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Keith Law Whisky Master Blender,
Diageo
Master blender Keith Law began his
career in the Scotch whisky industry in
1979 when he joined the Quality Control
Laboratory at Caledonian Distillery in
Edinburgh. Keith’s career began not in
malt whisky but in grain whisky, where
he worked closely alongside his father
at this renowned grain distillery.
A sensory specialist in the whisky
industry, Keith spent 12 years as part
of the management team at Carsebridge
Technical Centre, responsible for
quality for all grain distilling and
specialised areas of malt distilling.
The primary focus of this role was
around optimisation of distillery
yields, flavour profiles and distillery
performance; A large part of this role
involved the nosing of new make spirit.
In 2007, with the formation of Diageo’s
European Technical Centre, Diageo’s
Master Blenders have joined together to
become one team. Keith’s role within the
technical centre as a Master Blender is
varied. He is heavily involved in the
development of new whisky products with
end to end responsibility from cask
selection through to overseeing
production of pre-market launch
bottlings.
Since joining Diageo, Keith has worked
at each of Diageo’s 27 malt distilleries
and 2 grain distilleries. His roles have
been heavily focused on all aspects of
sensory analysis allowing Keith to
develop significant insights into
flavour creation, blending and a deep
understanding of the effects of oak on
maturation, cask structure and wood
physiology.
After nearly 30 years in the “land of
whisky flavour”, Keith is often asked to
use his experience by providing Spirit
Mastery support to various mentoring
programmes within Diageo and is an
intrinsic part of a team of the most
respected whisky blenders in the world.
Keith originally hails from Edinburgh in
Scotland but now lives in the central
region near Stirling. In his spare time
he enjoys playing rugby, scuba diving
and walking through the beautiful
scenery of Scotland with his wife and
two young daughters.
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