There is an air of concentration, of quiet, mastered pleasure, and in some sense, these attributes mirror the astonishing ascendency of Japanesewhisky itself, which now regularly surpasses its Scottish progenitor in international whisky awards.
In 1991, he offended whisky makers, who are Scotland's second biggest exporters, by accepting a handsome sum for promoting a whisky made by Suntory, a Japanese firm.