Full name: Stuart Harvey

Role: Master Blender/Maturation and Blending Manager, Inver House Distillers (anCnoc, Hankey Bannister, Balblair, Speyburn, Old Pulteney etc)

DOB: 10/01/65

Birthplace: Saltcoats, Ayrshire

Website: http://ancnoc.com

Fun Fact: Stuart is the tallest Master Blender and Master Brewer – at nearly 2 metres!

Many of our readers will have enjoyed your creations without knowing much about the man behind them! So, could you tell us a little about your journey to today? Keeper of the Quaich, the only Master Blender AND Master Brewer in the industry… but you started out making beer at the beginning?

I joined the Brewing Industry in 1987 after graduating with a degree in Biochemistry. I was a big beer fan, so this was my ideal job. As a Graduate Trainee you spent time in different departments learning the brewing process; brewhouse, fermentation, processing and packaging. I was also expected to study for my Brewing Exams with the Institute of Brewing. After three years of practical experience you were allowed to sit the first three exams to become an Associate Member of the IoB. I passed all three exams while at Webster’s Brewery in Halifax. 

This allowed me to start studying for a Diploma from the IoB (Master Brewer). This required me to sit six three hour exams over three days, covering every aspect of brewing, packaging and engineering. It was a massive challenge and required a lot of study to gain sufficient knowledge to pass all the exams. I am very proud to be a Master Brewer, there are only 20 each year, worldwide, pass the exams and it proved invaluable when I joined the Distilling Industry in 1995.

What does being a master of blending and brewing entail? Is there any overlap? You must have serious olfactory skills.

The mashing and fermentation process is quite similar in Brewing and Distilling. However I was shocked that the Distilling Industry still uses wooden washbacks with no temperature control for fermentation. The brewing industry uses stainless steel with very strict temperature control for every beer you brew.

I was assessed for the tasting panels at the breweries and found to have good natural olfactory skills. However there was also extensive training to ensure we all used the same descriptors. The tasting panel was held at 1200 every day to assess all the beers that had been produced. Your senses are at their best when you are hungry, just before lunch. This was always something I enjoyed.

I was assessed for sensory skills when I joined the Distilling Industry and found to be suitable to train as a noser. Therefore I joined the nosing panel assessing all the new make grain and malt we were producing/buying. This moved onto mature whisky when I moved to Macallan Distillery.

I have personally nosed over 100,000 casks and I gave up counting when I reached 100,000! This is the only way you build up your knowledge of different malts/grains matured for different periods of time in different cask types. It is like building a mind map, now it becomes gut instinct whether a cask will be suitable for 12, 17 or 21yo, depending on the profile you are looking for in the whisky.

You have to have a natural ability to detect aromas/flavours and describe them. However you then need to train yourself to use the technical terms from the SWRI flavour wheel. This means the panel will all use the same descriptors even though they might associate this with their own descriptor.

I enjoy working on blends and single malts, they provide different challenges. Once you have established a recipe for a blend, the challenge is to ensure the blend is as consistent as possible. The advantage with blends is that you tend to be blending larger volumes. So, if you know the cask types required you don’t have to nose every individual cask.

Single malts require every cask to be nosed as you are dealing with much smaller batches. One single cask can have an adverse effect on the batch. I enjoy all of our products at home – Hankey Bannister, anCnoc 12yo, Balblair 2005, Pulteney 12yo and Speyburn 10yo.The older products tend to be for special occasions.

On that note, can you tell us about the creation of Hankey Bannister 40 YO? You got your hands on a bottle of Hankey Bannister from the 1920s right, and basically recreated it from scratch, right? How the hell do you pull that one off?

The bottle of Hankey Bannister from 1928 was used to create the Hankey Bannsiter Heritage Blend. When I nosed the sample it was peaty with a higher strength and malt content than the current blend. This was typical of blends from that era, there was no chill filtration, and therefore the strength had to be above 46% to ensure the product was not hazy. It was a fantastic challenge to recreate the flavours and aromas using our current stock of grains/malts.

I was actually looking for some casks for a 25yo blend when I found the casks for the Hankey Bannister 40yo. The casks were a remnant from a 25yo blend that had been held at the bottling location for 15 years. When I looked at the age of the whisky I realised it was 40yo, so I asked for some samples. They were superb so we decided to bottle the first release of the 40yo.

Japan, India…now Taiwan. The world outside of Scotland seems to be getting more involved with whisky production. Any personal favourites from abroad? Where do you see the world whisky scene going in the next few years? Any trends or things you reckon we should be looking out for?

It is always interesting to try different food from around the world and the aromas/flavours they create. If I am visiting another country I always let the local Team choose the food and we can discuss this over some beer,wine or whisky. You never know when a different aroma is going to appear while you are nosing a batch of casks. The 1989 peaty casks I found at Pulteney, while nosing casks for 17yo, were a complete surprise. The casks had originally contained heavily peated malt and had been sent to Pulteney for filling.

Fortunately I am very sensitive to phenols therefore I can detect them at low levels. We decided to keep the casks until last year and release the 1989 Vintage, which has just won the Best Single Malt at the WWA.    

Japan, India and Taiwan all make good quality whisky, however they do not have the diversity that we have in Scotland. I have nosed/tasted whisky from other countries and the quality was very good. However I found it very difficult to tell one whisky from another in a blind tasting… they all had very similar characteristics.

What’s a ‘day in your life’ like? Could you give us an insight into the business of making whisky?

I arrive in my office at 08 00hrs and will immediately look at the production schedule to see if new orders have appeared for blends or single malts. If there are new orders I will add them to my list for blending/vatting. My office is beside the Warehouse Team as I am responsible for all the Operations at Airdrie.

So I’ll speak with the warehouse team to ensure blending is on schedule and that casks have been delivered for nosing/blending. Mark Williamson joined as Blender as 2006 and is now learning the ‘art’of the Blender. We will discuss the plan and produce the blending instructions required.

The rest of the morning is usually spent planning production for the blends and single malts. At 1130 I’ll usually do some nosing, I find my nose is most sensitive just before lunch – so it’s is a good time to work on some single malts or blends. Lunch is spent at my desk, replying to e-mails or planning deliveries of casks.

I visit the malt distilleries regularly, therefore I will plan visits to Speyside to nose casks at Knockdhu and Speyburn. I will also travel to the Northern Highlands to visit Balblair and Pulteney. It takes 6 hours to drive to Pulteney therefore this can be a 4 day trip! The teams at the distilleries will have sampled 300 to 600 casks for the single malts. I will nose them and we will agree which casks to use for the different vattings of 12, 17, 21 or 25yo.

We have a team of 5 in the laboratory, they are all trained nosers. Samples of all the blends and single malts produced during the previous day will be collected. They are set up against reference samples in the nosing room and the team will nose them individually. If one member of the team does not think it is an acceptable match we will investigate the sample. Usually we are all in agreement on the assessment, however occasionally we will make a slight adjustment.

What’s your greatest/most memorable professional moment been, so far?

I have been very fortunate to be involved with the development of a lot of blends and single malts during my career. My most memorable moment would be when Inver House won Distiller of the year at the WWA. This recognised the contribution the whole Team makes to our whisky.

Where do you get your ideas?

I live in Ayr and it takes me an hour to drive to work, this is quality thinking time. Ideas can appear at any time whether it is at work or at home. Nosing casks can be inspirational, however sometimes it is when you are more relaxed that an idea can come together.

What’s your philosophy, summed up in a sentence?

“Adding quality and value in everything I do.”

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had, how did you overcome it, and what did you learn from it?

The biggest challenge is delivering quality and consistency in all our products.We have invested a lot of money in good quality casks and in our distilleries which has delivered the quality we require.

Who’s the person who’s most inspired you in your work – food industry or otherwise? Is there anyone that you draw inspiration or strength from? Do you have any specific culinary influences?

Bill McGregor recruited me to the whisky industry in 1995 when he was Operations Director for Highland Distilleries. Bill taught me a lot about the whisky industry and the process. Unfortunately he died very suddenly when he was 46. This taught me a very valuable lesson about maintaining a work/life balance. Our current owner, Khun Charoen, is a very inspirational person, his philosophy on work and life inspires the whole business.

What do you enjoy most and least about what you do?

I am fortunate that I get to travel quite a bit with my job. I enjoy most food whether it be Scottish, Thai, Indian, Japanese, Italian, Mexican or Chinese. I try and avoid too many chillies – I enjoy the flavour and aroma, not the heat.

What advice would you give to aspiring whisky/drinks professionals who’d want the kind of results that you’ve had?

If you get your foot in the drinks industry door work hard, listen to the experienced professionals and enjoy the experience. When people join the industry they never want to leave. We have members of our team who have worked for Inver House for 45 years.

If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be doing instead?

Running my own micro-brewery.

If you could cook anything for anyone, anywhere you chose – who would you pick, where would you do it and what would you cook for them?

My wife and my 3 daughters, in our back garden in Ayr, steaks on the BBQ.

If you could get anyone to try your drinks (fictional or real, living or dead) who would you pick and which of the products would you like them to try? Assume that they go on to be your brand ambassador…

I would like Bill McGregor to try all out blends and single malts. I know he would appreciate the quality and it would demonstrate what I have learned in my 21 years in the whisky industry.

What’s your ultimate aim and goal for your business/career? If you could achieve anything with it, what would you pick? Money and reality are no obstacle, so shoot for the moon…

To continue working with Inver House and release more exciting blends/malts.

If you were forced to fend off an alien invasion and singlehandedly save mankind using only the tools available at your various distilleries, how would you do it?

I would introduce them to Scotch Whisky, get round a table, have a few drams and resolve any issues.

If you were given an infinite budget but had to spend it all on entirely frivolous stuff, what are the first 3 things you’d buy, and why?

A villa in Spain. La Manga is our favourite holiday destination, a helicopter, to cut the daily commute to 15 minutes and a Range Rover, my favourite car.

If you could swap lives for the day with any fictional character (and you’d be guaranteed to return to your life after 24 hours), who would you choose, and why?

Captain Kirk, to boldly go where no man has gone before.    

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