15/07/2023
Chapter 24
A chat with...Blair Sterrick - Pt.1(Morrison / Càrn Mòr) - #20
This will be a series of three episodes, where we will focus on the three ranges of independently bottled whisky offered by the Morrison family, namely Càrn Mòr, Mac-Talla and Old Perth.
The ranges are indeed very different and this time we will focus on Càrn Mòr, a range that features a variety of unique and rare whiskies bottled from different casks and distilleries. All is bottled non-chillfiltered and at natural colour of course.
Blair Sterrick, UK Sales Manager for Morrison, will accompany us and guide us through the ranges highlighting the virtues and the characteristics of each of them, so that from now on you will know how to pick your next Morrison’s dram and bottle.
Let’s see what he told us…
Hi Blair, 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.
Hi everyone, I am Blair, and I am the UK Sales Manager for Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers.
Prior to sales I managed bars in my home town of Ayr on the West coast of Scotland and have been in sales for 15 years covering a variety of different roles for Diageo and Halewood and also had a short stint in wholesale with Dunns Food and Drinks.
When and how did you join this growing industry?
Officially working solely on whisky back in September 2020 when I joined Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers but I have always had some sort of involvement in Whisky throughout my 15 year sales career from joining Diageo back in 2008 in my first ever sales role and working with Johnnie Walker and their blended portfolio to moving into different roles and enjoying their excellent malt range to working on the launch of Crabbies and signing distribution agreements with Penderyn and Tullibardine during my time at Halewood.
Now tell us a bit more about Càrn Mòr, what is it that makes it stand out in the whisky industry?
Càrn Mòr is our range of rare and utterly unique independent bottlings. As each release is strictly limited in batches. Once it is gone, it is gone!
Where many distilleries strive for consistency, we aspire to create variety through careful cask selection, wood maturation and extensive cask inventory. This showcases our diversity and individuality through each and every expression is always non-chill filtered with no colour added.
There are three ranges within our Càrn Mòr range starting with Strictly Limited which is bottled at 47.5% and is usually aged between 6 and 14 years and bottled from between 2 and 5 casks with a price range of between £48 and £95 a bottle, Celebration of the Cask takes it up a notch with much smaller numbers being single casks bottled at cask strength and anything above 15 years old.
Can you tell us what Càrn Mòr's target audience is?
I generally don’t think we have a specific target audience; we want to bring great whisky to the market that people can enjoy, and the bottles are opened and not left to collect dust in a collection or bought to flip on auction sites.
We want to introduce people to different styles and maturations from distilleries that they enjoy but also introduce them to different distilleries that they wouldn’t normally get the chance to taste, like the Balmenach for example in our last Carn Mor release.
Can you tell us how you select your casks, and anticipate anything about what we can expect to see next?
The selection process is done by our Head of Production Graeme along with Sales Director Niel, they select the casks on a rolling basis and select each bottling that is included by market for the four releases that we have each year looking at previous releases, styles, maturations and trying to make sure that we have something for everyone in each release.
Going forward look out for some more UK exclusives both in market and also customer specific as well and some really cool collaborations which we are extremely excited about.
What advice would you give to a beginner that is approaching this world and perhaps starting his/her own collection?
My real advice would be to be your own person and make your own mind out to what you like and what you don’t like.
I really recommend attending whisky tastings to identify what you like and more importantly what you don’t like. This helps you build confidence, identify tastes and smells and gives you a good base to build on. Attending these events is a good way to meet likeminded people and you will try circa 5 to 7 whiskies on these tastings so takes away the fear of buying bottles you are not 100% sure you are going to like.
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?
That is a very good question and all really depends on time of year, your mood etc but for me you just can’t go wrong with first fill bourbon maturation and for me generally a Speyside in First Fill is a double box ticker.
I like most whiskies but as mentioned can be determined by various factors, but I am comfortable both with peat and without peat however with peat I prefer this to have some sherry maturation such as Oloroso or PX although I sometimes feel that some PX maturations can take over the whisky a little too much and due to this we take care to balance the PX maturations with the distillery character so you still enjoy the tasting notes that you are looking for from each bottling.
Given the warmer weather at the moment I am particularly enjoying some Highballs, lots of ice, topped with soda and a wheel of orange as garnish, just perfect.
Official website: https://www.carnmorwhisky.co.uk/
Drams
and more...
Today's drams
- Linkwood 10yo 2011 Calvados Finish – 47.5%
- Glenburgie 8yo 2013 First-Fill Bourbon Barrel – 45.5%
- Miltonduff 6yo 2015 PX Sherry Hogshead – 47.5%
- Aberlour 9yo 2013 Oloroso – 46%
Morrison Distillers
Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers is today a family business under the ownership of father-and-son team Brian and Jamie Morrison since 2020, and formerly known as Morrison and Mackay.
The Morrison family has been involved in the whisky industry for many generations. They owned Islay’s Bowmore distillery since 1963, before being sold to Suntory (Japanese drinks producer) .
Since 2017 they also run the new Aberargie Single Malt Scotch Whisky distillery (Lowlands), based in the family’s 300 acre farm in Aberargie, just outside Perth. Their first release will soon happen and will mark the return to distilling for the family, after 25 years, since the Bowmore experience.