We chat with the living legend about how the industry has changed over the last 60 years and his greatest gift to the whisky world
When a 17-year-old David C Stewart joined The Balvenie in 1962 as a whisky stocks clerk managing ledgers and invoices, he never really imagined he would become the distillery’s longest serving malt master. All he knew back then was that “if I could master this nosing skill, I might be able to get a good job in the Scotch whisky industry”, which was booming in the 1960s thanks to a high demand from markets such as the US and Japan. It was also during this period when new distilleries such as GlenAllachie and Tormore were built, while shuttered distilleries including Port Ellen and BenRiach reopened.
Proving that he had a talent for nosing whiskies, Stewart embarked on a 12-year apprenticeship with former malt master Hamish Robertson, eventually taking over the role in 1974 at the age of 29. Fast forward to 2022 and the 77-year-old Stewart has held on to the position for nearly five decades. In his long years of service—which even earned him a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or MBE, from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2016—he has contributed many whisky-making innovations, such as cask finishing (the process of maturing whiskies in another cask for a shorter period), which have become industry practices today.
Six decades on—and having nosed over 40,000 casks of The Balvenie—Stewart is passing on the mantle to new malt master (and former apprentice) Kelsey McKechnie. We sit down with the living legend to reminisce about his stellar career and his greatest gift to the whisky world.
Read more: How The Balvenie’s David C. Stewart MBE celebrated 60 years in the whisky industry
How has the whisky industry evolved over the six decades with The Balvenie?
David Stewart (DS): Malt masters must forecast what we will be selling in a minimum of 12 years’ time, and if the demand doesn’t happen, then you will have far too much whisky in your warehouse.
That’s precisely what happened coming into the ‘80s. The 1970s was a boom decade for the whisky industry, so distilleries overshot their sales projections by producing more whiskies. So when the demand for Scotch dipped in the following decade, most distilleries had to shut down or cut back on production.
When we entered the ‘90s, the interest in whiskies started to pick up. again We didn’t have enough supply from the ‘80s so we had to go back to the ‘70s or overage our whiskies to meet the volume we needed.
More recently, the whisky industry has been flourishing again, and we have seen a lot of distilleries opening in Scotland. Going back 10 years ago, we had 130 distilleries and that has grown to about 150.
There has also been a rise in single malts over the years. What are your thoughts on that?
DS: When I started in the ‘70s, it was all about blended whiskies, and even until now, these make up about 70 to 80 per cent of the whisky sales. But our company (William Grant & Sons) took a chance on single malts in the past with the question: what do you bring out next?
I think the future for single malt is very bright, and you notice it in the small distilleries opening up in Scotland and focusing on single malts. We also have brand ambassadors travelling the world and educating people on what it tastes like and how it was created. The more they understand, the more they appreciate what they drink. The key objective for me, as malt master, is to make sure that all our expressions taste the same time after time.
Read more: The Balvenie’s Cask Finishes range expands with new additions
