Musings of a whisky maker
Bill Lumsden’s innovation leads to new flavours for connoisseurs to enjoy in each sip.
WHISKY MAKER BILL LUMSDEN likes to eat local when travelling. His last two dinners, however, went a bit haywire. In Tokyo, he was treated to Chinese food; in Singapore, he ate at a steakhouse.
India turns out to be better. The conversation around innovation in whisky making is paired with re-imagined Indian food at Amaranta in The Oberoi, Gurgaon. Between bites of Chicken tossed in pallipalayam spices, Indian Ocean lobster presented with avocado tartare and kasundi mustard, and Kashmir slow braised lamb spare ribs, the feted Director of Whisky Creation, Distilling and Whisky Stocks at single malt scotch whisky brand Glenmorangie, talks about his own experiments.
Most of Lumsden’s work, and those that have been celebrated, are around wood and maturation.
Glenmorangie Spios is the ninth annual release of the company’s Private Edition series. It has been fully matured in American ex-rye whisky casks.
It took Lumsden 10 years to get hold of rye whisky barrels because rye whisky was almost dead in the US. That’s possibly because whiskies made from rye are more expensive to produce than those from bourbon.
“The basic flavours are carried through from rye cereal grains while corn and barley have much more sweetness when you distill it through,” says Lumsden. “Bourbon whisky is woody; has an oily and fatty texture because of the high proportion of corn. Rye is much drier. It is a more elegant product and you get spicy flavours such as mint, toffee, cinnamon and clove. These flavours have carried through to the Glenmorangie whisky.”
Another of the whisky maker’s favourite experiments came in 2012 with Artein, the number three in the Private Edition. This whisky was matured in Sassicaia wine barrels from Tuscany. The result was a taste of fruits such as apricots, peaches and plums; and cherries in milk chocolate.
Over the past decade, Lumsden has also innovated in primary production — barley varieties, different ways of malting, fermentation and distillation.
He particularly mentions Private Edition number six, Tüsail, which came in 2015. “I used a very old malting barley variety — one which is not grown anymore,” he says. “It doesn’t grow well in the field. Most of the times, when it is less efficient to produce, there is better flavour. I had it floor-malted. Whisky geeks loved this product and experiment.”
Signet, which was launched in 2009, used chocolate malt. Instead of malted barley being dried in a traditional oven, or over a peat fire, the grain went into a giant coffee roasting drum where the temperature went up to 280 degrees Celsius. The roasted grains came out black and looked like coffee beans. It acquired coffee and chocolate flavour.
Such innovation comes at a price. Signet is priced at about ` 28,500 a bottle in Delhi.
About what can be expected next, Lumsden remains tightlipped. When pressed, he has only this to offer: “Some of the craziest experiments are ones that are yet to see the light of day.”