01/10/2023

Chapter 29

A chat with...Calum Lawrie (Fable Whisky) - #25

Independent single cask and blended malt whisky bottling company founded by Calum Lawrie (formerly at Diageo and Copper Dog) and Andrew Torrance (formerly at Morrison Bowmore and William Grant & Sons).

They have put together their past 25-years experience in the industry, with all the different companies they’ve worked for, in order to create something that would please every whisky fan, really great whisky.

The whole brand centres around storytelling, hence the name Fable. Their ranges and bottlings are characterised by unique animations and illustration designed by Hugo Cuellar (a London based Bolivian illustrator). You might have noticed their black and white labels in the bars, this is how I initially came across them in Milroy’s London.

At present (October 2023) the Fable’s collection goes up to Chapter 11. Each chapter focuses on a single distillery, for which, however, there are a series of single casks releases, with slightly different ageing too. Despite this makes it not easy to follow, and almost impossible to try the same bottle again, it is also fair to say that, so far, all the Chapters we ‘read’ (or drank…) were all very good.

Calum took the time to tell us a bit more about Fable and the ideas behind it.

Let’s see what he told us…

Hi Calum, 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 Calum Lawrie, Co-owner and founder of FABLE Whisky.

I started out the drinks industry in 1998 working in hospitality sector before going on to found a bar consultancy and brand advocacy business for 10 years working with Pernod Ricard, Diageo and Heineken.

When and how did you join this growing industry?

My previous experience lead me to work for Diageo working in various roles from category insight to sales & marketing in their Reserve brands set up. This allowed me to gain knowledge of the Diageo malts and the Johnnie Walker family.

From here I had the opportunity to head up the marketing of a joint venture brand, Copper Dog whisky, with Diageo. When the brand was built and taken in-house myself and Andrew Torrance (ex Morrison Bowmore, William Grants, The Whisky Shop MD & Copper Dog MD) decided to create our own Independent Bottling business we now know as FABLE.

Now tell us a bit more about Pendulum Spirits and the Fable range, what is it that makes it stand out in the whisky industry?

We are in a niche sub-category of whisky being an independent bottler. Obviously we don’t own any distilleries or have family heritage and providence, however we do have experience building brands and that’s what we tried and hopefully have achieved with FABLE.

We are a brand built on the art of storytelling through illustration, animation and narration and we like to highlight the creatives who are involved in every aspect of the story and the packaging design.

For our first story, ‘The Ghost Piper of Clanyard Bay’, we have created 11 different bottle designs linked to a certain distillery.

All our whiskies are bottled at cask strength, natural colour and non-chill filtered to give a true representation of the distillery unique characteristics. These whiskies are from a moment in time, filled and then left for a number of years to mature. The monochrome packaging design from artist Hugo Cuellar is very impactful and really stands out on shelf.

Can you tell us what your target audience is?

FABLE is based on creative arts which means it does naturally span a wide audience. We have found because of its whisky credentials whisky enthusiasts have found us quite quickly and is listed in well-known whisky specialists and bars.

However, on the other hand because of its style it does live in a wide spectrum of establishments from local pubs to very high end venues including Michelin starred restaurants. Having a story really assists venues with the opportunity to engage with their guests, and tell a story instead of simply being defined by the whisky.

Can you tell us how you select your casks, and anticipate anything about what we can expect to see next?

Without over simplifying too much, we draw down samples monthly to check how our whiskies are maturing, then there are two contributing factors to selecting casks.

One, what the market/partners are requesting and secondly when we feel our whiskies are ready to be released.We will only release whiskies if they are of a high quality or exceptional representation of the distillery style.

We are a very young business in the whisky industry, thus we have some way to go with our cask programme, however we have been re-racking a number of our whiskies in various cask finishes in anticipation of the new story being launched in 2024.

What advice would you give to a beginner that is approaching this world and perhaps starting his/her own collection?

In terms of joining the industry, it’s a fantastic place to be. It has taken me across the globe, meeting new people and sharing the joys of Scotland’s greatest export.

Collecting is a personal thing, it’s clear collectors have their preferences and where they like to hedge their bets on the secondary market, whether it is Macallan or Springbank.

For me it’s about finding a style you like or a distillery you love and being passionate about it. Buying whisky for the interest of flipping only feels rather soulless otherwise. For FABLE we’ve already adopted a number of customers who have become big fans of the brand, collecting the full Single Cask set as well as our Blended Malt batches.

This is also slightly benefited by our price point not being too prohibitive.

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?

This is a difficult one for me, I’m a Libra so we are infamously indecisive. I am a bit of a sucker for sweet sherry finishes of a Speyside malt but I’m equally happy to sit and dram a peaty whisky such as the Kilchoman Madeira cask finish.

We cover a huge range of flavour profiles across the FABLE Chapter range but if I was to pull out one I think an allrounder would be our Mannochmore releases, with its chocolate honeycomb character.

Chapter 29

A chat with...Calum Lawrie (Fable Whisky) - #25

Hi Calum, 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.

When and how did you join this growing industry?

Now tell us a bit more about Pendulum Spirits and the Fable range, what is it that makes it stand out in the whisky industry?

Can you tell us what your target audience is?

Can you tell us how you select your casks, and anticipate anything about what we can expect to see next?

What advice would you give to a beginner that is approaching this world and perhaps starting his/her own collection?

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?

Drams

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Today's drams