Distillery
In short: I look after quality. Any product that leaves Glenfiddich, I am responsible for getting it right. Overseeing every individual stage of the production process, so we know the quality is going to be right.
In terms of the liquid, I think of it two ways: I’m a custodian of a current range, basically making sure that range is sustained, and the other part is trying to innovate as well. One eye on the past, making sure we maintain that, and one eye on the future—where do we go from here, how do we come up with new and interesting flavors, whiskies, expressions.
Quality control is a combination of chemistry and sensory. When I joined the company, it was 100% chemistry. Today, it’s 100% sensory. I “nose” everything. Between 15,000 and 20,000 samples a year.
I don’t know what it is. But it’s what keeps it so interesting for everybody involved. There’s a thing that’s involved in maturation—for all products that require maturation—science can explain a lot of it, but there’s still surprises, things that happen that are a completely natural process. That’s what makes it special. It’s a combination of an art and a science: the cooper makes the cask—where did the tree grow? How did he char it? What’s the temperature at the moment that he does? All those things are all measurable, but in the end, when you put them all together, fundamentally you have to open the cask and nose it and taste it. You can take 100 casks, filled in the same day, that look the same, the spirit was identical on day one—and after 12 years, 15 years, 20 years… they are all different. And you go one by one, nose them, taste them, and there will be different colors, different intensities, you’ll suddenly get a note of coconut that wasn’t anywhere else. That’s the best feeling in the world.
