This week I once again realised just how great my wife is. She was casually helping me out by packing up whisky tasting packs and labelling sample bottles of whisky as I plotted out the various press trips I have been invited on to ensure the calendar was up to date.

Then it dawned on me that there is a lot she has to put up with my writing lifestyle as well as my consulting lifestyle so here’s the 25 signs you are married to a whisky writer: 

1. You have proofed hundreds of articles about something you have a fleeting passion for, but only since your partner has been writing about it.

2. They get so excited about invites or a response from someone they admire within the industry that you cannot help but smile.

3. There are lots of sample bottles around the house that to the untrained eye look like they should be sent to hospital for analysis.

4. They often have sleepless nights when their brain won’t stop thinking about money and new ideas to grow their whisky site.

5. You have to occasionally remind them that it is ok to say no to events or trips, occasionally.

6. You have suddenly woken up at about 2am to the sound of your partner’s fingers clicking on his laptop next to you in bed.

7. They rope your family members into their love of whisky, getting them hooked on auction sites and buying limited editions.

8. You have ended up doing some really random things to help your partner out such as labelling whisky samples, packing Glencairn glasses, getting fliers printed and left in appropriate places, washing hundreds of Glencairn glasses after tasting sessions.

9. You no longer take a bottle of nice wine to dinner parties, you are silently required to bring a good bottle of whisky as you’re the only two people there who know about the stuff.

10. You come along to a bunch of whisky events despite not being the biggest fan of the stuff.

11. You have more Glencairn glasses in the house than you have any other glasswear.

12. Boxes of auction wins arrive every couple of weeks, and each and every bottle was a ‘bargain’ or ’needed’ or a ‘hard to find seminal bottle in a brand’s limited edition back catalogue’. Whatever.

13. Post-Its everywhere.

14. There are whisky-based decorations throughout your house.

15. Your partner is always working on about ten different ideas any given time and pondering the angle to approach each piece with.

16. People ask you to ask them about what whisky they should buy for a loved one you don’t know.

17. Trips to supermarkets or indeed any store where whisky is sold become painfully slow as each and every new rebrand or new packaging design gets examined and photographed.

18. You do get to enjoy the perks of coming along to the odd restaurant and bar review.

19. There is a collection of empty whisky bottles running round the kitchen as a weird form of decorative installation.