Family business is on the side of the angels

Angels’ Share Glass was founded in 2013 by a father-and-daughter team in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire who are known for producing unique, handblown glass angels filled with whisky.

Tom Young is a world-renowned glass blower and in 2005 sold his business Village Glass in anticipation of his retirement.

However, his daughter Karen Somerville had a ‘eureka’ moment while watching the film The Angels’ Share shortly after it was released.

She had a vision to create a hand-blown glass angel filled with whisky as an homage to the angels’ share, which occurs during the maturation of whisky.

Instead of retiring, Tom was persuaded by Karen to establish Angels’ Share Glass and devised an IP protected glass angel, which is hand-blown and filled with 25ml of whisky.

The angels look similar to the well-known Murano glass angels from Italy, except they are filled with whisky.

The whisky is hermetically sealed in a special process only known to Tom and Karen.

The expertise required to seal the flammable whisky into molten glass, without it igniting, is what makes these glass angels so unique.

In his earlier career, Tom created spirit safe bowls for nearly every distillery in Scotland as well as making specially commissioned glass pens for the first release of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. In 2017, Tom received an MBE for services to glass blowing.

Karen, who is MD of the business, has driven the growth of sales dramatically since the first angel was created back in 2013. The angels are now sold at whisky distilleries across Scotland as well as specialist independent gift shops.

The team have also branched out into other whisky-related blown glass gifts, such as water droppers, decorative tasting glass lids and glass drinks stirrers.

The multi-award winning family business is going from strength to strength and recently opened a new glass blowing studio to further evolve its offer.

The namesake product is purely decorative and not for drinking. It’s completely sealed, the intention being you can keep your favourite dram forever.

As they say to customers, ‘It’s not our whisky, it’s the angels’ share’.