about me

Who I am

I'm Sam, an experience creator and sensory specialist based in Speyside, and probably one of very few people in the spirits industry who sees actual colours when they taste a dram.

That's synaesthesia. Mine connects taste and smell to colour and vivid visual scenes - and I also have hyperphantasia, which means those scenes are genuinely detailed. Full colour, full atmosphere, completely immersive. I didn't choose it, but I wouldn't give it up. It fundamentally changed how I think about the way people experience things, because it made it obvious very early on that my response to a spirit is completely my own. Which means yours is too. And once you really sit with that, the idea of telling someone what they should be tasting starts to seem not just unhelpful, but a bit ridiculous.

That belief is what eventually led me here. I spent thirteen years in marketing - working out how people connect with brands, products, stories - and a significant chunk of that inside the Scotch whisky industry with names like The Macallan, Highland Park, Benriach, and Glenglassaugh. I also spent time with OurWhisky Foundation, working to make the industry more inclusive and welcoming, which sits very close to what I care about. My roots are in whisky, but my genuine passion is spirits more broadly - gin, rum, bourbon, mezcal. If there's something interesting happening in a glass, I want to understand it.

What I kept noticing throughout all of that was the gap between the quality of what was in the glass and the experience around it. Brilliant spirits, served in a way that made people feel like outsiders. I became increasingly convinced that getting the experience right - really right, in a way that's built around how people actually feel and respond - mattered just as much as what was being poured. That's what Vantage Creative is. My attempt to do that properly.

I'm also American, which still raises eyebrows in Speyside. Being an outsider in a tradition-heavy industry turned out to be useful though. You notice the gatekeeping a lot more clearly when you're not used to it - and you're much less inclined to defend it.

If any of this resonates with what you're looking for, get in touch. I'd genuinely love to hear about it.