The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
High spirits as prince fills barrel on distillery visit
Charles dedicates a dram to his future grandchild,
The Duke of Rothesay dedicated a dram of his 70th birthday whisky to his future grandchild yesterday.
Prince Charles was visiting the Royal Lochnagar Distillery, near Crathie, a day after Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex revealed they are to be parents.
He was there to taste the contents of the cask, which was first gifted to him in 1988, but said he had toasted the future arrival “many times”.
Charles said he was wetting the baby’s head “in its absence”.
The duke was first given the whisky 30 years ago, when he visited the site to mark the 140th anniversary of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s visit there.
It will now be auctioned off to raise funds for The Prince’s Foundation and The Carriage bistro and tearoom, which is housed in the restored Old Royal Station in Ballater.
The duke was met by Claire Fraser, brand home manager at the distillery, before viewing the original Edwin Landseer painting, the Illicit Still, which hangs in one of the rooms.
He was then reacquainted with the manager’s father Ian – who has worked at as an operator for 30 years – and her gran Margaret Finnie, who has now retired but also worked at the distillery and met the duke on his two previous visits.
The duke chatted with the family and also looked at a photograph of himself meeting Mrs Finnie on a 1995 visit.
He was then invited to fill a new cask, the age of which is still to be determined, and sign it off.
The duke was then taken to another room where he tried the 1988 whisky, which will be bottled on his birthday next month.
Staff then presented him with gifts, including a set of coasters made with copper from the wash still used back in 1988.
He was also given glasses made by an artisan trained through one of his grandmother’s charity schemes. They were presented in a box made of larch from the duke’s own Birkhall estate.
His visit ended in conversation with the various tour guides that the distillery employs, with Prince Charles asking them about their work and their background, before he unveiled a plaque commemorating the occasion.
A limited number of the bottles will be auctioned in a ballot, with details still to be revealed, at an estimated price of £1,200 each.
The Royal Lochnagar Distillery has already partnered with the foundation to offer whisky training to hospitality students who will get practical training at The Carriage.
The Duke of Sussex said he and his wife “could not think of a better place to announce the upcoming baby” than Australia.
Kensington Palace revealed that Harry and Meghan’s first child is due in spring, on the eve of their first overseas tour together, with Meghan saying they are both “excited” about parenthood.
The couple were given the first toys for the new arrival, with the parents-tobe handed a soft kangaroo and joey by his Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove and his wife, Lady Cosgrove, at a welcoming ceremony at their Admiralty House residence in Sydney, overlooking the harbour.
It was at the same venue hours later where Harry, addressing an afternoon reception, said: “We couldn’t think of a better place to announce the upcoming baby”.
In remarks which went from sincere to humorous, the duke spoke of his pleasure at being able to show off Australia to the duchess.
“This is my wife’s first visit here so I’m very excited to show her this wonderful country of yours,” he said.
“And we also genuinely couldn’t think of a better place to announce the upcoming baby, whether it’s a boy or a girl, so thank you very, very much.”
Harry and Meghan spent their first day in Sydney getting close to wildlife, including meeting two namesake joeys, and were greeted by hundreds of well-wishers outside the famous Opera House.
At Taronga Zoo, the couple got the chance to meet Harry and Meghan, two joeys which were named after the couple to mark their nuptials earlier in the year. And Meghan said the koalas were “so, so sweet”.
The duke opened the Taronga Institute of Science and Learning before the couple took boat ride across the harbour to the Opera House.
There, they spent more than the allotted 20 minutes greeting crowds in the sunshine, with Harry spotting one familiar face in the crowd.
After finding 98-yearold Daphne Dunne in the crowd of around 2,000 people, he said: “I was looking for you earlier and hoped you’d be here. It’s so good to see you again.”
Mrs Dunne, who saw Harry during his 2015 and 2017 visits to Australia, was able to congratulate both the duke and duchess on their baby news.
War widow Mrs Dunne said: “It was lovely to meet the duchess, Meghan.
“Harry is a wonderful man.”