The Contour of Luxury Spring/Summer 2018 | Page 152

Alexis Day The Glenfiddich 18 year old has notes of oak, baked apple, cinnamon sounds delicious, not to mention intriguingly extraordinary. Can you walk us through how such an amazing product is made? Glenfiddich With all Glenfiddich, and all single malt scotch, we start with barley that we then essentially make into a beer. We then distill this through c ­ opper pot stills and mature it for the minimum length of time stated on the label. For it to be Scotch it must be made and matured in Scotland for a minimum of 3 years. What gives the Glenfiddich 18 year old its particular characters mentioned is the hand selected casks that are used. Our Malt Master, Brian Kinsman, will select 160 casks that he deems will fit the character of the 18 year old, hence the ­reason we talk about the fact that this is matured in small b ­ atches. The influence of the ex-sherry casks that we source from J ­ erez in Spain gives it a baked apple nose and creates a spicy cinnamon finish. This is a great expression for someone who is looking for a very full-bodied Scotch Whisky. Alexis Day Glenfiddich has a variety of expressions of Single Malt Scotch Whisky. What advice would you give to a first time consumer of your brand products who is not sure which to choose first? Glenfiddich I would firstly ask them what they enjoy drinking. If they are just starting off their Scotch Whisky journey then the ­Glenfiddich 12 is a great entry point as it is light, and delicate with hints of pear. If they have already tried the Glenfiddich 12 then I would suggest the 15 year old as this is incredibly smooth with more of a mouth feel and longer finish. On my travels around the USA I naturally meet a lot of Bourbon drinkers. For them I always suggest the Glenfiddich 14 year old Bourbon B ­ arrel R ­ eserve as this has strong vanilla notes and a bourbon like quality to it. The question I always get asked is how to drink ­Glenfiddich and my honest answer is ‘however you want to as you bought it!” ­Saying that I do not recommend taking our stunning Glenfiddich 30 year old and adding diet Pepsi.