Our celebrations of Clan MacRae led us to two very special whisky connoisseurs and we just had to share their story as we all know how well a wee dram, and a good blether, amongst those passionate about all things Scottish go together.
First of all I met up with Duncan McRae, Co-Founder of Woven, on a mission to redefine blended whisky. Whether you are a whisky lover or not I found Duncan's story so interesting....and I learnt a lot! Join me as we ask a few questions:
I love the Woven Manifesto - can you talk us through this?
The Woven manifesto emerged as the brand came into existence. So much of whisky making is about staking your unique stamp - ‘we are from here. We do these things. We make this product’… But our ‘we’ as blenders was quite different. It was always about other people, and we took great pride in our ‘we’ meaning all the people that we worked with - as that’s where the name Woven really came from. This idea that what was coming together was so much bigger than the sum of its parts. That’s the thought that unified us as founders, and our story, and what we now do… so the manifesto on our website is that brought to life a little to try and highlight the interconnectedness of it all.
Where did this all begin, what got you started and how did a generative artist from the Netherlands get involved?
We’ve only been in business a couple of short years, but our journey goes back nearly 20 years to the experiences we had getting into whisky as bartenders in Edinburgh’s cocktail scene. The time in between saw us each journey into the drinks industry in various directions - but whisky was the thread that held our friendships together.
Right from the start we’d bonded over a shared love for whisky, but also a sense of slight frustration around some areas of experience or perception. It was when we found ourselves back together working for the same company for the first time we realised that some of the things we’d felt frustrated by still hadn’t been solved, and taht maybe we should do something about it. We got such a rush out of the realisation that even if individually we weren’t the complete picture - together we could make something great. So much so that we made it part of our DNA that we’d always seek to collaborate with others in every facet of our business. It’s blending brought to life! When we started working with Freytag Anderson, our Glasgow based (and very talented) design agency - we discussed trying to bring the idea of blending to life in other mediums than whisky. They introduced us to a Dutch visual artist and creative coder named Loic Schwaller, who we worked with to create a generative art platform that takes data inputs form our blends and then generates these lovely, moving graphics that were nothing like normal whisky artwork, but felt really perfect accompaniments to sit alongside our blends.
You mention Islay in your manifesto but your studio is in Leith - what is the story behind the 2 locations?
Our blending studio sits in the Biscuit Factory in Leith. Leith was once the heart of the entire Whisky industry in Scotland, its streets home to huge warehouses of whisky waiting to be blended and exported right around the world. Many iconic blending brands had vast complexes in the neighbourhood and if you weren’t employed directly by the whisky industry then it was probably indirectly. Today Leith's a thriving ‘cool’ neighbourhood with a vibrant spread of industries but over-indexing on the creative industries. At a whisky level, trying to put Leith back on the blending map is high on our agenda. There’s so much amazing, nearly forgotten industrial heritage - all the famous names and brands have ties to Leith. But as a contemporary whisky maker Leith also felt like the perfect place to do it. As blenders we buy whisky from the four corners of Scotland (and, for some of our creations beyond) and so we work with distilleries from Islay, Speyside, Campbeltown, The Highlands, Lowlands. Each brings to mind a particular style of whisky or terroir that the brands carefully cultivate. But as blenders, we take these whiskies to a central location and in our tiny studio in Leith turn all those individual, rural stories into something quite different. Sometimes we take inspiration from the whiskies that are ingredients but most of the time we’re telling a completely different story - what became when these whiskies were layered on top of each other to create something that whilst comprised of these elements has blossomed into something altogether new and different.
What is your market? How do you share your creations?
We are still working that out! Being a self funded start-up in lockdown - we started very small and focused on getting the word out through the whisky world online primarily. We were very lucky early on that there were some very key people within the whisky community who connected with our story and shared it. We were helped hugely by the Royal Mile Whiskies team in Edinburgh who gave us some prime space in their window on the Royal Mile, and from there we we’ve been picked up in publications from the broadsheet media to left field culture publications in Japan. It’s been quite exhilarating. Our biggest challenge has been keeping step with the interest as our batches are small and we’re pretty specific with the whiskies that we want to work with. But despite that most of the awareness has come through word of mouth. A few bars took us on and have really helped spread the word - there is definitely a growing group of people within and outwith the traditional whisky cohort who are happy to look past the word ‘blended’. We say that rather than focus on what blends are, we want to see what they can be - and that really sums up or ethos. We know there’s a cohort of people out there who are open minded to ideas that things can change - and that a different approach to an established category can yield different results. We look to the evolution in coffee or craft beer revolution as the sort of change we want to see in blended whisky industry. With the global boom in craft distilling - it feels like there’s never been a better time to be a blender… but all the blends are essentially doing the same things that they’ve been doing for the past 150 years. It’s an easy story to share and we do a monthly ‘open studio’ where we invite people to drop in for a dram and a chat. It’s blossoming into quite a lovely (and lively) community. For us that’s exactly what whisky should be about. We’d like to see where that grows.
You describe yourself as a proud McRae - how has being Scottish influenced your childhood and subsequent career?
I’d actually say that I’m an extra proud McRae, and an extra proud Scot. That’s not say I’m out there in tartan every day - but at an identity level I think that I was raised in a way that maybe cultivated that.
My parents were born and bread Australians - both with Scottish ancestry. They both played the pipes which is how they met in Australia. They got married and travelled to Scotland on their honeymoon, and ended up staying for 40 years. I joke that my Dad was taking his family back to the place of origin and that’s pretty much what happened. The consequence of that was that we were raised in the Highlands by an Australian-Scottish couple who were engaging in their passions musically, living this maverick existence running a bed and breakfast (which became something of a Mecca for Aussie and Kiwi pipers) whilst at the same time discovering where they were from and raising their own family deep in the Highlands. I think there’s something about the re-forging of our families Scottish identity through this experience that maybe makes it somehow different to those where the path has been consistent or linear. My parents were outsiders from Australia but our existence could have been more quintessentially ‘Highlander’. As a result, we maybe value it in a different (not better) way.
Did your family celebrate your history and heritage or is this something you have come to appreciate as an adult?
We were immersed in traditional music - my three sisters and I all playing traditional instruments to a decent level. We travelled around Scotland for events, competitions etc. And I have memories from an early age of stopping by an ancient McRae family burial ground every time we passed on the way to Skye (near Eilean Donan Castle). My father had traced his family all the back to the early 1800s and constructed a vast family tree. We were connected to the rural community in which we lived. As a result, and even though we later moved to the bright lights of Inverness… Those landscapes, the stories, the highland culture have always been a massive part of my identity. It’s an epicentre, a place of grounding. A source of inspiration and identity for sure. I like to reflect that my predecessors sought strength through the same clan motto ‘ with fortitude’.
You have worked internationally for some big Scottish brands, what do you think makes Scotland and the products we make so special?
The reputation for traditional crafts in certain industries from Scotland has been cultivated for so long, so successfully that it sets a foundation on which to build iconic stories and brands. There are some objective facts at an elemental level about certain industries and resources that set Scotland apart… And this deeply entrenched set of associations that, for good or for bad, make practices in industries that themselves become traditions
There’s a romantic ideal associated with Scotland - things done a particular way that I think taps a somewhat universal human need for the antithesis of everyday life. Most people live in an industrialised, corporate world where values have eroded to the sway of a global, industrialised, capitalist ideal - The much romanticised image of Scotland consumed around the world in all manner of products is a counterpoint to that, which I think is part of the success story.
Did working for a big brand make you want to create the antithesis of this with Woven?
Most of my career was spent with Hendrick’s Gin and in the time I worked on it, it metamorphosised from a small brand to a giant brand. I learnt a lot there about storytelling and brand building. It’s owned by a remarkable family who have their own strong roots and I think that showed me something about my ‘why’ in relation to work. For me, I don’t feel a motivation to create the antithesis of my ‘big brand’ experiences. Whilst there are for sure lots of ‘opposites’ in what we do, for myself and my co-founders I think it actually went much deeper than a brand or company level. We spent time going pretty deep into the sort of company we wanted to see in the world, and what behaviours aligned with that and what legacy we wanted to leave personally or professionally.
I had a pretty great career mapped out at William Grant & Sons, but the stories or perspectives I was putting into the world were not my own. I had great latitude and trust to do all manner of brilliant things - but it was all on the behalf of, and benefit of someone else. I was happy there for a long time, but gradually (and perhaps because it was such a special place) something emerged in me that I realised wasn’t going to be silenced. I was grappling to re-define own definition of success. In establishing Woven I’ve been able to arrange my life in a way that truly lines up with my values. It’s been a huge challenge, but (if we ignore financials for moment!) its the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.
My husband grows some lovely malting barley at our HQ here in Berwickshire - are you able to trace the source of the grain used for your blends?
It’s actually surprisingly rare in Scotch to be able to get this level of traceability. However, there are a few distillers who are championing the idea of terroir and are able to trace back to individual farms (or fields!) Rarely do we get access to casks like this though as they’re normally earmarked for special projects or releases built around the concept. However, outside of Scotland it’s more common (less industrialised). With grain to glass traceability being something that I think drinkers like the idea of the timescales involved in maturation of whisky make this sort of thing quite tricky to manage, but as people express more and more interest I am 100% sure we’ll see more distillers taking an interest and working with maltsters and the rest of the supply chain to increase traceability of this information.
And we have to ask - which is your favourite MacRae tartan variation and are you a tartan wearer, kilt or trews?
I’d always opt for a kilt. And my favourite MacRae tartan would be the Hunting variation.
Next up we explored the world of Caspar MacRae, Global Marketing & Business Development Director at The Glenmorangie Company where they have been crafting single malt since 1843, when farmer William Matheson and his wife Anne followed their dreams and founded the Glenmorangie Distillery. As their new tagline says "It's kind of delicious and wonderful".
You started out your career in the Army so what led you into the whisky industry or have you always loved a wee dram?
Whisky is a golden thread trickling through our family. My great-grandfather was a Distillery Manager at Blair Athol before working for Arthur Bell. My father is a retired Doctor, but an enthusiastic collector of single malts and he passed his passion on to me. So years ago when I saw an advert for a Single Malt Brand Ambassador, it was literally a dream job!
“Leading the Global Brand Teams and International Business Development for the Glenmorangie Company” is a fantastic title but what does this mean on a day to day basis?
I love the creativity of marketing, but I am privileged in this job to partner with Dr Bill Lumsden, our award-winning whisky creator. He was someone I admired from my earliest days in the industry, so I feel our job is to ensure we do justice to the quality of Glenmorangie and Ardbeg whiskies with our marketing and sales plans. I lead a team of about 30 people and we are responsible for everything from the packaging to advertising for the whiskies. We are also responsible for championing the whiskies in markets around the world. It’s always busy, sometimes stressful but never boring.
How does Glenmorangie distinguish itself from other brands/what makes it special?
I believe that Glenmorangie is the pinnacle of Highland Single Malt whisky. Every aspect of every variant is overseen by Dr Bill, who is always pushing boundaries and imagining new whiskies – but always with one goal; to make every single bottle absolutely delicious. Of course, he’s working with expert craftsmen, with 180 years of accumulated expertise, exceptional mineral water from our Tarlogie springs, the tallest stills in Scotland and the best American oak casks. So he has a head start!
Whisky is obviously key to Scotland and her economy, but also as part of our brand - we feel like tartan is similar, and are passionate about the quality and made in Scotland element. Would you agree and where do you see this going in the future?
Absolutely. If we have one true competitive advantage in Scotland it’s our incredibly rich culture – and both tartan and whisky are reflections of what it means to be Scottish. I think Scottish values are based in family, hospitality, community, courage, craftsmanship and artistic creativity – and those are values that are recognised around the world and with which people proudly associate when they wear authentic Scottish tartan or choose Highland single malts like Glenmorangie.
My husband grows some lovely malting barley at our HQ here in Berwickshire and in the past for Glenmorangie - how important is the traceability and source of the grain used for your products?
Whisky only has three ingredients – we jealously guard our unique water source at Tarlogie springs. Dr Bill Lumsden has a PHD in micro-biology to ensure we have the absolute best yeast. The third ingredient is barley, which is the basis of whisky and incredibly important. Because we want an authentically Scottish whisky, we are unusual in insisting our barley comes from Scottish farms. That also helps us as we strive for improvements in both quality and sustainability.
Glenmorangie is a global brand, where are the key markets? Anywhere unusual?
I am proud that Single Malt gets to represent Scotland around the world! We sell Glenmorangie and Ardbeg everywhere from Seattle to Shanghai. America and Europe have traditionally been the biggest markets, but more than a third of all single malt is now sold in Asia and it is growing fast. Perhaps my favourite market is Japan, for the respect and reverence they give the product quality – but also because the enthusiasm, the quality and attention to detail of their service. It always makes it feel a bit more special.
Do you have a favourite whisky yourself and what do you love about it?
I am very lucky that I have access to lots of different single malts – although I still typically have to pay for them! Part of the joy of single malt is that it’s the most diverse distilled spirit in the world, and there are so many tastes to explore. However my ‘go to’ indulgence is Glenmorangie 18 year old. It’s the prefect balance of oak and spirit and it’s utterly delicious.
Would you describe yourself as a proud MacRae - how has being Scottish influenced your childhood and subsequent career?
My earliest childhood memories are holidays in Kintail and Wester Ross. I would wear my kilt even though we were camping – and I thought because we were MacRae’s that we must own Eilean Donan Castle! However as I get older being a MacRae takes on a different meaning – it’s an important connection to your roots, your heritage and your family. It gives you a sense of being part of a community bigger than yourself, and I think that’s incredibly important.
And we have to ask - which is your favourite MacRae tartan variation and are you a tartan wearer, kilt or trews?
It always used to be MacRae Hunting Ancient and a kilt. However as I get older my knees get more knobbly and my dress sense less sensible – so I love the bold red MacRae Ancient or even Modern in trews…
We would like to thank Duncan and Caspar for sharing their passion for the amber liquid that Scotland is so famous for. If you have more to add, want to share your views on blended or single malt, MacRae history or anything else then we would love to hear from you. Sláinte, we hope you enjoyed their stories.
