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Mr. WHISKY
Dr. Alan Rutherford is Head of the production subsidiary of United Distillers, the worlds biggest spirit and Scotch Whisky producer. After a life time in the industry he is now Chairman and Managing Director of United Malt and Grain Distillers Ltd and one of the most influential men in the world of Scotch Whisky. Loch Fyne Whiskies met with Dr. Rutherford in his office in Edinburgh just after his company had announced the sale of Bladnoch distillery for purposes other than distilling. I run the process of Scotch Whisky production for United Distillers—everything from cereals procurement to the warehousing of new make whisky for maturation. I’m responsible for 5 maltings, 27 active malt distilleries and 2 grain distilleries. I set the strategy for those parts of the business involved in producing the volume and quality necessary for future requirements and ensuring stocks are available for the demand for various ages—5, 8, 12 years or more. I work very closely with our commercial department who trade with the industry, exchanging whisky for blenders and buying and selling whisky and casks. I see that we have well maintained distilleries and am responsible for environmental and health and safety issues. I am also Chairman of the Malt Distillers Association of Scotland (a management association representing all the distilleries in Scotland and considering practical and technical aspects of whisky distillation). LFW: Who makes the decisions, you as the producer or the Marketing department? We do. We always ask the Marketing people for their forecasts of demand for the future and over the years we have learned to interpret these “forecasts” which will often be over-optimistic and require tempering. This tempering is very important. Even as recently as the late ‘70s an over estimating of whisky future sales caused the so-called “Whisky Loch” and the subsequent down turn in production that we see now. Up to that time we had experienced a growth for twenty years of 6% each year which encouraged the production of an awfully large amount of whisky—particularly when an allowance for evaporation of 2% per year is added in. Nowadays the industry is geared to avoiding such errors, there are fewer key players, information on stocks and production levels is shared through the Scotch Whisky Association and producers are much more in control. The Whisky Loch is historically interesting, but it will not happen again. We’ll never get it right—you can’t forecast twelve years ahead—and we’ll always get a surplus but we have ways of dealing with that, such as tweaking our blends. The marketeers create well thought through and developed marketing concepts for the whiskies. For the malts there are The Classic Six—the regional malts, Cardhu—the after dinner malt, Royal Lochnagar—the exclusive ‘Royal’ malt, Glen Ord—our mainstream malt for Europe and finally Royal Brackla—our price-positioned fighting brand. We came late into malts. The Distillers Company as was thought that malts would detract from the image of the blends and that people would become confused in their minds that blends are inferior, which of course they are not, they are a different sector. Now we’ve got going with malts we’re extremely pleased, particularly with the Classic Six and Cardhu. LFW: Do you ever fear running out of a whisky? If I had taken the growth of Lagavulin sales in the early nineties and extrapolated that for sixteen years, (the age at which it is bottled,) in order to achieve the “forecasted” capacity I should be doubling the distillery immediately, now, and planning to quadruple it in the future. What I think will happen is that Lagavulin sales will grow less bullishly as time goes on as it starts to fill the market. Of the Classic Six, Lagavulin is the greatest seller,—50,000 cases in 1993. Malt whisky is only 4% of the total whisky market and almost all distilleries in Scotland are for blending; single malt sales are the icing on the cake. For instance Cardhu, which is number six in volume sales worldwide sells 100,000 cases a year. A small distillery, like Lagavulin, is capable of producing five times that amount. LFW: Of the Classic Six, why was Glenkinchie chosen? It’s hardly a typical Lowland malt. Glenkinchie has a bit of body to it and is more robust than a typical Lowland malt—in fact some consider the Highland Dalwhinnie to be a lighter malt than our Lowland! The contenders for the Lowland malt were Rosebank and Glenkinchie; Bladnoch was not a contender at that time for a number of reasons. In quality terms Rosebank and Glenkinchie were very close and there was no easy decision. Our marketing people favoured Glenkinchie as it has a more Scottish name and the location in a very nice part of rolling East Lothian countryside is far more attractive than a busy junction in Falkirk! Those two reasons alone swung it. I’m not saying Glenkinchie was inferior to Rosebank—both had their defenders—but a decision had to be made and in this case marketing factors won the day. LFW: Have you considered changing the rate of peating to create a different style? A Lowland distillery is capable of producing a heavy, peaty whisky just as Jura can produce a light whisky. We once made some unpeated Caol Ila, owing to a surplus of peated whisky at that time and to keep the distillery open. Very nice whisky it was too! Heritage and continuity of peating is important and there is no reason to change. LFW: Couldn’t you keep more distilleries open? Ideally we would keep them all going and just wind them down a bit, which is what we do most of the time. In Scotland there have been 750 distilleries since Ferrintosh was burned down in 1689 (that’s legitimate distilleries!). At the present there are 95 malt and 7 grain distilleries. In 1886 there were 150 distilleries who collectively produced just over 3 million cases that year—a figure now possible in two months at Cameronbridge. In those days they were tiny distilleries, with additional limitations. Customs & Excise would only allow either mashing or distillation under the supervision of the officer, never both at the same time. It’s not big business that is closing distilleries, it’s an industrial Darwinism. We recently closed four distilleries after we looked at the output that we needed in the years ahead and we realised we had excessive capacity. We looked at our portfolio and divided them into groups. The ten whiskies with investment in the brands as single malts (including the Classic Six) were safe. The second group are the modern or recently refurbished distilleries; these are efficient, cost-effective ones such as Glendullan, Caol Ila, Mannochmore or Clynelish, all re-built in the last thirty years. Next are the distilleries that are desirable because of the quality and high demand of the product such as Mortlach or Benrinnes—whiskies demanded by blenders throughout the industry and important to our own blends. What remains are the distilleries that we can do without—either a distillery that requires a lot of capital spend on it, or one that no longer fits the blender’s requirements. Since our change of ownership in 1986 we have re-opened Teanininch and Royal Brackla; we have sold to Allied Distillers who have re-opened Glentauchers and Imperial and we have sold (to Inver House Distillers) Speyburn and Knockdhu, which has also been re-opened. So in that time we have facilitated the re-opening of more distilleries than we have closed! Of the distilleries we have closed, Bladnoch, Rosebank and Balmenach are unlikely to operate again. I have hopes for Balmenach but sadly not for the other two. Pittyvaich will be distilling this year on an experimental basis to evaluate different types of barley and distilling techniques under our research department with Dufftown-Glenlivet employees working there. Of the long closed, Glenury, North Port, Banff and Coleburn are shells or dismantled and will never work again. Brora at Clynelish and Port Ellen are intact but will not be required—unless the business really took off and justified re-building. However in that event I think we would enlarge what we’ve got. LFW: What is the biggest influence on taste in a malt? Peat; not in the supply water, but in the kiln for malting you should consider the degree of peating versus non-peating. Fermentation is quite important; the type of yeast, the length of fermentation and the gravity at which you ferment. Very important is the still house; the size and shape of stills and how fast you run them. A short squat still, driven hard with a lot of heat will send a lot of heavies over. Alternatively with a long tall still, driven gently, only the lights will get over the top and you’ll have a lot more reflux. Cut point is very important; where a still man chooses where to come on to spirit and go off spirit to feints, how much you re-cycle and how much you collect. The last big influence is the cask type; sherry cask, new cask, re-fill or bourbon, and of course the years spent in the cask. More subtle influences are water supply (in fact a very small influence) and location of maturation. A Macallan matured on Islay would not be significantly different from the norm, nor a Lagavulin matured on the mainland. Altitude and humidity and the relative position of a cask within a warehouse do have some influence. At the top of a modern warehouse summer/winter temperatures will cycle more than at the bottom of an earth floor warehouse. A half empty warehouse will vary more than a full one because of thermal inertia in a full warehouse—it’s best to keep them filled. This is the beauty of Scotch Whisky; 100 distilleries, a host of ways of running those distilleries, half a dozen types of cask and then a whole range of ages from 3 to 33 years—the number of variations available is almost infinite. LFW: Could a Still Man be replaced? Yes, the technology is there, but we must consider if it is financially worthwhile or if it is something we want to do. I’m told you can do without the pilot of an aeroplane but no airline will consider it because of passenger expectations! Malt whisky is about heritage and craft. There is automation in many malt distilleries but we’re in the hand crafting business and we believe that the mash-man and the still-man have a role to play and are very important. LFW: What about diluting water? Dilution at the distillery is done with natural, untreated water off the hill. At the bottling hall de-mineralised mains water is used which has no character at all. We have a few minor blends that are shipped overseas at high strength and bottled outside Scotland but we have enough science to ensure the water is de-mineralised to our specification so that the result in Australia is the same as in Scotland. Where the whisky is diluted to 40% is irrelevant. In fact almost all of our brands are bottled in Scotland. At the time of bottling, all our whiskies are filtered at a temperature of plus 4°C. Our research shows that this removes the bulk of the undesirable, cloud producing oils without discernibly removing flavour for the experienced whisky drinker. Some of our competitors’ brands are filtered at considerably lower temperatures removing many more flavour elements. Some of the pale blends from other companies are filtered at minus 10°! There are seven hundred components in Scotch whisky. Some have a low flavour threshold but the interplay amongst those that have flavour is tremendous. Producing a consistent single malt is very difficult. We can achieve consistency by vatting about 100 casks prior to bottling. These will all be pre-selected; those that are not selected go for blending. We also have a cask type mix recipe, specifying the proportion of various types of cask. Throughout the company we have about 10% sherry casks but the usage varies from brand to brand. We don’t bottle a 100% sherrywood whisky as we feel that the sherry masks the flavour of the whisky itself. When we select a style, Lagavulin or Dalwhinnie for example, we will also select a cask recipe. Having played with it we will decide that, say, one in five casks should be sherry wood—20% is quite high for us. We will also specify refill and Bourbon casks. Individual cask strength whiskies will never give consistency, they are fine and different but not necessarily the best. I’m worried that there are those who consider single cask whiskies to be better. It’s arrogant for people to say that the way they like their whisky is correct and the way you like yours is not; it’s a matter of personal taste just as is how you drink it. Single cask whiskies are bound to be a niche in the market compared to mainstream products. We’re trying to produce a malt that tells you about a distillery and reflects the character of that distillery, and keep it consistent from year to year. That involves everything, from the buying of barley, the mix of casks, to the age of maturation. LFW: What is the thinking behind Royal Brackla, no age statement and selling at about £15? Brackla is at least a ten year old and will remain so. We have a gap in Brackla production as the distillery was closed between 1983 and 1991 so the whisky being bottled now has to be at least twelve years old. We were worried because supermarkets and the like were bringing out their own label malts with awful descriptions like ‘Speyside’ or ‘Islay single malt’ and whilst we haven’t dropped to the sort of prices that they have, we decided to put in a fighting brand with very little marketing behind it. We deliberately gave it no age to give us the flexibility to choose whatever casks we need, bearing in mind we’ve got this eight year gap to jump in the near future. We’ve shown quite categorically that what determines maturity in taste and smell terms is average age. Legally, the stated age is that of the youngest whisky, and quite rightly so, but you can mix older and younger. For instance a malt of all ten year old whisky will taste similar, in terms of maturity, to a mix of eight and twelve year olds. Immaturity can be counteracted with maturity—within limits! LFW: Loch Fyne Whiskies stock The Distillery Malts, those of your other distilleries apart from the core ten. The distillery malts do not interest our marketers at present; they did consider them to be a possible distraction from their strategy for the core brands. Employees at all the other distilleries said to me “We’d like to drink our own whisky—if I work in Glenlossie I want to give my neighbours and family a bottle of Glenlossie for Christmas.” Having worked in distilleries, I totally agreed with them. I gave the go ahead for every distillery to bottle its own, primarily for employees and visitors and only to be sold at the distillery, but of course it generated interest, as you might imagine. This was not supposed to be a commercial plan at all. Gordon & MacPhail wanted to distribute them so we got talking and now they are available through specialists like yourselves but without any marketing or promotion. In fact bottling runs of these malts are very small and you will see some variation there. We’re not talking about a vatting of 100 casks—it’s just two or three at a time, so there will be some variation in character. LFW: Is Scotch Whisky production safe in the ownership of Guinness? Certainly. I can’t really speak for future generations but all the people involved at the moment, from the Chairman down, are all very devoted to the industry. Being the biggest in the industry and the market leader in so many countries, we’ve really got to take that very seriously. LFW: Thank you for talking with us—I’m sorry we’ve gone over time. Not at all, I could talk about whisky for weeks!
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