16/06/2023
Chapter 21
A chat with... Matt McKay (Bimber distillery) - #17
Based in London, Bimber Distillery earned a great reputation since its very early days. This is due to the fact that they are combining traditional distilling methods with passion and innovation, producing great handcrafted single malt whisky as a result. In addition, 100% of their barley is grown at their single farm.
The distillery was founded in 2015 by Dariusz Plazewski, of Polish nationality, and the first casks laid down in May 2016 with the inaugural single malt whisky (called The First) released three years later in September 2019.
Distilling has always been present along Dariusz’s path as his family back in Poland used to distill Moonshine, which, in a nutshell, we can define as a clandestine high-proof and unaged whisky or liquor in general. This explains the name “Bimber”, being this the polish word for “Moonshine”.
For those who don’t know yet, after having passed the London and English Whisky tests with Bimber, Dariusz is soon opening Dunphail, a new Scotland’s distillery (Speyside region).
While waiting for this imminent event that is keeping Dariusz very busy, we had a chat with Matt McKay, who you might have already seen around in whisky events and festivals and on the distillery’s socials. He is the Bimber’s spokesperson, and he took the time to chat with us about this London jewel.
Let’s see what he told us…
Hi Matt, thank you for taking the time to chat with us. Please introduce yourself, and tell us a little bit about your whisky journey so far.
I’m Bimber’s Director of Marketing and Communications – a job title which doesn’t convey how many different hats I wear for the London distillery.
My role covers all the expected aspects of promotional and whisky communication, but also includes cask assessment and product creation and everything in-between. It’s a small team and therefore everyone needs to be agile and quite multi-disciplined to pull everything together.
My journey into whisky is fairly well documented online – but in brief, it involved a whisky and ginger at 40,000 feet which led to 20+ years of exploration which is still very much ongoing. I’m a big believer in life long education of all types!
When and how did you join this growing industry?
My journey into the whisky industry is quite different to most. My career background was in engineering and biomedical PR – however, I’ve been involved in the wider whisky community for many years. I write the website thedramble.com which is how I came to discover Bimber just before the distillery launched its first single malt.
A short freelance gig turned into an ongoing contract and then, at the start of 2022 into a full time role, which also includes the responsibility of being Director of Whisky Creation for Dunphail in Speyside – our new Scottish distillery due to open and commence production shortly!
Now tell us a bit more about Bimber, what is it that makes them stand out in the whisky industry?
Bimber epitomises craft distilling. Every process is conducted entirely by hand, using traditional, time-honoured techniques – some of which cannot be seen at most other distilleries. No computerisation, no corners cut and all of the time that is necessary is taken to ensure that flavour is central to everything that we do. This includes processes such as week-long fermentation and directly fired stills – alongside in-house construction and customisation of the plant we use.
Whilst this method of making whisky is both more time and labour intensive, it results in spirit that has both character and integrity. We have been continually delighted by how well this mindset and approach has been received by the whisky community over the last seven years.
Photo courtesy of Marcel Van Gils
Can you tell us what your target audience is?
As a small (50K LPA) distillery we do not produce anywhere near enough spirit to sate the demand of the market.
Therefore in terms of a target, we tend to naturally appeal to what you might term as ‘whisky geeks’ – those who potentially already understand why we employ the production processes that we do and who are seeking authentic, higher strength, non-chill filtered, naturally coloured single malt whiskies. That said, we produce our single malt whisky for anyone who is inquisitive enough to try them.
Everyone is very welcome!
Can you tell us how you select your casks, and anticipate anything about what we can expect to see next?
Casks are selected based on their ‘history’ and provenance – not just on source/previous distillery name. We take our wood selection very seriously, only purchasing casks where we have a full and detailed historical record of their previous usage.
This ensures that any casks we fill with our spirit (or already mature whisky) are sympathetic to our distillate style and the character that we’re looking to create.
There are always new things coming up – we don’t ever rest on our laurels! At the end of May 2023 our spirit will turn 7 years of age – so you can expect some (relatively) older Bimber starting to be bottled soon.
Likewise you can look our for more releases from our Spirit of the Underground Collection, and a very interesting collaboration with one of the best known whisky blenders in the world – but I’ll say no more on that one for the time being!
What advice would you give to a beginner that is approaching this world and perhaps starting his/her own collection?
I would recommend that when starting to explore whisky thinking of things in terms of collections is potentially a mistake.
Try as many different whiskies as you can – learn what styles of whisky suit your palate – and when bottles are less to your taste, try to identify what it is about the profile of those bottles which had less appeal.
Thinking about whisky as a collection will either result in over accumulation of bottles (trust me!) or in continually chasing the ‘next thing’ at the expense of never truly enjoying the previous one. In other words, just let it happen naturally – you don’t have to keep up with anyone.
The goal always should be focused on enjoyment, not on possession.
Lastly, what is, generally speaking, your favourite whisky style (cask type, ageing, peated/unpeated etc.)? What’s your dram of choice at the moment and/or your go to drams on a Friday evening?
Refill ex-bourbon, peated and either relatively young and fiery or far older and more relaxed. Overall, I’m a distillate-forward whisky drinker so whatever I have in my glass, I want to taste the spirit over and above the influence of its maturation.
What I’m drinking varies – weekly, monthly and seasonally – but I still continually keep up my own personally exploration. I’m never too far away from some combination of Ledaig, Ardmore, Highland Park, Bowmore, Glen Elgin or Mortlach.
Official website: https://www.bimberdistillery.co.uk/
Drams
and more...
Today's drams
- Bimber Ex-Bourbon Oak (Batch 3, 5000 bottles) – 51.6%
- Bimber Ex-Bourbon Oak (Batch 4, 7000 bottles) – 51.2%
- Bimber 2016 – Re-charred Oak Casks (5000 bottles) – 51.9%
- Bimber Oloroso Cask Batch 04/2021 (975 bottles) – 51.2%
Spirit of the Underground Collection
If you have visited London at least once you have experienced the The London Underground network, nicknamed “the Tube”.
Iconic and efficient way to get around London, which has inspired the, also Londoner, Bimber distillery for the collaboration with Transport for London for the Spirit of the Underground Series, which indeed aims to celebrate one of the great engineering projects of the past 200 years, through specially themed bottling releases (there have been 4 so far, for a total of 16 bottles).