The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Lockdown heroes Feldy-roo handed dram good boost
The Feldy-roo initiative, which saw more than 230 vulnerable people be fed twice a day for free when the coronavirus pandemic first hit, has teamed up with a local distillery to create its first whisky.
Dewar’s in Aberfeldy was one of the first firms to come to the aid of Feldyroo in offering free hand sanitiser, and has now given the team the chance to raise funds for the project while creating a legacy product.
On Friday, 13 volunteers visited the distillery to bottle around 150 of the 20-year-old Dewar’s malt, which are now on sale from the Feldy-roo Facebook page.
Spearheaded by Gavin Price and Julie Roy, the initiative now delivers free meals to 130 vulnerable people across a 30-mile radius from Fearnan to Aberfeldy, and everywhere in between.
Gavin said: “The distillery contacted us out of the blue and said they were going to bottle a prototype of 20-year-old single malt for Feldy-roo and wanted to donate it to us.
“I thought we were getting one bottle but it turns out they have prepared a whole cask for us.
“They are going to donate a substantial proportion of the profits to us, and to have a Feldy-roo keepsake whisky is just amazing.”
Filled by the volunteers, there will be around 100 bottles for the public to get their hands on with 60 already claimed by volunteers who have helped support the project since its inception.
Gavin also says there are specific numbers he believes will prove to be extra special to people, like 20, which is associated with the year 2020 in which Feldy-roo was established, in high demand.
“I think they will sell pretty much instantly as we’ve had loads of interest,” said Gavin.
“The whisky will be priced at £120 and bottled at 51.5%,” he added. “I think they will be real collector’s items.”
Gavin is certain there is a place for Feldy-roo once lockdown restrictions have been lifted and feels the initiative will continue to be community focused and led.
He said: “We don’t know how long we’ll be going with Feldy-roo, it depends entirely on how lockdown lasts, and we’re prepared to go on for as long as we can.
“We’ve been really lucky with different funders that we have the finances to do it, but we need to keep going with it. We’re servicing around 130 people at the moment. That can potentially still rise.”
Co-founder Julie was the first person to pour one of the bottles of whisky.
She said: “It was emotional doing it.
“It was a really overwhelming moment and the fact that the distillery had come forward with this cask and we were going to be filling it to get some profits for Feldy-roo, and the fact I was pouring the first bottle out of the Feldy-roo cask, was just quite touching.” very