In conversation with Dr Jim Veveridge
Maturation expert, Dr Jim Veveridge, demonstrates the virtues of the refill cask to Charles Maclean.
CM Is it not something of a contradiction for a âback-room boyâ to become a âcommunicatorâ?
JB When I started with DCL it would have been unthinkable.
Even distillery managers within the company were forbidden to speak to each other. But everything has changed. Knowledge is shared, and, most important, consumers are much better informed and want to know more. Anyone in the company who deals directly with consumers â from distillery staff to advertising agencies â must be up to speed with what we have discovered in the âback roomâ, as you call it, if they are going to supply this need for information accurately and truthfully.
CM You mean âsinging from the same hymn-sheetâ?
JB Itâs not that. You cannot pull the wool over the eyes of the kind of consumers I am talking about â the readers of this magazine, for example. Also, there is no reason to do so. We have nothing to hide â not only UDV, but the other whisky companies.
The truth is that our understanding of whisky has increased dramatically over the last 20 years. What was previously magic is now science; what was once divided into watertight compartments â new-make production, maturation and blending, for example â is now conceived as a whole.
CM Give me an example.
JB Refill casks.
CM What do you mean?
JB A refill is any cask which has been used for maturing Scotch whisky more than once. In other words, any cask which is not a âfirst fillâ cask. Refills are much less active than first-fi.....
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By Charles MacLean
Section : Whisky Interview
Page number : 90
