THE LAIRD OF EDRADOUR
Andrew Symington was in very cheerful form when we met for our interview feature.
Note that there is a full version of this fascinating interview here
LFW: What is your job?
I am founder and Managing Director of Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky. My business is that of an independent bottler buying and maturing casks of whisky and then selecting them for bottling with our own label. I keep about 1,100 casks in stock with ages from three or four years to as old as 1954.
Recently I acquired Scotland’s smallest distillery, Edradour in Perthshire. I am now both a Scotch whisky bottler and distiller—an ambition fulfilled!
I started Signatory fourteen years ago with the ambition of having my own distillery. Now the transfer is complete I am a very happy chappie—despite my immediate baptism of fire; after just two weeks of possession of Edradour a huge thunderstorm caused a flash flood which caused about £300,000 worth of damage!
LFW: How did you become a bottler?
I became involved in this industry during my time as a Manager at the posh Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh where many of the old whisky companies used to entertain VIPs and they usually brought along interesting samples. I was able to taste a lot of fine sherry cask matured malts and to take some of them home.
I was so enthusiastic that in 1988 I scraped together £2,500 to buy a cask of 1968 Glenlivet and arranged to bottle it. My good friend, Peter Russell of McLeods helped me by securing the cask and assisting in the bottling and duty considerations. Then I set about selling it, initially to friends. A few restaurants took a case, then I went to a World Food & Drink Exhibition in Europe and met a German and Italian company which was interested and bought the rest of the cask. One cask became two and then onwards.
As I got busier and was using a Glasgow bottling contractor, I realised that the first few cases to come off my nice dark sherry cask were quite pale! The colour developed until the sixth case when the hue that I was expecting finally appeared. I was horrified to discover some was being ‘lost’ in the pipes and filters and I realised that some of what I was selling could have been cheapo supermarket blend or worse! I wasn’t happy that I couldn’t claim hand on heart this was a great product. I wanted complete control myself.
I reckoned that the only way for me to get round that was for me to have my own bonded warehouse with bottling facility and stock of casks which I could monitor myself.
LFW: And the name, Signatory?
With Signatory I thought that someone would endorse it as being something worth bottling but I gave up because we started selling long before we found anyone famous to sign a bottle! (I almost got Sean Connery once). Vintage, well, some producers complained you can’t have a vintage whisky, but now they all have one. When I got my cask of Glenlivet 1968 I realised that I wouldn’t always have a ’68 but I would get some ’70 or whatever and also to find a point of difference.
Unlike port, with whisky each year is just as good as the others but it does depend on the quality of cask it went into. Vintage as a term helps explain differences in bottlings.
We’ve been here in Leith since 1992 with offices, bottling plant and cased goods warehouse, plus about 130 casks—primarily things that are going to be bottled in the next month and the more venerable gems that I like to keep an eye on and sample every three to six months, rare treasures from the Fifties and Sixties.
The other 1,000 casks are scattered around Scotland in about 37 different distilleries and warehouses. If I buy a cask that I don’t need immediately I’ll leave it where it is, paying rent to have it stored. The rental is small if you have 100 casks or so with a keeper but there are set-up charges to keep out the small players and to reduce the risk of ‘investor’ scams such as we saw in the early Nineties.
Once a week we have a ‘milk-round’, a truck collecting a cask from all over and bringing it to Edinburgh.
LFW: How do you get to buy a cask?
Distilleries have always sold to anyone. Initially they sold to merchants who wanted it for blending; there were very little single malt sales. A pub in Scotland may have had casks of Glenlivet and Macallan in the cellar and jars to dispense from. It is that historical precedent that makes it possible today. Producers own many malts and the movement between distillers, merchants and brokers means I can buy Glenwhatever from either a big distiller or merchant like Berry Brothers, especially if they have surplus stocks of certain ages.
LFW: Does it upset the marketers?
In some cases justifiably so. I bottle malts at a different age from those done by the brand owner—but that is getting harder to do as they are extending their range to more and more expressions. I’ve stuck rigidly to that principle but some of the ‘armchair bottlers’—those with no facilities beyond a telephone—have been mimicking the proprietors, sticking distillery names in big letters on labels with no respect for the trademark owners. There are quality issues on some of these products too, giving the distillers something to be very concerned about.
It’s getting harder for the independents; anyone lucky enough to get any new Lagavulin will have restraints on them. Glenmorangie has never sold a cask of single malt; they add a tiny measure of Glen Moray and call it ‘Westport’ so ‘Glenmorangie’ cannot be found in the market. Glenfiddich do the same with ‘Wardhead’ and more are going to do it; Bowmore are just starting to do it now. It will take about five to ten years to use up stocks in circulation from the late ’80s then it will get very hard for a bottler.
I’m also gathering casks from distilleries which are closed and so have no brand interest but that is getting harder too. In the last four years there has been an explosion of new bottlers or as I like to call them ‘armchair labellers’. Some are already disappearing having realised there is no quick buck to be made. The big boys deal direct, leaving out the broker or merchant. It’s in a smaller number of hands and if you don’t have the connections then it is going to get very difficult.
With time, I began to get a reputation for bottling quality whiskies from good casks and that’s what made me accepted, that and the investment in a bottling line and the commitment to the industry. I showed I wasn’t after a quick buck, buying the odd cask here and there. Once people realised I wanted to buy my own distillery, I was taken a lot more seriously. I’ve much more credibility now I’ve joined the circle. Although I’m the smallest player, it’s great fun. Edradour is the perfect size for Signatory, the two can fit hand in hand.
LFW: Describe the bottling process.
A cask will be pumped in to a vat at which time we assess the strength. If required it will be reduced to bottling strength of 43 or 46% with de-mineralised water and allowed a day or two to settle. Reactions between whisky and water are slow; fatty acids convert into esters and aldehydes and there is a lot of heat generated. If we are doing a lot of single casks and I can’t afford for a vat to be tied up we will put it back into a holding butt for a week and return to it when ready. That marrying time makes a big difference. Single malt is a very delicate substance and we will not push it through our system at full speed, it agitates the spirit to push it fast.
If bottled at 43% we will chillfilter it somewhere between zero and +4°C depending on how oily the whisky is; in bigger companies it might be anything from -5 to -10°C.
LFW: Why chill it at all?
Without it, an oily whisky will go cloudy as the fatty flavour congeners come out of solution and give a haze; there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s not very appealing in the bottle. By reducing the temperature, the oils solidify and are separated out in filter plates. The result is a clear and stable product. ‘Unchillfiltered’ and cask strength whiskies are bottled at the ambient temperature. All our whiskies are barrier-filtered to remove solids, bits of wood and charcoal from the cask.
From the filters it goes to a holding tank and then on to our new bottling machine which is (nearly!) fully automatic. We had a bigger machine scaled down to fit the space available. It’s about 6.5 metres long and looks like a model railway with bottles chinking along—sometimes I believe I can hear it choo-choo! Happily the new labelling machine copes with most labels and so the number of people required has fallen to just four, one third that before. Previously every label had to be applied by hand—sit down, knees together, take label from the gumming machine and place it on. You can bottle about 600 bottles in an hour that way but it is very tiresome.
LFW: Your labels are very detailed.
Cask strength bottlings have to be done unlabelled because the final alcohol strength is determined after filtering and it may lose up to 1%—I don’t know why, it just does. Unlabelled bottles are boxed onto pallets while our friendly printer produces the labels. Then we will unpack and run the bottles through the labelling line again. The information of strength and quantity is absolutely accurate because we bottle it first. Other bottlers will guess the quantity or the strength and reduce it later if necessary; is that a true cask strength whisky? I don’t think so.
Each label is individually hand numbered and that writing could be mine, Annette’s (my girlfriend), Lorraine (my assistant) or my brother Brian—anyone who’s willing! A bit boring and we wanted to stop it but so many said it is a unique Signatory thing. We no longer do it on the big run stuff, the value for money bottlings and no longer on miniatures, thank goodness!
LFW: Who does your selling?
Most of the selling is done by myself and Brian. Recently we employed a finance man who is taking on the sales of Edradour. We sell to about 100 shops in the UK and to 27 countries. We find ourselves doing more and more trade shows. To begin with they were a novelty but now they are a chore—Germany will have four whisky fairs next year at which you will be meeting the same people! Too many fairs are done just for the money.
LFW: Why buy a distillery?
It seemed like a nice idea. There’s a magic to it; an industry that’s 100 years old, a lot of history, a great story, full of Scottishness, and a great product.
Our first attempt was to buy the old Caledonian grain distillery in the middle of Edinburgh but we were too late, it went to developers.
Then Ardbeg, which was won by Glenmorangie who have since done such a marvellous job. To achieve what they have would have taken me twenty years and Ardbeg is better off with them.
Next, we nearly bought Glencadam on the East coast, a great but little known distillery with nice gardens. However that was the point when Brian and I differed so strongly that he left the business. I realised I couldn’t run both on my own. With hindsight Brian did me a favour.
Then Glenturret, that got very close but Highland Distillers changed hands. After which point I realised that if I was going to make my dream work, I needed a small production unit like Glenturret. So I kept looking, flicking through Jackson’s book and it kept falling on Edradour, the smallest of the lot.
I badgered the managers at Campbell Distillers about it. They said ‘unlikely’. After six months it was known that they were to take on all of Seagram’s facilities; I reckoned then that Edradour would be surplus to their requirements. I was told it probably would be available and that my name was at the top of the list but they were talking an Ardbeg price—but it’s not Ardbeg! However at that time I had no idea that they had about 100,000 visitors each year!
Then I met Georges Nectoux, the new boss of Chivas, at Whisky Live in London. He told me that he would like to take matters further. I was very calm but inside I was leaping about! I explained I was having difficulties making the figures stack up. After some discussion a price of £5.4m was agreed, including roughly £3m for stock. I was delighted!
Edradour is well run and a real commercial proposition. Visitors help the cash flow and profitability which is important because making whisky at Edradour is a lot more expensive than anywhere else. Being so small it doesn’t have the economy of scale; I can only do five mashes per week but still have to pay two people who could produce twice as much with bigger equipment.
LFW: And selling for blending?
I plan to keep it all for single malt sales. After all, I can’t have those damned independent bottlers making profit from my brand! Actually, I’d have no objection to someone else bottling my whisky, providing it was a good example of Edradour.
People delight in asking if my attitude to independent bottlings or bottlers has changed. No it hasn’t—it would be the pot calling the kettle black.
LFW: Any funny finishes or such?
It’s all going into sherry casks just now, we will fill our first bourbon barrel soon and will try a balance between sherry, bourbon, a little port and maybe the odd rum cask, just to see what happens. Nothing innovative but the beauty is that nothing has been done with Edradour yet—it is unique with a super spirit.
I want to make a peaty whisky; soon we will spend three weeks producing about 45 hogsheads from heavily peated malt.
LFW: And will you charge visitors?
I don’t have any plans to introduce charging, the tour will remain free. Fortunately we have a high spend in the shop which balances the cost of guides. Edradour will become the Home of Signatory and I feel the more enthusiastic whisky fan expects and deserves something extra so we will try and do more in the evenings for them.
LFW: How do you view the sudden upsurge in independent distillers?
If you want to stay in the industry then you have to become part of it and that may explain the increase in the number of distillery owners. In my case it is a way of securing my future and that makes sense for Gordon & MacPhail buying Benromach too. In time I see Signatory’s sales declining but now expect Edradour to fill that. Admittedly it has given me access to more stocks for bottling than before.
LFW: Any reaction from the rest of the industry?
A lot of nice comments and letters of congratulations but I don’t think we are any threat to anyone. In two or three years we have the potential of 20,000 cases to sell and that is tiny compared with the big brands.
LFW: Will you be bottling on site?
I have no plans to leave Edinburgh, although our bottling facility is (again) too small and we are going to have to re-arrange it to cope with increased production. Edinburgh is central, our staff are from there, there is no space to do it at Edradour—near Perth maybe one day, but not in the near future.
It’s great at a weekend to come up here, it’s an escape. I’m known as the ‘new laird’ locally, I love that!
LFW: Desert Island dram?
I’m a great fan of sherry cask whisky. I like my 1976 Glenlivet and Glen Grant at cask strength, and my 1990 unchillfiltered Glenrothes. I didn’t drink Edradour before but I have become very partial to it especially my new unchillfiltered Edradour. It’s quite heavily sherried and I have been drinking a lot of it to get acquainted! Of the other producers I particularly like Ardbeg and Springbank.
LFW: Thank you.
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