23rd August 2024

The Many Hats of Mark Watt!

For someone who very rarely wears trousers never mind hats I certainly do wear many hats when it comes to working! Although Watt Whisky will always be our main priority it does give us the opportunity to work on a few side projects to keep us busy and to help bring some money into the company so that we can continue to bottle more Watt Whisky.

With the recent press release from The Single Cask coming out last week announcing that I have joined their Taste Master team, I thought it would be a good time to highlight some of the other projects I am involved with.

Frank McHardy Signature Reserve - With Planet Spirits

This is a project that I am very excited about. The word legend is used far too often in today's world but Frank McHardy certainly is befitting of that title. Frank has been in the whisky industry for 61 years! Amazingly when I first met him he was already one of the more experienced figures in the industry - that was in 2004 when he had only been at it for 41 years.

Along with Planet Spirits in Singapore, a company I have had dealings with over many years, Frank has bottled several single casks of Single Malt and Single Grain whiskies under the Signature Reserve label. All absolute stunners, as you would expect with Frank’s involvement.

My part in this will be to introduce these whiskies to the world and to find some markets for these to be sold in. I have always been a huge fan of grain whiskies, going back to when I was selling old grain whiskies for Duncan Taylor. The opportunity to work with Frank, along with Joyce and Khoon from Planet spirits, coupled with some outstanding old grain whiskies is just the perfect fit for me and I look forward to sharing more info on these whiskies shortly.

Taste Master - The Single Cask

I have long been a fan of the whiskies coming out from The Single Cask and the team behind it, so when I spotted their advert to join their tasting panel on social media I couldn’t resist putting in an application. I have plenty time on my hands and having been involved in cask selection for over 20 years it's something that I can certainly bring considerable experience to the table.

As you all know I love tasting whisky so why not get involved with this? There are 8 of us in the team and we meet online regularly to try some samples and discuss their merits, I have to say we have tasted some pretty amazing things so far and I am looking forward to receiving the next batch of samples for review.

I really enjoy these panels, I enjoy them as much as I did when I joined my first ever tasting panel at the SMWS in the early 2000’s, I always remember my excitement at being on a panel with Charlie Maclean and how nervous I was on those first few drams.

Cask selection and analysis is the part of the business that I most enjoy and being bigheaded for a moment (I know not like me to have a massive ego!) I think that it is something I am particularly good at so if I can help anyone out with tasting / analysing cask samples then I am always happy to do this.

Selling Casks - Cask Trade

Whisky cask investment companies I hear you scream! Yes I am a big hypocrite, but then again not! I am very open that I have been selling casks of whisky on behalf of Cask Trade for some time now and I would like to explain why. Main reason - Money! Funnily enough businesses need to make money and selling casks for Cask trade helps me to do this.

So why Cask Trade? When I left Wm Cadenhead’s, Simon Aron the owner of Cask Trade was one of the first people to call me. I was down in London for a meeting about our Watt Whisky brand design so I took the opportunity to meet with them and visit their office and try a few drams and was pleased with what I saw.

There are a few things that I like about Cask Trade, one is that everything on their list for sale is owned by Cask trade, which often is not the case when people are selling casks. When I send out their list I am very open about it that it is Cask Trade stock and don’t try to pretend that I am some sort of whisky Barron that has a huge amount of personal casks to sell.

As a geek and a lover of spreadsheets, I log every cask that I get offered and mentioning no names but several people have offered me cask trade casks with a considerable margin on top, whilst giving the illusion that it is them who owns the cask - you know who you are people!

The other thing that I like is that, because Cask Trade own the casks they are selling, 9 times out of 10 I am able to offer a sample before you purchase which for me is a big deal. As a company at Watt Whisky we rarely take a punt on a cask, so why should I expect you to do the same?

In Summary

Watt Whisky is the number one priority and always will be, but it does leave me with some spare time on my hands so if anyone is looking to buy a cask, needs help with tasting notes, cask selections, wants to buy some of Frank’s whisky or has any other fun projects that they think that either Kate or I could get involved with please feel free to get in touch.

Cheers

Mark.