A drink with… Alex Nicol, Spencerfield Spirits
Alex Nicol, founder of Spencerfield Spirits, tells Tom Bruce-Gardyne there will be a backlash against the “poor innovation” of what he calls “gummy bear vodka” in the US.
Alex Nicol tells us how he set up Spencerfiled Spirits and also discloses his dislike of “poor innovation”How did Spencerfield start, and who’s involved?
It all began when we bought the two whiskies, Sheep Dip and Pig’s Nose, from Whyte & Mackay. Jane’s the boss, and our son Finlay, who used to be a chef in France, is the assistant distiller. Hannah’s still trying to be a lawyer, but she’ll soon get over that. We work with Heriot-Watt University and their distilling course, and have a graduate distiller who’s very good.
Before Spencerfield you were at Glenmorangie cooking up all those finishes?
That’s right – I worked with the whisky consultant Dr Jim Swan for about three years. At the time Glenmorangie had 52% of the malt whisky market in Scotland, but only had one facing. The finishes gave us sometimes five, so it was really all about shelf space. The wackiest one we tried was a cherry wood finish.
And before that you were with Beefeater. Was that the inspiration for Edinburgh Gin?
Yes, I was marketing manager for Beefeater and Plymouth. I always thought gin could be a lot more experimental than it was in the 1980s and 90s, and that there were more tunes you could play with it. I love innovation and that was the great thing about Hendrick’s. In my opinion it’s acted as the bridge between vodka and gin. What you’re getting is cucumber and a little bit of juniper, but not too much.
Tell us about Edinburgh Gin?
It’s pretty much a London Dry, juniper-forward style. I wanted to make a gin that everyone was familiar with that I like drinking. We also macerated some milk thistle, heather and pine to give it some Scottish botanicals. The distillery was at Broxburn outside the city, but last month we moved it to Edinburgh and the basement of the Rutland Hotel with two German pot stills that were made to fit the space.
As a small craft distiller, how do you play to your size?
If we’re small we should do two things – innovate, and stick to top quality. We’re never going to be able to sell our gin at £12 a litre for Christmas, and nor would we want to. As for innovation, we’ve got some 2.5-litre baby pot stills to experiment on, and replicate anything in the bigger stills.
Where do you see craft spirits going?
I think people are moving across from vodka to gin because it’s more interesting. Our biggest market is America where there’s been complete overkill with things like gummy bears vodka. I do think there’ll be a backlash against all this poor innovation. People will go back to “old-fashioned spirits” and say “here’s a proper Martini – this is how it’s made”. Or “here’s why this whisky’s so good – it’s been properly matured and cared for”.
Given the explosion in new gins, do you have any fears the category is being stretched too far?
Any innovation stands or falls by the consumer, but I think let’s define gin first. I won’t be doing anything really, really wacky and I’ll try not to confuse people. But I’m all for innovation – for one thing it stops my job being boring.
