And now he has combined his two loves — whisky and Moffat.
For, after years of researching, he’s created ‘The Moffat’ — a blended malt Scottish whisky as part of his company, Dark Sky Blends.
Nick’s research took him all around Scotland and to distilleries in the USA as he developed his lowland malt.
The blend was launched at the “Dram Circle” blind tasting session just before Christmas and now he has 2500 numbered bottles on the shelves at the Moffat Toffee Shop and in local hotels.
Nick moved to Moffat three years ago, following plenty of childhood visits to the town, after living in Cincinnati, Ohio in the US for two decades.
Discussing the town, he said: “We were looking for a vibrant community: friendly people, great education, plenty going on and very accessible.”
And he chose to honour the town with a drink that reflected Moffat’s flavour.
He said: “Our blend contains only single malt whiskies from across Scotland.
“Many people have said that it reminds them of a Speyside single malt.
“Our recipe was developed in Moffat, after researching the knowledge, experience and taste buds of the townsfolk.”
And Nick has high hopes for the drink as he looks to set up a factory in town and create jobs.
He said: “As soon as we can find suitable premises in town, we’ll begin setting up our blending, bottling and labelling facility.
“At the moment, we’re incredibly small. Once we have a few more products on the market, and when we start blending and bottling for ourselves, we’ll need at least half a dozen or so people to work for us.”
He added: “We’re trying to keep things as local as possible: Zoe Dutton, our designer, lives in Moffat; Jonathan Cosens, our photographer, lives in Moffat.
“People in town have been incredibly supportive throughout the project.”
And asked if he thinks this will help put Moffat on the map, Nick said: “Moffat is already on the map, in my opinion.
“We’ve lost a couple of businesses recently, including Uncle Roy’s, which I believe is now up in Ayr, but recent estimates based on the number of cars parked in town tell us that there are close to a million people visiting our town every year.
“We believe the whisky would be good for the town as a whole.”
Two more blends will be released this year and a tasting has been organised on February 21 at the Proudfoot Institute.
