Perfumer and Royal Salute creative advisor Barnabé Fillion adds a new dimension to whisky appreciation.
“You must be wondering why a perfumer is talking about whisky,” starts Barnabé Fillion, creative advisor for Royal Salute Whisky, as an introduction to his Olfactory Studio. “Ninety-five per cent of everything you taste usually happens in your nose. What we are doing is what I call an ‘anatomy of a blend,’” he explains at Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai. The rustic desert getaway is one of the many venues—Seoul, St Moritz, Jodhpur and Sanya are some others—that Fillion has held such sessions at since teaming up with Royal Salute in 2016.
“Whisky is very interesting. It’s a pure liquid, which obviously has a certain smell when just distilled,” Fillion shares before pointing out that “the real essence” is in what one discovers “after the alchemy of being in a cask for a long time”. To him, it is very much like appreciating perfume—“if you close your nose and drink, you cannot enjoy it to its fullest”.
The importance of the olfactory factor to our ability to taste food has no doubt been a topic of great interest for quite some time—research has proven that such cues play a dominant role in the perception and enjoyment of taste and the flavour of food or drinks. As such, one could say that Fillion’s contribution, as a perfumer, adds a very visceral touch to the appreciation of whisky.