By day, Sarah Russell is “Miss Sarah”, an Australian primary school teacher in Adelaide. The rest of the time, she’s “That Whisky Girl”, an Instagram influencer and whisky podcaster breaking down barriers in a male-dominated industry.

“I just wanted to get the girls going,” she tells John from Kyoto, Japan’s “cultural capital”, where she’s just back from visiting the Miyagikyo Distillery founded by Masataka Taketsuru, the Father of Japanese Whisky.

“I got into whisky into whisky a few years ago,” Sarah says, “and I’ve just found that it’s a very male dominated field. And every time I go to whisky events, I’m usually the only girl or it’s a couple of girlfriends and they don’t really love whisky.

“But I meet lots of girls who love whisky and they talk about how maybe they don’t feel so comfortable going to these events. So I just really wanted to get everyone into it.”

“You know,” she continues, “it’d be fantastic to have a bit of a girls’ night out at a whisky event rather than just it being a bit of boys’ night thing. And I’ve met so many women who are whisky distillers in Australia and brand ambassadors and amazing bartenders. So I really just wanted to showcase everything they’ve got going on.”

But she adds: “I feel anytime I'm in a whisky bar in Adelaide or at a whisky show the amount of times I've had people say, ‘Do you even like whisky? Do you even know how to drink whisky?’ Or I've had like men stop me and just be like, ‘This is how you drink whisky.’ I'm like uh-huh I know.”

So at the start of the year Sarah launched a fortnightly podcast on Instagram called “She’s On The Rocks” to do just that.

Sarah’s whisky journey started off with whisky and cola when she was younger. But as for whisky on its own, “I was like, nah, it's not for me. It's a bit burny.”

Yet, while she found she “struggled with drinking it”, she loved the smell of whisky; liked nosing it. “So I just kept trying it,” she says. “And eventually it just clicked for me. One day I was like, ‘What is this? I love whisky now’.”

But not just the taste.

“It's the memories behind things and it's the experiences, it's the people. It's just such a wonderful community as well,” she explains.

Join John and Sarah as they trade memories made over sharing a dram; discover Sarah’s three favourite Australian whiskies; and find out just how much heftier the Angels’ Share is in Australia compared to Scotland, which is why, Sarah says, “It’s so hard for us to get older age statements.”

Slàinte!

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Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes

Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)

Vocals: Andrea Cunningham

Guitars: John Beattie

Bass: Alasdair Vann

Drums: Alan Hamilton

Bagpipes: Calum McColl

Accordion: Gary Innes

Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie

Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland

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