Xiao-Li Meng, Whipple V. N. Jones Professor of Statistics at Harvard and Founding Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Data Science Review, was inspired by a student to combine wine and statistics—leading to insights far beyond what they ever expected.

From wine tastings to data science, Xiao-Li Meng explores how statistics reveals simplicity in complexity – one glass, experiment, and insight at a time.

Wine, statistics & serendipity: A Harvard journey

Seeking simplicity in statistics, complexity in wine, and everything else in fortune cookies 

It’s not often words fail me. But finding the right words to describe Dr Bill Lumsden to those who haven’t had the great fortune of meeting him has rendered me a little dumbstruck. Many have dubbed him the “Willy Wonka of the whisky world” for his creativity, jaunty style and flair. His latest project, a purpose-built home for innovation named the Lighthouse, where Lumsden can innovate to his heart’s content and create all manner of whacky and category-bending whiskies, somewhat perpetuates this narrative of the eccentric whisky-maker. But, I’d argue, the good doctor is far more than this. He is, first and foremost, an incredibly accomplished scientist. His work at Glenmorangie and Ardbeg over the past 26 years – maintaining the iconic distillery characters and launching innumerable products for each – is nothing short of sensational. He is a workhorse, as well as, it would seem, a bit of a clothes horse. “I’m a bit of a shopaholic,” he tells me with glee. “I love buying clothes.” This isn’t the sort of confession I expected when sitting down with the Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation & Whisky Stocks in November last year. “If something’s in fashion, I wouldn’t be caught dead in it because other people are wearing it,” Lumsden continues. “So I tend to wear things which have been out of fashion for many years or are yet to be in fashion – and it’s just a little facet of my personality, unfortunately.” This, while slightly unexpected, actually makes a great deal of sense when you cast an eye over his professional life. Lumsden has always been the trendsetter rather than the disciple. And he’s quick to assert that his avant-garde attitude extends beyond apparel. “I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in what’s in fashion and what’s not in fashion [in the whisky industry]”, he says. “When I’m doing something it really is all to do with will I like the taste at the end of the day? Will it complement that character of the Glenmorangie or the Ardbeg spirit?”. Since joining Glenmorangie in 1995, Lumsden has been charged with “maintaining and hopefully slightly improving the spirit character” and innovating. While once his role was divided equally between these two tasks, new product development and innovation now take up the majority of his time. “It’s got to the stage now where the demand for new products is almost impossible to keep up with,” he says matter-of-factly. While this might be fatigue-inducing for some, this constant pressure to innovate exhilarates the inquisitive doctor. “I’m a scientist by training,” he explains. “It’s in my blood to experiment, and I’ve always been a curious individual who gets bored very easily and likes to try new experiences, in every aspect of my life. So the move to Glenmorangie was heaven-sent for me from that perspective,” he says with unfettered glee. The decision to build Lumsden’s Wonka-esque Lighthouse was driven to a certain extent by necessity, he tells me. “The Ardbeg and particularly Glenmorangie distilleries have been running absolutely flat-out for the last 12-15 years,” he says. “For me to interrupt the production cycle to get access to the distillery for three to four weeks of a year, where I wanted to try some radically different things was proving increasingly difficult. And also some of the things I wanted to do, I just simply hadn’t been able to do that with the existing distillery plant. “So the Lighthouse has been established to allow me to experiment but while maintaining the volumes that are required for future bottlings and also to try things that I simply can’t do in the main distillery.” These things range from the smallest alteration in primary production to radical innovations, and everything in between. “Some of the time it can be a very, very simple change,” Lumsden tells me. “It can be something as simple as offering one of your expressions in a natural, cask-strength form, for example, and other times it can be something dramatically different, where you’re actually using completely new materials. I am continuing to experiment with just about anything you can think of.” For the past 10 years, this experimentation has largely focused on different aspects of production. “We’re about to see some products coming out for both the Glenmorangie and the Ardbeg brand where I’ve been playing around more with primary production – it’s been great fun,” he teases. The challenge with this approach, he says, is two-fold. “You’ve got a very long lead time until your product comes to market,” he explains. “Sometimes you’re talking 10 years’ maturation.” At the very least. If you’re experimenting with barley varieties, or looking at fermentation profiles, you have an even lengthier wait. Secondly, by the very nature of these experiments, the difference between spirits is most emphasised in the new-make. “For example, using the barley varieties, it’s not giving you black and white differences,” Lumsden explains. “It’s more shades of grey, and you really pick that up in the new spirit. “But after many years of maturation, you risk losing these differences. So you have to choose your cask type accordingly to try and make sure that you still have the point of difference coming through.” Lumsden says Glenmorangie is launching a product in 2022 that is an experiment he’s always wanted to carry out. “I did this many, many years ago. I can’t say any more about it at this stage, but I will probably bottle this [whisky] slightly younger than my original target, which was 12 years, because I don’t want to continue to minimise the difference in character, if that makes sense?”  In addition to maintaining the two distillery’s very distinct characteristics, and inventing all manner of whiskies, Lumsden sits on a number of prestigious judging panels. In this capacity, he tastes hundreds upon hundreds of whiskies and sees first-hand the changes in the industry and trends that are being adopted – good and bad. He says there has been a “real divergence” in recent years. “Some of the whiskies I taste have become much more characterful and I’m delighted to see whiskies that are non-chill filtered,” he says hopefully. On the controversial subject of chill filtration, the process whereby distillers remove esters and fatty acids to prevent the liquid clouding at low temperatures, Lumsden ardently believes less is more. He does, however, acknowledge its place in markets where drinkers might not understand that cloudiness is caused by oils coming out of suspension rather than a fault. But, he believes, producers are taking its use to the extreme. If Ardbeg and Glenmorangie whiskies are chill-filtered, it is only ever done so “very gently”, because Lumsden feels that lipids – fatty acids from the base barley that would otherwise be removed by full chill filtration – add texture and character to the spirit. Sadly, he rues, this is not true for others who are “very brutally” applying this technique to hasten up processes, and character is lost as a consequence. Corner-cutting exercises like this, speeding up distillation methods and reusing barrels too many times are becoming all too common, he says. When it comes to producing or judging a perfect whisky, Lumsden says he’s after complex harmony. “I’m looking for the flavours to be nicely integrated together and not having any one aspect dominate,” he says. “That’s what I think good quality whisky, particularly Scotch whisky, should be". “The final thing I’ll look for is the length and character of the aftertaste of the whisky,” he explains. “Because I really don’t like to see a whisky just completely fade – it shouldn’t do that. It’s a richly flavoured product and it should linger on the palate for a while.” Whether he’s sitting on a judging panel or looking out from his monstrously tall Roald Dahl-esque Lighthouse, Lumsden’s vantage point, you sense, will always be forward-facing and progressive. It is for others to catch up or catch onto the trend. Browse Ardbeg and Glenmorangie whiskies or read more Editorial 

Glenmorangie and Ardbeg are two Scotch whisky brands famed for quality and innovation. Behind every bottle is the heart and mind of one man: Dr Bill Lumsden. He talks to Holly Motion about what it takes to be at the distilling vanguard for decades

Dr Bill Lumsden, the man behind some of Glenmorangie and Ardbeg’s greatest single malts, talks about consistency and creativity in Scotch whisky

Dr Bill Lumsden talks about whisky innovation 

Dr Bill Lumsden: the eternal inventor

We normally taste Ch. Berliquet at Canon during en primeur, and with a tightly packed schedule there’s never enough time to visit both properties. This year, however, an extended trip allowed us to visit once most of the trade had left the region. On the sunny Monday after the week of en primeur, we arrived at Canon as normal – but, instead of disappearing into a tasting room, hopped onto some of the property’s iconic bikes (which are genuinely used by staff to travel between the two estates), and pedalled across the vineyards to Berliquet – a property that the Chanel team has quietly been transforming.  Ch. Berliquet is one of the oldest estates in Saint-Emilion, with roots dating back to the 1760s. The first known owner was Jean de Sèze, a contemporary of Jacques Kanon (the founder of Ch. Canon). This single plot of vines on the slopes of Saint-Emilion’s limestone plateau has remained unchanged for over 150 years. Southwest of the town, nestled between Ch. Bélair-Monange and Ch. Angélus, it offers much more than meets the eye. The wines were vinified by a local co-operative as recently as the late 1970s and the property only achieved Grand Cru Classé status in 1986. When Chanel acquired the property in July 2017, you would be forgiven for thinking that fruit from Berliquet would go into its more illustrious neighbour, Ch. Canon (which Chanel has owned since 1996); but that wasn’t what they had in mind.   “At the beginning, we took our time with Berliquet. To start with, we had to focus on ourselves,” Axelle Araud, the estate’s Wine Development Director, told me at a recent vertical tasting. The team credits the estate’s progression in part to a better understanding of their surroundings. Not long after their acquisition, the team carried out an extensive soil study which revealed that the estate’s slopes are home to all three of Saint-Emilion’s hallmark soils in equal measure: the vineyard’s plateau is made of limestone, the hillside a mix of limestone and deep clays, while the banks of the Dordogne river are predominantly sand and clay. The unique diversity of the soil helped to underline the estate’s identity.  “Ch. Berliquet is the expression of a specific landscape,” Araud says. One key element of this landscape is a Mediterranean belt that runs across the property (found at Bélair-Monange too), with Mediterranean species of plants naturally growing here – with cypress, fig, pine trees, lavender and laurel all at home. The team has looked to nurture this natural biodiversity, planting over 1,000 hedges, shrubs and trees since 2017, as well as installing nesting boxes for birds (to help as natural pest control). The property is certified organic as of the 2024 vintage.  Alongside this, Nicolas Audebert has embarked upon significant restructuring of the vineyards. At the beginning of Chanel’s tenure, the vineyard was planted with as much as 80% Merlot; but, in early 2018, following their soil analysis, the technical team realised the significant role that Cabernet Franc could play on the property’s clay-rich soils, on the slopes below the limestone plateau. Since then, the vineyard has gradually been restructured, with plots of Merlot replaced with Cabernet Franc. Today, 2.5 hectares of the vineyard have been replanted, taking the proportion of Cabernet Franc up to 40%. The goal in the long term is to bring the blend up to 50% Cabernet Franc.  In 2021, they also decided to plant some Malbec – 0.34-hectare plot of this grape that was – prior to phylloxera – widely planted in the region. Nicolas Audebert and his team believe that addition of malbec will add to the diversity of the fruit, the results of this change will be evident from the 2024 vintage, with its first inclusion in the blend.  While much of the work has been in the vineyard, part of Berliquet’s recent progress can be linked to the winery. Although Berliquet benefits from having the same technical team as that of Canon and Croix Canon, one of the thinks that marks Berliquet out from its stablemates is their use of amphorae. The estate started with just two amphorae in 2019, and today have 12 – deemed a key part of the wine’s character, with 10% of the blend matured in these clay vessels instead of oak. Araud pointed out that the amphora have helped to preserve the brightness of the fruit – carrying through their work in the vineyard to the final wine.  The 2023 vintage also saw the inauguration of what Araud calls “the playground” – their new vat room, complete with 22 stainless steel tanks. “Now that we have all the building blocks in place in the vineyard, we can pay more attention to each and every plot, resulting in greater precision and refinement in the final blend,” she explains.  The 2024 vintage is the eighth under team Chanel and, over that time, the team has continuously questioned their practices, making small adjustments in the vineyard and winery – making gradual but constant progression. And that progression is evident in the wine today, which has shaken off any rusticity it might once have displayed. As Jean-Basile Roland, Commercial Director for Chanel’s three estates, described to us back in April, they’ve been sharpening the wine’s silhouette – a wine that he describes as “telluric” versus Canon’s “ethereal” style. However you describe it, the wine is clearly better than ever before and well worth watching, with more improvements undoubtedly in the pipeline. Browse all current Berliquet listings or read more Editorial

In 2017, Chanel added Ch. Berliquet to their suite of prestigious Bordeaux properties, joining nearby Ch. Canon and Margaux’s Ch. Rauzan-Ségla. Our Bordeaux Buyer Hector Howes reports on the evolution of the estate under its new expert owners – and why it’s one to watch

How the Chanel team is transforming Saint-Emilion estate Berliquet – acquired by the owners of Canon and Rauzan-Segla in 2017 – and why it’s one to watch

Harnessing Ch. Berliquet’s potential

Berliquet: harnessing the property’s potential

When it comes to whisky, the conversation has long been dominated by maturation – on how long the liquid spends slumbering in which cask, on how big the cask is and what it held before, whether a Sherry butt, wine barrique, first-fill Bourbon barrel or the fashionable mizunara. Recently, there’s been an increased focus on the base product, with producers such as Waterford’s Mark Reynier championing single-site, single-barley, terroir-driven whiskies (and rums, with his Renegade project). But, somehow, there’s a tendency to skip on by the magic that happens in between: distillation.  While grain whisky is column distilled, malt whisky is almost exclusively distilled in copper pot stills – indeed, it’s a legal requisite for Scotch whisky. Crafting these copper beauties is an art – and one that depends on a handful of specialists. Kentucky has Vendome, Germany has Kothe and CARL, Italy has Frilli and Scotland has Forsyths. The equipment these coppersmiths produce lays the foundation the DNA of its new-make.  To the untrained eye, these onion-shaped pieces of kit look almost identical, but the size and shape is distinct to each distillery – defining its style. As distilleries expand and increase production, they don’t buy a bigger still – but commission exact replicas of their existing still(s), with every dent and dimple carefully recreated. Macallan, famously, replaced all its stills when building its new state-of-the-art distillery in 2018, asking Forsyths to create 36 stills that were identical to those it had previously used.  Although there have been attempts to use other metals, copper has long been favoured for distilling – originally for its pliability, making it easy to work and shape. But by the early 20th century, it was apparent that copper had other benefits – stripping the spirit of impurities. As the vapour rises through the still, it reacts with the copper, capturing sulphur, cyanides, carbonates and acids, meaning the liquid that is eventually collected is purer. Coppersmiths play on this purifying effect to create a range of stills, for the longer the vapour spends in contact with the copper, the lighter the spirit you’ll produce. Take Glenmorangie’s tall, 17-feet-high stills which produce a very light spirit, and compare them to the small, squat stills and typically heavy spirit of the Macallan. Of course it’s not quite as simple as that. As well as the ratio of copper to liquid, the speed of distillation, the shape of the still, the size of the neck, the level of reflux, the angle of the lyne arm and venting of stills all have an impact.  Rothes-based Forsyths has been hammering copper into shape for Scotland’s leading distillers for over 150 years. Richard Forsyth OBE (who has now passed management of the business to his son, Richard Jr) was the third generation of his family to run the coppersmiths. The frank, self-effacing Scot remembers working in his father’s workshop aged 15, “I knew this is what I wanted to do… I found it fascinating.” And after 55 years, his eye still twinkles when he talks about the arch of a still’s swan neck, the art of wielding a planishing hammer and the characters that make the industry so interesting.   He joined the family business in 1967 – at what happened to be a pivotal moment for the industry. During the Second World War, the whisky business ground to a halt – and with it the need for stills. In the 1950s and ’60s, however, the industry grew rapidly – too rapidly, it turned out. What was a golden era turned into a whisky lake, with many distilleries soon mothballed. Forsyths – for whom 99% of its business was servicing the whisky industry – had to find something else to pay the bills, and it was up to Richard to find that something else. They branched out first into paper, then stainless steel and – by the late 1990s – oil and gas. Although coppersmithing remained the foundation and heart of the business, these other disciplines became the main money-makers until the early 2010s, when whisky’s current boomtime set in. Today, Forsyths maintains over half of the pot stills in Scotland. For a wash still (distilleries that double-distil have wash and spirits stills, first distilling the wash into “low wines” and then distilling the “low wines” into new-make spirit), the head, neck and condenser wears out in eight to 10 years, while the pot itself may last 25. Add to that developing new stills for the thriving industry – as well as their expansion into rum, Bourbon and tequila – and the company’s not short of work.   Although there is clear resistance to change with an industry that is entrenched in tradition, things have shifted, slowly but surely, over the years. And there have been two significant changes over the last century that have transformed the Scotch whisky world: the firing of stills and the nature of condensers.  When shell-and-tube condensers were invented in the 1880s, as an alternative to old-fashioned worm tubs, it took time for producers to be persuaded. Although shell-and-tube condensers are significantly more efficient and take up much less space, they are completely different – with the copper surface area at least 20 times larger, something which has a key impact on the spirit. To this day some producers (15 to be exact – including Craigellachie, Mortlach, Glen Elgin and Springbank, the latter only for their wash still) retain their worm tubs, valuing the heavier, richer, more complex (and in some instances, even meaty, savoury) spirit character.   Traditionally stills were direct-fired – heated by flames fed by peat, coal or gas. “It’s dirty, messy, difficult to handle – and to control,” Forsyth tells me. A push for safety and efficiency saw producers switch to using steam in the 1970s. But some argue that this shift wasn’t for the better. Fire created a less consistent heat, with hot spots that would burn the wash and promote Maillard reactions (the same reaction that takes place when you brown meat, or during the bottle-ageing of Champagne or other traditional-method sparkling wine) – adding nutty, roasted notes that build complexity, or so proponents would argue. Glenfarclas is known for having briefly dallied with steam before returning to direct-firing, along with the likes of Macallan, Glenfiddich and Springbank.  As the whiskies of this pre-modernisation era – Scotch’s so-called “golden age” – become increasingly coveted, distilleries (both new and old) are looking to recreate these practices. Along with traditional floor maltings, producers like Glen Garioch (owned by Suntory) and Dunphail are investing in direct-firing. (Although, with worm tubs no longer produced, new distilleries have little choice regarding shell-and-tube condensers.)  However they are fired, given their custom nature, copper pot stills don’t come cheap. Much of the work continues to be done by hand, hammering to strengthen and finish the copper. Stills can range from 5,000 to 50,000 litres in capacity, but an average 15,000-litre still and its condenser will require between 1,800 and 2,000 manhours, and set you back around £250,000. And that price has only increased recently, thanks to rising energy and material costs – with a copper shortage proving challenging for Forsyths, a business that is the UK’s second-biggest buyer of the metal.  With the distinct nature of stills and their impact on spirit, plenty of new producers will ask for copies of a particular distillery’s stills – wishing to emanate their style of spirit. Forsyth tells me how one Japanese customer requested a pair each of Macallan, Glenlivet and Glenrothes stills. While of course there are many problems with this imitation game, there’s also no guarantee – as Forsyth tells me – that the same equipment will have the same results, especially when not run with the same wash, in the same way, by the same people. And, of course, a company like Forsyths isn’t going to give away Macallan’s proprietary designs, for example. As such, they’ll recreate something similar, but ensure it’s tweaked so no two distilleries have exactly the same design.   But how much impact do stills really have on the final spirit? Despite his half-century in the trade, Forsyth is quick to suggest, “I don’t think a lowly coppersmith can talk too much about that.” He’s clear that you need good equipment to make good spirit, but it’s one factor in amongst everything else – the barley, water and fermentation times, for example. And how a still is used is as important as its shape or size, with both the speed of distillation and the all-important cuts – dividing the heart from the foreshots and feints. Forsyth firmly believes that good wood is “the single biggest effect in a bottle eight, 10 or 12 years later”. There’s little use having a good base spirit if it’s ruined by a decade in bad oak – but good oak also can’t salvage bad spirit.  Forsyth has seen it all during his 55 years in the whisky business – and has been forced to be as malleable as the metal his family has worked for generations to survive the booms and busts. Despite the challenges, the coppersmith is as enchanted by his trade as when he first picked up a hammer in his father’s workshop. The industry will doubtless continue to ebb and flow, but with a spirit that takes decades to produce, the pace of change is reassuringly gentle. “It almost goes as slow as the running of the spirit,” Forsyth says whimsically. The still room remains the beating heart of distilleries – the basis of a producer’s fingerprint, all thanks to the careful hammering of the artful coppersmith.  Browse all current Scotch whisky listings or read more about spirits  

There’s something romantic about the bulbous sheen of a copper pot still. These behemoths glimmer with the promise of fine spirit – but it’s rare that we talk about what happens within. Sophie Thorpe sat down with Richard Forsyth OBE of Scotland’s leading coppersmiths, Forsyths, to find out more 

Cult coppersmiths Forsyths on the art of crafting copper pot stills for the biggest names in Scotch whisky – and how they define a distillery’s spirit style

How copper pot stills define whisky styles

Copper craft: the art of the still

Broad in build and sporting a leather necklace, Mike Ratcliffe looks like a man who would be good at wrangling cattle. But that burly side is countered by an accent softened by time working and studying abroad (not to mention being married to a Brit), and a certain polish – even after an overnight flight from the Cape – that speaks of the business sphere. It’s clear that he’s no-nonsense – a man with ambition, and not one, I suspect, you’d want to get on the wrong side of. But it’s also clear that his savvy brand-building has been key to the success of Vilafonté.  He is a man with a plan – a 100-year plan, in fact. As of December last year, when co-founders Dr Zelma Long and Dr Phil Freese retired, Ratcliffe is the lone man at the helm of Vilafonté – a wine producer that has been attracting increasing amounts of attention. In a recent report for the Wine Advocate, Anthony Mueller wrote, “Vilafonté continues inching toward triple digits with a spectacular array of new releases” – awarding its 2021 Series C 99 points (making it the joint-highest-scoring South African wine to date, sitting alongside Sadie’s 2021 Palladius and an 1800 Muscat of Alexandria from Jaubert). But Ratcliffe’s not resting on his laurels: as he tells me, “If you’re going to do anything, go 100%.”  Ratcliffe’s family owned Warwick Estate – and as the world opened up to South African wine in the wake of apartheid – they realised they needed help developing their wines. Although Warwick was one of the nation’s stalwart names, “We were the big fish in the small pond,” says Ratcliffe – and to grow internationally, they needed outside input. They hired Phil Freese – then Vice President of Winegrowing at Robert Mondavi and responsible for planting the first Opus One vineyards – as viticultural consultant (for a “staggering” fee, Ratcliffe tells me). The investment paid off and after two years, they had made amazing progress – and Freese suggested they use Zelma Long (previously of Robert Mondavi, then Simi) to consult on the winemaking side.  At the same time Freese was working on his PhD, which involved research on the world’s oldest soils – many of which he discovered were in southern Africa. The oldest documented soil in Africa is vilafontes, thought to have originated 800 million years ago – and he, along with Long (whom he later married), started wondering about this soil’s potential for wine. The couple – along with the help of an investor Sydney Back – bought 40 hectares of land in 1996, at the foot of the Simonsberg mountain in Paarl, planting their first vines the following year. Vilafonté was born.  Ratcliffe had been working abroad as a skipper, before heading off to Roseworthy to get his MBA in wine in 1999, but had met Long and Freese through their work at Warwick, and was keeping an eye on their new venture. Soon after he returned back home, Sydney Back – a man Ratcliffe describes as “the Robert Mondavi of South Africa” – passed away, meaning Long and Freese were looking for a new partner. Impulsively, Ratcliffe volunteered – scrambling to get the money together in time for the deal to be finalised in 2001.   The trio made wines in 2000 and 2001 but only to get a feel for the site, planning to make 2002 their first release. Unfortunately, the vintage was tricky and Long told them firmly: “It’s good – but it’s not good enough.” It’s a decision that the bank didn’t necessarily appreciate (“That was a tough year,” says Ratcliffe) – but allowed them to launch with 2003, “arguably the best vintage of the decade” according to Ratcliffe (and a wine that he tells me is still “impeccable”). No one seems to be clear on how “vilafontes” became Vilafonté – whether it was a marketing decision to add a Gallic twist to the name, or just a mistake somewhere along the way – but it stuck.  They had originally planned to make a single Grand Vin, but the site had other ideas – producing two distinct styles, and so they created Series C (a Cabernet-driven blend) and Series M (a Merlot-driven blend). It may not make perfect business sense, having two flagship wines, but repeat experiments have (so far, at least) confirmed it was the right choice. While some plots clearly belong to C or M, the blends are different each year – and younger-vine fruit or anything that doesn’t fit is declassified to Seriously Old Dirt. This latter wine was launched with the 2012 vintage, using purchased fruit from around the Western Cape as well as declassified plots to provide an earlier-drinking entry-point to the Vilafonté brand.   The secret to the wines is the soil – incredibly poor, ancient soils, degraded and nutrient-deficient – meaning the vines really struggle. Even 27 years on, the vines are scrawny little things – producing tiny yields of concentrated fruit. It’s one reason that the site had – to their knowledge – never been planted, and local farmers were puzzled why anyone decided to put down roots here. Combine that with a “deeply pragmatic” approach (in Ratcliffe’s own words), and a long-term team dedicated to doing “the same thing over and over and over”, and you have the recipe for something special. In Ratcliffe’s mind, it’s key that they aren’t trying to create something new each vintage – but continue their pursuit of perfection with Series C and M. They work sustainably but sensibly, with cover crops, high-tech underground drip irrigation and a cellar that operates purely on solar power, but avoid certification or trading on any green credentials: for the Vilafonté team, it is all about the quality in the bottle.  For years, Ratcliffe juggled managing both Warwick and Vilafonté, but eventually sold his old family business to a California-based venture capital fund, allowing him to focus exclusively on Vilafonté. The property has just released its 2021s, the 18th vintage to emerge from the Paarl estate – and its top-scoring wines to date. Yet Ratcliffe is clear that this is just the latest step in his masterplan. The vines are yet to turn 30, and there are a few small parcels on the estate that could still be planted, while the team is constantly running trials – empowered to challenge everything they think they know. Just last December (2023), Long and Freese retired – after a four-year handover period, but will remain loosely involved. Ratcliffe isn’t looking back, though: as he says, “Our greatest wines are ahead of us.”  Vilafonté’s 2021 releases are available now  Read more Editorial  

The Wine Advocate is yet to grant any South African wine a perfect score – but some are getting close. Most recently, Vilafonté earned 99 points for its 2021 Series C. As it’s released, we sit down with owner Mike Ratcliffe to find out about this Paarl project and its rapid trajectory to stardom

Wine Advocate recently awarded Vilafonte’s 2021 Series C 99 points – we sat down with owner Mike Ratcliffe to find out more about the Paarl wine estate

Kicking the dirt with Vilafonte’s Mike Ratcliffe

Kicking the dirt with Vilafonté’s Mike Ratcliffe

There are myriad fascinating twists and turns in Scotch whisky’s long and storied past. From dizzying boom times to disastrous downturns, the distilling landscape – and the major players within it – has been redrawn countless times. 
There's one era, however, that is legendary – whisky's "golden age". Between the 1950s and '80s, some of the industry's most nuanced single malts were crafted. These are now widely regarded as the greatest ever released, which is reflected in the eyewatering secondary market prices – should they ever appear on the auction block. 
These perfectly imperfect, characterful and wonderfully unique liquids, produced at distilleries that no longer exist, or exist in a very different way today, will never be bottled again – making them real unicorns for whisky collectors. 
To understand what makes them so special, it is important to first appreciate just how little liquid exists from this time. The single malt whisky market was unfathomably small before and during this period and entirely dwarfed by blends. A mere fraction of a distiller’s finest liquid would be bottled as a single malt. These minuscule quantities were also made via practices that are now lost in the annals of history, making them more desirable for collectors. 
For context, Scotch whisky was largely made as it always had been until the 1950s, drawing on traditional methods that had been passed down for centuries. Distillers would use their sight, smell and taste to determine when a liquid was ready to cask, and later, bottle. Whisky-making took mastery and patience – something producers could ill afford when demands on the industry intensified and there was a concerted push to produce more for less during the 1970s. While many producers made these changes around the same time, they didn’t all happen at once, creating a wonderfully varied time capsule of whiskies. 
The 1960s – when some of these great bottlings were produced – was sandwiched in between two vastly different decades. Production in the ‘50s was steady but small. By the 1970s, however, distillers – both large and small – were forced to increase their output by almost double, and names that had fallen silent were reawakened once more as global demand for Scotch whisky grew. 
Sadly, by the mid-1970s, the tide started to turn. The bountiful supply of whisky was not met by demand, resulting in a devastating whisky loch in the 1980s and some of the most difficult years the Scotch whisky industry has ever endured. Swathes of distilleries were forced to close, including the now-legendary Port Ellen and Brora – both of which shut their doors in 1983. This depression continued well into the 1990s with a further 20 casualties (of these, only three ever reopened), before the pendulum finally swung back in the early 2000s when the seemingly unquenchable thirst for single malt whiskies, that is still in full force today, began. 
From the 1950s onwards, holders of the increasingly frayed purse strings sought to reduce inefficiencies in the traditional, labour-intensive practice of whisky-making – which defined the golden age. With the introduction of modern, more mechanised, safer processes, it was a new dawn for Scotch whisky.  During this period in history, every single stage of whisky production was “streamlined”. The money men closed floor maltings, introduced distillers’ yeast, reduced fermentation times, installed semi-lauter tuns, made the switch to indirect-fired stills, replaced worm tubs with shell-and-tube condensers, and introduced ex-Bourbon barrels. By the end of the 1970s, you could almost count on one hand the number of distillers who retained traditional methods. 
It’s important to remember that tweaking one of these processes can alter the entire flavour profile of a whisky – just ask Glenfarclas who reverted back to direct-firing their stills after their new-make spirit lost its characteristically heavy and oily profile during their ill-fated flirtation with steam in 1981. And yet, in many instances, producers permanently changed many of these processes. Traditional practices and know-how that varied slightly at every distillery began to be outsourced as they turned to professional maltsters and installed modern, industrial-scale equipment that increased efficiencies and consistency but in some cases compromised the craft and character of the final spirit profile. 
“Every distillery has its own story and evolution of style,” whisky authority Serge Valentin explains, “their own ups and its downs.” 
Valentin was ahead of his time when he started collecting single malt Scotch, almost exclusively from Old Clynelish and Brora. He couldn’t possibly have predicted what his passion project of buying as many different bottlings as he could “simply because they were [his] favourites”  would become. 
Both Clynelish and Brora – as it would be known – produced heavily peated malt during the late 1960s and early ’70s. Bottlings from this time until 1983, when Brora became a victim of the whisky loch and fell silent, have become highly collectable in recent years. Old Clynelish bottlings, (Valentin’s favourites), which are robustly distinctive with aromas of scented wax and heather, are astonishingly rare and modern collectors clamber over one another to get their hands on these golden-age gems for many times the price Valentin would have paid. 
Stephen Rankin has been fortunate to sample whiskies from one of the most remarkable single malt libraries in the world at Gordon & MacPhail. His team is able to pull out liquids from what he calls “pre-evolutions within distilleries” thanks to his family’s foresight to buy barrels from cash-strapped producers who were selling their stocks for survival. The Elgin-based independent bottler had the luxury and fortitude to bide their time and store casks that would otherwise have been bottled young or blended. He has a particular affection for single malts from what was Milton Distillery, known since 1951 as Strathisla, which he describes as a “great example of a whisky that has the flavours of this past era.” 
Independent bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail played a vital role in bringing many of these now-legendary whiskies into the world. One man in particular, Silvano Samaroli, was responsible for bottling single malts that are now widely regarded as some of the greatest ever released.  
Rome-based Samaroli released his first Scotch whisky series in 1968 in the form of the now-iconic, dumpy Cadenhead bottlings – making him the first independent Scotch whisky bottler outside the United Kingdom. Today, Samaroli’s Bowmore, Glen Garioch, and  Springbank releases are held in especially high regard and his  Laphroaig single malts from 1967 and 1970 are in a league of their own. 
“The late 1960s to the ’80s is definitely one of the most remarkable periods,” Samaroli’s Daniele Liberati says, “largely due to the appearance of certain expressions for the first time.”  
“We started to propose different bottlings, moving away from the classic blends and official distillery releases,” Liberati adds. These included single-cask expressions, numbered bottlings and cask-strength releases, all of which are commonplace today but were revolutionary at the time.
 
In recent years, a handful of new distillers have turned to old whisky-making practices in an attempt to recapture some of its magic. Fledgling Speyside distiller Dunphail, for instance, has faithfully – and at great cost – installed traditional floor maltings, direct-fired stills and wooden, open washbacks where fermentation times are considerably longer than the industry average, to produce a fruit-forward, oily, medium-bodied Speyside whisky. Today, however, these traditional methods are always adopted in conjunction with modern practices in order to achieve all the desirable characteristics of yore in a more efficient way.   While there is the temptation to look back on this era with a rose-tinted view, as there are undeniably some exceptional bottlings from this time, it is wrong to believe that all whisky produced in the golden age was of the same standard. Whisky-making 40 to 50 years ago was imperfect, there was very little consistency in quality and for one good cask, a distiller would likely have 10 or 20 bad ones that never saw the light of day.  It’s also important to appreciate that many of these modernisations were vital to guarantee the safety of distillery workers as several stages in production were unstable. These advancements have also resulted in unprecedented consistency. While nuance and singularity might have been sacrificed, it’s now incredibly hard to find a bad dram.   As times evolve – as they inevitably do – it’s highly unlikely whisky from Scotland’s golden age will ever not be considered precious.    Browse all Scotch whisky or read more Editorial

Some of the most exceptional single malts ever released were produced in an era affectionately known as “the golden age”. Bottlings from this time are painfully scarce and have gained near-mythic status among whisky enthusiasts. Holly Motion explores why whiskies from this age are so precious

Exploring the golden age of malt whisky and its most coveted bottlings that are widely considered some of the greatest single malts ever released.

The golden age of malt whisky

The golden age of whisky

Steven Spurrier might be approaching 80, but his wit, quill and tongue are as sharp as ever. While – as is now the norm – we spoke on the phone, there is no doubt in my mind that the voice at the end of the line was immaculately dressed – with due attention paid to every detail. Spurrier has a critical eye, both precise and unfailingly honest in his assessment of whatever crosses his path. “People do go on about the Judgement of Paris,” he laments. “It’s stuck to my back. I can’t do anything about it.” Instantly, I feel grateful for the phoneline, as I blush, knowing that I will join the cohorts of pesky interviewers who can’t not ask about the 1976 tasting that flung both Spurrier and Californian wine into the limelight. The blind tasting – pitching the best Bordeaux and Burgundy against California’s finest – paved the way for the New World, challenging the fine wine status quo, and creating a template for almost every other region to follow as they looked to prove their worth.  It is this, Spurrier feels, that was the real mark left on the wine trade – opening people’s eyes to the power of blind tasting. “I just happened to put it on,” he says modestly of the event. Certainly, there is an element of coincidence that has ensured the tasting’s place in the history books: if journalist George Taber hadn’t attended – writing up the event for Time magazine with its now iconic Judgement of Paris title – and Spurrier’s wife Arabella hadn’t thought to take a few pictures, the occasion might have been remembered only by the few. At the time Spurrier was running a wine shop and school (L’Académie du Vin) in Paris, being
one of few Englishmen bold enough to try and teach the French about wine. He’d started his career just a few years earlier at Christopher’s – then London’s oldest wine merchant. Returning to the UK in 1988, he made the switch to writing and consulting on wine. The rest, as they say, is history: today he is one of the most famous names in the world of wine. That might be achievement enough for most people, but Spurrier isn’t most people – and he’s certainly not resting on his laurels.  In 2009 he and his wife Arabella planted their first vines on their Dorset property. Steven had long thought the chalky soils and the natural amphitheatre could make for a good vineyard, but it took a while for him to take the plunge. More than anyone, he knows how true the old adage is that the wine trade is the best way to make a small fortune – if, of course, you start out with a large one. Nevertheless he’d been fascinated by England’s sparkling potential – ever since he was served a glass of Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs blind in the mid-1990s. Soon after the first vines took root at Bride Valley, he was at a black tie dinner at Château Lafite-Rothschild, talking to Baron Eric de Rothschild, he mentioned that he had planted a vineyard. Baron Eric put an arm round him and said, “Welcome to the club.” At the time he felt he was being congratulated; now he knows it was an element of commiseration. He’s 100% over budget on the project but is confident things will turn out ok. And, on the upside he hasn’t had cause to buy a bottle of Champagne for five years. The wines are made by Ian Edwards (of nearby Furleigh Estate), with Spurrier involved at both blending and dosage. At
first the project was focused on sparkling only, but now they’re making still wines too – something about which he is very excited, particularly in the wake of the superb, warm 2018 vintage. A lot has changed since he joined the wine trade in the 1970s. Although he’s not necessarily enthused about everything (“I think natural wine gets away with a lot”), Spurrier thinks we’re in “a golden age for the wine drinker”, with a kaleidoscopic offering for today’s consumers. I ask him what of everything he’s tasted has stood out recently: like most people, he’s been spending a lot of time on Zoom – and one bottle from a recent online tasting stood out, 2017 Volnay Premier Cru Santenots from Faiveley, a close rival for the best Volnay he’s ever had (from Comtes Lafon).  But while wine might have filled his days, art seems to permeate every aspect of his life. It
is, he says, an “addictive passion”, ever since he bought his first Stubbs etching at Sotheby’s 63 years ago. “I’ve got about 3,000 bottles of wine in the cellar, and I’ve got a list of what’s there. I think about them in vague terms, what one might drink tonight and so on,” he tells me, “but they don’t play a part in my life.” His home is full of fine art – paintings, sculpture and sketches. Unlike wine, he feels that “art speaks to you,” he says. I ask whether he ever thinks about the path not taken – working in art, rather than wine. The answer – despite the fact that things have, at times, gone “exceedingly badly” – is, in short, no. “Life in the wine trade was so captivating, so encompassing, with the ups and the downs,” he says with a touch of nostalgia. “Although I would have lost less money in the art business,” he knowingly chuckles. Most importantly, he notes, “I’ve never been bored in the wine trade.”  This feature was originally published before Steven Spurrier's passing in March 2021 Read more Editorial  

Ahead of the publication of his memoirs in 2020, the wine merchant turned writer Steven Spurrier spoke to Sophie Thorpe about a life dedicated to wine and why he couldn't stop buying art 

Wine merchant turned writer Steven Spurrier on a life dedicated to wine and why he couldn't stop buying art 

Steven Spurrier's life in wine

Steven Spurrier: a life in wine

Cerbaiona is widely recognised as one of the top estates in Montalcino, but has been a little elusive of late. Under Diego Molinari’s stewardship, the winery achieved cult status, but the property was sold in 2015, and hasn’t released any Brunello since. The new owner Matthew Fioretti has added to the radio silence, requesting critics not to score the wines, believing “a softer and more inquisitive form of journalism and criticism might be better than the score bazooka”.  Production is so small that Fioretti doesn’t need to rely on critics to promote the wines, but Cerbaiona has been noticeably absent from recent rave reports on the 2016 vintage from the likes of the Wine Advocate and Vinous. Our woman on the ground in Italy, Annalisa Florian, is one of the few people to have tasted the about-to-be-released 2016 Brunello, the first under Fioretti. Fioretti and his team have overhauled the estate. It’s a brave decision to make such a clear break from the past with a winery of such repute, and testament to their commitment to quality. Due to massive restructuring, Fioretti decided to declassify all the wine made in 2014 and 2015 to Rosso di Montalcino. As he points out, “Several aspects of this wine had formed before taking over the business.” Despite the obvious success of the 2015 vintage, Fioretti commendably didn’t want to rest on Cerbaiona’s reputation. All the vineyards are located on the Cerbaiona hill, just northeast of the town of Montalcino, and neighbouring another Brunello icon, Salvioni. The success of Sangiovese grown on this specific site long predates the Brunello appellation, with vineyards located here for hundreds of years and the wine historically produced known simply as Cerbaiona. The soil is a distinct limestone shale infused with sand and, according to Fioretti, “Almost by doing nothing, you can make an exceptional wine at Cerbaiona. Its vineyard location is that special and unique.” Fioretti, however, wasn’t happy with doing “nothing”. While praising Molinari’s legacy, he felt the estate desperately needed modernising – with serious work to be done in the vineyard and winery. He is very much inspired by what he calls a “tectonic shift” in winemaking in Italy (and elsewhere) over the last 30 years, with a move towards precision viticulture and a more hygienic approach to winemaking. Fioretti sees this as a shift from winemaking as an “art form” to winemaking as “craftmanship”.  In his mind, it was the pioneering efforts of producers like Romano dal Forno in Valpolicella and Luciano Sandrone in Barolo who have shown what can be achieved in Italy with such an approach. Just after taking over Cerbaiona, Romano dal Forno commented to Fioretti, “I’ll tell you what I told Molinari: you can’t make great wine in a barn.” Until recently, the sacristy of the small chapel was the fermentation cellar. The chapel itself was used for wine storage, while the granary and old animal stables acted as barrel cellars. “Hardly a precision and hygienic environment for winemaking,” Fioretti quips. As for the vineyards, “The rootstocks and clones of all the plantings at Cerbaiona were not selection massale nor specially selected material.  It was simply what the nurseries were selling at the time,” says Fioretti. “By 2010, the knowledge that had been gathered around Sangiovese was incomparable to what was understood in the 1970s and '80s.” Fioretti knew they needed replanting with better clones and rootstocks.  He retained and harvested the oldest vineyards for four harvests, working with top agronomists. “We made many attempts to overcome the shortcomings of these rootstocks and clones (which tended to produce enormous bunches, especially in wet years). But we all agreed: the sooner we replanted, the better off Cerbaiona would be.” As such, they’ve embarked on a six-year replanting program, making significant changes. The original three hectares (of which one hectare was dedicated to Bordeaux varieties) have been completely replanted to Sangiovese. An additional hectare of olive groves located on the steepest slope (and Fioretti believes the finest of the estate) has also been replaced with vines. Where possible, vines have been planted at a higher density and Fioretti has also converted the property to organic viticulture. Finally, with the release of the 2016, we find ourselves on the eve of the first Brunello release from Cerbaiona since the 2013 vintage. Fioretti believes 2016 to have been the “perfect” growing season. “The Sangiovese produced is captivating and sumptuous,” he tells me – the latter something he feels isn’t common for the variety. The moderate summer temperatures, the correctly timed rain and dry harvest conditions saw the Sangiovese thrive. The result, says Fioretti, is “a wine with fragrant aromas and a strong acidic shoulder – a guarantee of ageing”. It was in fact the latest harvest in the last five years at Cerbaiona. In Fioretti’s opinion, the 2016 is “not very far from” the 2010 – a vintage he feels is definitive for Montalcino – and comparable to other top modern Brunello vintages such as 2006 and 2007. There is tremendous excitement about the 2016 vintage, as well as the long-awaited return of this much-loved Montalcino estate. The 2016 Cerbaiona will no doubt be constantly compared to the wines made under Molinari, and it will be a fascinating comparison considering the effects of vine material, age of vines, viticultural techniques and winemaking practices versus overriding terroir.  What is clear is that Fioretti has no interest in resting on the laurels of this cult estate, nor simply following the footsteps of his predecessor. From what we’ve heard, it sounds like his labour-intensive approach both in the vineyards and winery is having the desired effect, and Cerbaiona’s legacy is safe. Whatever happens, Fioretti’s clear philosophy is set to mark a new and exciting era for the estate. Browse our range from Cerbaiona or read more about the 2016 vintage in Montalcino

There’s been a buzz about the cult Montalcino estate Cerbaiona since it changed hands in 2015. Ahead of the release of the 2016 Brunello – the first under Matthew Fioretti’s ownership – we caught up with the new owner to find out more about how and why he’s transforming the property

Cerbaiona is widely recognised as one of the top wine estates in Montalcino, and now Fioretti and his team have overhauled the estate. We find out more 

A new era of Cerbaiona

Cerbaiona: a new era

Laurel Glen

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