For Marelise Niemann, the lure of wine is the very thing that might frustrate less intuitive winegrowers. “You’re never in control: you’re always humbled,” she says – by the weather, by the baboons that eat your grapes, by nature. Humbling though it may be, Niemann has made Grenache her mission – crafting South Africa’s finest, most elegant expressions of this grape under her Momento label.  It's perhaps not surprising, given the style of her wines, that it was a vintage in Burgundy that provided her lightbulb moment. At the time, in the late noughties, South Africa was still focused on producing big wines: bold reds, extracted and heavily oaked, were seen as the best. Parker’s influence was lingering, and South Africa was still bouncing back from apartheid and the stifling monopoly of the KWV. But a stint working with Pinot Noir made Niemann realise the surprising and sometimes incongruous power of delicacy – in short, that bigger wasn’t always better.  And she was one of many on a similar journey. South Africa’s New Wave movement was gathering pace. Led by the likes of Eben Sadie, Adi Badenhorst, and Chris and Andrea Mullineux, these producers were crafting fresh and fine wines, reinventing South Africa’s vinous identity. What started in the Swartland soon swept across the nation, and Niemann was part of this groundswell.  It was farming that first drew her to wine, having spent time as a child on her grandparents’ farm in Stanford, a small village in the Overberg, getting up at the crack of dawn to help milk the cows or do whatever else needed doing. Although her parents both left agriculture behind, she wanted to work the land. Growing up in Elgin, dominated by apples but with a nascent grape industry, she decided to try viticulture. Late nights with many bottles at university in Stellenbosch convinced her that growing grapes wasn’t enough, and soon her degree had broadened to include winemaking.  After travelling the world and doing vintages in the Rhône and California, she got a job working alongside Sebastian Beaumont – who had just taken over his family’s estate, Beaumont Family Wines. It was here, she explains, that she could unlearn everything in the books. While there, she continued to travel and do vintages in the Northern Hemisphere – including the aforementioned stint in Burgundy.   Although Pinot Noir was her inspiration, it was the freshness and vibrancy that she was chasing, rather than Pinot itself – well aware that much of South Africa is simply too hot and dry for the variety. A trip to Terroir al Limit (the Priorat project created by Dominik Huber and Eben Sadie in 2001) in 2010 was pivotal. She fell instantly for the region’s beautiful old Garnacha vines, and the lighter styles that Huber and Sadie were producing.   She immediately returned and sought out a parcel of Grenache in the Western Cape. She bought two tonnes from a 50-year-old vineyard in the Swartland with Donovan Rall (of Rall Wines); he picked the fruit and trucked it down to Stellenbosch, where they stashed it illicitly in a university cold room overnight courtesy of a friend, and she then drove it down to Beaumont. The winemaking was minimal, in part because she was busy making the Beaumont wines, and she didn’t have any equipment – but also because it was what the vineyard gave her, leaning towards a lighter, more fragrant style. The first vintage of Momento Grenache was born. That was 2011, and before she’d even decided on a name or considered designing a label for the bottled product, it was chosen for the famous Young Guns tasting. (Her husband – an artist – sketched the vine you’ll see on the label today, with faces in the trunk, because for Niemann wine isn’t just the geeky stuff, but the people – both those who make it and those who enjoy it.)  Fast forward a decade, and Momento has earned quite the reputation. Niemann was named Tim Atkin MW’s Young Winemaker of the Year in his 2023 South Africa Report, and critics gush over the wines from this “Grenache-whisperer” (as dubbed by Malu Lambert, Decanter).  Although Niemann makes a Chenin Blanc/Verdelho blend and Tinta Barocca, Grenache is very much the core of the Momento range – with Grenache Gris and Blanc, as well as several different bottlings of Grenache Noir. It’s unsurprising given the beautifully fragrant, fine and fresh style of her wines that those she looks to for inspiration are Rayas (of course), but also those of Sierra de Gredos (such as Comando G), and finer, new-wave examples from Australia too – like Yangarra or S.C. Pannell. With the 2022 vintage, she introduced three additional single-site expressions of Grenache Noir, adding a bottling from Botrivier shale, Piekenierskloof sandstone and Riebeekberg schist, alongside her Paardeberg wine (previously labelled as Swartland, or Western Cape, all on granite). The idea is to show what Grenache can do in South Africa, speaking of their different soils, yet all retaining her trademark vibrancy and delicacy.  For Niemann, Grenache and the other varieties she works with aren’t an arbitrary choice, but those that are sustainable in the South African climate. Almost all the vineyards she works with are dry-farmed (with one that she’s weaning off its water-dependency). She points to the drought of 2015-2018 with its threat of Day Zero, when no one could irrigate their vines: she recalls how the Cabernet and Merlot in a neighbouring vineyard gave up, offering little to no crop, but it wasn’t the case with her Grenache, which “just carried on with life”. As she says, “There will be another day zero in South Africa. It will become hotter and drier. We need to farm varietals that don’t need to be irrigated.” Grapes like Grenache, Chenin and Verdelho, alongside Cinsault and Carignan are – for her – the answer. “It’s what our climate wants us to plant,” she says.  One thing’s for sure: if this is the future for South African wine, it’s incredibly exciting. Forget high-alcohol, soupy sweet Grenache; Niemann’s wines are fine-boned, fresh, textured, perfumed and pure – wines that speak of place. Allocations of her single-site bottlings vanished almost instantly on release – and I’m in no doubt that her star will only continue to rise. Snap these wines up while you can.  Explore the Momento range or read more about South Africa 

Named Tim Atkin MW’s Young Winemaker of the Year in 2023, Marelise Niemann is crafting some of South Africa’s most exciting wines. We sat down with the Momento winemaker to talk about her journey into wine, falling head-over-heels for Burgundy and why Grenache is the future for the Western Cape

Sitting down with Marlise Niemann, the winemaker behind Momento wines in Bot River, South Africa – Tim Atkin’s Young Winemaker of the Year 2023

Redefining Grenache: Marelise Niemann’s Momento wines

Redefining Grenache: Momento 

When it comes to whisky, the conversation has long been dominated by maturation – on how long the liquid spends slumbering in which cask, on how big the cask is and what it held before, whether a Sherry butt, wine barrique, first-fill Bourbon barrel or the fashionable mizunara. Recently, there’s been an increased focus on the base product, with producers such as Waterford’s Mark Reynier championing single-site, single-barley, terroir-driven whiskies (and rums, with his Renegade project). But, somehow, there’s a tendency to skip on by the magic that happens in between: distillation.  While grain whisky is column distilled, malt whisky is almost exclusively distilled in copper pot stills – indeed, it’s a legal requisite for Scotch whisky. Crafting these copper beauties is an art – and one that depends on a handful of specialists. Kentucky has Vendome, Germany has Kothe and CARL, Italy has Frilli and Scotland has Forsyths. The equipment these coppersmiths produce lays the foundation the DNA of its new-make.  To the untrained eye, these onion-shaped pieces of kit look almost identical, but the size and shape is distinct to each distillery – defining its style. As distilleries expand and increase production, they don’t buy a bigger still – but commission exact replicas of their existing still(s), with every dent and dimple carefully recreated. Macallan, famously, replaced all its stills when building its new state-of-the-art distillery in 2018, asking Forsyths to create 36 stills that were identical to those it had previously used.  Although there have been attempts to use other metals, copper has long been favoured for distilling – originally for its pliability, making it easy to work and shape. But by the early 20th century, it was apparent that copper had other benefits – stripping the spirit of impurities. As the vapour rises through the still, it reacts with the copper, capturing sulphur, cyanides, carbonates and acids, meaning the liquid that is eventually collected is purer. Coppersmiths play on this purifying effect to create a range of stills, for the longer the vapour spends in contact with the copper, the lighter the spirit you’ll produce. Take Glenmorangie’s tall, 17-feet-high stills which produce a very light spirit, and compare them to the small, squat stills and typically heavy spirit of the Macallan. Of course it’s not quite as simple as that. As well as the ratio of copper to liquid, the speed of distillation, the shape of the still, the size of the neck, the level of reflux, the angle of the lyne arm and venting of stills all have an impact.  Rothes-based Forsyths has been hammering copper into shape for Scotland’s leading distillers for over 150 years. Richard Forsyth OBE (who has now passed management of the business to his son, Richard Jr) was the third generation of his family to run the coppersmiths. The frank, self-effacing Scot remembers working in his father’s workshop aged 15, “I knew this is what I wanted to do… I found it fascinating.” And after 55 years, his eye still twinkles when he talks about the arch of a still’s swan neck, the art of wielding a planishing hammer and the characters that make the industry so interesting.   He joined the family business in 1967 – at what happened to be a pivotal moment for the industry. During the Second World War, the whisky business ground to a halt – and with it the need for stills. In the 1950s and ’60s, however, the industry grew rapidly – too rapidly, it turned out. What was a golden era turned into a whisky lake, with many distilleries soon mothballed. Forsyths – for whom 99% of its business was servicing the whisky industry – had to find something else to pay the bills, and it was up to Richard to find that something else. They branched out first into paper, then stainless steel and – by the late 1990s – oil and gas. Although coppersmithing remained the foundation and heart of the business, these other disciplines became the main money-makers until the early 2010s, when whisky’s current boomtime set in. Today, Forsyths maintains over half of the pot stills in Scotland. For a wash still (distilleries that double-distil have wash and spirits stills, first distilling the wash into “low wines” and then distilling the “low wines” into new-make spirit), the head, neck and condenser wears out in eight to 10 years, while the pot itself may last 25. Add to that developing new stills for the thriving industry – as well as their expansion into rum, Bourbon and tequila – and the company’s not short of work.   Although there is clear resistance to change with an industry that is entrenched in tradition, things have shifted, slowly but surely, over the years. And there have been two significant changes over the last century that have transformed the Scotch whisky world: the firing of stills and the nature of condensers.  When shell-and-tube condensers were invented in the 1880s, as an alternative to old-fashioned worm tubs, it took time for producers to be persuaded. Although shell-and-tube condensers are significantly more efficient and take up much less space, they are completely different – with the copper surface area at least 20 times larger, something which has a key impact on the spirit. To this day some producers (15 to be exact – including Craigellachie, Mortlach, Glen Elgin and Springbank, the latter only for their wash still) retain their worm tubs, valuing the heavier, richer, more complex (and in some instances, even meaty, savoury) spirit character.   Traditionally stills were direct-fired – heated by flames fed by peat, coal or gas. “It’s dirty, messy, difficult to handle – and to control,” Forsyth tells me. A push for safety and efficiency saw producers switch to using steam in the 1970s. But some argue that this shift wasn’t for the better. Fire created a less consistent heat, with hot spots that would burn the wash and promote Maillard reactions (the same reaction that takes place when you brown meat, or during the bottle-ageing of Champagne or other traditional-method sparkling wine) – adding nutty, roasted notes that build complexity, or so proponents would argue. Glenfarclas is known for having briefly dallied with steam before returning to direct-firing, along with the likes of Macallan, Glenfiddich and Springbank.  As the whiskies of this pre-modernisation era – Scotch’s so-called “golden age” – become increasingly coveted, distilleries (both new and old) are looking to recreate these practices. Along with traditional floor maltings, producers like Glen Garioch (owned by Suntory) and Dunphail are investing in direct-firing. (Although, with worm tubs no longer produced, new distilleries have little choice regarding shell-and-tube condensers.)  However they are fired, given their custom nature, copper pot stills don’t come cheap. Much of the work continues to be done by hand, hammering to strengthen and finish the copper. Stills can range from 5,000 to 50,000 litres in capacity, but an average 15,000-litre still and its condenser will require between 1,800 and 2,000 manhours, and set you back around £250,000. And that price has only increased recently, thanks to rising energy and material costs – with a copper shortage proving challenging for Forsyths, a business that is the UK’s second-biggest buyer of the metal.  With the distinct nature of stills and their impact on spirit, plenty of new producers will ask for copies of a particular distillery’s stills – wishing to emanate their style of spirit. Forsyth tells me how one Japanese customer requested a pair each of Macallan, Glenlivet and Glenrothes stills. While of course there are many problems with this imitation game, there’s also no guarantee – as Forsyth tells me – that the same equipment will have the same results, especially when not run with the same wash, in the same way, by the same people. And, of course, a company like Forsyths isn’t going to give away Macallan’s proprietary designs, for example. As such, they’ll recreate something similar, but ensure it’s tweaked so no two distilleries have exactly the same design.   But how much impact do stills really have on the final spirit? Despite his half-century in the trade, Forsyth is quick to suggest, “I don’t think a lowly coppersmith can talk too much about that.” He’s clear that you need good equipment to make good spirit, but it’s one factor in amongst everything else – the barley, water and fermentation times, for example. And how a still is used is as important as its shape or size, with both the speed of distillation and the all-important cuts – dividing the heart from the foreshots and feints. Forsyth firmly believes that good wood is “the single biggest effect in a bottle eight, 10 or 12 years later”. There’s little use having a good base spirit if it’s ruined by a decade in bad oak – but good oak also can’t salvage bad spirit.  Forsyth has seen it all during his 55 years in the whisky business – and has been forced to be as malleable as the metal his family has worked for generations to survive the booms and busts. Despite the challenges, the coppersmith is as enchanted by his trade as when he first picked up a hammer in his father’s workshop. The industry will doubtless continue to ebb and flow, but with a spirit that takes decades to produce, the pace of change is reassuringly gentle. “It almost goes as slow as the running of the spirit,” Forsyth says whimsically. The still room remains the beating heart of distilleries – the basis of a producer’s fingerprint, all thanks to the careful hammering of the artful coppersmith.  Browse all current Scotch whisky listings or read more about spirits  

There’s something romantic about the bulbous sheen of a copper pot still. These behemoths glimmer with the promise of fine spirit – but it’s rare that we talk about what happens within. Sophie Thorpe sat down with Richard Forsyth OBE of Scotland’s leading coppersmiths, Forsyths, to find out more 

Cult coppersmiths Forsyths on the art of crafting copper pot stills for the biggest names in Scotch whisky – and how they define a distillery’s spirit style

How copper pot stills define whisky styles

Copper craft: the art of the still

There are myriad fascinating twists and turns in Scotch whisky’s long and storied past. From dizzying boom times to disastrous downturns, the distilling landscape – and the major players within it – has been redrawn countless times. 
There's one era, however, that is legendary – whisky's "golden age". Between the 1950s and '80s, some of the industry's most nuanced single malts were crafted. These are now widely regarded as the greatest ever released, which is reflected in the eyewatering secondary market prices – should they ever appear on the auction block. 
These perfectly imperfect, characterful and wonderfully unique liquids, produced at distilleries that no longer exist, or exist in a very different way today, will never be bottled again – making them real unicorns for whisky collectors. 
To understand what makes them so special, it is important to first appreciate just how little liquid exists from this time. The single malt whisky market was unfathomably small before and during this period and entirely dwarfed by blends. A mere fraction of a distiller’s finest liquid would be bottled as a single malt. These minuscule quantities were also made via practices that are now lost in the annals of history, making them more desirable for collectors. 
For context, Scotch whisky was largely made as it always had been until the 1950s, drawing on traditional methods that had been passed down for centuries. Distillers would use their sight, smell and taste to determine when a liquid was ready to cask, and later, bottle. Whisky-making took mastery and patience – something producers could ill afford when demands on the industry intensified and there was a concerted push to produce more for less during the 1970s. While many producers made these changes around the same time, they didn’t all happen at once, creating a wonderfully varied time capsule of whiskies. 
The 1960s – when some of these great bottlings were produced – was sandwiched in between two vastly different decades. Production in the ‘50s was steady but small. By the 1970s, however, distillers – both large and small – were forced to increase their output by almost double, and names that had fallen silent were reawakened once more as global demand for Scotch whisky grew. 
Sadly, by the mid-1970s, the tide started to turn. The bountiful supply of whisky was not met by demand, resulting in a devastating whisky loch in the 1980s and some of the most difficult years the Scotch whisky industry has ever endured. Swathes of distilleries were forced to close, including the now-legendary Port Ellen and Brora – both of which shut their doors in 1983. This depression continued well into the 1990s with a further 20 casualties (of these, only three ever reopened), before the pendulum finally swung back in the early 2000s when the seemingly unquenchable thirst for single malt whiskies, that is still in full force today, began. 
From the 1950s onwards, holders of the increasingly frayed purse strings sought to reduce inefficiencies in the traditional, labour-intensive practice of whisky-making – which defined the golden age. With the introduction of modern, more mechanised, safer processes, it was a new dawn for Scotch whisky.  During this period in history, every single stage of whisky production was “streamlined”. The money men closed floor maltings, introduced distillers’ yeast, reduced fermentation times, installed semi-lauter tuns, made the switch to indirect-fired stills, replaced worm tubs with shell-and-tube condensers, and introduced ex-Bourbon barrels. By the end of the 1970s, you could almost count on one hand the number of distillers who retained traditional methods. 
It’s important to remember that tweaking one of these processes can alter the entire flavour profile of a whisky – just ask Glenfarclas who reverted back to direct-firing their stills after their new-make spirit lost its characteristically heavy and oily profile during their ill-fated flirtation with steam in 1981. And yet, in many instances, producers permanently changed many of these processes. Traditional practices and know-how that varied slightly at every distillery began to be outsourced as they turned to professional maltsters and installed modern, industrial-scale equipment that increased efficiencies and consistency but in some cases compromised the craft and character of the final spirit profile. 
“Every distillery has its own story and evolution of style,” whisky authority Serge Valentin explains, “their own ups and its downs.” 
Valentin was ahead of his time when he started collecting single malt Scotch, almost exclusively from Old Clynelish and Brora. He couldn’t possibly have predicted what his passion project of buying as many different bottlings as he could “simply because they were [his] favourites”  would become. 
Both Clynelish and Brora – as it would be known – produced heavily peated malt during the late 1960s and early ’70s. Bottlings from this time until 1983, when Brora became a victim of the whisky loch and fell silent, have become highly collectable in recent years. Old Clynelish bottlings, (Valentin’s favourites), which are robustly distinctive with aromas of scented wax and heather, are astonishingly rare and modern collectors clamber over one another to get their hands on these golden-age gems for many times the price Valentin would have paid. 
Stephen Rankin has been fortunate to sample whiskies from one of the most remarkable single malt libraries in the world at Gordon & MacPhail. His team is able to pull out liquids from what he calls “pre-evolutions within distilleries” thanks to his family’s foresight to buy barrels from cash-strapped producers who were selling their stocks for survival. The Elgin-based independent bottler had the luxury and fortitude to bide their time and store casks that would otherwise have been bottled young or blended. He has a particular affection for single malts from what was Milton Distillery, known since 1951 as Strathisla, which he describes as a “great example of a whisky that has the flavours of this past era.” 
Independent bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail played a vital role in bringing many of these now-legendary whiskies into the world. One man in particular, Silvano Samaroli, was responsible for bottling single malts that are now widely regarded as some of the greatest ever released.  
Rome-based Samaroli released his first Scotch whisky series in 1968 in the form of the now-iconic, dumpy Cadenhead bottlings – making him the first independent Scotch whisky bottler outside the United Kingdom. Today, Samaroli’s Bowmore, Glen Garioch, and  Springbank releases are held in especially high regard and his  Laphroaig single malts from 1967 and 1970 are in a league of their own. 
“The late 1960s to the ’80s is definitely one of the most remarkable periods,” Samaroli’s Daniele Liberati says, “largely due to the appearance of certain expressions for the first time.”  
“We started to propose different bottlings, moving away from the classic blends and official distillery releases,” Liberati adds. These included single-cask expressions, numbered bottlings and cask-strength releases, all of which are commonplace today but were revolutionary at the time.
 
In recent years, a handful of new distillers have turned to old whisky-making practices in an attempt to recapture some of its magic. Fledgling Speyside distiller Dunphail, for instance, has faithfully – and at great cost – installed traditional floor maltings, direct-fired stills and wooden, open washbacks where fermentation times are considerably longer than the industry average, to produce a fruit-forward, oily, medium-bodied Speyside whisky. Today, however, these traditional methods are always adopted in conjunction with modern practices in order to achieve all the desirable characteristics of yore in a more efficient way.   While there is the temptation to look back on this era with a rose-tinted view, as there are undeniably some exceptional bottlings from this time, it is wrong to believe that all whisky produced in the golden age was of the same standard. Whisky-making 40 to 50 years ago was imperfect, there was very little consistency in quality and for one good cask, a distiller would likely have 10 or 20 bad ones that never saw the light of day.  It’s also important to appreciate that many of these modernisations were vital to guarantee the safety of distillery workers as several stages in production were unstable. These advancements have also resulted in unprecedented consistency. While nuance and singularity might have been sacrificed, it’s now incredibly hard to find a bad dram.   As times evolve – as they inevitably do – it’s highly unlikely whisky from Scotland’s golden age will ever not be considered precious.    Browse all Scotch whisky or read more Editorial

Some of the most exceptional single malts ever released were produced in an era affectionately known as “the golden age”. Bottlings from this time are painfully scarce and have gained near-mythic status among whisky enthusiasts. Holly Motion explores why whiskies from this age are so precious

Exploring the golden age of malt whisky and its most coveted bottlings that are widely considered some of the greatest single malts ever released.

The golden age of malt whisky

The golden age of whisky

It’s not often words fail me. But finding the right words to describe Dr Bill Lumsden to those who haven’t had the great fortune of meeting him has rendered me a little dumbstruck. Many have dubbed him the “Willy Wonka of the whisky world” for his creativity, jaunty style and flair. His latest project, a purpose-built home for innovation named the Lighthouse, where Lumsden can innovate to his heart’s content and create all manner of whacky and category-bending whiskies, somewhat perpetuates this narrative of the eccentric whisky-maker. But, I’d argue, the good doctor is far more than this. He is, first and foremost, an incredibly accomplished scientist. His work at Glenmorangie and Ardbeg over the past 26 years – maintaining the iconic distillery characters and launching innumerable products for each – is nothing short of sensational. He is a workhorse, as well as, it would seem, a bit of a clothes horse. “I’m a bit of a shopaholic,” he tells me with glee. “I love buying clothes.” This isn’t the sort of confession I expected when sitting down with the Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation & Whisky Stocks in November last year. “If something’s in fashion, I wouldn’t be caught dead in it because other people are wearing it,” Lumsden continues. “So I tend to wear things which have been out of fashion for many years or are yet to be in fashion – and it’s just a little facet of my personality, unfortunately.” This, while slightly unexpected, actually makes a great deal of sense when you cast an eye over his professional life. Lumsden has always been the trendsetter rather than the disciple. And he’s quick to assert that his avant-garde attitude extends beyond apparel. “I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in what’s in fashion and what’s not in fashion [in the whisky industry]”, he says. “When I’m doing something it really is all to do with will I like the taste at the end of the day? Will it complement that character of the Glenmorangie or the Ardbeg spirit?”. Since joining Glenmorangie in 1995, Lumsden has been charged with “maintaining and hopefully slightly improving the spirit character” and innovating. While once his role was divided equally between these two tasks, new product development and innovation now take up the majority of his time. “It’s got to the stage now where the demand for new products is almost impossible to keep up with,” he says matter-of-factly. While this might be fatigue-inducing for some, this constant pressure to innovate exhilarates the inquisitive doctor. “I’m a scientist by training,” he explains. “It’s in my blood to experiment, and I’ve always been a curious individual who gets bored very easily and likes to try new experiences, in every aspect of my life. So the move to Glenmorangie was heaven-sent for me from that perspective,” he says with unfettered glee. The decision to build Lumsden’s Wonka-esque Lighthouse was driven to a certain extent by necessity, he tells me. “The Ardbeg and particularly Glenmorangie distilleries have been running absolutely flat-out for the last 12-15 years,” he says. “For me to interrupt the production cycle to get access to the distillery for three to four weeks of a year, where I wanted to try some radically different things was proving increasingly difficult. And also some of the things I wanted to do, I just simply hadn’t been able to do that with the existing distillery plant. “So the Lighthouse has been established to allow me to experiment but while maintaining the volumes that are required for future bottlings and also to try things that I simply can’t do in the main distillery.” These things range from the smallest alteration in primary production to radical innovations, and everything in between. “Some of the time it can be a very, very simple change,” Lumsden tells me. “It can be something as simple as offering one of your expressions in a natural, cask-strength form, for example, and other times it can be something dramatically different, where you’re actually using completely new materials. I am continuing to experiment with just about anything you can think of.” For the past 10 years, this experimentation has largely focused on different aspects of production. “We’re about to see some products coming out for both the Glenmorangie and the Ardbeg brand where I’ve been playing around more with primary production – it’s been great fun,” he teases. The challenge with this approach, he says, is two-fold. “You’ve got a very long lead time until your product comes to market,” he explains. “Sometimes you’re talking 10 years’ maturation.” At the very least. If you’re experimenting with barley varieties, or looking at fermentation profiles, you have an even lengthier wait. Secondly, by the very nature of these experiments, the difference between spirits is most emphasised in the new-make. “For example, using the barley varieties, it’s not giving you black and white differences,” Lumsden explains. “It’s more shades of grey, and you really pick that up in the new spirit. “But after many years of maturation, you risk losing these differences. So you have to choose your cask type accordingly to try and make sure that you still have the point of difference coming through.” Lumsden says Glenmorangie is launching a product in 2022 that is an experiment he’s always wanted to carry out. “I did this many, many years ago. I can’t say any more about it at this stage, but I will probably bottle this [whisky] slightly younger than my original target, which was 12 years, because I don’t want to continue to minimise the difference in character, if that makes sense?”  In addition to maintaining the two distillery’s very distinct characteristics, and inventing all manner of whiskies, Lumsden sits on a number of prestigious judging panels. In this capacity, he tastes hundreds upon hundreds of whiskies and sees first-hand the changes in the industry and trends that are being adopted – good and bad. He says there has been a “real divergence” in recent years. “Some of the whiskies I taste have become much more characterful and I’m delighted to see whiskies that are non-chill filtered,” he says hopefully. On the controversial subject of chill filtration, the process whereby distillers remove esters and fatty acids to prevent the liquid clouding at low temperatures, Lumsden ardently believes less is more. He does, however, acknowledge its place in markets where drinkers might not understand that cloudiness is caused by oils coming out of suspension rather than a fault. But, he believes, producers are taking its use to the extreme. If Ardbeg and Glenmorangie whiskies are chill-filtered, it is only ever done so “very gently”, because Lumsden feels that lipids – fatty acids from the base barley that would otherwise be removed by full chill filtration – add texture and character to the spirit. Sadly, he rues, this is not true for others who are “very brutally” applying this technique to hasten up processes, and character is lost as a consequence. Corner-cutting exercises like this, speeding up distillation methods and reusing barrels too many times are becoming all too common, he says. When it comes to producing or judging a perfect whisky, Lumsden says he’s after complex harmony. “I’m looking for the flavours to be nicely integrated together and not having any one aspect dominate,” he says. “That’s what I think good quality whisky, particularly Scotch whisky, should be". “The final thing I’ll look for is the length and character of the aftertaste of the whisky,” he explains. “Because I really don’t like to see a whisky just completely fade – it shouldn’t do that. It’s a richly flavoured product and it should linger on the palate for a while.” Whether he’s sitting on a judging panel or looking out from his monstrously tall Roald Dahl-esque Lighthouse, Lumsden’s vantage point, you sense, will always be forward-facing and progressive. It is for others to catch up or catch onto the trend. Browse Ardbeg and Glenmorangie whiskies or read more Editorial 

Glenmorangie and Ardbeg are two Scotch whisky brands famed for quality and innovation. Behind every bottle is the heart and mind of one man: Dr Bill Lumsden. He talks to Holly Motion about what it takes to be at the distilling vanguard for decades

Dr Bill Lumsden, the man behind some of Glenmorangie and Ardbeg’s greatest single malts, talks about consistency and creativity in Scotch whisky

Dr Bill Lumsden talks about whisky innovation 

Dr Bill Lumsden: the eternal inventor

2018 Ch. Mauvesin Barton (in jeroboam) + Champagne Elise Bougy, Le Mesnil – chosen by Damien Barton-Sartorius  “To me, a meal is always about a moment. Sometimes very important ones such as announcing a baby, sometimes it’s more casual as would be a meetup with friends. I like to think that the bottle should never be more important than the moment. It should not frustrate the generous person who wanted to share a special bottle that becomes overlooked – or even worse steals the show... Unless it is the show! The special bottle then becomes a moment of its own. It is an interesting thing (and sometimes fun!) to taste great labels blind, judge them on their value/pleasure. But it tears away what wine should be: excitement. If I am going to drink a Mouton Rothschild 1945, I honestly don’t really care if it’s good or not. It’s a piece of history in a bottle that I will be sharing with friends and I would really like to know this ahead of time so I can be excited about it for as long as possible. Just like planning holidays ahead!  “Christmas is an important moment but the moment is family, not the wine that will be put on the table. I want a wine that will trigger some chat. Briefly – before enjoying the wine as a lovely drink, fuel of diverse conversations. There should be enough of it to spend some time with it. Aim for large format. We all know that even a magnum can be short…  “To be very personal here, I just got married and I will spend my first Christmas Eve with my wife’s family. A bit of home, some volume to enjoy and share: Ch. Mauvesin Barton 2018 in jeroboam is my choice for dinner. Oh but what would Christmas be without Champagne… a sneaky bottle to share only with my wife before the dinner: Elise Bougy Le Mesnil. Now I am excited for Christmas!”  Damien Barton-Sartorius is the 10th generation of his family to run the Bartons’ Saint-Julien Classed Growth estates (Ch. Langoa Barton and Ch. Léoville Barton), while his sister Mélanie is at the helm of Ch. Mauvesin Barton, together continuing their grandfather Anthony’s and mother Lilian’s legacy. 2010 Ch. Latour, Pauillac – chosen by Jonathan Maltus  “We’re drinking Ch. Latour 2010. There are 10 of us – all family – two grandparents, four parents and the rest kids. As a family we don’t enjoy turkey so we have beef Wellington – which I’m hoping this will go well with.” Jonathan Maltus is the man behind the Saint-Emilion property Le Dôme, one of Bordeaux’s original garagistes. 2001 Richebourg, Grand Cru. Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat – chosen by Charles van Canneyt “For dinner, a Richebourg 2001. Perfect to drink now and taking full advantage of the complexity and power of a Richebourg – with a good capon! We had Suchots 2017 – all about the fruit – when we put up the tree, a vintage that’s approachable young and very enjoyable!”  Charles van Canneyt is one of Burgundy’s most talented winemakers. The young vigneron is at the helm of Domaine Hudelot-Noëllat, based in Chambolle-Musigny, and also has a négociant label under his own name.  2015 Ch. Haut-Bailly + 2019 Meursault, Les Vireuils, Domaine Roulot – chosen by Véronique Sanders “It’s so very difficult to choose just one bottle… while many people start their celebration with Champagne I always love to start (and finish) with a glass of Sauternes or Barsac. Right now I am loving Ch. Haut-Bailly 2015 which is so charming and is pure pleasure! Of course I also love wines outside of Bordeaux – white Burgundy being my weakness… I have my eye on a bottle of Domaine Roulot Meursault Les Vireuils to share with the family this year.”  Véronique Sanders is the powerhouse at the helm of Ch. Haut-Bailly, the leading Pessac-Léognan estate.  2018 Paul Cluver Estate Chardonnay, Elgin, South Africa – chosen by Spencer Fondaumiere  “I grew up in Nairobi at a time when the wine scene was not nearly as advanced as it is now. My mother enjoyed her wine. My dad was a beer man through and through. What was regularly available was wine sold in five-litre boxes labelled as ‘late harvest’, with just enough sweetness to interest you to get to the bottom of the bottle – or more accurately the last dredges of the cask. I have now lived in Cape Town for the last 11 years and my wine appreciation has grown a little bit beyond the voluminous late harvest on tap.  “Christmas is a time for family and my mom and dad will be spending the holidays with me and my family. Since I last saw her, Mom has developed an appreciation for cool-climate Chardonnay and I am quite keen to crack open this bottle that has a bit of age on it. I am hoping it will be like nothing she has ever tasted before and I am hoping even more that she will like it. Dad, on the other hand, remains partial to beer, but every Christmas I optimistically open a bottle and hope that this will be the wine that converts him into a wine lover. That being said, there is not too much 2018 Chardonnay hanging about so it may not be the worst thing if this doesn't turn out to be the one.”  Spencer Fondaumiere is one of the most exciting names on Africa’s wine scene. The Kenyan chef-turned-sommelier and serial entrepreneur is now Chairman of the South African Sommelier Association and has two businesses – using his expertise to advise wine-drinkers, restaurants and producers via Slowgold and Wineyard East Africa. A trio of Bouchard’s best – chosen by Frédéric Weber  “For Christmas with my family, I have planned a 2016 Meursault Genevrières to accompany the foie gras that my sister makes herself every year. I like the combination because our Genevrières has just the right freshness and delicacy, especially in 2016, to awaken the tastes and accompany the sweetness of foie gras seasoned with a touch of Sichuan pepper and a hint of fleur de sel, a great match! With the duck, of course a Beaune Grèves Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus 2003. Two-thousand-and-three was my first vintage in the house [at Bouchard], 20 years ago already, great memory of this harvest and Baby Jesus is a nice wink for Christmas Eve! And then a Corton 2013, my mum loves Le Corton and we don't refuse her anything.”  Frédéric Weber is the detail-oriented Head Winemaker at Bouchard, one of Burgundy’s leading, quality-focused producers and négociants. He has been at the company since 2002, taking over fully from his predecessor Philippe Prost from the 2014 vintage.  Champagne Corbon, Brut d'Autrefois, Avize (and a couple of back-up bottles) – chosen by Chris Gaither MS  “Christmas is always a special time of the year for my family. My wife, Rebecca (also a Master Sommelier), who is Jewish, always looks forward to the combo of Hanukkah and Christmas celebrations back-to-back, especially with our young daughters. We tend to favour multiple evenings of delicious food and drink that we can enjoy, albeit with moderation. And she and I rarely finish a bottle when drinking together at dinner, if it's only the two of us sipping. Surprised? It’s partially because we have two kids and run two businesses (Ungrafted and GluGlu), so work doesn’t stop even after dinner! So, on Christmas evening we'll be having a low-key 'Jewish' Christmas dinner, with a few other Jewish families. We are going to order Chinese food from one of our favourite restaurants in Millbrae (Wonderful is the name if you'd like to know), and chow down on some tasty dishes with a few of our favourite bottlings from producers we admire.  “Rebecca and I are huge fans of Champagne, and most times if you ever see us sipping on something together, it's usually just that. Champagne Corbon is a tiny grower based in the Vallée de la Marne (run by Agnès Corbon – ladies rule!), but they sell a good portion of their fruit from their vineyards there. They own two hectares of vineyards in Avize, of which they use to produce most of their wines. The Brut d'Autrefois is based on a 35-plus-year-old perpetual reserve (or solera) that is roughly based on 90% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir. The solera consists of a single neutral oak vat that is 50% drained each year for bottlings of D'Autrefois, and then refreshed with a new year's vintage. Delicious, exuding a bit of richness, with nice texture, and loads of complexity. We were fortunate enough to get a few bottles of these, and I think we'll be drinking the last one we have... for now... The other bottles are ‘just in case’ bottles that we love.  “2018 Domaine Weinbach, Riesling Schlossberg, Grand Cru, Alsace: Who doesn't like Riesling? Any sommelier with street cred will tell you to drink more Riesling – it's routinely underappreciated in the world of wine, and you can get fantastic examples that are made with the same care as Grand Cru wines in other regions, but at less than half the price. Weinbach is one of our favourite domaines within Alsace, and it is currently run by Catherine Faller (again, shoutout to all the ladies making the magic happen in wine!) and her sons, Eddy and Theo. This Riesling is coming from their holdings in Schlossberg, the first Grand Cru to be ratified in Alsace in 1975. The wine almost always has a deftly balanced touch of botrytis, with lovely bruised apple and peach, with a very noticeable meyer lemon twang on the finish.   “2011 Fixin, Premier Cru, Clos de la Perrière, Domaine Joliet Père & Fils: This particular vineyard is a monopole within the village of Fixin, and this bottling is 100% Pinot Noir. It is run by Bénigne Joliet, who purchased the vineyard from his other family members in 2004, with the goal of making the Clos de la Perrière one of the more famous vineyards in the Côte de Nuits in Burgundy. Rebecca had the opportunity to visit the estate and meet Bénigne back in 2014 on a visit. She purchased the bottle of 2011 Clos de la Perrière on this trip. I’m super excited to drink it with her! She’s great at putting bottles away and not touching them!”  Chris Gaither MS was born in Atlanta and started working in hospitality to help pay the bills while at college. He gradually fell into the wine side, becoming hooked and – after a stage at The French Laundry in 2008 – launched into San Francisco’s wine scene, working at top restaurants and earning various awards. He became the fourth black person to pass the Master Sommelier exam when he passed in 2022. Married to a fellow Master Sommelier, Rebecca Fineman, together they own and run two restaurant/wine bars, Ungrafted and Glu Glu, in San Francisco. 2003 Chinon, Les Roches, Domaine Alain & Jérôme Lenoir – chosen by Ivan Massonat  “Of the (many) bottles I intend to open, one is high on my expectation scale: a 2003 Chinon from Domaine Lenoir. It’s a bare bottle, without any label nor cap, that I bought from Jérôme [Lenoir] a couple of years ago, after a few hours of tasting down in his ‘cellar of wonders’. After tasting several decades, 2003 had struck me as super fresh and elegant, like magically untouched by the famous 2003 summer heatwave in France. I would like to open it for New Year’s Eve, with one my best friends from high school who’s also a wine lover – and not a label drinker!” Ivan Massonat is the ex-financier that created Domaine Belargus, the Anjou estate that has fast become one of the Loire’s most famous, shining a light on its varied terroir through a single grape – Chenin Blanc. Stellar Spanish and South American bottles – chosen by Carlos de Carlos  “This year we have some cousins from the USA that will come home for Christmas evening and dinner. As they come to try some good South American wines, I will drive them around some of my all-time favourites for dinner. So the selection will be: Baettig Los Primos Chardonnay 2021 for the aperitivo. A wine that shows the very best of the south of Chile with a finesse and minerality that I love. Then Viña Cobos Chanares Malbec 2018 – one of my favourite wines in Argentina coming from Los Arboles in Tunuyán, Valle de Uco. Really special vintage from a really unique vineyard! And the grand finale will be Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial 2008-2009-2010 [the 2020 release] – not only because the wine itself, but also because it was a very special present for my birthday that a very close friend gave me… and will be tasted alongside my favourite dish, Spanish paella.” The charming Carlos de Carlos is one of the founders of Baettig, along with winemaker Francisco Baettig, a Chilean producer that is one of our favourites. A flight of Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux – chosen by Blandine de Brier Manoncourt  “This Christmas my family will begin with a fabulous Champagne, Laurent Perrier’s Grand Siècle Itération No. 26, which we will enjoy as an apéritif around the tree. At the table, our dinner will begin with Corton-Charlemagne from our dear friend Stéphane Follin-Arbelet, the 2008 vintage, which will pair perfectly with a lobster dish. Next is, of course, Figeac! First the 2010 vintage of Ch. Figeac – it is magnificent right now, and goes very well with truffled capon. Finally we will enjoy our favourite vintage of Ch. Figeac, the 1990. We wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!”  Blandine de Brier Manoncourt is daughter of the iconic Thierry Manoncourt who established Figeac’s modern reputation. Having studied at Sciences Po Bordeaux, she is Co-owner and General Secretary, especially involved in managing the property’s heritage.  2001 Ch. Figeac – chosen by Frédéric Faye  “My family is very excited this year to serve one of my favourite vintages of Ch. Figeac at our Christmas dinner, the 2001. This is a vintage in its full maturity, a vintage which sadly is often overlooked by wine-lovers but is in fact one of the great references of the property. Fresh, elegant, with a beautiful concentration… it will pair perfectly with ris de veau in a sauce à la morille. Wishing a happy Christmas and New Year to you and your families!”  Frédéric Faye is Managing Director of Ch. Figeac, where he has been working for over two decades, having arrived as an intern in 2002. Blanquette de Limoux, Antech, Brut Nature – chosen by Christina Stanley  “I share a holiday tradition of sipping bubbles with my mum while cooking, before any guests or family arrive. My dad suffered a stroke back in 2014, and she is his caretaker. Last year, when she tasted Varnier-Fannière Blanc de Blancs, she said, “This tastes like every good time I have ever had,” but Champagne is not what we drink while cooking. You know what’s great with a splash of orange juice? Antech Blanquette de Limoux Brut Nature. It has delightfully bright, lemony acidity, an abundance of chalky minerality, and it’s inexpensive. The main grape is Mauzac, locally known as ‘Blanquette’. Wonderful as a versatile aperitif and perfect as a Mimosa base, Blanquette de Limoux plays a starring role in any holiday gathering.”  Christina Stanley is an Advanced Sommelier and the Wine Director at The Slanted Door Napa – an outpost of Charles Phan’s group of legendary restaurants that are a reference point for fine dining and modern Vietnamese food. 2008 Merlot, Miani, Colli Orientali del Friuli – chosen by Michele Dal Forno  “I think I would pick a Merlot from Miani. Enzo, the owner, is truly the ‘last of Mohicans’ of vignerons in Italy, as he is seriously devoted to his vines and the wines he makes are a pure expression of each varietal he grows. I was lucky enough to taste many of his wines last summer with himself and some other friends and I was shocked by the genuineness of them all. In particular the Merlot 2008 was so fresh and rich that I was literally blown away when I tasted it. If you want to understand how an authentic Merlot should taste, Miani is the one.”  Michele Dal Forno is one of Romano Dal Forno’s sons, founder of the legendary eponymous Valpolicella estate  1988 Ch. Montelena, Napa – chosen by Maya Dalla Valle   “After a fantastic 2023 harvest, we are relaxing and celebrating this holiday season. At our most recent team holiday dinner we decided to open a magnum of 1988 Ch. Montelena to commemorate the successes of the 2023 growing season and vintage. With the recent passing of Mike Grgich, it was also an homage to one of the great winemakers of Napa. The wine was stunning, and well appreciated by all of us as red wine producers.”  Having travelled and made wine around the world, Maya Dalla Valle returned to Napa in 2017 to make wine with her mother Naoko at Dalla Valle, as well as embarking on a new project in collaboration with Ornellaia, DVO. 2016 Champagne Henriot, L’Inattendue – chosen by Stefan Neumann MS  “Expect the ‘unexpected’! Henriot’s single expression of Avize called L’Inattendue (translating literally as ‘the unexpected’) from the 2016 vintage is something I look forward to sharing with my family on Christmas Day. Full of energy, this pure Chardonnay gives me on the one hand the comforting softness of spiced pear and golden apple, but on the other hand the razor-sharp freshness of lemon and orange peel. This, in front of the family’s Kachelofen (tiled ceramic stove), paired with a freshly cured trout, might sound simple yet is heaven to me. If life has taught me one thing – you can’t beat an old-time classic.”  Austrian-born Master Sommelier Stefan Neumann cut his teeth at restaurants in Vienna and Salzburg before moving to the UK. He’s worked at many of Britain’s most illustrious establishments, most recently on the floor at The Fat Duck. Today he works as a consultant, using his extensive expertise to advise clients and companies. Explore more Editorial 

There’s no better time than Christmas to crack open a bottle of something special. We asked some of the biggest names in the industry – from top sommeliers to superstar winemakers – to tell us what they’re uncorking this year, and why

We asked some of the biggest names in the wine industry – from top sommeliers to superstar winemakers – to tell us what they’re uncorking this year, and why 

What the wine world is drinking this Christmas 

What those in the industry are drinking this Christmas

There is a lyricism to the way Roberto Bava speaks. Beyond his unmistakeable Italian accent, his sentences rise and fall. Every word is a piece of music in and of itself, which is sometimes broken by an infectious burst of laughter. He drops his h’s and finds syllables where ordinarily there are none. It’s not hard to picture him holding court at the head of the table at the Vermouth di Torino Institute, or working the room at events with people, he says, who openly express their  dislike of vermouth. “You have this reaction against it because you remember your grandmother used to offer you an oxidised thing,” Bava tells me. Once they taste a vermouth that has been well-made and well-kept, it’s a whole different ball game. “You discover a totally different product,” he says. Introducing vermouth to an entirely new audience, or a familiar audience in a different way, clearly brings joy to Bava. He talks of an event the night before we speak when he offered vermouth to the guests. After a couple of sips, they stopped drinking wine and switched to vermouth for the rest of the dinner. “It was phenomenal,” he says with unabashed glee. “People are now tasting it and saying, ‘Oooh, this is goooood.’” Bava, and the three or four generations (he forgets which) of his family who have worked in the industry before him, have lived through vermouth’s highs and lows. After heady days in the 20th century when it was consumed neat as a welcome drink or “nice company to your book and solitude”, vermouth fell out of favour in the “hard decades” of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. “As a category, it was a little bypassed,” Bava tells me. Vermouth simply couldn’t compete with the marketing budgets of other products and they stormed to the fore, leaving the fortified wine “a little lost”. It wasn’t until the cocktail renaissance in the 1990s and the meteoric rise of the Negroni many years later (in the early 2000s) that the pendulum swung back in vermouth’s favour. “Vermouth is a good drink,” Bava says lyrically, “but it is also an instrument to make better other drinks.” When asked which cocktails of the many that are made with vermouth – think the Martini, Negroni, Manhattan, Adonis – has done the most for the category, the Vermouth di Torino Institute president says in a flash: “the Negroni”. He then adds in his melodic way: “As an Italian, and being a Negronista, it’s gotta be a Negroni.” Bava does then concede that it slightly depends on the country. In America, for example, he says, the Manhattan is king – even if people don’t necessarily realise vermouth is in it. Another reason vermouth has risen to prominence, according to Bava, is the improved quality and introduction of a Geographical Indication (GI) for Vermouth di Torino three years ago – something he refers to as a “little miracle”. In short, this means the vermouth must be made with at least one Italian wine, wormwood must be the predominant flavour and the wormwood used must be grown in Piedmont. The final liquid must be between 16% and 22% alcohol. For a GI, this is broader than others and allows many producers in the Piedmont region to use “Vermouth di Torino” on their bottles. Bava was instrumental in getting this classification for the region in 2019 and was rightly given the role of president at the Vermouth di Torino Institute. In three short years, Bava says the GI is paying dividends and making a real difference to the style and quality of Vermouth di Torino. “Vermouth was produced all over the world,” he explains, “sometimes losing a little of the identity”. It wasn’t until the GI was approved that vermouth producers from Turin, like Bava, could really communicate that a vermouth from Poland or Argentina wasn’t the genuine article. For that, you need to go to its birthplace of Torino, Italy. “Vermouth di Torino has been a benchmark for the whole category – and will be, for sure,” Bava adds energetically. “This [label] makes an important guarantee to the consumer because you know what is in the bottle. You know there is control, you know someone has checked, made an analysis, you know the ingredients, and this is not a generic product, it is a specific product and a protected product.” He makes the inevitable, and important, comparison with the wine world. “You can produce wine all over the world, but if you do wine in Barolo it’s specific. You can do table wine in France anywhere but if you go in Pauillac, of course, you have something else. So this is what’s gonna happen,” he explains. To date, 99% of Turin's producers have joined the fold to champion and protect the region’s appellation, including some of the biggest and smallest names. At present, Vermouth di Torino is the only vermouth GI recognised and protected in the category but Bava teases that there could well be more in time. With vermouth from its birthplace now protected and a much better understanding of how it should be kept – in the fridge once open and stored out of direct sunlight – it’s hard not to see its fanbase continuing to grow, especially as it ticks the low-alcohol box for a more mindful, younger consumer base. “The consumption is going to grow. It takes us some time. I’ve been working already 10 years,” he laughs. But Bava is certainly bullish now all the producers are working as one. With Bava spreading the word, in his enchanting and charismatic way, you can certainly see an appreciation for vermouth continuing apace. Explore all spirits or read more Editorial 

Vermouth has fallen in and out of vogue many times throughout its history. Buoyed by a new geographical classification and ever-growing classic cocktail appreciation, the future looks brighter than ever. 

Cocchi Vermouth's Roberto Bava on the Italian drink's history, its new protected status and the classic cocktail renaissance

Vermouth's bright future 

Vermouth: the Italian job   

Colin Scott should be one year into his retirement. After 47 years at Chivas Brothers, 31 of which were spent as the Master Blender, he should be enjoying a well-earned rest. Instead, the ebullient Scott is lighting up the screens of the FINE+RARE team as he talks about a certain 50-year-old blended whisky he has created for remarkable spirits curators The Last Drop Distillers.   “It’s just fantastic to come to The Last Drop and find these nuggets of gold and all these wonderful casks of very precious liquid that have phenomenal complexity and flavour,” Scott says with unabashed glee.   Despite his near-50 years in the whisky industry, this is only the second 50-year-old blend Scott has had a hand in producing. Well-aged whisky was, until relatively recently, only a small part of Chivas’ business.   “By the time we’d filled a cask and it had matured to 12 years, most of that went into Chivas 12. Once it reached 21 years old, we put it all into Royal Salute. So, there was very little maturing. But of course, as time goes on, the stocks have been held back and the super-premium part of the inventory has grown.”   Scott joined Chivas Brothers in 1973 and became their fifth Master Blender in 1989. But he would have to wait a further 13 years before a 50-year-old whisky project presented itself. The result was The Royal Salute 50 Year Old, released in 2002 – a dual commemorative bottling for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and Royal Salute’s 50th anniversary.   Today he’s talking about his latest 50-year-old creation, The Last Drop’s 22nd release and first in-house whisky: a 50-year-old blended Scotch. After a whole three months as a man of leisure, the “retiree” joined the Sazerac-owned company as their first Master Blender in autumn 2020.   “When I joined in September last year, it was really the beginning of finding out what all these nuggets were within the inventory. Sorting through the very special and remarkable casks and finding out a little bit about what they were and what they did and how we could bring them together.”  Scott explains that everything in the blend started out as either a single malt or a single grain whisky, distilled at different distilleries around Scotland over 50 years ago. “At various stages along the way, blends have been made but then of course the balance has been put into cask and stored away for further maturation. So, what we have is a mixture of some of these malts and grains, all with their own unique characters and flavours, that we bring together at the last moment.”   Tasting the blended whisky alongside Scott is like being escorted on a journey back through time – to an age when a lot of distilleries were doing their own maltings and adding peat to the kiln to get a little smoky flavour.   “To me, blending is all about taking the flavours and then balancing them,” he says. “What you have here on the nose is a tsunami of flavour. But, when you taste it, nothing actually lingers and stays on top.”   Scott encourages tasters to add water to remove the aggression of the alcohol and maximise the release of the aromas and characters. When he is tasting more than 50 samples around a nosing table, this trick is vital to reduce all the whiskies to 20% alcohol and allow the flavours to present themselves.   In the case of The Last Drop 50 Year Old, its mellowness, richness and depth means you don’t necessarily need to cut the 48% dram.    “When we blend, we don’t add something, sniff it and then add a bit more of that. What we do is actually write down the whole formula in its entirety. We then pilot blend it. When we add the last addition, it will change the balance of everything you have already. So, you don’t know the final answer until you add that last part of the formula. And then once you’ve got them all together you can evaluate what you have actually created.”  For Scott, the act of blending and evaluating is an entirely personal thing. “All whisky – grains, blends – are fantastic. They are all different and they all bring their own song to the party. The only reason one is better than other is your own personal experience.”   Scott, for instance, isn’t “a fan” of the smoky Islays. “I don’t think they’re bad,” he adds. “It’s all about personal taste. There’s not a bad whisky in the world.”  The Master Blender talks at length about whiskies having different personality traits that require nurturing and, ultimately, respect.   “If you take a single malt as distillate at birth – that has a flavour package. It’s like you when you’re born – you have a character. If you put that new distillate into a cask, over the years this distillate will react with the oak in the cask and take influences and nuances which will then promote other flavours in the new spirit.  “So as time goes on, the volume actually goes down, the strength goes down, but that flavour package actually intensifies and intensifies and multiplies and multiplies.”   When it comes to age, there is some debate about how old you can go. For Scott, the 50-year-old is undoubtedly a rare beast, but he doesn’t see any reason why you can’t go older and rarer if the whisky has been sufficiently nurtured.   “If the angels didn’t interfere, in a quality cask, you could take it to 60-, 70-, 80 years,” he says. “If you’ve got quality casks, you don’t get that wood influence. You get a little touch of the oak but what you have at the end of the day is this small amount of highly intense, complex flavoured whisky that started as the new distillate and just grew with all the different influences from the oak and the cask whether it is Sherry or Bourbon.”  While there have been scientific advancements during Scott’s career, he says there are still a great many unknowns about the maturation and flavour process, and you get the impression this only adds to the allure for him.   “Because it’s nature, we don’t actually know what’s going on,” he adds. “It’s massively complex and the technical people still don’t know the number of components in Scotch whisky. I think they’re up to about 800 now. When I started there were about 200.”   Regardless, you sense Scott will continue to do what he does best: respect, nurture and blend remarkable liquids – retirement be damned.   Browse all Last Drop listings or read more Editorial 

As he approaches his 50th year in the industry, Colin Scott tells Holly Motion about the allure of well-aged whisky and plundering The Last Drop’s remarkable spirits inventory 

The Last Drop Distiller's Colin Scott on the allure of well-aged whisky and his new role plundering the independent bottler's archives.

Bewitching blended whisky

The bewitching blend

America’s native spirit has never been in greater demand. After years in the doldrums with production at record lows of 500,000 barrels per year, Bourbon is experiencing one of the greatest Cinderella stories in the modern spirits industry era. At last count, the number of barrels maturing in the United States had swelled to 10.3 million per year, which is a whopping 436% increase since 1999.   The reasons for the pendulum swinging back in Bourbon’s favour are multiple. The introduction of the first single-barrel Bourbon from the mid-1980s, coupled with the classic cocktail revival in the late ’90s to early ’00s, started to pique interest. Within a few short years, the Old Fashioned cocktail and brands like Blanton’s and Pappy Van Winkle were appearing front and centre in some of the biggest TV shows and films in America. Drinkers and the wider whiskey world were starting to wake up to the fact that Bourbon was a seriously good spirit. Producers couldn’t fill barrels fast enough. There was new dawn for high-priced, collectable American whiskey – and bottlings were soon like gold dust.   “Right now, in Kentucky, if I go to a liquor store, I can’t find our products on the shelves,” Drew Mayville tells me. “They are all gone. People have bought them or they don’t even make it to the shelf.”  Mayville has worked in the alcohol industry for over four decades, for the first 23 years at Seagram’s (before “it was put up for sale and my bubble burst”) and for the past 18 years at Sazerac, which produces some of the most coveted Bourbons on the market (think Pappy’s, Blanton’s, E H Taylor and Eagle Rare) at its Buffalo Trace distillery in Kentucky.   “People think [the Bourbon boom] happened overnight but it didn’t,” the Master Blender and Director of Quality says.   “I would say about 10 or 15 years ago it started to make its cycle back to favour,” he adds. “Even Pappy Van Winkle, which is one of the most sought-after Bourbons that we make, didn’t happen overnight.”   Mayville has witnessed the cyclical nature of drinking trends throughout his career and seen the various booms and busts in the United States as tastes moved from dark spirits to white spirits and back again. He believes one of the reasons Bourbon is so popular right now is largely down to its approachability.   “American whiskey tends to be very palatable,” Mayville explains in his Canadian drawl. “Scotch is more of a learned taste; lots of people drink Scotch around the world because they are so used to it.  “Part of the reason that Bourbon is very palatable is the corn. It provides a lot of that sweet fruitiness,” Mayville adds.   In order to be called Bourbon, the spirit needs to be made from at least 51% corn. The second grain in 95% of Bourbon produced is rye, which gives it a spiciness. The other 5% of Bourbon has wheat in place of rye – these wheated Bourbons are softer, as the fruit notes from the corn are accentuated by the addition of wheat. (Straight rye whiskey is also made from corn and rye, but with the rye dominating, meaning it can’t be classed as Bourbon.)   Contrary to popular belief, Bourbon can be made anywhere in the United States but 95% of Bourbon is produced in Kentucky. Bourbon must be distilled no higher than 160 proof (80% alcohol) and matured in newly charred oak barrels.   Despite its current popularity, Bourbon does have a long distilling tradition; it was first produced in Kentucky in the 1780s when distillers discovered charring barrels mellowed corn whiskey. After a strong start, Bourbon struggled during the two World Wars and was heavily affected by the temperance movement and Prohibition in the United States. Sales recovered by the middle of the century and American whiskey entered something of a golden age in the 1950s.  Unfortunately, this prosperous period was short-lived when drinkers once again turned their backs on brown spirits in favour of white spirits in the 1960s and early ’70s, kickstarting the vodka revolution that has only recently started to wane. This about-turn resulted in the first American whiskey surplus – known as a lake in world whiskey and loch in Scotland. Producers were left with gallons upon gallons of surplus whiskey and inevitable closures followed.   “We kinda skipped a generation and now we’re going back that way,” Mayville says stoically.  Now, with sales more buoyant than ever, there is a rush to ramp up production – fast. Sazerac is in the process of spending an eye-watering $1.2 billion on the Buffalo Trace distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. A new column still, cookers and boilers are all being installed to double capacity. New, 60,000-barrel warehouses – the largest in Kentucky – are also being built every four or five months, at a cost of circa $30 million. This is scale on an unprecedented level.   Buffalo Trace is not alone in this endeavour. Producers of Old Forester and Woodford Reserve Brown-Forman are increasing their distillery space, and the makers of Four Roses have spent more than $50 million on expansion. Global spirits behemoth Diageo has also invested a reported $115 million on a new distillery and four warehouses with a total capacity of 330,000 barrels for its Bulleit Bourbon and other, as yet unannounced American whiskey brands.  “We’ve been making more and more every single year but it’s just never enough,” Mayville tells me.   “It’s a lot of money and it’s a big risk because if people don’t buy the product in 10 years from now, you’re going to have a lake of whiskey,” Mayville adds with knowing caution.   It’s hard to imagine the current Bourbon boom going bust when producers are showing such confidence in the category and bottlings such as Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve can sell on the secondary market for upwards $20,000, but there are no guarantees.   For Mayville, this change in fortunes is a real boon but his real focus is on the quality of the liquid and innovation at the stills – the sales figures are somebody else’s concern.    “The part that really excites someone who has been around as long as I have is doing new things and innovation,” he says with glee. Much to this industry veteran’s delight, this creativity is championed at the very top of his organisation.   “We can go away, do experimentations, spend money, and not even tell anyone – and it’s actually encouraged,” he says, still clearly unable to believe his good fortune.  Mayville says the American drinks market is great at keeping him honest, always expecting something that wows and excites them.  “We’re always, always trying to innovate, embrace that change, and try and make better products,” he adds.“ We run so many different experiments, trying to make better whiskeys. It’s hard to list them because there are so many. There are thousands of barrels ageing right now that are experiments.”   One of his most recent experiments was the Colonel EH Taylor 4 Grain, which was named one of the best whiskeys in the world in 2017 by Jim Murray in his Whisky Bible.    “You can’t predict exactly what’s going to happen,” the Master Blender says humbly. “We’re doing so many experiments – another one could well be one of the best whiskeys in the world.”   With creative genius like Mayville at the helm of some of these distilleries, continually striving for quality, it’s hard to see the Bourbon gold rush ending any time soon. One thing that is for sure, though, is whiskey lovers and collectors will continue to scramble for what little Bourbon there is on the market until distillers can mine their liquid gold. Browse all American whiskey or read more Editorial 

After some very challenging years, American whiskey producers feel like they’ve struck gold. Demand for Bourbon is at an all-time high and distillers can’t pump out enough liquid to meet a seemingly unquenchable thirst. Holly Motion investigates the Bourbon boom 

Exploring the reasons for the current Bourbon boom in the United States with Buffalo Trace’s Drew Mayville, who produces Pappy Van Winkle, Blanton’s and more

Exploring the Bourbon whiskey boom

Gold rush: the Bourbon boom

Glen Elgin

Speyside

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