Charles Beamish seeks a high in rare whiskies

His breakthrough came when a Chinese tycoon wanted 200 bottles to gift to his supporters

You could say that it is not entirely surprising that Charles Beamish, whose forebears founded Beamish Crawford beer, the brand of Irish stout now owned by Heineken, would one day find his calling in Scotland’s most famous export.

After all, he was born in Singapore’s Gleneagles Hospital, which stands on the spot where once stood a luxury hotel named Gleneagles which possibly took its name froma similarly named facility in Scotland.

Spending his initial years here and in Hong Kong his father used to be a senior figure in Asian banking circles before moving to Aberdeenshire, Scotland to live on the shores of the River Dee and work in a senior position at Aberdeen Asset Management while he indulged his love for the outdoors the young Beamish was not short of connections.

In his early 20s he spent a couple of years in Cuba, working with Havana Holdings that owns the right to franchise brands including the Floridita, the bar in Havana famously frequented by Ernest Hemingway.

Back in the United Kingdom, he worked at stockbrokers Whitman Howard and later Panmure Gordon before marrying late prime minister Alec Douglas-Home’s great niece and moving to Scotland’s West Lothian area, a twohour drive to his father’s place.

There, in 2015, thanks to private connections, he was introduced to Mr Jonathan Driver, recently appointed as rare whisky director at the firm to promote brands such as Dalmore and Jura. Mr Driver probably thought he could use a person who was familiar with handling private clients and Mr Beamish was hired as a rare whisky private client manager.

Thus, he got his first taste, so to speak, of the preferences of the super rich when it came to rare spirits, their appetite for exclusivity, and at the top end, discreetness of the highest order. As for whisky education, he had a great teacher in Mr Richard Paterson, Dalmore’s longstanding master blender.