Crichton Conversation with Professor David Thomson PhD

The scientific magic of single malt Scotch Whisky

Professor David Thomson is co-founder of Annandale Distillery. Upon discovering the dormant distillery in a book entitled Scotch Missed, which acts as a catalogue of closed single malt distilleries in Scotland, David and his wife and business partner Teresa Church made it their mission to awaken the once-asleep building and return scotch whisky production to the South of Scotland. Annandale Distillery was reborn in 2014 thanks to Professor Thomson’s and his team’s work on the sensory science surrounding flavour profiles of the spirit production and the cask maturation. Annandale Distillery once again produces single malt whisky, after almost a century of laying dormant, and attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Previously, David worked as a chemist and university lecturer with a focus on sensory and consumer science before establishing Oxfordshire-based Mathematical Market Research (MMR) – which is claimed to be the largest privately-owned marketing and consumer research agency in the world.

David is also an ambassador of the Robert Burns World Federation. His passion for history and the works of Robert Burns led him and his wife to take on The Globe Inn – Dumfries, which has been restored in a way sympathetic to Burns’ time and has since received multiple awards and was recently listed in the Michelin Guide.