THE SEARCH BEGINS FOR ‘GLENROTHES WHISKY MAKER’

Four consumers will be appointed The Glenrothes Whisky Maker for a week following a worldwide competition launching in October 2010. The successful candidates will be recruited to work as The Glenrothes Whisky Makers in the heart of single malt production, Speyside, Scotland.

As part of this opportunity, the successful candidates will learn the time-honoured art of making The Glenrothes and the time-honoured skills that have been passed down from generation to generation. The winners will spend time working at each stage of the whisky-making process: testing the purity of the water source at the distillery’s two springs; milling the malt to achieve the golden proportions of husk, grits and flour; mashing to ensure maximum extraction of sugars in the wort; adding yeast to the washbacks and overseeing fermentation; slowly and carefully distilling new make spirit in our tall copper pot stills. From there our Whisky Makers will be involved in making casks at the cooperage, laying down casks for maturation and rolling casks to the warehouse.

The Whisky Makers will nose single malt from maturing casks to assess whether the contents are of sufficiently exceptional quality and maturity; only the top 2% of the distillery’s output is bottled as The Glenrothes Speyside Single Malt Whisky. Finally, the Whisky Makers will have the opportunity to create their very own selection of The Glenrothes – a unique bottle with their own hand-written tasting notes on the label.

After work, our Whisky Makers will enjoy the simple pleasures that Speyside has to offer; a spot of fishing, dining in the local Highland restaurants or perhaps a picnic in the hills surrounding the distillery. The Whisky Makers will stay in Rothes House, a private home belonging to the family that owns The Glenrothes. As with the distillery, Rothes House is not open to the public but is reserved for VIP visits. After making their own bottle of The Glenrothes, our whisky makers will spend their final day of the trip in Edinburgh

Entry will be simple; entrants will supply their name and personal details and then be invited to answer in 50 words or fewer why they are the perfect candidate for the job. Hundreds of runners-up prizes will be offered too. Entries will be accepted in English, Spanish and Chinese.

More details will follow in due course.

The competition will run from October 2010 to the end of January 2011 and can be entered at www.theglenrothes.com 

Notes:

1. The Glenrothes was founded in 1879
2. Little more than 2% of the distillery capacity is bottled as Single Malt to ensure exceptional quality
3. Of the 16 Vintages released to date, 12 have entirely sold out
4. It is matured in a combination of Spanish and American oak casks – the best of both worlds
5. The Glenrothes Select Reserve was voted Best in Class at the World Whiskies Awards 2008 and won two Double Golds at The San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2007
6. The Glenrothes 1972 was awarded a Trophy at the 2005 International Spirits Challenge
7. The Glenrothes 1978 Vintage was voted Best Speyside Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards 2008
8. The Glenrothes 1975 won a Double Gold award at The San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2008
9. The Glenrothes 1991 won a Gold Medal at The San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2010
10. The Glenrothes 1994 won a Gold Medal at The San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2010
11. The Glenrothes Alba Reserve won a Double Gold at The San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2010
12. “I have always felt that Glenrothes deserved to be more widely appreciated. Beautifully rounded…sophisticated after-dinner malt.” Michael Jackson’s Malt Whisky Companion
13. Jim Murray, in his Whisky Bible, refers to The Glenrothes Select Reserve; “One of the softest deliveries on Speyside, the silky barley and citrus caress the tastebuds with rare tenderness” and scores it 24 out of 25