Singled Out
Glenmorangie’s director of distilling, Dr Bill Lumsden, achieves global recognition with a prestigious award
Single malt Scotch whisky maker Glenmorangie has been operating since 1843 and is wellknown as a pioneer in the field of fine whiskies, thanks to its practice of marrying time honoured whisky making methods with innovation, in order to create the brand’s portfolio of spirits. Part of Glenmorangie’s success comes in from its director of distilling—dr Bill Lumsden, a whisky master distiller and master blender who is lauded for his accomplishments and enthusiasm in the field. For his knowledge and expertise, he was recently recognised as the world’s finest when he won the Master Distiller/master Blender of the Year award at the Icons of Whisky 2016, which honours the most deserving in the whisky world. Lumsden is also responsible for the creation of Glenmorangie’s finest single malt whisky and of Ardbeg, touted as the world’s smokiest and peatiest Islay malt. Amid an impressive string of accolades, he even received a special recognition award from the International Spirits Challenge in 2015 and has also been named industry leader of the year three times by The Malt Advocate. He is known for his groundbreaking wood management techniques, experimentation with exceptional casks at various ages, and approach to extra-maturation. More than a century’s worth of whisky making has given Glenmorangie ample time to perfect its methods. The distillery boasts the tallest stills in Scotland, with copper necks towering at 16 ft and 10.25 inches, making them as tall as a fully grown adult giraffe. This means that only the lightest and purest vapours make it to the top, which Glenmorangie claims results in a smoother, more elegant whisky. The distillery also ensures that they ever only use their casks twice in order to guarantee the maximum amount of flavour extracted during maturation thus resulting in delivering a rounder, cleaner taste. As an industry leader, Dr Lumsden continues to advance the malt whisky industry with his bold strides in whisky experimentation and techniques, which can be partly accredited to his PHD in biochemistry.