It is hard to imagine The Balvenie without David Stewart MBE and vice versa. The story of each one is so entwined with the other that it’s nigh on impossible to unpick where one starts and the other ends. Since joining William Grant & Sons in 1962 as a whisky stocks clerk, Stewart has gone on to become of the most well-known and respected names in the Scotch whisky industry. He is, for many, the pioneer of cask finishing, and his achievements are far too numerous to list. When the incredibly humble man “hangs up his boots” after a 57-year-plus career, Kelsey McKechnie will become the youngest-ever female Malt Master. “Everyone always jokes and says do I feel the pressure and what does it feel like getting into a role like this. There definitely is an element of pressure around it but it’s funny, you really don’t feel it. I enjoy this role and I love being here. I’ve been very lucky, so I’m saying ‘let’s ride it out for as long as we can’,” the 29-year-old says with unfettered excitement. The Malt Master role is a very different one today than it was in the 1960s, something McKechnie and William Grant & Sons Master Blender Brian Kinsman continually rib Stewart about. “Obviously, way back in the ’60s we had very little to nose,” Stewart says in a flash. When he joined the family-owned business under Master Blender and Balvenie Malt Master Hamish Robertson, Glenfiddich and The Balvenie weren’t being bottled as single malts and Grant’s Standfast blend was the company’s bread and butter. Today, the triumvirate nose samples from Ailsa Bay, Girvan Distillery, Kininvie, Glenfiddich and The Balvenie. From the new-make spirit to mature samples, bottling runs to all the vat samples, everything produced at the William Grant distilleries in Scotland and Ireland passes under the noses of Kinsman, McKechnie and Stewart. This equates to approximately 40-50 Scotch, Irish whiskey, Bourbon and rum samples per day. There are a number of parallels in Stewart and McKechnie’s stories, which they don’t even seem to realise. Both started in very different roles and eyed an interesting opportunity to nose spirits. Through serendipity and, one suspects, a tremendous amount of inherent skill and hard graft, the two found their way into the nosing lab. And once faced with row upon row of whisky samples, the pair knew in an instant that they found their calling. “I always say I have been very lucky,” McKechnie says. “I’m such a firm believer in timing. I came into the team at a time when I had built up enough technical process skills to understand how whisky is produced and carry out analysis, and do all these different things and apply it to blending.” In 2018, Kinsman and Stewart approached 26-year-old McKechnie to ask if she would be interested in learning all things regarding Balvenie and eventually moving into the Malt Master role. She’d been with the company for almost four years at this time, working her way from the lab to the whisky stocks team, from the Lowlands to the beating heart of the business in Speyside. So, what does it take to become a Malt Master and what did the two whisky patriarchs see in the young female scientist at the infancy of her whisky career? According to Stewart, one of the biggest things is the nosing aspect. “We can identify what’s right and what’s not, just by nosing the whisky,” he says. “And that’s what takes the time to learn.” Stewart had already been through the process of training a successor with Brian Kinsman from 2001 to 2010. It might be hard for some to fathom why this apprenticeship takes the best part of a decade, but so much of the role is about instinct and the finest of margins. In the same way Robertson brought in samples for Stewart – albeit not quite as many – all those years before, Stewart to this day brings in spirit samples for Kinsman and McKechnie. “Really, it’s nosing together; pointing out things,” Stewart adds. “I bring in samples from different cask types and different ages. Brian just worked with me and gradually he took over and I was doing less and less.” When asked if she thinks she has a natural gift, McKechnie says it’s curiosity above anything else that’s required to be a good noser. “I think everybody just needs to be curious enough to want to nose. Most often – apart from a few people where it is genetic and there’s one reason or another that they don’t have a sense of smell – I actually think so many people will be fantastic nosers.” And the difference between Joe Bloggs and the youngest-ever female Malt Master? The word association piece, according to McKechnie. “So often we’ll see when people are starting up that they can nose something and they can say ‘this is different’. So we do difference nosing. We have one glass and we’re just nosing it against another and saying ‘pick up the difference or not’ – it’s often easy for people but they can’t put into play what they can pick up.” Like any other skill, McKechnie says it takes years of practice and fine tuning. “It’s like using a different language,” she says. “To remain fluent, you need to continually keep nosing and to be able to relate those words to what you’re picking up in nose and taste. I actually think everyone has a gift, if that’s what you want to call it, or the ability to do it. It’s just about really working out what flavour this is and what do we call it.” Sometimes tasting notes for spirits and wines can be a little, shall we say, creative. For this reason, at William Grant & Sons, free words are banned. “We’re really strict about what people can call the different spirits,” McKechnie explains. “It could be too easy for somebody to say ‘this smells like a walk in the park’ and we can find ourselves in a bit of a pickle.” When starting out, as a professional or merely an appreciator of spirits, this word association piece can be a barrier, according to McKechnie, but it shouldn’t be. “There is no need for whisky to be intimidating at all,” she says. “For me, I think it’s because people are so passionate about it. It gets everyone a little bit puffed up – I’m guilty of it as well. But there really is no need for it at all because it really is such an open area that there isn’t one strict answer so I’ll always say that to people – if you are new to it, make sure you get lots of water in there because whisky is just such a flavour bomb. I think people don’t really know what they’re nosing because there are 50-100 different flavours coming at you at once.” So, do the three professional nosers ever disagree? “Because I’ve only ever learned to nose and blend from David who has learned from Brian and vice versa, we don’t often butt heads or have a difference of opinion –  but it does happen,” McKechnie says with a coy smile. Rather than being daunted by the spectre of the longest-serving Malt Master and Kinsman – who has racked up a fairly daunting 24 years in role – McKechnie seems energised by the legacy and is visibly thrilled at the prospect of one day imparting this knowledge to her own apprentice. “I think it would be a massive compliment to be able to give someone the knowledge you have gained,” she says. “I really like the thought of actually one day being able to train someone.” When it comes to the future at The Balvenie, McKechnie says they have “many things bubbling away in the warehouses” and they have “a few more Balvenies tucked up our sleeves”. But, on a personal note, “it’s working with Brian and David day-in-day-out and gaining more of the understanding about what makes Balvenie so unique. Understanding more around the stock model and that 50-year horizon and ensuring that I’ve got the skills to make sure the next 50 years is looking good and that we’re not laying down all the wrong things.” The Balvenie maintains a lot of the traditional whisky-making traditions. It is the only Scotch whisky distillery to grow its own barley, use traditional floor maltings and keep coppersmiths and coopers on site. Rather than being gilded handcuffs, these ties to traditions allow the team to experiment at the point of distillation and Stewart has spearheaded a number of trials that have come from the maltings throughout his career. “I think if there is one thing that David has ever taught me, it’s about how important innovation is,” McKechnie says. “We always talk about the fact we’re the home of cask finishing. It was something that was second nature in David’s role until people started calling it innovation. “And it’s something that we always want to pass on. We’re constantly thinking about what’s next and how can we do something unique and what exciting things we have in the distillery that we could release and bring to everyone. “Obviously the Scotch Whisky Association is pretty strict, in a good way, so that no-one is going to mimic us, but we also like to push the boundaries a little bit and say, what can we really get away with here?” With a glint in her eye and an unmistakable enthusiasm in her voice, you can’t help but feel The Balvenie, when it comes to honouring tradition and driving innovation, is in very safe hands for the next 50 years and beyond. Browse all whisky or read more Editorial

David Stewart MBE is the longest-serving Malt Master. Kelsey McKechnie is the youngest female Malt Master Apprentice. Holly Motion speaks to the two Balvenie record-breakers about passing the baton, the weight of a legacy, and what it really means to lay down stocks for the next generation

Balvenie's longest-serving Malt Master David Stewart MBE and his successor Kelsey McKechnie on upholding tradition while driving innovation at the distillery.

The Balvenie, making of a master

The Balvenie: the making of a master

In Sicily, for the feast day of San Giuseppe, they make a soup, a very plain soup of 
chickpeas, fava beans and wheat grains, all soaked and cooked separately before 
being combined with bitter wild greens and perhaps some broken pasta. It is a 
celebration not of poverty but in poverty. The richness of the meal comes from the 
time it takes, the hours of soaking and boiling, of picking leaves in muddy fields. 
The feast day of the patron saint of workers (and the stepfather of God) falls on 
the 19th March, full spring in the Sicilian countryside with the almond trees in 
blossom. San Giuseppe’s soup marks the last use of the previous year’s harvest, 
the last pulses and grains to be taken from the store which the summer’s baking 
heat and the rains of autumn had provided for the coming winter. It is both a soup 
and a celebration, but it is also a sacrifice – a sacrifice of time against an uncertain 
future, time given freely as a kind of guarantee. Cooking of any kind – but especially the lengthy processes of preserving, drying, 
pickling and curing – is really an act of optimism, an assertion that there will be a 
future in which to eat. And the more time and care you put into such a process, the 
more value you get out. For example, the longer a cure or a pickle takes, the longer, 
in general, it will last. In providing food for the future, this sacrifice also makes 
it much more likely that the future it was made for will indeed occur. A practical 
optimism, you could say. A spending of time, not just because you have little else 
to spend, but because it is prudent to do so. For much of the world now, of course, the situation is reversed: we can buy almost 
anything we want at any time we please and have it delivered almost immediately. 
And we seem to be encouraged to spend less time doing things like cooking. 
Time is a commodity, and rather than sacrifice our time, we’re encouraged to 
sacrifice time itself, to take shortcuts. Time is listed in any given recipe, along 
with the rest of the ingredients and equipment: two onions, one stick of celery, 
one carrot, 15 minutes preparation and two hours cooking time, but it is almost 
always consequently manipulated. Everybody knows – once they have followed 
a few recipes – that enough time is never given to cook an onion. ‘Sauté until soft 
and golden, about two minutes,’ writes the chef (or the editor insists so the recipe can fall into the category of ‘quick and easy weeknight suppers’ or ‘fifteen-minute 
meals’ or whatever it is they are currently trying to sell). The fact that nobody ever
sautéed an onion until soft and golden in less than 10 minutes is elided, sacrificed 
to the promise that this dish, now, will not cost too much of your time. Even recipes 
which can never be made quickly – soups, stews, cures – are touted as demanding 
just a little of your time and even less of your attention, your active time. The slow 
braise allows the cook to focus not on cooking, but on other things. To me, this 
is a lost opportunity. Yes, it is nice to know that dinner is safely squared away, 
puttering merrily to itself in a low oven. It is exciting to think that a jar of cabbage 
is slowly transforming into sauerkraut at the back of a dark cupboard. But if all we 
see is the prepared ingredients and the end result, how much do we miss of the 
metamorphosis in-between? Convenience is desirable, but over the last year, time has – for most of us – come at 
less of a premium. Even before that, though, I have always found a certain satisfaction 
in giving my complete attention to whatever I am cooking. This goes without saying for 
the quick and fast – for the doneness of a steak, or pasta, for deep-frying, or grilling 
delicate fish. However, it is also rewarding for the slower processes, for observing the 
slow changing of textures as liquids bubble and reduce.  If, for example, you are making marmalade, you could work out the setting 
temperature and, once the final boil has begun, insert a probe thermometer with 
an alarm set to sound when it reaches the precise temperature: all well and good. 
If, however, there isn’t a thermometer to hand – or, as is often the case, you only 
have one that is in sore need of calibration and therefore useless – you can fall 
back on the finger test your mother may or may not have taught you. Placing a 
stack of saucers in the fridge and – when you think the marmalade is nearly ready 
– spooning a little out onto a cold saucer, you prod the result with your finger to 
see if it wrinkles. What, then, if you don’t have a stack or even a single perfectly 
chilled saucer to hand? Then you have to watch the bubbles rise. 
The point of making marmalade or jam is not simply that you are cooking a liquid 
until it reaches approximately 105˚C, but rather that you are cooking a liquid until 
it becomes capable (as water is not) of reaching that temperature – which means it 
has to become thicker, stronger. The bubbles it creates, at first double the liquid in 
volume (bringing the inevitable worry that your pan is too small) before settling and 
lowering into a dense boil that threatens to catch on the bottom. Once you’ve seen 
it, that transformation is unmistakable, and if you had just stuck a thermometer 
in the pan and got on with something else, you would never have noticed. This 
(admittedly useful and in a working kitchen, essential) piece of technology would 
have removed you from the process, from the facts of cooking. This is true of any kind of technology – it is, by and large, its purpose. I am not necessarily suggesting 
that you replace your oven with a wood-fired stove and monitor the temperature 
with a questing hand (if you can’t hold it in there, it’s hot enough) – although that 
would, I think, be fun. Certainly, anything which makes our lives easier is not to be 
dismissed out of hand, but isn’t it always worth wondering what, at any moment, 
you can afford to lose? 
The point with cooking is that the time put in is not simply lost but rather spent 
or, invested – although sometimes you might not think it – wisely. A six-hour 
braise consumed in less than 30 minutes can seem hardly worth the effort, but 
only if you see the eating of food as the sole reason to cook it. When I think of 
meals I have cooked for other people, for birthdays or holidays or simply for 
the pleasure of company, it is rarely the eating of them – the few minutes of 
attacking a chicken or slurping up pasta or licking grease off fingers – which 
comes immediately to mind but rather their slow build-up. It’s the digging of the 
pit to build the fire that has to die before I bury the lamb, wrapped carefully in 
foil and sackcloth; the careful attendance to a boiling pan of stock, its bubbles 
changing in size and consistency as it gradually reduces into gravy; the oil 
slowly spitting out of a pot of ragù, its surface barely moving as it stews. These 
are the things I remember fondly, the nurturing process of bringing a meal 
together. And these moments aren’t solitary meditations – with any meal there 
is more to be done than just cooking something. There are salads to be made 
and dressings to be whipped, pasta to be rolled, tables to be set, cocktails to be 
mixed, and wine to be poured. The making of a meal is only a chore if you begin 
to do it wishing it were already over. If instead you begin to do it because you 
want to do it, with the end result of ‘something to eat’ as almost a by-product 
of a rewarding activity, then the pleasure you find in it changes. 
Although for most of us, it’s no longer – as it was for the Sicilians celebrating 
San Giuseppe – a matter of life or death. This choice to involve yourself 
purposefully in the everyday act of cooking, and otherwise preparing food, still 
has an air of sacrifice, of time exchanged in the promise of something greater. 
It is, I suppose, literally a sacrifice, as the time you allot to cooking is time 
you could have made available for emails, or exercise, or simply to idly scroll 
through Netflix adding films you will probably never watch to your list. But, as 
is the way of all such propitiatory acts, it is a sacrifice which contains the seeds 
of its desired outcome. What you put in determines what you get out, in the 
straightforward terms of a meal you can eat – but it is also its own reward. You 
know, as you reverently chop, or soak, or simmer, that you are investing your 
time to create something better than good. That whatever you are making will 
have a special richness to it. The richness of chickpeas, or water or gold.  This article was originally published in FONDATA, Issue One

Margate-based chef and food writer, Thom Eagle, contemplates the value of spending more, not less, time in the kitchen.

Illustration by Stewart Walton.

Margate-based chef and food writer, Thom Eagle, contemplates the value of spending more, not less, time in the kitchen

FONDATA: Time for Food

Time for Food

Maturation, distillation and the base grain combine to give whisky its character. But – while it only takes a week from milling to filling a cask – the new-make liquid will spend years in cask, a minimum three for it to earn a Scotch whisky label, but often significantly longer. As the spirit lies in wait in a cool, dark cellar, flavour from the cask – and whatever the cask previously held – is imparted. It is believed that as much as 80% of the final style is determined during this time. Most would argue that it is this carefully monitored process that makes whisky such a fascinating and coveted liquid.  But the trend for transferring that whisky from one barrel to another is a relatively modern phenomenon. Cask finishing, wood-finishing, secondary, double or consecutive maturation are all names given to this process, whereby matured whisky is aged for an additional length of time in a second, different cask.   As is often the case with anything whisky-related, the process was pioneered in Scotland, but it has since found its way around the globe. In 1983, under the guardianship of David Stewart MBE, Balvenie launched Balvenie Classic.  Known today as Balvenie DoubleWood, it was one of the first Scotch whiskies to be matured in re-fill American oak casks before being transferred to first-fill European oak Oloroso Sherry butts. Around the same time, Glenmorangie was maturing whisky in Madeira casks. Its experiments led to inconsistent results and the team switched to Sauternes casks – and the Nectar d’Or was born. To this day, the Highland distillery is one of the biggest proponents of finishing – experimenting with casks that have previously held Port, American rye whiskey, PX Sherry and Sassicaia. Fast forward 40 years and some of the biggest names in the blended Scotch world have embraced cask finishing. Blends aged in rum, mezcal and Port casks have all been released in the past year, much to the delight of new and old whisky drinkers.  The rules surrounding this secondary practice are relatively fluid. As such, a cask-finished whisky could have spent anywhere from six months to two years maturing in a barrel that has previously held rum, red wine, Madeira, Port or even stout. The second stint in cask is generally intended to introduce new flavours that complement and enhance rather than dominate and overpower the spirit’s inherent character.   Many of the world’s leading whisky distilleries have embraced the trend, following in the footsteps of the likes of Balvenie and Glenmorangie. With the resulting whiskies regularly winning major awards, high scores and favour amongst consumers, the fashion for cask-finishing shows no sign of abating any time soon.   Explore our range of Scotch whiskies or read more Editorial 

Master distillers have been maturing whisky in oak barrels for centuries. While it is generally accepted that “the cask is king” and “the wood makes the whisky”, cask finishing – or second maturation – is a relatively new fashion. Here we look at what it is and why it matters 

Exploring why the process of cask finishing (secondary maturation or double maturation) can be so controversial in the whisky world.

What is cask finishing?

Claude Giraud (owner of Champagne Henri Giraud) – 1999 La Romanée-Conti, Grand Cru, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti “We always spend Christmas with the family and everyone brings a bottle they want to share. This bottle is first and foremost a Grand Cru of Pinot Noir, and we love the Grands Crus of Pinot Noir in both Champagne and Burgundy. Following a bottle of our own Grand Cru – Hommage au Pinot Noir and an MV10 Champagne, of which both would have benefited from a few years of aging, I will serve the Romanée-Conti. I like to drink these wines quite early in the meal, their fragrance, their voluptuousness, and their precision make me happy to continue the meal. This bottle is also a memory of the person who gave it to me on one of my trips to Japan. I will call my friend on this occasion. Because wine is that – beyond a taste, it's a story, a bond of friendship, a touch of humanity that we so badly need for these end of year celebrations.” Sébastien le Golvet (winemaker at Champagne Henri Giraud) – 2011 Único, Vega Sicilia, Ribera del Duero “Christmas with the family at the Girauds is a string of bottles, each more extraordinary than the last. Thanks to my wife Anne (one of Claude Giraud's daughters) I had the chance to discover some great wines. These wines inspire me every day when I am in the vineyards or in the cellar. They make me want to surpass myself and always go further in precision and excellence. Vega Sicilia is one of those first great Spanish wines which made a deep impression on me. I like them old, after 20 years, 30 or more because this is really where Vega Sicilia fully expresses itself. And then I recently drank in Mexico a bottle of 2011 Vega Sicilia and I was amazed. It is so young and already so beautiful! I told myself that I couldn't keep this secret to myself, I wanted to share it with my family. So, coming back from this trip, I immediately put some in my cellar. And the first bottle will be for Christmas.” Tod Mostero (Dominus) – 2005 Riesling Auslese, Graacher Himmelreich, Joh. Jos. Prüm, Mosel “It is finally feeling cold enough here for the subtle fruit and mineral shades of a Joh. Jos. Prüm Graacher Himmelreich Auslese 2005, which may pair well with a grape and quail dish I love at Christmas time. I like to travel in my mind and tell stories with my family at the holidays. This bottle was offered to me by Michael Grimm (our distributor in Germany) and his family shortly after I returned to California in 2007. He and his family have become close over the years. I will also remember Bordeaux, my spiritual family in Libourne, and the gravelly earth and creamy tones of Pomerol soils with a 1982 La Fleur-Pétrus or the pillar of beauty, 2009 Trotanoy – bottles offered to me by Christian Moueix to celebrate the end of year. It is fun to pour a wine and talk to loved ones of the people and places in the bottle.” Gaia Gaja (Gaja) – 1961 Barbaresco, Gaja “This Christmas more than ever the family will gather in full, at my parents' house to celebrate Christmas together. I can’t wait. It will be a long day of celebration, cooking and enjoying each other’s company. Several wines will accompany us throughout the day and surely will be inspiring to the memories. In particular, I am excited to share a magnum of Barbaresco 1961 because this year we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of my father’s great career and this wine was his first step – the first vintage made by him when he was just 21!” Thomas Duroux (Ch. Palmer) – 2009 Malvasia delle Lipari Passito, Caravaglio, Sicily “In July 2011, I went for the first time to Salina, one of the seven Aeolian Islands. I had a little knowledge of the wines produced there but I did not know Antonino Caravaglio. We spent a lot of time together and I had a chance to taste several Malvasia from his estate. I took the hydro-foil ferry back to Sicily along with six bottles of his 2009 Malvasia delle Lipari. This sweet wine, made with dried berries from Malvasia grape variety develop extraordinary aromas with age, such as rosemary bush and dried apricot. This is really something that does not exist anywhere else. I plan to open the first bottle this Christmas and this wine will be my second daughter Gabrielle’s, born in 2009, first sip of wine!” Chris Riesbeck (Westland Distillery) – Garryana Edition 6 “For the holidays, I love to go with big Sherried malts during the colder months – our latest Garryana Edition 6 is just absolutely wonderful. It combines what I love in Sherry (dried fruits) with classic Garry Oak notes of ginger, clove, barbecue smoke. We used quite a bit of ex-Calvados and fruit brandy casks as well, so it’s this fantastic bouquet of candied fruit and smoke (not peat). Aside from that, I have a running obsession with large format (three-litre for the win!) during the holidays. It’s such a fun treat to share those sorts of things with loved ones. This year I’ve pulled a three-litre bottle of Marcel Lapierre Raisins Gaulois 2017 out of the cellar to celebrate.” Francesco Ripaccioli (Canalicchio di Sopra) – 2013 Chianti Classico Riserva, Vigna del Sorbo, Fontodi “One of the bottles that I will definitely open this Christmas will be Fontodi’s Chianti Classico Riserva Vigna del Sorbo 2013 in magnum. This bottle is so special for me for many reasons, for sure it is one of the greatest wines I ever tried, but behind this, there is a family (the Manetti family) and a man, Giovanni Manetti, who at the beginning of my journey in the world of wine was a great sponsor for me, granting me his friendship and his continuous support. Fontodi has been, and still is today the greatest example of how a family-run estate can stay local, while thinking global. I love the 2013 vintage in all of Tuscany and also Piedmont. The wines mature very slow and this is the sign for me of a great vintage. But we can now already start to enjoy something from it for sure.” Frédéric Weber (Bouchard Père & Fils) – 1999 Beaune-Grèves, Premier Cru, Le Vigne de l’Enfant Jésus, Bouchard Père & Fils “Christmas day is the perfect day to celebrate this wine, so it is an easy choice for me. This is a great wine, from an appellation that today is still too underrated. Historically the top wines from Beaune were the most expensive in Burgundy and can compete with some of the finest. I have chosen 1999 because this was in fact the first bottle I bought from the domaine when I joined Bouchard in 2002. It is a fantastic vintage for Burgundy and is drinking beautifully now. I am looking forward to sharing it with my family this Christmas.” Rebecca Jago (The Last Drop) – The Last Drop Très Vieux Pineau des Charentes “This Christmas, we’ll be opening a magnum of Pol Roger I was kindly given last year but further lockdown meant we just didn’t have the company to drink it all! We have a mix of family and friends for Christmas Day and we’ll open a bottle of Newton’s unfiltered Chardonnay (my husband’s favourite), and some Ch. Talbot 2000. And, with the Christmas pudding, I’ll be opening my bottle of our incredible 100-year-old Pineau des Charentes: I can’t wait to share it with our loved ones. As evening falls, a small glass of Tom’s Blend No 1 for a moment of quiet reflection and memories of my much-missed parents.” Martin Donatsch (Donatsch) – 2016 Grüner Veltliner Smaragd, Honivogl, Franz Hirtzberger, Wachau “My motto: It's better to drink a few great wines than to unwrap a lot of presents. Unfortunately, it will be a sad Christmas for us, as it will be the first without my mum. She sadly passed away in the summer after a hard fight with cancer. So, we will be drinking one of her favourite wines in her memory. She loved Grüner Veltliner from Austria, so there will certainly be a Honivogl from our friends Hirtzbergers in the Wachau, which my mother loved so much. For red wine we will have some of our favourites, a 2011 Romanée-Saint-Vivant from Romanée-Conti and a 1989 Haut-Brion. Noblet and Delmas were for us the best cellarmasters ever on this planet. They both inspire me again and again when I drink their wines. For the sweet end, it will be Yquem again... I drink Yquem maybe three or four times a year. But at Christmas, this world-class sweet wine is always a must! Which vintages we open, I decide spontaneously shortly before Christmas but I’m thinking it will most likely be 1999.” David Stewart MBE (The Balvenie) – Balvenie PortWood 21 Year Old "I would probably have a couple of glasses of white wine, generally a Chenin Blanc from South Africa. We've visited a number of vineyards near Cape Town in Stellenbosch. In the evening I would pour myself a couple of drams of Balvenie PortWood 21YO, my favourite, whilst watching Call the Midwife." Read more Editorial

After many of us were not able to see extended family and friends last year, this festive break will seem that much more special. We caught up with some of our favourite winemakers and distillers and asked them what top bottles they will be opening to celebrate this Christmas – and why

We find out the special bottles some of our favourite winemakers and distillers are uncorking this Christmas

What producers are drinking this Christmas

 When the UK entered the first coronavirus lockdown in March 2020, there was a sense that the end of long, thoughtful, funny and serious conversations was dangerously close. Over a Zoom call, sat at our respective kitchen tables, F+R’s Patrick O’Connor, creative director Alan Aboud and myself, a journalist and editor, started to wonder if we could work together in some way to explore topics usually explored at the communal tables that were sadly empty.  The first project we worked on together marked the 90th birthday of iconic Lebanese winemaker Chateau Musar and the simultaneous publishing of a book celebrating the winery by Académie du Vin Library. Working together with music consultant Leo Walton, we conceived a package of content for FINE+RARE’s website to coincide with F+R’s exclusive release of various mixed cases of Chateau Musar vintages going back to the 1960s.  As part of the content package, I wrote three articles for the F+R website, and worked with Leo to create four Spotify playlists featuring Lebanese music from the relevant decades of the Musar vintages being released: the 1960s, 1970s, 2000s and 2010s. Leo and I also suggested the potential to add more cultural context to both the wine and our selection of music by producing a podcast in which we interviewed a Lebanese musician about musical culture and heritage in the region. We explored various ideas before interviewing two members of the Beirut Groove Collective – a group of DJs with a reputation for unearthing records from the 1960s, 70s and 80s and giving them a new audience. We asked the DJs to give us the low down on their legendary all-night vinyl-only parties in Lebanon’s capital, and about Beirut’s surprisingly vibrant music scene throughout the Civil War (1975-1990). We also asked Ernesto about his new reissue project with BBE Records and the first release in the series: Ihsan Al-Munzer’s 1979 synth-led Belly Dance Disco album.  This idea – of creating original editorial content that proactively ventured into topics in and adjacent to the worlds of fine wine and spirits in order to enrich the FINE+RARE experience – immediately appealed to all involved. Between us, we started to flesh out the idea for a new content platform that could explore and commission stories that took advantage of our combined knowledge, skillsets and networks, plus FINE+RARE’s access to the best producers and most interesting personalities driving quality in the worlds of fine wine and exceptional spirits.  While the concept was always for FONDATA to be a multi-media platform whereby we would produce content in whatever medium seemed most relevant to a given subject matter – podcast, video, blog or print – we focused our initial efforts on producing a large-format, print journal. It would provide a brilliant canvas for us to commission the best writers, photographers and illustrators, and it would also be the perfect format to function as a physical mission statement, something we could send to F+R customers. Doing this in 2020, when we were in lockdown, seemed like a great way to maintain connection and morale in an unprecedented moment in living memory. We formed a small ‘bubble’ to sit, appropriately distanced, in Patrick’s back garden in Hackney to brainstorm the idea and start mapping out what stories we could potentially commission for our first FONDATA journal. For the inaugural issue, one story in particular was pivotal to realising our ambition: commissioning American essayist, author and regular contributor to The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik to write a piece for us. In his book, Paris to the Moon (Quercus, 2000), Gopnik likens Jean-Philippe Derenne’s L’Amateur de Cuisine book (Éditions Stock, 1996) to “a medieval almanac, offering a timeless, secure, benevolent universe of food.” In our initial conversations, we’d identified Wine Grapes, A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours (Allen Lane, 2012) – the weighty 1,240-page tome authored by Jancis Robinson MW, Julia Harding MW and Dr José Vouillamoz – as a book we’d love to celebrate in some way. We wondered if Gopnik would be as enamoured with the book as much as Derenne’s and if he’d write something for us about it and its value to wine lovers and gastronomes alike. We duly sent him a copy of Wine Grapes (clothbound and slipcased) and a note introducing ourselves and outlining FONDATA’s ambition. He loved the book and the idea for the piece, so we contacted Jancis to ask if she would be happy to be interviewed by Adam. It turned out they were both fans of each other’s work. Our first feature was underway. But how would we present the piece? What would FONDATA look like? Alan asked Jancis if she would agree to be our cover star for our first issue. When she agreed, we had to work out how to bring the inaugural cover to life. “Gavin Bond popped into my head,” Alan, recalls, of the task at hand, “as he has become the ‘go-to’ photographer for celebrity portraits, especially in the film and fashion business. I felt Jancis deserved that status and reverence. Of course, the wine world reveres her, but no wine journal seems to be able to look beyond a shoot involving wine bottles and grapes.”   With Gavin Bond on board, the next step was to think about the shoot itself. “We enlisted the help of a wonderful floral design company, Studio Lupine,” Alan explains of his art direction. “We briefed Raggie Furuseth, the designer, to create a wildly original space in which Jancis could be photographed. The resulting portrait is a stunning and sensitive study of one of the world’s most learned and charming wine writers in her prime.” Another crucial part of our first issue planning was around design concepting and setting out our production values. As a kind of guiding light, Alan and I had adopted a mantra: “This isn’t a magazine”, as FONDATA would have none of the concerns of a regular magazine. We didn’t want to print on flimsy paper. We didn’t want to create something predictable or ephemeral, but rather an object that felt it had more permanence, more lasting value. FONDATA, we were all very clear, would strive from the outset to be a joyous, opulent celebration of cerebral, long-form editorial content.  Alan began working with his studio designer, Haley Austin, exploring different oversized formats, experimenting with page layouts and type treatments to realise his vision for how FONDATA would look. At the same time, he commissioned Rick Banks of Foundry 37 to create a bespoke logotype for FONDATA’s masthead based on his F37 Caslon typeface. We also adopted F37 as our core typeface for body copy, and to use at large scale for feature headlines and beautiful, full-page pull quotes.  In terms of our editorial direction, we were keen from the offset to commission editorial that explored evergreen (and ever-fascinating) topics. What does it mean to collect? How has the pandemic affected our lifestyles, and how much of that is positive? How do ideas germinate, and how does genius emerge? How important is history and tradition to innovation and revolution? What are the most significant drivers and the biggest hurdles for excellence? Once the Gopnik feature was in the proverbial bag, we set to work commissioning an issue full of features that we hoped would appeal to a wine-loving audience but not feel like we were trying to sell them something.  We approached Jancis Robinson’s co-authors of Wine Grapes, Julia Harding MW and Dr José Vouillamoz, to call out five relatively obscure grape varieties from around the world to champion them and the producers making remarkable wines with them. We also commissioned botanical artist Sarah Jane Humphrey to illustrate each variety.  We asked the former director of London’s Design Museum, Deyan Sudjic OBE, to contemplate the history of social spaces. To accompany his feature, we asked him to approach a number of highly regarded architects and interior designers to illustrate their visions of social spaces of the near future. As a result, we soon added John Pawson, AB Rogers, Paloma Strelitz, and Jon Marshall to our list of contributors. We tasked journalist and author Dylan Jones OBE with critiquing wine’s critical landscape, connecting him with some of the world’s leading wine writers and critics to discover how the pandemic had reshaped their work lives and lifestyles.  Author and historian (and one of the most elegantly dressed gentlemen about town) Nicholas Foulkes very literally wrote the book on cigars. His son, Max, is a Master of Havana and works at Davidoff in Mayfair. And it was Nicholas’ father-in-law who first introduced him to the pleasures of cigar smoking. Especially for our first issue, Nicholas pondered the joy of his relationship with his sons and the idea of passing cultural knowledge and enthusiasms from one generation to the next. We commissioned Julian Broad to shoot a portrait of Nicholas with his sons.  I spent time talking with restaurateur-turned winegrower Alex Xu and wrote a piece about how he’d come to completely reshape his future by planting three hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines in the foothills of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in China’s most idyllic province. I also interviewed Waterford distillery owner Mark Reynier to find out how (and why) he’s bringing notions of terroir, traceability and transparency to the fore in the world of single malt whisky.   Meanwhile, British chef and food writer Thom Eagle contemplated the value of spending more, rather than less, time in the kitchen, and artist Stewart Walton illustrated the piece.  We commissioned educator and business guru Germana Di Falco to interview fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli about his philosophy to business and life itself, and we engaged British-born, LA-based writer and critic Geoff Dyer to chart the slow journey towards appreciation of and reverence for well-chosen wine. The issue signs off with a Letter from California penned by winemaker Maya Dalla Valle, who reflects on her 11-year journey to become the winemaker at her family’s celebrated vineyard in Napa. The resulting inaugural issue is everything we hoped it would be. As Patrick says in his publisher’s letter on its very first page, it is a celebration. One that delivers rich, engaging editorial content in a format that feels lavish and collectable in and of itself. “It is also a collective,” he continues. “The best minds brought together to tackle the subjects that captivate, so arresting in their absence – experience, space, people and family. [This issue] became a journey into the sound of the things that matter to the soul of the collector, the reasons things exist, the FONDATA.”

FONDATA Editor Gavin Lucas on the content platform’s journey from ideation to realisation

Exploring how the FINE+RARE Group created FONDATA, a unique wine and spirits content platform

The FONDATA genesis story

FONDATA: The genesis story

Maya Dalla Valle (right) pictured with her mother, world-renowned vintner Naoko Dalla Valle. Photography by: Jimmy Hayes. Observing from the outside, one might assume that it was always my destiny to join the family business. However, to my younger self, spending my life and career in the same vineyards and cellars that I grew up in was not even a consideration. Having parents that both left their respective home countries to build a life in a new one gave me the impression that I needed to go out and explore the world, rather than remain in my Napa Valley bubble. So, I did just that; I left after high school to pursue a career in International Relations at the University of Washington in Seattle, with the idea that this course would lead me to new and faraway places. But something unexpected occurred after moving away to University; I began to long for that life in the vineyards. I began to realise the strong emotional connection that ties me to our land. It was then that I began to understand exactly how special this estate is and what it means to me. So, I returned. Not to Dalla Valle, but to a family friend’s winery in St. Helena that kindly offered me the opportunity to try my hand at working harvest. Well, I fell in love with winemaking that fall of 2009 and decided that this was the career for me. Getting your hands dirty, the transformation of grapes into wine, all the nuances and techniques that you can implement and then taste the results – even cleaning the bins and sanitising the tanks brought me joy. I proudly proclaimed this to my mother, who gently reminded me that while this was wonderful news, if I wanted to be the winemaker at Dalla Valle, I would need the proper training, education and experience. This was not surprising or unexpected. Thanks to the strong foundations that my parents had instilled in me, I knew that if I wanted something, I needed to earn it – through perseverance and hard work. I took those words to heart and embarked on a journey that probably not even my mother could have imagined: a Master’s degree in viticulture and enology at Cornell University, stints at Ornellaia e Masseto, Bodega Rolland, Petrus, Château Latour – and a second degree at Bordeaux Sciences Agro in vineyard and winery management for good measure. By the time I was nearing the end of my time at Château Canon La Gaffelière as a cellar hand, my mother suggested to me that now would probably be a suitable time to return, on account of approaching the point of being ‘overqualified’ to work at Dalla Valle.  I returned at the beginning of 2017, and spent the following years observing, working alongside our winemaker and viticulturists, and connecting what I had learned in my time abroad – contemplating what might be applicable and notable for implementation at Dalla Valle. I learned the intricacies of each block, each varietal, and the variable soil types within our own small 20 acre vineyard. I brought in different consultants that I had met on my travels, who each brought their own expertise and wisdoms to impart. All the while, I was thinking deeply about how to carry on the vision of my parents while also creating my own legacy. At the end of 2020, after persisting through the challenges of a pandemic and multiple wildfires, unbeknownst to me my long-held ambition had become a reality. After a long day of winery work, my mother asked me if I felt ready to transition to the position of winemaker. An 11-year journey towards this goal was at an end, and a new challenge lay ahead. I was elated and, frankly, a bit stunned. Of course, I wholeheartedly accepted my mother’s offer. It was in that moment that I knew that my focus would shift, from observing and learning to action and planning. Slowly, since moving back to Napa Valley in 2017, I had been planting the seeds of some of my ideas for the vineyard and the winery. In a family business, you have to ease and massage a new idea into everyone’s heads rather than pound it in. This was a strategy that I developed after observing many styles of management. After one year, I introduced the use of amphora into our ageing program. I had admired tasting other producers’ wines out of amphora and loved the mineral purity it imparted to the wine with the absence of oak. This was the first time at the estate that we utilised an ageing vessel that was not a barrel. After two years, I was able to get everyone on board to begin farming our vineyard biodynamically. Working at Château Latour was my first foray into biodynamic farming, and I was instantly intrigued by the methods and the deeper connection to the land it provided. I was also lucky to be able to spend a weekend in Cahors at a seminar hosted by the Bourguignon family, who are one of the key proponents for biodynamic farming in France. Last year, we began to work with a company called BIOcépage who are assisting us in cultivating our own native yeasts so we can begin to work with our own materials and bring pure terroir expression to the wines. This year, having taken the winemaking reins, I feel a renewed sense of excitement about the possibilities of what is to come in 2021. One of the few positive sides of Covid-19 has been staying at home and really participating in the growing season and all the movements that come with it. Winter is normally a time I spend travelling to promote our wines, but this year I was in the vineyard, pruning with the team. I can see the efforts and payoffs from working with Uvasapiens, a consulting group from Italy that has taught us the idea of pruning to respect the sap flow – which promotes the longevity of the vine. I have actually put into practice the principles that I have observed and learned but never had time to execute. I have been able to spend more time in the cellar with our cellarmaster tasting wines, closely following the evolution and having deep discussions about the nuances of each barrel cooper we work with. Overall, I have never felt more deeply connected to our vineyards. I feel the responsibility to do everything in my power to preserve the health of the soil, health of the vines, and the health of the surrounding environment. Having witnessed my mother in distress having to replant the vineyards during the early 2000s, I now bear the weight of preventing history from repeating itself. But I can see more clearly than ever, how all the tools and methods I have already introduced into the estate will be important for our future.  In many ways, I am a student again. Not of a prestigious institution or domaine, but of nature and our land. Once again, I am humbled by nature’s power to create and destroy, and by an increasing knowledge of how to work in harmony with her. After a tumultuous fall of wildfires and extreme weather, we are now facing the return of a potential drought period. Having had just a third of the normal amount of rainfall, we are preparing ourselves to be stewards of the vineyard and take care of the vines through an unknown spring, summer and fall. After admiring the lush cover crop of legumes, vetch, peas, oats and triticale, we decided (in anticipation of an incoming rain) to mow this vegetation to allow the earth to capture the nitrogen developed by the plants and reduce the competition for water needed for the vines. We have observed the rich layer of greens accumulating into the ground, and hope that the vines will gain maximum benefit from the nutrients it provides.  I have been reading up on the sciences of plants and the intelligence that we often overlook; how adaptable they are in nature, and what lessons we can learn from them. Indigenous people have such a deep connection to and understanding of nature and they have a lot of wisdom to impart. Maintaining a deep respect for the land you farm is an important lesson we can learn from them. Their beliefs tie in strongly with the principles of biodynamics, so I have seen a lot of ideologies come together and everything has started to make a lot of sense. I see my responsibility going forward transcend beyond winemaker and evolve into that of farmer and steward of our land. It was a role my mother always held closely, and it is now that I begin to fully understand the passion and meaning as I settle into my calling. This article was originally published in FONDATA, Issue One

Maya Dalla Valle was recently appointed winemaker at her family’s hugely respected Napa Valley vineyard. As she collaborates with her team, tending Dalla Valle’s 20 acres of vines in readiness to produce her first vintage, she reflects on her 11-year journey to reach her destiny.

Maya Dalla Valle was appointed winemaker at her family’s hugely respected Napa Valley vineyard.  She reflects on her 11-year journey to reach her destiny.

FONDATA: Letter from California

Letter from California

Stewart Cellars

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