Ferguson Whisky Embarks on a Spirited Journey: Miles Traveled, Hills Ahead

David Ferguson at The Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom.

by Hugh MacDonald
Photography by Laura Ferguson

​The Machrie golf course stares imperiously at the sea. It sits on an island where peat bogs provide heat in the way of fuel and a way of life in the dark water they funnel to the island distilleries.

The Scottish essentials of golf, food, and whisky are never more distilled than on the small Hebridean island. The distilleries have produced a famed worldwide product in its range of Islay malts. It has also been the instigator of invigorating personal experience.

“I once sat in the old Machrie Hotel eating prawn sandwiches after a round of golf with my brother, Andrew. It must have been about 30 years ago,” says David Ferguson. “It is one of those seemingly small experiences that lead you to where you are today.”

He also sat in the informal conventions after funerals and weddings on the island. He was also taken to The Slaughterhouse Shed on the back road of Port Ellen, a town laced with distilleries nearby. This all informed his life, and it has now consumed it.

David has launched Ferguson Whisky, an independent blender and bottler that provides end-to-end whisky services from cask to bottle. This can be consultancy work on bespoke projects or managing whisky portfolios for clients. This is business, but it is also personal. The whisky business is bred in the bone for David.

This is a life in three acts. The major scenes are set in Islay, New York, and mainland Scotland. David is the leading actor. It is a story of passion, the tale of a boy who grew to be a businessman, and a celebration of family and how goodness can beget goodness.

It is a saga that deserves to be savored over a good malt. And there is no other kind on Islay.  The story starts and ends on the island.

David and Jack at Lochranza Distillery, Isle of Arran.
This was taken in 2020 when we visited Jack’s ‘Arran 2020 Cask’ for the first time.

“My grandfather, Alexander MacInnes, was an leach,” says David, using the Gaelic word for a native of the island. “He moved to Glasgow to work, married, and lived in the West End of Glasgow. My grandad, a great storyteller, was an electrician at Fairfields Shipbuilders, and my grandmother, Ellen MacInnes, a fabulous cook, was a nurse at the Western Infirmary.”

Islanders had to travel to the mainland for medical treatment. Their relatives stayed with his grandparents. “It was the sort of thing that was just done naturally,” he says. “You helped other people out. If islanders were coming to the city, you shared your home with them.” He adds: “I am known on the island as the grandson of Alexander and Ellen MacInnes. That is all people need to know, and there is immediate respect for where I have come from in life and who I am.”

A few miles from the beautiful Machrie Golf Club stands The Slaughterhouse Shed. Its grisly name disguises a more benign purpose. “It was used latterly by local men to sample whisky and discuss matters of the day. It was owned by my Uncle Frankie, who in the manner of the day was lighthouse keeper, local butcher, and a Stillman at Port Ellen Distillery,” says David.

David, now a member of the Machrie Golf Club, has renovated The Slaughterhouse Shed. “I just have to add a water supply,” he says. This brings a recollection of holidaying on the island. “Machrie chalets were fairly basic back then, nothing like the luxurious hotel that exists now. The water in the taps ran peaty brown. I have never forgotten that.”

He had early duties in the alcohol trade. “As a boy, I would visit my grandparents at weekends, and the house would occasionally be full of people from Islay who were staying while their relatives were receiving treatment at the Western Infirmary across the road. Parties would break out with songs being sung and drink being taken. I helped serve the drink, and my grandmother took whisky with a lot of water.”

The scene changes abruptly to New York. David graduated from Strathclyde Business School and then trained as a chartered accountant with Deutsche Bank in London before then moving to Wall Street. “I was there from 2006 to 2010, so I worked right through the financial crisis,” he says. He was laboring in the field of credit risk management. “I would start early in the morning and not stop until silly o’clock at night,” he says.

David at the Swilcan Bridge on The Old Course, St Andrews. Scotland, United Kingdom.

He was never far from whisky or golf. “As the token Scot, I was looked upon as the expert on anything to do with whisky,” he says. His natural inclination was to use any leisure time to focus on golf. “I experienced the 39th Ryder Cup, the Miracle at Medinah in 2012, and I was pleased to learn that it had been designed by a Scotsman, Tom Bendelow, in conjunction with the great Bobby Jones.”

Alister MacKenzie, the golf designer who helped create one of the most iconic courses, Augusta National, which hosts the annual Masters Tournament, was also of Gaelic stock. His father came from Lochinver in the Highlands. The link between Scots and golf is as strong as the bond between Scots and whisky.

This is starkly visible in St Andrews, the home of golf. David is a regular visitor to this part of Fife. Again, it is personal. “It is a regular holiday haunt for myself, my wife, and my children,” he says. It is also business. “There are so many new distilleries springing up in the East Neuk of Fife, and I am now working with them.”

Ferguson Whisky has become a link in that chain that unites whisky and golf universally. It is now a partner with Bravo Whisky Golf, whose mission statement is to “go above and beyond to make golf fresh and exciting and to reveal to a select few our favorite secret places.” The journeys are bespoke. The destinations are celebrated with highly distinctive malts. Ferguson Whisky also has a partnership with Brindiamo, a leader in bulk alcohol sourcing, to offer investors prime opportunities in the rapidly growing bourbon industry.

Both will benefit from David’s extensive and undoubtedly unrivaled experience in the whisky business. The boy who was surrounded by the water of life in his grandparent’s home went on to immerse himself in the whisky business when he returned from New York. He has been in the industry for 15 years, working for esteemed distilleries, including Bruichladdich, on Islay, and Isle of Arran Distillers. He has thus established personal connections with those at the very top of the whisky business.

student and regularly ran around the reservoir. I always looked down and promised myself that one day I would live in one of those houses,” says David. It took him merely 15 years. After his sojourn in New York, he made his home near the loch with his wife, Laura. They were soon joined by two sons, Jack and Ben.

It was an early sign that the teenage Ferguson was not afraid to set targets and then achieve them. This trait has followed him in his business career. He could have stayed on Wall Street. He could have stayed with the prestigious whisky brands and distilleries. But he decided to form Ferguson Whisky. So what made him take such a jump? “Again, it was just something inside me. I wanted to use my experience and professional expertise in my own way. That’s how Ferguson Whisky was born.”

Machrie Hotel, Isle of Islay (with the Ferguson Whisky branded vehicle)

So what does he want to do with the company? “We are an independent blender and bottler providing end-to-end whisky services from cask to bottle. This could be consultancy on a range of whisky portfolios. We source and buy bulk volumes of whisky. We offer luxury whisky experiences and bottlings. This comes with the promise of individual adventure because it is more than a business, though we seek to make a profit for investors, and our professionalism gives a more than good chance of that.”

He points out that more than £7bn came into the UK economy in 2023 and knows the seriousness of the business. “I have strong relationships with distilleries and brands and can thus access all aspects of the single malt lifespan. This includes spirit supply, access to wood, warehousing and bottling.” The company has already built a satisfied customer list. Yes, we bring experience and expertise, and hopefully, we can continue to bring financial returns,” says Ferguson. “But, for me, it has to be about a lot more than that.”

He has business credentials, HMRC taxation certificates, and ethical and practical working practices guarantees. “This is all good and
proper and the least that any potential investor should expect,” he says. “But it has to be about something deeper, too. I was brought up with whisky and its lore. I heard the stories louder and clearer when I went into what many call a business, but my grandparents would simply call a way of life. I want others to hear that story and enjoy that experience. I want the people who come to Ferguson  Whisky to have an adventure. I want them to have spectacular tastings and wonderful physical and spiritual journeys. This may seem all too romantic, but it has been my life. This is what happened to me. I will pass this on to my sons, not just as a business but as a lesson in who we are, what we believe is important, and what we think should endure and be celebrated.”

Thus, photographs of the MacInnes clan and its Ferguson branch are found at The Slaughterhouse Shed and on other points of the island. This is why a stroll on Machrie Golf Course provokes memories far from birdies made and bogies suffered. It is why there are now photographs of David and his older son, Jack, in distilleries, breathing in the spirit of family history and wondering at the mysterious contents of casks.

It has always been a family endeavor. “I have been steeped in it,” he says. “It has always fascinated me. I want to dedicate my working life to it. I want it to be an adventure. But I want people to accompany me on it. It has enhanced my life, and I want it to add to others’ lives. There is a great story to be heard, but there is also a great story for every individual to tell, whether it be that night they first visited a wonderful place, be it on Islay or on Speyside, or that day they bought that special cask or even that morning they walked onto one of Scotland’s great courses after a wonderful night sampling a dram of the best a nation and a culture can create.”

The journey has begun for Ferguson Whisky. Many miles have been tramped by its creator. There are exciting hills still to be scaled.

To learn more about Ferguson Whisky please visit their website at www.fergusonwhisky.com

To learn more about Brindiamo Group please visit their website at www.brindiamogroup.com

To learn more about Bravo Whisky Golf  please visit their website at www.bravowhiskygolf.com

David, Laura, Jack, Ben (& Brodie the dog) on holiday in Islay.