News - WhiskyGeeks

The Balvenie Presents The Makers Project

November 24, 2021/in Events/by Zerlina Zhuang

The Balvenie has been coming up with a lot of interesting events recently. While we choose not to cover some of these events as other media outlets are doing so, we feel the need to cover this particular event. We have always been keen to bring art and whisky together, and The Balvenie has done it once again! The Makers Project features six different Southeast Asia artists and one artist from the United Kingdom as they use their art to represent The Balvenie with its core “Five Rare Crafts”.

What To Expect

The seven artists made use of various mediums to create their interpretations of “The Heart of their Countries” using The Balvenie as part of their art work. It’s a unique way for art creation and we look forward to seeing the exhibition at the ArtScience Museum. Happening from 26 November to 5 December 2021, you will get to see artistic installations of The Balvenie’s Five Rare Crafts plus the art exhibitions of the seven artists. Each ticket will also entitle you to two drams of The Balvenie Doublewood 12 Years Old, and The Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14 Years Old at the Gallery.

How to buy Tickets

Tickets are at $28/pax and you can get your tickets securely at https://bit.ly/themakersprojectsg. The exhibition takes around 45 minutes to get around and you get to choose the day and time that you would like to visit when you book your tickets. Importantly, this is an 18+ only event, so please do not bring your children along as they may not be able to gain entry to the exhibition. Remember to claim your drams after the exhibition too!

Promo Code

The Balvenie has kindly extended a promotion code to our readers too! For the first 100 readers, key in WHISKYGEEKS8OFF to get $8 off your ticket price when you book! The place to enter the promo code can be overlooked easily, so remember to look out for the words “enter promo code” at the top left corner after you enter the number of tickets you need. There are only 100 discount tickets, so grab them quick if you want to see the exhibition! We will be going, so do say hi at the exhibition if you happen to see us there!

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A chat with Jérôme Tessendier

June 4, 2021/in Events, Malternative/by Hong Fu Teo

Ever wondered what it’s like to be an owner and Master Blender of a Cognac distillery? Whiskygeeks got to interview the CEO and Master Blender of Distillerie Tessendier et Fils (Tessendier & Sons Distillery) that makes Cognac Park! Cognac Park is from a smaller sub-region of Cognac called the Borderies, and known for their Mizunara matured Cognac. His reply has also been edited for clarity. Let’s dive straight into the interview!

Jérôme Tessendier, CEO and Master Blended of Distillerie Tessendier et Fils Source

For people who aren’t familiar with Cognac Park, could you introduce yourself and how you started Cognac Park with Mr Dominic Park back in 1993?

I’m Jérôme Tessendier, born and grew up in Cognac; a pure “production” from Cognac! I have been working in the family business since 1992 and my passion is to create beautiful blends of Cognac. I met Dominic Park in 1993, he had already purchased small batches of cognac from a middle man and wanted to meet the distillery and the makers behind it. We were the source and after our first meeting, the chemistry was instant. Our goals aligned and we decided to cooperate. I created his first range of cognac from VS to XO Grande Champagne.

Growing up in a family of Cognac producers must have been really unique, what are some memories you have with Cognac growing up as a child?

I didn’t realise that this is a unique position because I was used to it. One of my first memories was hearing my parents talk over dinner about their day of distillation, then was this very particular smell in the distillery, this special atmosphere while it was cold outside and warm in the distillery.

Do you remember the first time you tried Cognac?

When I was 14, I played tennis tournaments, and some prizes would be miniature bottles of Cognac. So my best friend and I were in our room. And I brought some orange juice and mixed it with Cognac. So we did it in increments with 90% orange juice and 10% cognac, then 80% orange juice and 20% Cognac, until we were drinking Cognac neat. I felt ill the next day.

What does a typical day consist of as the CEO and master blender of Cognac Park?

The mornings start mostly with the questions and problems of production. Then start the tastings: approvals of blends, quality before bottling or shipping. Afterwards comes creating primarily blends with trial and error. The afternoon and evening are reserved for management, commercial and other company-related tasks.

How has COVID impacted the Cognac Industry and how is it coping with in this new COVID era?

During the first lockdown, of course, it has impacted because a part of employees couldn’t come to work. But after several weeks it returned to a tough but stable situation. Now we see that people still buy cognac in liquors stores instead of bars and restaurant as they are closed.

Is the practice of petites eaux (the practice of reducing Cognac with Cognac diluted with water rather than pure water) done in Cognac Park? If so, what advantages does it give?

The “faibles” or “petites eaux” is a practice that helps to reduce the alcohol content. It has to be done very carefully. On the one hand, it helps to give some roundness. On the other hand, it might reduce the aftertaste and make the blend a little flat. Therefore, it’s a practice that has to be done with a lot of care.

Could you talk about chill filtration in Cognac in general, and the extent of chill-filtration in Cognac Park (Distillerie Tessendier et Fils)?

Chill filtration became standard practice to ensure the long-term stability and clear appearance of the Cognac. The process chills the cognac at -5°C for 4 to 5 days before filtering. (With temperatures around -3°C at the exit of the filter). But of course, chill-filtering reduces the aromas of the Cognac. The key is to have a stable cognac before filtration, then the lightest one the after. We decided, first to control the stability of the cognacs before making a decision on whether chill-filtration is necessary. And for some of our cognacs, we prioritise the aromas by not chill filtrating, like the Mizunara range.

What are the defining qualities of eau-de-vie that deem the cask ready to transfer into Mizunara casks?

Cognac has to be delicate, straight, with depth, and very pure. It has to achieve a level of maturity before being over-oxidised to let the flavour profile of mizunara “wrap” the eaux de vie. That is the general philosophy.

Mizunara casks are known to be very leaky. Do the makers at Cognac Park find it to be true? If so, how do you deal with this leaky problem?

It was ok. Only one cask so far had this issue but it was on the top of the barrel so we didn’t face any lost of cognac, fortunately!

Casks of Cognac. Source: Distillerie Tessendier et Fils

In Chichibu, they used a hybrid cask with American White Oak staves and Mizunara heads. This achieves the best of both worlds: Flavour from the Mizunara, whilst reducing the leakage. Is there any possibility of a hybrid cask of Limousin oak and Mizunara oak?

Our current practice is not to get a hybrid cask but to have a double maturation or a finishing. The using a hybrid cask is still being researched now but we are not ready to announce anything… yet.

Post Interview Commentary

This was a really enlightening interview. I also appreciated how transparent Jérôme was with chill-filtration and when it is necessary and when it is not. I was particularly interested in the practice of faibles or petites eaux because it’s such a foreign concept to me as a whisky drinker. He later explained in a zoom tasting that the staves of the mizunara casks he orders are much thicker, which explains why the Mizunara casks at Distillerie Tessendier et Fils are so sturdy and less prone to leaks!

We would like to thank Jérôme Tessendier for taking time out of his busy schedule to enlighten us about what goes on behind the scenes at Distillerie Tessendier et Fils and Distillerie Tessendier et Fils for the photos!

Virtual Tour of The Balvenie Distillery

May 13, 2021/in Whisky Distilleries/by Zerlina Zhuang

The Balvenie Distillery (Photo Credit: thebalvenie.com)

With international borders still close in most countries, travel is made impossible. For those of us who miss Scotland and her beautiful people, we will have to wait some more. We were, therefore, absolutely delighted when William Grant and Sons invited us to go on a virtual distillery tour at The Balvenie. The highlight, however, was the promise that David Stewart, Malt Master for The Balvenie, would be available for a chat.

A wee trip to Speyside

Some of you know that I love The Balvenie, especially the single barrel range of 12 and 15 years old. I also adore their tea-spooned blended malt, Burnside, with its huge fruit notes and oakiness that does everything to lift the whisky up. Therefore, a tour at The Balvenie distillery is a big treat. I turned up at the Youtube page bright and early (well, in Scottish time at least), and waited for the tour to start.

Our tour started with Brett Bayly turning up on screen looking all prim and proper with his suit. He looked a wee bit uncomfortable, but hey, he was enjoying The Balvenie 12 years old Doublewood. I think that should take away all the discomfort! Next online was Gemma Paterson, the lady of the distillery. Gemma is the Global Brand Ambassador for The Balvenie, and she is a familiar figure for anyone who knows The Balvenie well. James was last onboard, but he was sitting happily onsite at The Balvenie distillery, ready to bring us on a tour!

As with all proper distillery tours, we started at the glorious floor malting, which The Balvenie has kept intact since 1929.

The Malting Floor

It was the first time that I saw such a huge malting floor. I did not manage to visit Speyside on my last trip to Scotland, but I did see a malting floor at Laphroaig distillery. Compared to what I saw during the virtual tour at The Balvenie, the malting floor at Laphroaig was smaller. The Balvenie distillery also employed very manual processes. The malt man loads up a machine that would transport a batch of raw barley from the floor to the steeping tank, where he adds water to encourage the germination process to start.

Once the malt man completes the steeping process, he lays the barley on the ground to grow. After that, the barley goes into the kiln, where they dried the barley either with coal fire or peat. Let’s go take a look at their kiln.

The Kiln

James took us down to see the fire, where it was warm and toasty for him. The kiln looked cool, but it’s very hot to touch. Using a metal hook, he eased the door opened and showed off the gentle fire. The small fire generated enough heat to dry and stop the germination of the barley, but not hot enough to burn them. As a real life experiment, he took a small piece of peat (the distillery produces their own peated malt too) and throw it into the coal fire. Will the peat contributes to a small phenol level in the current kilning process? Perhaps.

The Still House

Next, we headed off to the still house, where The Balvenie distillery produces their new make. The distillery houses 5 wash stills and 6 spirits stills. The wash stills have a capacity of 9100 litres which the spirits stills hold 12,750 litres each. The total distillation hours are 15.5 – 16.5 hours. Balvenie takes the cut of the heart between 74% to 64% abv, pretty much like most other distilleries. Finally, 4250 litres of spirits will be obtained from the original 53,000 litres of wort. A word on the cut of the heart – the peated malt has a lower and more precise cut that is lower than 70% abv.

The second picture showed James’ finger on the bulb of the spirit stills. This is an important part where the shape of the copper still encourages more reflux, creating a higher rectification during distillation. The higher rectification creates a cleaner spirit with fruity notes. The final step of the distillation process is at the spirit safe. Here, the still men will work manually to check on the spirit coming off the still. The new make is collected between 74% abv to 64% abv for the unpeated malt. The cut of the heart is lower when they are distilling peated malt.

Warehouse 24

A distillery tour is not complete without a peep into the warehouse. James took us to warehouse 24, where some of the older casks of Balvenie are still sleeping.

It is a huge warehouse but not filled to the brim with casks. Each cask is given enough space to breathe and do its magic on the whisky it is holding. Some of these casks dated back to the days where David Stewart, the Malt Master of The Balvenie, first became the Malt Master!

In the warehouse, James shared the story of the copper dog, a device used to sneak whisky out right under the watchful eyes of the excisemen. There is a story behind the copper dog and a man named Dennis, but I would leave the story untold. It’s more exciting to hear it first hand when you visit The Balvenie Distillery after the pandemic. James demonstrated how a man can use the copper dog to draw whisky out of a cask. It was pretty exciting, but perhaps, he was making too much noise trying to “steal whisky out of a cask”!

The Copper Dog

A copper dog is a device usually made of copper, although it can be made in stainless steel. The first picture showed the copper dog as it is, a container with a long chain. If you are a warehouse man in the past, you may get your mate to distract the exciseman and you use the copper dog to draw whisky from the cask. All you need to do is to drop the copper dog into the cask, draw it back up, and cap it. Put it back into your pockets and share a dram with your mate later on.

In James’ demonstration, he poured the whisky into a wee glass container to show us what the whisky was – a Balvenie 16 years old in a sherry butt.

Meeting David Stewart, the Malt Master at The Balvenie Distillery

At the end of the virtual tour, Gemma Paterson introduced David Stewart, the Malt Master. David joined the distillery in his youth (see the picture above) and has spent his entire career at WG&S. David is the most experienced malt master in Scotland, having 59 years of experience. He also nosed about 500,000 casks across his career. Meeting David was a treat, even if it was an online chat. He shared his experience of creating one of the most well-loved Balvenie expression – The 12 Years Old Doublewood.

David designed the “wood finishing” process in 1982 (gulp! I wasn’t even born yet) and began to experiment with it. Over time, he developed a sound concept and used it for the 12 Years Old Doublewood. To make the whisky, David takes a batch of whisky matured in American ex-bourbon casks and vat them together before transferring them into sherry butts for 9 months. Then the whisky are again put into a marrying tun for another 2 to 3 months before bottling. While each bottle of the Doublewood is labelled as a 12 years old, the process makes the whisky just slightly short of 13 years old.

The Balvenie 12 Years Old Doublewood

The Doublewood launched in 1993, and immediately took the limelight. The whisky gains its distinctive character from its maturation in two wood types, and these casks give the whisky unique characteristics that would not be available in the other wood. While the bourbon casks soften and give the whisky its roundedness, the sherry casks add depth and flavour to the whisky. It is truly one of the most delectable offerings from The Balvenie!

Comments from WhiskyGeeks

We really enjoyed the tour, and also the media kit that was delivered to us. It holds a copper dog (yay!), the beloved Balvenie Glencairn glass, a 12 Years Old Doublewood and a 12 Years Old Triple Cask. The team is definitely looking forward to drinking the whiskies. The tour gave us a good overview of the distillery and we are now looking forward to visiting the distillery in Scotland for real when the pandemic is over. We want to thank Gemma, James and Brett for the lively tour and David for taking his time out to speak with us.

For now, let’s drink and stay safe! Slàinte!

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