THE KNOWLEDGE
A blend of old and new
By its very nature, the whisky industry has to plan years in advance, and to thrive it’s essential to cast your eyes into the future and invest with a vision of what’s to come. That’s just what Ian Macleod Distillers have done – by investing in the distillers of tomorrow, as Duncan Gorman reports
The team at Ian Macleod Distillers’ Blending Room have paid homage to their roots by partnering with The International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University.
Matthew Simpson, who is part of the whisky team at Ian Macleod Distillers and a graduate from the Edinburgh-based university, thought it would make a fitting tribute to work with the distillers of tomorrow to release their very first bottling from the new Blending Room.
The project allowed for four students from Heriot-Watt’s Brewing and Distilling MSc course to release their very own bottling, gaining control over the dram’s fill strength, blend formulation, time in cask, and toast/char level.
Professor Annie Hill, who led the collaboration, says: “It goes back to a project that we had with Edinburgh Gin. We had a knowledge transfer partnership with Edinburgh Gin in 2015 and we’ve kept in touch with various projects since then. One of our graduates, David Wilkinson, already worked with them, and then with Ian MacLeod buying them out, there was Matthew as well.”
Annie continues: “As a graduate, Matthew really wanted to give something back. So, I had a chat with David and he said: ‘Well why don’t we do a whisky project?’ Ian Macleod Distillers were setting up their Blending Room so they came to us and said shall we do a first release and make it a student project? So that’s kind of how it came about and really got off the ground.”
ABOVE: Professor Annie Hill with the students at the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University who worked on the collaboration with Ian Macleod Distillers
Having whittled the applicants down by interview, four lucky students then began working to build their very own release, as Annie adds: “When they were setting up at Ian MacLeod, they knew that they would have these three virgin oak casks. So that was kind of set in stone, that’s what was going to be available for them. We had four different blends originally, there were two grains and two malts. One was between four and five years old and there was one that was three years old. But they were already blended, so we had those as a starting point.”
The eager students then had the opportunity to get valuable hands-on experience and each was tasked with different parameters, deciding a specific fill strength, blend formulation, time in cask, and toast/char level.
As well as finishing the spirit for three months in virgin American oak casks, the students also added another unique twist on the release. The group agreed to fill at a lowered strength of 45% abv, down from the standard 63.5%, while also including a slightly higher proportion of grain than you’d usually expect to see in a blend.
“Looking around, there have been virgin oak finishes before, so we can’t claim to be unique in that sense. But the combination of it being virgin oak, lower strength, and a blend (rather than a single malt) makes it pretty rare!” Annie adds.
The project has been a unique breakthrough for the one-year Brewing and Distilling MSc course. Up until now students haven’t been able to finalise a whisky project due to the time restraints of the spirits maturation process, which by law must last at least three years.
As a result of the project the participants have been able to gain valuable industry experience and add a feat to their CV that only a select few will be able to replicate.
“To have an opportunity to work on whisky and its release was just a totally unique experience,” says Annie. “That sort of contact with Ian MacLeod and to have that sort of commercial exposure was really good. Then to be able to go up and bottle at Glengoyne, it was great to be a part of that and to get to know the team up there. It will certainly help when they’re applying for jobs, to be able to say that they’ve had their own bottle out released from a year course is great.”
One student, Jake Adcook left such a mark during the project that since graduating he has managed to secure himself a new position with Ian MacLeod.
Annie also confirmed that the university will have many more collaborative projects with Ian Macleod in the future: “We’ve got another group project that’s starting. There will be another four students that are going to be working with Ian MacLeod.
“They aren’t set up to do another release this year, but they are supporting the product like a project. It’s a finishing project that is very similar and will hopefully inform a future release.”
However, they are conscious to keep the projects fresh and exciting for the new students enrolling. “The plan is that we will carry on doing releases, but it won’t be every year. You don’t really want to do the same project every year anyway, there’s no innovation in it. We want to make sure that our students are doing something that’s a bit different and so the next release will be just that.”
Annie was very thankful of the collaboration and praised the positive impact it has had on the programme.
“It’s been very good in terms of exposure and giving credibility to the course because it shows that things come out of it and that is worthwhile coming across to do. You will go on and do good things if you come do our programme.”