01/08/2023
Chapter 26
A chat with...Blair Sterrick - Pt.3 (Morrison / Old Perth) - #22
Welcome to the last part of this three-episodes series.
This time we will focus on Old Perth, a blend of sherry matured single malts from the Speyside region, selected to honour the city of Perth, known as the birthplace of blending. The scottish city was historically the home of many whisky companies and the blending capital of the world where great blended malts were created.
Accompanying us, to discover this range, will be again Blair Sterrick, UK Sales Manager for Morrison.
Let’s see what he told us…
Hi Blair, welcome to the Part 3 of the interview. Before discussing today's range and products can you tell us what other hobbies or passions you have, apart from whisky, and outside of work?
I love sport both playing and watching, and I am currently trying to see if I can lower my golf handicap which is my aim for this season. I enjoy cooking and learning about new cuisines from countries that I visit along with an interest in drinks serves, activations and new products on the market.
Having also moved house recently I am being forced to develop a like for DIY which to be honest I actually enjoy but please don’t tell that to my wife.
Now tell us a bit more about Old Perth, what is it that makes it stand out in the whisky industry?
Old Perth is the brand that I love most taking to tastings especially as this is a blended malt that more than holds its own against a single malt and really enjoy seeing the reaction of people when they find out that this is a blended malt.
Old Perth is a blend of sherry matured single malts from the Speyside region from distilleries that carry a reputation for excellent sherried-malts. These distilleries are often family-owned and independent distilleries; however, we also have stock from the larger distilleries which are especially important for consistency.
Most blended malts include 6–8-year-old stock but for Old Perth we use single malts up to 12 years of age to give us the desired depth and richness. In fact, we include some of the Old Perth 12-year-old in the Original and Cask Strength products for consistency across the range.
Can you tell us what Old Perth's target audience is?
The idea of Old Perth is to produce a great value for money Sherried Speyside, option that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Whether that is the Original bottled at 46% priced at an RRP of around £34.95, the Cask Strength bottled at 58.6% priced at £44.95 or the 12 Year Old bottled at 46% and priced at £54.95 I believe that the range holds its own against any of the big hitters in the category be it a single malt or a blended malt and can be enjoyed throughout the year but especially on those darker Autumn nights.
Can you tell us how you select your casks, and anticipate anything about what we can expect to see next?
The aim every year is that you will see an Old Perth Vintage and a Limited Edition so you will see a Vintage this year having already seen the Limited Edition in the successful launch of the Old Perth PX that we had earlier in the year.
Casks are matured for the majority of their term in MSWD’s warehouses in Perth allowing us more control and visibility of the development of the whiskies.
All our products are created and blended together by our team at Aberargie and bottled on-site. We use a combination of predominantly Oloroso Sherry (spice and dried fruits) first and second fill cask with a small percentage of PX Sherry (depth, stewed fruits and sweetness) casks across the Old Perth products, to achieve the required balance and complexity.
When considering the cask selection process, we seek out stock with specific age, flavour profile and 1st/2nd fill requirements, ensuring we get the best style and quality of single malts for vatting into our range of products. MSWD use a Solera system (see Wikipedia) for vatting rather than producing batch releases which ensures better consistency of our liquid which involves some incredible 60 year old Oloroso casks from a supplier in Jerez that the Morrison family have a long standing relationship with.
Official website: https://www.oldperthwhisky.co.uk/
Drams
and more...
Today's drams
- Old Perth Original – 46%
- Old Perth Cask Strength – 58.6%
- Old Perth 12yo – 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.