David ‘nose’ about good whisky
bosses couldn’t find anyone to take his place and so installed him as head blender at the young age of 29 and he has been responsible ever since within Grant’s for many different blends for the last 50 years.
At the age of 79, he is now thinking of retiring.
He explained to the audience how whisky was made from barley, which is then malted and steeped in water for a few days.
At this stage, it is a crude beer, which is then processed through several distillations to produce the crude spirit. It is then put into spent bourbon whiskey barrels from America for some three years where it matures, getting the nice colour that“impart layers of vanilla spiciness”.
Next, it is put into sherry wine butts and matured again, “bringing fruity honeyed depths”to the finished whisky. At this stage, it has matured for 12 years.
Over the last 20 years, Grant’s have expanded their range in to Irish Tollimore whiskey, grain whisky in the famous triangular bottle (1964/65) gins, vodka, rum and Drambuie. They even have a blended malt from three different malts called Blended Monkey Shoulders, as well as many other older and younger malts but Balvenie is by far the leader along with Glen Fiddoch malt.
The company began in 1862 and is still going strong with Mr Stewart as their master blender who travels the world exercising his skill in nosing whisky. He is one of only about 20 in the UK with his ability and skill – 50 years of it. He has been semi-retired since 2010 but you cannot keep a good man down.
President Mitchell thanked him for a very interesting talk and in particular the miniature of Balvenie 12-year-old Doublewood that each member had received. The luncheon dispersed.
The next meeting on January 10 will be a talk on‘Glasgow and the Tobacco Lords’by David Vennard. All members and potential new members will be welcome
For further information please access EK Probus’s web site which can be found at https://ekprobus. wordpress.com.