Glen Garioch Distillery
Keeping in theme with difficult pronunciations, our next field trip away form Aberdeen University and our ongoing research was to taste Glen Garioch Scottish whisky at its namesake distillery. Locals pronounce it “Glen Gear-ee,” like the gear on a bike and “ee” rhyming with whisky. Go figure!
After our days studying Scots history but preceding this distillery visit, we had the privilege of meeting with several solicitors of varying tenure at Aberdeen’s Burness Paull LLP law offices. The first set of speakers spoke both to Scottish legal education generally and the in’s and out’s on a day in the life of a Scottish Oil and Gas lawyer at Burness Paull, specifically. One of the most informative bits of this session was to hear about these topics from varying perspectives: one speaker was a trainee-solicitor, another an already fully-qualified solicitor, and two of their leaders at the associate level.
The next session included a deep dive into much of the regulatory side of Scottish oil and gas production. Our two esteemed speakers of Burness Paull’s Health & Safety division spoke to the environmental health and safety regime in the U.K., as well as the differences between the U.K. and the U.S. on bribery and foreign corrupt practices.
So after much serious talk, we needed a beverage. Being the distillery easiest to visit from Aberdeen, Glen Garioch won our bus tickets and taste buds with a “wee tasting tour.” We learned much about the history of making scotch and Glen Garioch’s role in the local and international importance of this iconic Scottish beverage.
