4th September 2009 |
We talked to Craig Wallace, a Diageo
Malt Whisky Specialist, about his
contribution to The Managers’ Choice
project.
What role did you play, Craig, in
selecting whiskies for The Manager's
Choice single cask bottlings?
My role was to look at the current
releases from all our distilleries and
seek out something a bit different.
So I began by interrogating the stocks
to see what was available from the
distilleries, then ordering samples of
the appropriate age and wood type. These
casks were also reserved so that they
could not be used for any other product
until analysis was complete.
We went on to narrow the samples down
through different stages of sensory and
final tastings as well as necessary
technical quality checks to arrive at a
small number of samples which were put
in front of the distillery managers and
other experts for their final choice at
the meeting at Blair Athol distillery on
17 February. Once the choice had been
made, I needed to arrange bottling and
carry out final sensory checks on the
bottled product.
When you called for samples, what were
you looking for in order to create these
single cask bottlings?
I was looking for flavours that were in
some way unique, and a flavour profile
that was different from the normal
single bottling release from that
distillery. I was looking for the
distillery character and an additional
“wow factor” but also the influence of
the wood to give us something
distinctive - ensuring a correct and
pleasing balance between distillery
character and the wood influence that
made this particular cask stand out from
the crowd.
Were you looking for whiskies of a
particular age? which held the promise
of an unusual profile?
It was more about the wood, the flavour
and the difference. But if the first
samples didn't come up to the profile we
hoped to find, I was able to call up
more samples from different casks. For a
heavily peated whisky, you sometimes
need to go for something a bit older
that has allowed time for the role of
the wood to come into balance with the
peat influence.
How did you get all the samples
together?
When I’d found something that seemed to
be worth sampling, we have a system that
allows me to reserve that cask until
it's been sampled and this prevents it
being used for any other purpose -
blending for instance - and till I have
either chosen it or released it back
into the warehouse.
The samples were drawn from warehouses
from all over Scotland and delivered to
my sensory area where I could carry out
my rigorous checks.
Is there a particular challenge in
choosing whisky for a single cask
bottling?
When you’re selecting casks for a bigger
bottling, you can work with a wider
variation of maturity, distillery
character and wood influence because you
can even it out and aim for consistency.
But when you are bottling a single cask,
you can't do that: you have to get the
balance totally right when selecting the
cask. And it's highly unlikely, whatever
single cask you choose this time, that
you'd ever be able to replicate that
precise flavour profile the next time
you look for one.
So finding a single cask with just the
right balance is actually very
challenging.
How many expressions did you get through
before arriving at the short-list?
Starting from the conventional bottling
for each distillery, we would probably
be looking for at least two different
wood types if available and maybe ten
samples of each.
If we found nothing suitable from that
batch, we would go back and order some
more, and maybe something from older
stock too. Sometimes we found the right
casks quickly, but for others it took
many attempts to get the liquid we
wanted.
On average I guess we tried at least 20
samples from each distillery before we
could narrow the choice down to three
comparable casks to put in front of our
panel of distillery managers and experts
on 17 February.
Were other people involved in
short-listing?
Oh, it was a team decision, naturally.
We generally started the screening
process with up to ten casks and
narrowed it down to five, which a small
team of colleagues and I nosed and
tasted. We then sent these three for
independent nosing and testing by our
leading sensory and maturation experts,
and together we chose what we thought
was the best candidate of the three. We
then sent the three choices from each
distillery to be judged by the wider
panel of managers and other reviewers
assembled at Blair Athol distillery.
More generally, how do you know what
whiskies are available, given that the
company has massive stocks in its
warehouses?
We have about 7 million casks of
maturing single malt whisky in our
warehouses at any one time, and
obviously these are all registered on
our database, so we can search by
distillery, year of distillation, and
wood type.
Roughly how many different whiskies do
you taste each week?
Most of us get through a couple of
hundred whiskies examined purely by nose
each week, but only 5 to 10 by taste as
taste is only used to make final
decisions on cask selection. To stay on
our nosing panel, you have to take a
test each year.
When you are looking at and comparing
whiskies, what routine do you follow?
We normally don't nose or taste at full
strength - we dilute cask strength down
(one part whisky in two parts water).
You can pick up a lot by nose, but only
by actually tasting it can you judge the
whisky's mouthfeel and flavour elements
such as pepperiness, the different
variations of smokiness, bitterness and
sweetness, smoothness and so on.
Do you get involved with other limited
edition single malt whisky bottlings,
such as the Special Releases?
Yes, for the last three years I have
been heavily involved in choosing the
Malts that are released each year as
Special Releases.
I've also been closely involved in
picking out the liquids destined as
special bottlings for the Friends of the
Classic Malts releases, as well as the
Islay Festival single cask bottlings.
Tell us about different casks at your
disposal, and the influence wood can
have on the flavour profile of the
whisky.
The bottlings released in The Managers’
Choice have been drawn from a wide
variety of woods. As I said, we’ve aimed
to select casks to show an interesting
contrast with the more usual and
conventional bottlings of these malts.
In at least one case, for instance, we
have drawn the bottling from a brand new
American oak cask, whereas American oak
normally comes in the form of a used
Bourbon cask. Using new wood brings into
play some quite different malty, fruity
and liquorice flavours with a warm
finish.
Size matters too! Bourbon casks tend to
be smaller than sherry casks. There are
two sizes of Bourbon casks: the American
Standard Barrel which holds around 200
litres, then there are American Oak
Hogsheads, which generally hold 250
litres. By contrast, Sherry Butts
usually hold around 500 litres. It’s
logical that, the smaller the cask, the
more contact there is between liquid and
wood, so in theory you get more
extraction in the smaller casks,
assuming that the wood is reasonably
active. So as a general rule, smaller
casks make for better maturation.
Some of the Malts released in The
Managers’ Choice have come from
rejuvenated European and American oak
casks, a process of scraping and
refiring which gives a slightly
different type of woodiness and maturity
to the flavour.
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More About The Managers Choice
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The Managers Choice Availability
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The Managers Choice bottlings are
available from specialist retailers in
the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland
and the Netherlands only.
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