“There’s no scientific reason that a blend should be inferior to a single malt,” insists Alasdair Stevenson of blending house Turntable Spirits. “In ways you could argue the opposite in terms of flexibility and the creative opportunities that blending gives you. It’s really all down to the strategy of the blender.”
Go back 150 years or so to when blending started, Ally argues, and “it was about consistency, quality and flavour combination.”
“I mean, if you take it into the world of wine or cooking, you would think about combining different components, different ingredients, different elements in some way to try and create something that is more than any one of the components.”
That’s why Ally says he and his brother Gordon started Turntable: “To change the way people think about blended whisky. The idea was to turn the table, flip the record, do something different.”
“We both grew up in the world of whisky in some way,” Ally explains. “Our dad Graham, he worked in the industry for 30 years or so. So it was always in us to an extent, and we both joined the industry quite young.”
Out of uni Ally joined BenRiach Distillery, which was then owned by legendary Master Blender Billy Walker and two South African partners.
Billy, he says, “was a great mentor; great person to learn from.” And when Billy sold BenRiach and acquired GlenAllachie from Pernod Ricard, Ally went with him.
“I worked with Billy on the wood management and getting a better understanding of the blending and the strategy on that side of things. But,” he continues, Gordon and I, we’d always wanted to work together… wanted to start our own journey.
“We both had this shared frustration in some ways that all around the whisky world it felt like people had this perception of blends being inferior in quality to single malt. Obviously we didn’t agree.
“So we almost thought when we were starting Turntable, can we try to combine how we see the best of the two categories? Can we go to the original idea of a blending house and the opportunity for creativity, for flavour combination but then combine that with the care to detail that you would usually find in the single malt category today?
“Basically everything we do is small batch blended whisky, natural colour, unchilled filtered, at least 46%. And we try to really differentiate ourselves by focusing on transparency as well. So really drilling into the breakdown as to what is going into the blends, what percentage, what distillery, what cast type.”
Turntable was launched in 2023. But the Stevensons had been acquiring casks from across Scotland since 2019.
Today they own about 1,300 casks “that could be anything from new make spirit through until 40 years old”.
Join John as he and Ally celebrate \"the beauty of the blend\"; and learn how the Stevenson brothers are collaborating with “New World” distillers like Starward in Australia to produce international blended whiskies in Germany.
Slàinte!
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Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie
Creator & producer: David Holmes
Art work & design: Jess Robertson
Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)
Vocals: Andrea Cunningham
Guitars: John Beattie
Bass: Alasdair Vann
Drums: Alan Hamilton
Bagpipes: Calum McColl
Accordion: Gary Innes
Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie
Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland
Special thanks: The Piper Whisky Bar, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, Scotland
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