Mhairi Winters & Lizzie Haw: Whisky making is a team effort
Mhairi Winters and Lizzie Haw work at opposite ends of the whisky spectrum. As distillery manager of The Cairn, Winters is focused on new make spirit, while spirit quality manager Haw works with mature, and often extremely old, whisky. Now the pair have combined their skills and palates to create a one-off bottling for the Demeter Collection.
Gordon & MacPhail’s CRN57 series is something of a time machine. The range of blended malt Scotch whiskies offers a glimpse into the future profile of The Cairn Distillery’s whisky, with each edition embodying the predicted aromas and flavours that drinkers can come to expect from the nascent distillery once its spirit matures.
But when your spirit is less than three years old, how is it possible to predict how it will taste at 12, 18, even 57 years old?
That’s been the focus for Mhairi Winters, distillery manager of The Cairn, and Lizzie Haw, G&M spirit quality manager, who have collaborated to produce a one-off, 57-year-old blended malt for the Demeter Collection.
“It’s an aspirational piece because it’s saying this is where we’d like our Cairn single malt to be,” explains Haw. “It’s quite fun in a way because you won’t know if it will 100% line up. I’m not going to be around when we actually do a 57-year-old Cairn, which is exciting because our colleagues in the future can look at what we've done and judge our skills against their own single malt.”
The CRN57 57 Year Old, a unique decanter created exclusively for the Demeter Collection
Having started production in April 2022, The Cairn Distillery is Gordon & MacPhail’s new Speyside jewel. Its opening signifies a move for the luxury whisky business away from sourcing casks of mature stock to distilling its own (alongside that from its existing distillery, Benromach).
The G&M blending team have already proven they’re masters of maturing single malt whisky to record-beating ages, the oldest being a 1940 Glenlivet 80 Year Old. Now they’re turning their hand to blended malts with the CRN57 series.
That doesn’t make the blending team’s job any easier. “Just because it’s old doesn't mean it tastes good,” says Haw. ”You have to make sure the quality is there.”
The Demeter Collection
That quality begins with the new make spirit. Winters describes The Cairn’s as ‘complex and well rounded with a nice malty base, custard creams and fruity esters’, characteristics she believes are mirrored in the CRN57 created for the Demeter Collection. “The vibrancy in this whisky was what Lizzie was looking for, and me too – I want a vibrant, fruity new make and this whisky really embodies that,” she says. “I can see that string between what we’re making now into the future.”
Haw agrees, although being a bespoke blended malt, of which only one singular bottle has been produced, she was able to put her own personal spin on things.
The CRN57 range is designed to emulate the predicted flavours of The Cairn Distillery’s mature single malt
“We have a 57-year-old out for sale, but the Demeter edition is different,” Haw explains. The Demeter edition is a unique combination of three classic Speyside malts matured in first-fill and refill Sherry casks, presented in a specially engraved, commemorative decanter.
“This was more fun to produce because I was able to choose whisky I’m fond of. The rule in the sample room is it’s not about personal preference, it’s about quality and what you're trying to produce – if you like it, that’s just a bonus. You have to keep your biases out the door. I love citrus and vibrance in a whisky, so sneaking that in and having the free rein to do so was fun.”
The CRN57 is not only a lesson in masterful blending, but also in how diverse palates and backgrounds can come together to produce a spirit with far more complexity, creativity and vision. Haw and Winters may be aligned now on their approach to whisky making, but their routes into the industry couldn’t be more different.
Blazing a trail
Winters knew from an early age that whisky was the industry for her. Having worked as a car park attendant at Glenfiddich during her school holidays, she went on to study Medicinal Chemistry, Brewing and Distilling at university and has since held a variety of technical and production roles with Glenglassaugh, Balvenie and Kininvie. Now, as The Cairn’s first distillery manager – and perhaps Scotland's first ever woman to run a new build distillery, she’s at the very beginning of crafting its legacy.
Haw on the other hand came to whisky slightly later, having initially worked for Baxters Food Group in quality control. “When you join the whisky industry without any background at all, it’s amazing how quickly you can learn if you want to. I’m a big believer in that if you’re keen, you can learn anything.” Having joined Gordon & MacPhail in 2011 on the quality standards team, Haw is now the company’s first female blender in its 129-year history.
Despite the milestone, Haw says her gender has never proven an issue. “I never grew up thinking there was a gender divide,” she says. “You hear about it and know it’s there but I don't let things like that hold me back. Stuart Urquhart [operations director] said ‘did you know you're the first woman to work on the whisky side of things?’, but I'd never thought of that.”
Mhairi Winters knew she wanted to work in whisky from a young age
For both women, the CRN57 represents an opportunity to support others in the industry who may not have been so lucky with their experiences.
“I really hope that in being part of the Demeter Collection we can show women what is available in the industry and that there are female role models they can look up to,” says Winters.
Haw agrees. “It’s an honour to be involved in something that will go toward supporting women in the industry. All the work the OurWhisky Foundation is doing, particularly with the mentorship programme, is helping support women to get further in their careers. If we can get some good funds back from this, it’s going to be phenomenal.”
The Demeter Collection auction will run 29 March - 8 April 2024 at whiskyauctioneer.com.
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