Murray McDavid Cask Craft (Marsala Finish)
Number 04 of 50
Murray McDavid
Cask Craft (Marsala Finish)
Age: Not stated
ABV: 44.5%
Chill filtered: yes
Natural colour: Yes
Price: £34
What they say
A fine dance between oak and spirit leaves a long moreish finish with elegant, sweet smoke.
What we think
A great way for those unfamiliar with Murray McDavid to start exploring what the indy bottler’s all about. The Cask Craft releases cost two-thirds of our £50 budget, so there’s a real option to try a few!
THE Background
Murray McDavid doesn’t have a distillery, but it does have a colourful backstory. The first independent bottler in our Fifty Under £50 series was founded in 1994 and quickly gained a reputation for maturing whisky in interesting casks, particularly fine wine casks. In 2000, the brand bought Bruichladdich, a closed distillery on Islay, and hired well-known Master Distiller Jim McEwan to head up the whisky making. In 2012, spirits giant Rémy Cointreau bought the distillery. Murray McDavid was part of the deal but was sold the following year to Aceo Limited, who now owns it.
The brand’s attitude to whisky creation is perhaps best summed up through the phrase Clachan A Choin, which has appeared on its bottles since the early days.
“It’s Gaelic – let’s just say it loosely translates as ‘the dog’s bollocks’. It’s the stamp of approval that the original founders gave to the brand when they set it up back in the mid-90s,” says Dean Jode, Murray McDavid’s Head of Whisky Creations. “It’s a reflection of the bold attitudes they had towards the unusual nature of whisky creation that they were applying.”
THE WHISKY
According to Dean, Murray McDavid carved out a niche as the renegades of independent bottlers, and became the first to use secondary cask maturation to bring new and interesting flavours to Scotch.
“It is an attitude and an energy that we continue to nurture; to not be afraid of being a little bit out there and experimental with some of our maturation techniques,” he says. “Maintaining that difference from other independent bottlers is what we keep striving for.”
Today, the brand releases whisky in six categories, the most expensive of which is Mission Gold; “a collection of our extraordinary, older examples of Scotch whisky” costing upwards of £150. But under Dean’s watchful eye, the brand has recently developed a new range; Cask Craft.
“I wanted to create a range that took away a bit of the fuss for customers who might be taking their first steps into independent whiskies,” says Dean. “As single malts are getting ever more expensive, I also felt it was important for us to offer affordable, quality whiskies. We launched with six expressions in our Cask Craft range: Sherry, Bourbon, Marsala, Port, Madeira and Peated cask finishes. They’re natural colour, filtered to freshen up the malt, and we’ve removed the age so the focus is on flavour. By using first- and second-fill casks, we can achieve a price of £34.”
The labels carry concise information that includes the distillery the whisky came from, the cask finish and a few flavour expectations. In the case of the Marsala finish, the label tells us the whisky is Croftengea (peated spirit from Loch Lomond distillery), that it has been finished in a Marsala barrique, that it has been bottled at 44.5% ABV and that it tastes ‘smoky and fruity’.
the ethos
Having been in charge of the brand’s releases for the past eight years, Dean is possibly the youngest person in the industry to have such high levels of output and responsibility, which he admits to finding “slightly daunting but also incredibly exciting”. When it comes to flavour, he has complete autonomy in choosing what goes in the bottle, so how would he describe his approach to whisky making?
“I want to showcase the diversity of character and style that Scotland’s different distilleries have to offer by always creating something new and unexpected,” he says. “I’m never looking to overpower the original character of the distillate, instead I want to play with that original character by assessing it and then maturing it in a cask that will either complement the spirit character or contrast with it.”
Having a good understanding of all the different distillery characteristics is therefore vital for him to be able to do his job properly.
“I make a considered judgement about where I want to go with a particular spirit rather than flinging it into a cask and hoping for the best. There are always distillery characteristics that I look to preserve. Take Linkwood as an example; it has a lighter Speyside character, really quite fragrant, very peachy in some places. To really complement and enhance that light style we matured it in Madeira wine casks for our first batch of Cask Craft. I wanted to showcase the distillery character without overpowering it, so the lightness, freshness and sweetness of the Madeira sat very nicely with that lighter Linkwood character.”
THE FUTURE
At the brand’s warehouse at Coleburn distillery Dean has some 40,000 casks to play with. He is working with single malts from 95 Scottish distilleries and roughly 120 cask origins from around the world, so the future for Murray McDavid is looking pretty eclectic. The second batch of Cask Craft has very recently been released, so what does the future hold for the indy bottler?
“I’ve always seen my role as being about maintaining the brand’s curiosity and discovery of flavour. I think an interesting new chapter in the world of Scotch will be single grain whiskies that are matured in new and innovative ways. We’ve been putting young, single grain spirit into expensive casks for the last seven years. I tend to pitch it as whisky that is blurring the lines between single malt and bourbon; it’s much sweeter, and by using first-fill casks the delivery of flavour is much more impactful. It’s not as sophisticated as older single malts, but when it comes to delivering a big, sweet flavour, I love it.
“Aside from that, age is becoming less of the narrative, it is much more about maturation and how to introduce flavours into the spirit by using different cask types. We’ve always put a lot of time, money and effort into sourcing intriguing, great quality wood. The variety of flavour we’re achieving is quite extraordinary, and I think people are now really open to exploring things that look a little bit different.
“That exploration remains at the heart of what we do; we look at what other independent bottlers are creating, we appreciate that, and then we go about using our own different maturation techniques.”
Read the full story, and take a tour of Murray McDavid’s warehouse at Coleburn distillery, in Issue Three of The Angels’ Share journal. Out now.