Damian Riley-Smith

The Climb

Whisky publishing, when done for a trade and collector audience, builds authority through repeated contact with language, provenance, tasting practice, and reader expectation. Since 1998, Damian Riley-Smith has been the founder and contributor of Whisky Magazine, working where tasting notes, distillery stories, collectors, enthusiasts, and the shared vocabulary of appreciation meet. Live whisky culture asks for a different discipline: the subject has to leave the page and hold attention in the room. In 2000, Riley-Smith extended that work as founder at Whisky Live, giving the spirit a social and sensory format alongside the editorial platform of Whisky Magazine. The line from magazine to event to house is direct. Today, Riley-Smith continues as founder and contributor of Whisky Magazine and is also the owner of Rothes Glen, with whisky remaining the organizing material across each role.

Today

Rothes Glen was refurbished and opened on 8 September 2021 as a luxury exclusive-use castle for whisky connoisseurs, equipped with a whisky vault, tasting room, whisky cabinets, whisky library, and whisky observatory. The spaces divide the work of enjoyment into storage, study, pouring, comparison, outlook, and discussion. Whisky hospitality at Rothes Glen is built around Speyside rather than placed on top of it. The concept blends luxury design with whisky heritage to create a Speyside experience for whisky enthusiasts. Its fully staffed format includes traditional Highland banquets, picnics by the lochan, bespoke local activities, and personal tastings, moving the stay between landscape, table, and glass. Architectural lineage matters in a whisky house when the building carries a connection to distillery form. Riley-Smith has said, "When I found this house was built by the man who built most of the distillery pagodas then it was definitely, for me, meant to be an entertainment place for whisky lovers." The point is practical as much as symbolic: Rothes Glen is positioned not only in Speyside, but inside a visual language already tied to whisky production. The same specialty remains visible at Whisky Magazine, where Riley-Smith remains both founder and contributor. Page, tasting, cabinet, and castle are separate formats for the same subject: whisky.

In Their Words “When I found this house was built by the man who built most of the distillery pagodas then it was definitely, for me, meant to be an entertainment place for whisky lovers.” “It has been my long-held dream to create a home from home for those with a the Scottish Highlands and offer the ultimate base for the whisky connoisseur.”

Recognition

Walpole association places Riley-Smith alongside a luxury and craft network, while the whisky work remains anchored in three formats: publication, live encounter, and exclusive-use hospitality. The principal milestones stay clear: founding Whisky Magazine in 1998, founding Whisky Live in 2000, and opening the refurbished Speyside castle in 2021. The progression runs from editorial authority to hosted experience, with whisky as the constant material.