Camille grew up living across the entire United States, which instilled in her a love for travel, adventure, and discovery. It was this love of adventure that took her and her husband, Christopher, to Scotland. There, she was drawn to the centuries-old tradition of distilling that has been passed down from generation to generation and woven into Scotlandʼs history, culture, and communities. This became the inspiration for Bently Heritage Distillery, and for making something truly unique with uncompromising integrity that will be appreciated for generations to come. During the formative years of Bently Heritage, Camille focused on curating a collective of passionate innovators and talented artists, scientists, and alchemists with the goal of infusing each spirit with a brilliant character, unmatched distinction, determined excellence, and a little bit of magic. As it takes a village to raise a child, this project has grown from the love, imagination, and efforts of not only Christopher and Camille but a community of distillers, architects, craftsmen, and committed professionals. Camille takes great pride and joy in the entire estate operation, including its environmentally-responsible agricultural practices, growing non-GMO and Heritage Grains on the estate’s own land, cultivating ingredients to create exceptional gins, reviving the age old—and now rare—tradition of floor malting, and using superior hand-hammered copper stills. These stills were imported from Scotland and Germany and are now housed in historic, century-old buildings that were carefully restored to preserve and enhance their architectural beauty in every detail over a five-year endeavor. Camilleʼs influence, in what has been both a labor and a love, shows through in Bently Heritageʼs culture, sense of holistic environment, and creations.
Camille also has developed and directed the Bently Foundation from its inception, incorporating her and Christopherʼs other passions for protecting the environment and wildlife as well as supporting a culture of appreciation for performing and public art. Together, Christopher and Camille have funded everything from classical ballet, street art installations, animal rescue and welfare, and environmental protection campaigns, to international land conservation projects. Camille has always had a fascination with wildlife and the natural environment, and a desire to protect them. From a young age she provided constant frustration and worry to her mother, always coming home after dark bearing a dayʼs adventure—dirty, scraped, and bruised with some creature swaddled up and determined to nurture it to health: a bird fallen from its nest, or a litter of kittens discovered mewing in the snow. She was always full of stories of caterpillars beginning to cocoon, new lizards in the wood pile, crawdads in the stream, and encounters with colonies of red ants and the bites to prove them. Nothing has been more fulfilling than being surrounded by creatures in nature. Her love and work with the Foundation and the causes it supports is a daily dedication and cherished honor, fulfilling her lifelong dream.
