SB meets… Dave Quinn, Irish Distillers

The master of whiskey science at Irish Distillers on developing expressions for future consumers and the importance of building the category.

Dave Quinn, master of whiskey science at Irish Distillers

How did you first get started in the industry?

I joined Irish distillers back in 1983. I joined straight from college as a biochemist working in the lab. To be honest, I hadn’t thought of Irish whiskey as a career choice at that time. The industry was struggling, there were only two distilleries on the island. The Irish whiskey industry was heading for extinction at that point in time. Back when I joined it was still in the throes of recession.

Almost all of my work has been on the technical side of things. I took a year out in 1986/87 in Edinburgh to do a master’s degree in brewing and science. I worked in operations in the plant here in the distillery for a number of years before moving to Bushmills in 1996, where I spent six years as a head distiller. Then I came back to Midleton in 2002 to take up my position as head of whiskey science.

Can you tell me about your role as master of whiskey science?

Quality is a big part of it. My role entails the day-to-day management of whiskey quality. It also involves whisky blending, planning our whiskey requirements for the next number of years, and forecasting. It can also involve experimental distillations and looking at the development of different types of whiskey.

I work closely with my marketing colleagues to get a sense from them on what they feel is the needs for now or for the future in terms of the whiskey consumer, and what type of whiskey we should develop in the future years.

What have you found challenging about your role?

I think essentially trying to predict what styles of whiskey will be of interest in the coming years and then ensuring that we’re laying down sufficient stock of those whiskeys to meet demand in the future. The timeframe between new make spirit and whiskey going for bottling can be such an extended period of time that there’s plenty of time for things to go wrong. You can end up with not enough whiskey or too much whiskey.

How do you ensure quality?

Choose the best raw materials that you can get with the best quality water available to you. Then you have excellent process control during your brewing process, fermentation and distillation process to produce a distillate coming off the still that meets the taste profile. If you can do that then that’s the first major hurdle crossed. You also need to put spirit in the best wood available to you.

The new-look Jameson Stout Edition and Jameson IPA Edition bottles

How important is innovation to you?

It’s absolutely critical to us. It’s always been in our blood since I joined 36 years ago. We’ve worked in two different ways. In production we have always done different experiments with wood because we always find that when our marketing team come knocking on the door for a different style of whiskey or one with a particular character, it’s crucial we have something to offer at that time rather than telling them to come back in 10 years.

At the same time, we work very closely with them when we try to bring that product to market. If we look at what’s happened over the past number of years, we’ve launched a range of new pot still whiskeys. We had a number of different types of unique whiskeys in the warehouse that didn’t have a home in the brand portfolio. It was decided to release those to the consumer that is looking for an unusual whiskey. That was Method and Madness. So innovation is absolutely key.

Other examples would be Jameson Caskmates, which was quite unique at the time. We were the first to launch a whiskey finished in craft beer barrels.

The Jameson Caskmates range recently underwent a global redesign. What was the reason behind the decision?

We realised that the labels were a bit busy in terms of what they were trying to portray. The new label makes it more visible between the two whiskeys [Stout Edition and IPA Edition].

Will you release any further whiskeys under the Caskmates range?

We have a few on trial at the moment. It’s hard to say what the next one will be. There’s a fine line between bringing out too many and causing confusion. The whiskey would have to be very different.

Are there any gaps in the portfolio?

You know there probably is. We didn’t really get into the area of flavoured whiskey and I don’t think we will. I think that’s a transitory thing. People try it but come back to the core product. It’s not something that we have really got ourselves involved in – there’s plenty of activity across all of the whiskey types.

Is the interest in and demand for Irish whiskey still there?

There’s still plenty of potential out there. There are still markets that we haven’t knocked on the door like South Africa, Brazil and the whole area of Asia. We’re starting to see traction in Sub-Saharan Africa. When I started there were two distilleries, in three of four years time there could be 40. It’s so important to build the category. There has to be a wide portfolio of brands that taste differently. It’s going to take a number of years to build momentum but we’re only just starting.