This’ll do. I’m in the Cairngorms, it’s a beautiful day, we’re sitting by the River Avon, fire blazing, and Iain, master blender, is passing round the single malts. “This is what whisky was made for,” he says, indicating the scenery around us, and I know what he means: the national drink tastes of this place, it’s the heartland of whisky. But the people who live here, the people who depend on it, they’re worried, and angry.

The main source of the anger – but not the only one – is currently 4,000 miles away in the US and also has a claim to ancient Scottish heritage I’m afraid. You probably saw him in action last week, pointing to a list of his big beautiful tariffs on a notice board made out of cardboard by Valerie Singleton and Peter Purves. The UK was about half way down the list, under Cambodia but above South Africa, and the result was a blanket tariff of 10% on all UK goods; 10% on everything.

The everything includes Scotch whisky of course and it’s going to have monumental consequences. Exports of British drinks and spirits to the US are worth some £1.6bn a year and two-thirds of it’s Scotch whisky; the United States is by far its most important overseas market and don’t we know it. Sitting by the River Avon sampling the Tomintoul 16-year-old (very fine), and travelling round Speyside, and visiting the countless distilleries in the area, and meeting the people who come here, the accent you hear most is American. Next to Asia, it’s the market that really matters.

There may still be some hope, though, that the worst of it can be avoided.

© Herald Scotland