A new beat for blended whiskies: Alasdair and Gordon Stevenson about their Turntable Spirits

A new beat is sweeping through the world of blended whiskies: With their Turntable Whiskies, brothers Alasdair “Ally” and Gordon Stevenson are doing away with the prejudice that only single malts are high-quality and blends are mass-produced goods. With their first three limited editions, the two whisky connoisseurs and music lovers present artfully blended whiskies from fine casks. Their years of experience in the industry serve them well: Alasdair worked for BenRiach and GlenAllachie. Most recently, he was International Spirits Market Development Manager for BrewDog. Sales professional Gordon developed products for various international markets for distilleries such as Inver House and Douglas Laing & Co.

Please briefly introduce yourself to our readers and tell us what your role is at Turntable Blending House Whisky.

Alasdair Stevenson: My name is Ally Stevenson and together with my brother, Gordon, we started Turntable Spirits. As a startup we work very closely across all aspects of the business. Some of the priority areas for me include blending and the sales and marketing strategy. Gordon is more focused on the operations side, particularly stock management, and production planning. Everything is collaborative and we’re both very involved in all aspects.

How did the idea of founding a Whisky brand come about? What inspired you to take your own path and separate yourselves from the big brands you have worked for?

Alasdair Stevenson: Gordon and I have both worked in the industry for over 10 years, but we’ve never had the opportunity to work together and that’s something we really wanted to do. We have been fortunate enough to travel the whisky world extensively over the years and have always been frustrated by the perception of blended whisky. There is a belief that blends are where volume lies and single malts are where quality lies. Why does that need to be the case? Blending opens endless opportunities for innovation and flavour development. With Turntable, the idea is to create outstanding small batch blended whiskies with a focus on quality, innovation and transparency to change the perception.

The connection between whisky and music is a unique concept. How did the idea of combining these two passions come about, and how does it reflect in your products?

Alasdair Stevenson: Both whisky and music have this rare ability to take the drinker or listener to a different place and a different time. It’s an interesting connection and we invite people to share where Turntable whiskies take them. I’ve always been fascinated by 1960s culture – amazing music, whisky, and the whole counterculture movement. With Turntable the idea is to challenge the status quo – to flip the record on ordinary and change the perception of blended whisky.

During the launch of your brand, you introduced three limited editions. Could you tell us about these editions and what makes them special?

Alasdair Stevenson: Yes, we launched with 3 limited editions. For each whisky we bottled around 1500 bottles. Everything natural colour, non-chill filtered and 46% ABV. As I mentioned earlier our focus is always on quality, innovation, and transparency. Our wood management is key, and we’ve been running an extensive rerack program for over 3 years now. These blends have all been married in cask for 3 months.

Track 1 – Joy.Discovery.Invention – a light, tropical style of whisky. This whisky was named after the first song on Biffy Clyro’s first album. They are the first band I went to see, back in 2003 (I still have the ticket). It felt fitting for our first release to be named after this song and the words capture exactly what we’re about as a company.

Blend Breakdown:

• 17% Knockdhu Chinkapin Barrel
• 40% Linkwood Virgin Oak Barrel
• 24% Girvan Ex Red Wine Barrel
• 19% Strathclyde Ex Cognac Barrel

Track 2 – Firestarter – a bonfire on the beach. This whisky was named after the Prodigy song. A classic “fight the authority and do things differently” track.

Blend Breakdown:

• 40% Caol Ila Virgin Oak Barrel
• 23% Cameronbridge Virgin Oak Barrel
• 22% Benrinnes Chinkapin Barrel
• 15% Invergordon Virgin Oak Barrel

Track 3 – Purple Haze – a full bodied sherry bomb. This whisky was named after the Jimi Hendrix song. There’s not too much story about this one other than we think it pairs perfectly with the whisky.

Blend Breakdown:

• 42% Craigellachie Oloroso Sherry Butt
• 44% Balmenach PX Sherry Puncheon
• 14% Invergordon Ex Sherry Barrel

Alongside the limited editions, you also plan to introduce a core whisky that will be consistently available. What can we expect from this whisky, and how does it differ from the limited editions?

Alasdair Stevenson: We’re planning to bottle our core range for the first time in the coming weeks (July). We’ll have three whiskies, and the styles will follow that of the limited editions – a light tropical style, a smoky style and a heavily sherried style. In future our limited releases will move in many directions.

The challenge of a core range is slightly different in that we need to consider future bottlings. For most blenders the priority of a core bottling is consistency, which is an amazing accomplishment. However, we’ll do things a little differently. We’ll always look at quality first and consistency second. We don’t want to miss the opportunity to use amazing casks in our core range out of fear of not being able to recreate the exact same flavour profile.

The goal for us will be to create the best whisky we can each time we go to bottle. This means we expect there to be some nuances and variation each time we bottle – and we love this fact. It keeps things interesting.

Will there be additional limited releases in the fall? Could you give us a sneak peek into these new creations?

Alasdair Stevenson: We have one more release lined up for 2023 and that should be available around September time. Another very exciting one for us. We have a vision of working closely with like-minded distillers and blenders to collaborate on a bottling that can push flavour and creative boundaries to new levels. Our plan is to release one collaboration blend each year. We can’t wait to share more details on the 2023 release – the partnership for this project has been a joy to work on and we think the whisky is incredible.

Quality is crucial for whisky enthusiasts. How do you ensure that your whiskies meet the highest quality standards, and what special production processes or ingredients set your whiskies apart?

Alasdair Stevenson: Wood management is hugely important for us. Gordon and I first discussed and started working on plans for Turntable over 3 years ago. At that point, we said to each other the earliest we could launch would be early 2023. We knew we needed to plan a sizeable rerack program and get our whiskies into some of the best wood available and then allow time for further flavour development.

We sample all casks regularly and analyse all component whiskies in our blends. After blending and a slight reduction in strength, we also allow the whiskies to marry in casks for 3 months before bottling. This is the final opportunity for us to bring the flavours together and unlock the deepest layers of complexity. All our whiskies are natural colour and non-chill filtered.

How would you describe the distinctive taste of Turntable Blending House Whisky, and which flavors and nuances are particularly noteworthy?

Alasdair Stevenson: A difficult question to answer. Diversity (along with quality) really sets whisky apart from other spirits and part of the beauty of being a Blending House is we can really explore that diversity. Working with different distillates across all regions with an exciting wood management policy opens endless opportunities. Every time we release a blend, we aim for the final whisky to be a more interesting and enjoyable flavour experience than each of the component whiskies. We strive to release complex, well integrated and exciting whiskies.

The distribution of your whiskies is done through Kirsch Import in Germany. What led you to collaborate with Kirsch Import, how does it work and how important is the German market for you?

Alasdair Stevenson: I first met with Christoph and the Kirsch team in 2018 when we started working together to launch and build GlenAllachie in Germany. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time in Germany with the team over the last 5 years and they are fantastic to work with. Our relationship with Kirsch is beyond business – we look on the team as great friends and are hugely excited to work together on Turntable. Germany will be a key market for us.

Are there any further plans for the future of Turntable Blending House Whisky? Could you provide us with insight into upcoming projects or developments?

Alasdair Stevenson: We have lots of plans and exciting ideas for future bottlings – no details to be shared just yet. We are keen to have our own warehouse, blending lab and bottling operation sometime in the not-too-distant future, but there’s a lot of work to be done first.

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+++ We thank Alasdair Stevenson for the open and very interesting interview! If you also have an interesting brand, then we should talk. Just send us an email with the subject “about-drinks interview” to redaktion@about-drinks.com – we look forward to hearing from you! +++