-born moved to Edinburgh in Texas during the cocktail revolution that he became heavily involved in. He also spent five years in Australia, where he explored his love for mixing and founded a bar called The Alchemist and also co-founded The Global Bartender Exchange, an online platform to unite bartenders which now has over 150,000 members. He then moved to Spain for two and a half years after which he was offered to become the global ambassador of Dewar’s, founded in 1846 by John Dewar, John Dewar & Sons Ltd in Perth, Scotland.

“At the end of those years, I got a message saying ‘Hey Fraser, do you want to be the brand ambassador of Dewar’s?’ There I saw an opportunity to really put all my experience together and my love for whiskey, cocktail, bartending, travel and cultures,” he recalled.

Campbell in his session held here tried to bring out the difference and stamp out the misconceptions related to single malts and blended scotch whisky.

“For example, blended is the paint and single malt is the painting,” he explained.

Campbell believes that in India, whisky is mostly considered as a straight sipping spirit and a men’s drink. He said the drink can be enjoyed at various occasions, and by all ages – of course after you cross the drinking age -- races and genders. 

He also says that in India, whisky is not easily considered for cocktails, but he feels that there is no other spirit as scotch whisky which has a broad range of flavours.

He says that the secret of making a perfect cocktail is to create balance and harmony between different components of the drink. “You have to know what flavours you want to bring out. It’s not like you throw anything into it, and it becomes a drink. By doing so, the results can be chaotic,” he said.

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Puja Gupta can be contacted at puja.g@ians.in

Editing by Muskan Aggarwal and N. Lothungbeni Humtsoe