Dr Rachel Barrie: I finally feel like I’ve arrived
Dr. Rachel Barrie has spent over 30 years in the whisky industry, winning numerous awards and accolades, but only now feels like she’s 'arrived'. Grateful for the opportunities she's been given, Brown-Forman's master blender now wants to empty her cup.
“I’m starting to get the sense, at 55, that I’ve arrived.” It’s hard to believe that those words have come out of the mouth of Dr Rachel Barrie, one of Scotch whisky’s most prominent and respected figures.
With over 30 years of experience, Barrie has blazed a trail for women working in Scotch whisky. In 2003, she became the first woman in the category to hold the title of whisky blender, the first female master blender to be given an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in 2018, and in the same year was the first to be inducted into the Whisky Hall of Fame – an accolade she says, as a woman, was ‘not before time’.
Having worked at some of Scotch’s biggest names – from Glenmorangie to Bowmore and Laphroaig - Barrie now holds the position of master blender for Brown-Forman, looking after its GlenDronach, Glenglassaugh and Benriach brands.
“I've had a very rich and colourful journey,” she reflects. “Research, production, marketing, a bit of finance. The beauty of my role now is that you get your fingers in a bit of everything. So I'm in a really, really good place. So I do feel like I’ve arrived.”
Saxaphone stills: The pot stills at Brown-Forman’s GlenDronach distillery
Aberdeenshire-born Barrie fell in love with whisky in her late teens. She studied Chemistry at university and always found a way of learning more about the spirit. She had no prospects of actually making a career of it though: “I was always fascinated by it, but I never actually thought I could get a job in it.”
The fact that she did was pure ‘serendipity’. One day, she happened to be cycling past Edinburgh University when she saw a job listed on the noticeboard on its last day of being advertised. It was a role at the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, and little did Barrie know she would spend the next three years there as a research scientist, working under the tutelage of Dr Jim Swan. Her decision to take that cycle route that day changed the course of her life forever. “My path would have been completely different,“ she says.
Coming into her own
Over three decades later and Barrie explains her career as ‘coming into its own now, again’. Having spent her time in whisky also raising a family of three boys, at 55 she is at a stage where travel has become more possible. “I love travelling. I love learning about diverse cultures, meeting new people, tasting lots of different foods… the culture, the tastes, the difference in geographies. It fascinates me to look at whiskies from around the world… I learn something new with every trip I go on.”
When she’s not sharing the gospel of whisky with its ever-thirsty markets around the world (she has just returned from an insightful trip to Asia), Barrie’s role encompasses a huge array of responsibilities. Whisky management of course is key, sampling thousands of casks and creating the recipes for all three of the distilleries’ products (35 in total year-on-year).
‘I want to empty my cup’: Barrie on giving back to the new generation of women in Scotch
The job hops between being analytical and sensory, she explains, and stock management is also a key part, especially in flavour creation and what Barrie and Brown-Forman describe as the ‘World of Possibilities’. With a £6 million budget, Barrie can really play with casks, from the Barossa Valley to Sicily and Portugal.
Does she feel the pressure and the responsibility of it all? “I used to be fearful but, no, I've grown into it,” she says, matter-of-factly.
It didn’t come easy
Unlike women starting in whisky today, Barrie had far fewer role models to look up to when she began back in the 1990s. “I had to push for it. I was the first woman to get the title officially of master blender, but that wasn't just handed to me on a plate. I do feel sometimes I still have to push for things more.”
As such, she thinks visibility is hugely important to bring more women into the field. “I think it’s really important because when women rise, everyone rises. If you think about the developed world, in any field, if there is, for example, a female prime minister, then everyone rises when they have that figurehead. It's influence, it's inspiring.”
Within her own team Barrie mentors her assistant master blender at GlenDronach, Kirsten Ainslie, every day: “She's amazing.”
The GlenDronach 30 Year Old has been drawn from a first-fill oloroso Sherry butt
Passing on her knowledge is something Barrie’s clearly passionate about. “I have a full 32 years of experience that I want to share. Not just in supporting, coaching and mentoring, but transferring knowledge as well. You're passing on a legacy - when I retire, Kirsten will be my legacy.
“We need to ensure that we continue to have a pipeline of other women coming through who are nurtured, supported and given the tools and the knowledge we’ve shared with them.”
The Demeter Collection
And so to Barrie’s contribution to the Demeter Collection, whose funds will do just that. The GlenDronach 30 Year Old Single Cask has been drawn from cask #2463, an oloroso Sherry butt, distilled at GlenDronach on 16 July 1993 and bottled on 23 November 2023. The year it was bottled and the cask it was matured in has a special connection to Barrie - in 1993 she was researching Sherry casks at the Scotch Whisky Research Institute.
She describes the liquid as a ‘cornucopia of lusciousness’ with tasting notes including bramble crumble, Black Forest gateau and pain au raisin. It’s super rare, and one of Barrie’s favourite GlenDronach vintages.
She sees the collaboration between Brown-Forman and the OurWhisky Foundation as well-matched, explaining that Brown-Forman’s business is made up of 42% women. “It’s really an extension, we are completely in sync with what you’re doing.”
For Barrie, it is also a personal endeavour: “I want to empty my cup, I want to be part of helping other women to get into the industry and supporting them. It is hard, you know, the journey - it can be spiky, let's put it like that. If I can help to smooth the path, I think it’s great to be involved.”
The Demeter Collection auction will run 29 March - 8 April 2024 at whiskyauctioneer.com.
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