The business pages of today’s (14th February) edition of The Herald carry a major profile on Richard Joynson – interviewed  in the bar of The George, across the road in Inveraray from Richard’s renowned Loch Fyne Whiskies shop.

The journalist describes Inveraray in terms that make it sound like a two-dimensional pop-up book: ‘Inveraray, once known only for the Duke of Argyll, his storybook feudal bastion on the shores of Loch Fyne and a 19th century jail – boasting ‘A Prison for All: men, women children, babies even lunatics…’

The piece then quotes the success of Loch Fyne Whiskies in being voted Retailer of the Year in 2004 by the whisky industry, using this as its move into a close focus on Joynson himself.

He turns out to have begun his life in Argyll as a fish farm owner/manager in the mid 1980s and moved to whisky retailing in the 1990s, feeling that fish farming was increasingly non-viable. He taught himself about whisky, starting from the useful base of liking to drink it.

The writing rightly reflects the amazingly dense variety of stock Loch Fyne Whiskies carries. It remarks on the way gthe wrap-around ranks of bottles, their names, colours, labels and presentation packaging seems to compel purchase. And it records the gratifying habit of Joynson’s customer base in making regular repeat orders though his website.

A recognisable picture emerges of a shop where tastings, intriguing and well informed conversation and unpretentious advice are the order of the day. With evidence on his side, Joynson tells the reporter that he enjoys talking to people who come into the shop. He is hugely well informed on whisky, he loves the knowledge almost as much as the product and he loves to share it. He is as interested in discussing the options you might have in spending £30 on a bottle  to kill in short order at a party as in a serious present at whatever you want to pay. And his staff are bred in the same engaging mould.

In the interview, Joynson says that he sella around 50,000 bottles a year, around half of which are online sales. He is no passive retailer, but has created the Loch Fyne blended whisky, the chocolate-orange flavoured Loch Fyne liqueur and the breath-taking – literally – Living Cask. He credits the Furnace Inn – in the village of the same name where he lives in a house with a wonderful view in an area – Mid Argyll – which he calls ‘the most beautiful part of the British Isles’ – with helping to finalise the creation of his Loch Fyne Liqueur. This was down to a series of now legendary tastings of the various blends with which he was experimenting.

At the end, the profile presents the picture of a happy and discriminating man with no wish to expand what would clearly be an expandable business. He has no need of the hassle and he doesn’t need to do better than he’s already doing, He says: ‘As long as I can keep my family in steaks and coffee, why bother… I don’t thin k people or companies should be greedy. They should be happy and provide the service and the customers will come’.

You get the sense that the journalist enjoyed Joynson’s company, the conviviality of The George and maybe even the odd dram and some advice from the shop. It’s an attractive piece and it accounts for a soundly founded business that is a way of life.

By the way, if you’re feeling flush, Loch Fyne Whiskies’ ‘Tomorrow’s News‘ informs customers that it has managed to source some more of the second release of the MacAllan Lalique 55 year old. Due in soon – its recommended retail price is £6,000.