FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY
The New Year’s honours list shows that whisky’s contribution to Scotland’s economy and prestige is being recognised at last
The New Year’s honours list recognises the whisky industry
In an attempt to further personalise their whiskies, emphasise their expertise and draw consumers into the spirit’s ‘journey’, distilleries have been lauding the increasingly high-profile men and women responsible for making their product. It’s the next step on from the move towards employing knowledgeable ambassadors, as most distillers who wish to engage and educate consumers are doing.
However, there are other ways in which key figures in the whisky industry can be recognised and, with a nod to the importance of whisky to Scotland’s economy, the 2016 New Year’s honours list included a number of prominent whisky folk. Chief among them was David Stewart, the master blender at William Grant & Sons, who has been made an MBE.
Stewart’s impressive career spans 54 years, starting as a whisky stocks clerk at The Balvenie in 1962, aged 17. After a 12-year apprenticeship, he became malt master at William Grant & Sons, a position he has held ever since.
During his career, he has developed several award-winning whiskies for Glenfiddich, The Balvenie and Grant’s brands, as well as being involved in the launch of Monkey Shoulder.
Arguably, his most notable contribution was the development of double cask maturation in the 1980s. The process was practically unheard of at the time; today, maturing whisky in one cask and then having a second maturation – or ‘finishing’ it in another cask such as a sherry butt – is common practice. The first whisky to promote double maturation was The Balvenie 12-year-old DoubleWood, which launched in 1993 and is still the most popular expression of The Balvenie. It is, says Stewart, the whisky he is most proud of.
So highly regarded is Stewart that a 50-yearold expression of The Balvenie was launched to coincide with his 50th year at the company. Last year saw the launch of the David Charles Stewart (DCS) Compendium, which was created to celebrate his work as a malt master and master blender. Split across five ‘chapters’, each contains five single-cask whiskies, spread across five decades, with the set costing more than £125,000.
Stewart has also received industry awards, including the Grand Prix of Gastronomy, and several lifetime achievement awards from the International Wine & Spirit Competition and the Whisky Advocate magazine.
He is not alone in receiving honours. Some early figureheads – such as Sir Tommy Dewar and Sir Peter Mackie, who created the White Horse blend – were knighted. Recently, several high heid yins at big firms were given honours, such as Sir Ian Good CBE and Sir Brian Ivory CBE, both of the Edrington Group.
According to my research, the distillery with the most honours is Tomatin. The late MD John McDonald was made an OBE and more recently master distiller John Campbell became a CBE.
To my mind, no one deserves recognition more than James Espey, who in 2013 was made an OBE. Having created brands such as Bailey’s Cream Liqueur and Malibu, he came up with the world’s first aspirational whisky in Johnnie Walker Blue Label and helped transform Chivas Regal into a luxury brand in Asia.
Espey was also the founder and first chairman of the Keepers of the Quaich, which honours people for service within the whisky industry (think of it as whisky’s Queen’s honours list).
Considering how much the industry contributes to the Scottish economy, to say nothing of what its products do for our prestige and profile overseas, such awards are timely and fully justified. Let’s raise a glass to that.
‘ Distilleries have been lauding the increasingly high-profile men and women who make their product’