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SB meets… Gillian Macdonald, The Glenmorangie Company

The master blender and head of whisky creation for Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, Gillian Macdonald, tells us about combining art and science in her role.

Dr Bill Lumsden and Gillian Macdonald

What excites you most about your job?

Looking after the core portfolio of Glenmorangie and our sister brand Ardbeg is super‐important to me and our team. It isn’t necessarily the most exciting ‘high five moment’ part of the job, but to us, the most important thing is to make sure that every Glenmorangie and every Ardbeg that leaves the distillery is exactly how we want it to be. It is good fun to do a bit of playing as well, and having the scope to change things at the distillery then see them come all the way through to release is quite satisfying as well.

What was the inspiration for Glenmorangie’s latest creative expression, A Tale of Ice Cream?

The idea was one that was centred around dialling up one or two features that are prevalent in Glenmorangie’s Original expression anyway, such as the ripe peachy flavours, the creamy vanilla, the coconut. We’ve got a bit of history when it comes to doing this sort of thing, but vanilla was one flavour that we hadn’t focused on before, and it’s obviously a universally loved flavour. It’s one of those things that gives such pleasure.

How did you go about recreating the flavour profiles of ice cream?

We had the opportunity through a couple of our suppliers to purchase some unusual casks that promised to dial up specific flavours and characteristics, due to the way that they had been heat treated, allowing us to accentuate those vanilla aspects.

We then committed some whisky that had been sitting in Bourbon barrels so it was already very vanilla‐y anyway, then added that into these casks to finish, and that’s where it really accentuated those vanilla flavours. When we then sat down with the marketing team, we described what it was, and how we put it together, and it materialised into this ice cream parlour theme – and I’m yet to meet anybody who doesn’t really like ice cream.

How long has this expression, the fifth in the Tales Of series, been in the works?

Glenmorangie A Tale of Ice Cream
Glenmorangie A Tale of Ice Cream

We’ve always got multiple projects on the go. Some of these are projects that we’ve developed over many years, such as the Tale of the Forest, which saw us use alternative kilning materials to dry the barley, but we’ve also got projects created over a slightly shorter time, involving more of the cask end of things, such as finishes, which is what A Tale of Ice Cream is, so it had a shorter turnaround, in that sense.

Is there a limit to the imagination of a whisky maker?

I’d like to think not, because there’s so many different combinations of things you can do, and thanks to the frivolous, fun nature of the Tale Of series, we’re able to put aside our more traditional views on things, and just go all out. In the instance of A Tale of Ice Cream, it’s been about the maturation side of things, but that’s just one element of it – there are several other tunes up our sleeve that we can choose to combine that will give us different things. There’s still plenty to come.

You’ve re-released The Original with a new 12-year age statement. Given the expression’s iconic status among whisky drinkers, was there any internal push back on that decision?

There was internal debate, within our team as well. The Original 10‐year‐old has been this iconic flagship mainstay since the 1950s, so we hold it very closely to our hearts. We had some big ‘should we, shouldn’t we?’ moments, but once we’d done the internal tasting, and put it out to our panel, there was a resounding yes in favour of it going to 12. It is still The Original. The only thing that’s changed is the number – we’ve dialled up everything that everyone knows and loves about it.

Glenmorangie A Tale of Ice Cream is available worldwide now for RRP £76.

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