In Conversation with John MacDonald, Balblair Distillery
“I’m a 20th century boy… I’m still learning the 21st century”
As per my previous post, John MacDonald of Balblair Distillery has retired from the whisky industry. In lieu of a gilded tribute it feels more natural to share a condensed version of my last exchange with John courtesy of the Spirit of Toronto Masterclass Series in November 2022.
Sadly I was told that I had just missed him when we stopped by the distillery a few months later — the boiler was on the fritz, and production had come to a sudden halt as John was doing the rounds in search of replacement parts. All in a day’s work as John describes below.
John, thanks very much for joining us today. It’s been a few years since I last visited Balblair, and those who haven’t been need to know what an absolutely gorgeous part of the Highlands you’re in; there’s a gentle pastoral feel about Balblair that I’ve always felt is reflected in its whisky, but for the longest time the distillery went about its business without fanfare.
Perhaps you could tell us how you ended up at Balblair? And if we could listen to your stories with a Balblair 12 Year Old in hand, then all the better.
Well Johanna, where to start? I’ve been manager at Balblair Distillery now for sixteen years. Prior to that, I was employed at a rather less well-known distillery called Glenmorangie, where I worked for seventeen years.
But know that I actually started by chance in the whisky industry: I came out of college in 1985 in Edinburgh, quite disillusioned with the course I was doing, and I really missed being in the Highlands, which is where I’m from. So I returned which meant doing odd jobs in supermarkets, gents outfitters; things like that. And it wasn’t until 1989 that I heard there was a job going at Glenmorangie Distillery.
I had known Ian, their manager, for many years so I thought, why send him a letter when I can just go round to his door? So I knocked on Ian’s door and he answered, “Hi John, how are you?” to which I said, “Fine Ian, I heard there’s a job going?” to which he said “Yes.”
So we went into Ian’s kitchen, and the first thing he did was pull a cork from a bottle of the old Glenmorangie 10 Year Old, as it was then. He poured a glass for me and a glass for him, and he said, “You want some water in that?” and I said, “Well, just a little, Ian.” And he replied, “Well then, you can start on Monday.” And that was the end of my interview for the whisky business.
And in truth, it’s not something I planned on doing for a long time. I started as a warehouseman, and I became very interested: okay what happens next? And, you know, rolling barrels and stuff like that was great. But the people I was working with were fantastic, and they were real characters back then. When I say characters, I really mean characters.
As an aside, when I retire – which hopefully is going to be some time yet – I’m going to write a book on whisky, but it’s going to be a book unlike any other whisky book. It’s going to be about all the people that I’ve met during my 34 years in the business now. But I have to wait until a few more people depart the planet, otherwise there will be libel suits against me. I could tell you some at the moment, but this is being recorded, so I won’t, I’ll have to tell you in person! But there are some fantastic stories, some fantastic people.
My journey was a more traditional route: I became a mashman after being warehouseman. I did that for three, four years and I became very interested, asking lots of questions along the way such as, ‘Okay, what happens in the stillhouse?’ And then I managed to get in there just by good fortune – my career has all been chance, I have to admit – so I did that for six years, and then bluffed my way into the office to become assistant manager. And I did that for another six years.
Come 2006, I heard the manager’s job was going at Balblair. My interest was immediately piqued because I’d been through the distillery and as you rightly mentioned, you couldn’t find a more beautiful looking distillery in all of Scotland. The location is absolutely fantastic, and it’s not by chance that Ken Loach, a very revered British filmmaker, chose Balblair Distillery as the focal point when he decided to film The Angel’s Share. I’ll never forget the words that he used when he came to visit – he said, “This is what I always imagined a distillery to look like,” which I thought was high praise. For those of you that haven’t seen that film, watch it.
Agreed, it’s not just a fantastic film, but it really shows off the incredibly beautiful setting where Balblair is made.
Yes, very much; when I became manager in August 2006 it was a hallelujah moment for me, and I’ve never looked back. I consider myself fortunate that I can wake up in the morning and not think, ‘oh my God, I have to go to work’. I live about 150 metres away from the distillery, so it’s a two-minute commute and I’ve never come to work disheartened.
Every day is a new day and the staff I have are incredible. In fact, the man who’s on just now, Mike Ross, he’s been here now for thirty-seven years which you don’t see that often these days but that’s testament to the distillery and the company. When people start to work here, they tend not to leave. I’ve been here sixteen years and I still consider myself as the new guy.
Since we’ve been sipping on the Balblair 12 Year Old perhaps you can talk us through the recent transition from vintages to age statements?
I want to say it’s been maybe three years now since we went from the vintages launched in 2007, which was the year after I joined. And bottling like this was a great idea: all natural colour, all un-chillfiltered, bottled by vintage. But now the distillery has gone back to an age-stated core range, starting with this 12-year-old, a very elegant, yet very approachable whisky. It’s the only one from the core range where I would suggest you add a drop of water. The rest of them, don’t add water, otherwise I’ll never speak to you again.
It’s matured in ex-bourbon casks as well as double-fired American oak casks, which means ‘de-char, re-char’ – the casks are brought back to the cooperage, the heads are taken off, and the insides are scraped to remove the charcoal, and then the cask is refired, giving it a new life with characteristics that fall somewhere between a first-fill and a second-fill American barrel. The de-charred cask gives the whisky much more of a wood element, whereas a second-fill cask gives it more of a vanilla hit. And I also think that a second-fill cask preserves more of the new make spirit’s character, like the green apples I mentioned in the 12-year-old.
I have fond memories of the dunnage warehouses at Balblair, and seem to recall that you don’t even use barcodes on the casks in the warehouse – you track everything manually and record the numbers yourself?
Yes, we have eight dunnage warehouses on site with no racking or palletization. Everything is done in the traditional method: earthen floors, stone walls, low roofs, the casks stacked three high, and everything that’s put into cask for Balblair as a single malt whisky is fully matured on site here.
And that’s correct, we don’t use barcodes. I refuse to have a barcode on a barrel of whisky. I refuse to accept that a barrel of whisky is the same as a tin of baked beans with a barcode. I’m just not doing that. Every cask is stencilled with Balblair and numbered. And it’s still written down by hand, then I’ll back that up onto the computer. But it’s not a barcode reader, you know, click, click, click. Nope, I’m a 20th century boy. I’m still learning the 21st century.
Does your parent company Inver House use Balblair for blending, or to trade with other companies?
Yes, a lot of our stock will actually go down to our head office in tankers, which will be casked and matured there for our parent company’s blends. We’ll also do reciprocal deals with other distillers such as Whyte & Mackay, Chivas etc, in keeping with the way the industry works: we need their grain for our blends, they in turn need our malts for their blends.
As a manager are you involved in both production and marketing, influencing how Balblair is put out on the market?
I wouldn’t say I had an ultimate say, but I’m definitely very involved with decisions about which whisky is going to be released as which expression. Certainly health and safety, and human resources, are important to running a distillery, but let’s just say that I don’t like paperwork and ticking boxes. My preference is to be hands-on, and know what’s going on in the distillery. To me, making the whisky is what it’s all about. That’s my love.
And how many people do you have at the distillery besides yourself?
I have a very able assistant manager called Norman, and seven operators who physically make the whisky, and all these guys are multi-skilled. They know everything inside out and their roles get rotated. Every five weeks, they’ll spend a week outside in a warehouse, otherwise they’ll be on shift. And we’re working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, forty-six weeks out of the year.
If you combine the experience of my seven guys here, it’s more than two hundred years, which is impressive. And I have to say – and I don’t say it nearly enough – I am truly blessed with a terrific workforce. When I came here, they made life very easy for me, and continue to do so. Because without them, we have nothing.
Any thoughts on the 15-year-old?
Well now the Balblair 15 Year Old is a very different expression. As I said, water really does not help this whisky at all. It’s been matured in second-fill American oak – ex-bourbon casks – for thirteen years. And then it’s been further matured in first-fill Spanish oak for two years.
When it comes to Spanish oak, do you travel to Spain to select casks?
I wish I could, but it’s Stuart Harvey, the master blender for Inver House which includes Balblair, Old Pulteney, Speyburn, Knockdhu and Balmenach. His experience is second to none, and what he’s managed to deliver to Balblair has been fantastic. He’s also developed close relationships with people who supply our Spanish oak casks, which is important because they are becoming scarce.
One thing I can really say about Balblair’s core range is that the whisky’s house style is still evident, from youngest to oldest. Which was intentional; when we developed the core range we were purposeful not to let the Spanish oak overwhelm everything else because the new make spirit that we produce here is fantastic by itself, and that’s really down to how we do things at the distillery. We take it very slow: one mash takes six and a half hours, and fermentation is over two and a half days. We run the stills very, very slow, and then we take a small cut. We only use the finest of wood, matured in the dunnage warehouses.
By contrast, I’ve seen retailers selling single casks of Balblair which were full-on sherry monsters, but I’ve always shied away because this isn’t what I associate with Balblair, I’m personally looking for something that’s much more nuanced and balanced.
I couldn’t agree with you more, though I can see why they pick these casks; there is certainly a demand for that big, heavy sherry style. There was one cask we bottled for The Whisky Exchange that was as black as ink – but for me that wasn’t a Balblair. It was way too much sherry for me, but it sold out in 24 hours, and resells at auction for a very high price, so clearly there’s a customer base that wants that kind of tea.
Each to their own; I don’t personally see heavy sherry matching with Balblair because we’re not about that big onslaught of flavour. Balblair is about complexity and balance.
Balblair’s visitor centre now offers the possibility of bottling your own whisky; are these casks that you’ve selected?
That’s probably the best thing we ever put into the visitor centre: the option of bottling a single cask. It’s something you can only buy at the distillery, and these are casks that I choose so there’s no way I’m going to put my name against something iffy – we’ve currently got a first-fill ex-bourbon cask from 2008 and it’s a beauty, just fabulous.
And I’ll sound like a whisky geek here, but every now and then you come across a cask and think, ‘wow, where did that come from?’ Here we filled a parcel of thirty casks on exactly the same day, the casks all coming from same source, but when I sampled this particular one I took it back to the conference room, let it warm in the glass, and when I came back to it I was speechless, just ‘wow’.
These are the great moments. The team will see the big smile on my face when I come across something that special and that good. All of which to say that, yeah, the cask being bottled in the visitor centre at the moment is very, very special.
Dark chocolate, raspberries, blood oranges… the Balblair 18 Year Old seems to be everyone’s favourite so far, myself included. Would you agree?
Truthfully, I’m just putting myself on the 18-year-old and I wish to God I wasn’t driving; I’m in the mood now, and I might have to call my wife and cancel our dinner plans.
All of which is to say, yes: when these expressions came out, the 18 Year Old really blew me away. This is my idea of the perfect whisky, it’s perfectly balanced and ticks every single box on the nose and palate. It’s so very complex, but it’s the balance that is key to the Balblair 18 Year Old: silky smooth with an incredible finish. It’s just beautiful.
By contrast the 12-year-old is my supping whisky, if I was going out to have two, three, four, so on. Whereas sitting at home I would have a measure of the 18 -year-old, two at most, because I really don’t think you need any more.
Are you in any kind of consultation with Stuart, the master blender, when these expressions are being developed?
Yes, myself and the other distillery managers, as well as the maturation team, will meet at least twice a month to discuss cask inventory and review new developments. It’s a very close contact, which is vital, because everybody has a part to play in the makeup of this.
And what about the Balblair 25 Year Old? Where does this sit in the core range?
While the 18-year-old is my go-to Balblair, the 25-year-old is something very special indeed, but I don’t get paid enough to drink it at home every weekend! That said it’s worth mentioning that our range has a Balblair for every palate, for every occasion, and for every wallet. And I should have said this earlier on: they’re all bottled at 46% – slightly stronger than the norm – with natural colour, and non-chillfiltered, which is more for texture and mouthfeel than anything else.
This is a whisky that has spent twenty-two and a half years of its life in second-fill bourbon casks, and then it spent at least three years further matured in Spanish oak. And what I love about this is it’s still very, very alive. As we talked about before, the oak hasn’t overtaken anything. It’s still very much alive, and very complex – and it’s very much an indulgence. That’s utmost, I believe, in a whisky. Just one dram of Balblair 25 Year Old could last me hours.
Now I have to say that my company is nice to me: they give me a discount for the twelve, fifteen and eighteen-year-olds. But not the 25-year-old, though I do have one bottle at home, and it’s almost full because it’s just an occasional dram, and it’s of superb quality. I don’t like that word ‘premium’ – quality is the word I prefer to use.
And personally I think the Balblair 25 Year Old is a steal at £500. Of course, there are always some who will argue that it’s too expensive, but if you can find a 25-year-old single malt Scotch whisky of this quality and calibre, for the same price, please tell me so I can go out and buy it!
How often do you have a chance to do what we’re doing here today: being able to simply enjoy the whisky, and enjoy the fruits of your labour, so to speak?
Not nearly often enough, Johanna! There’s nothing I like better than preaching the gospel of Balblair, so it’s nice to be able to sit down and revisit these whiskies. Every time I seem to do a tasting, I’m either driving or travelling, so I have to wait until the weekends when I can just sit down with my partner, or have a couple of friends around which, ultimately, is truly the best way to enjoy whisky.