Women need to take up more technical roles in alco-bev industry: 2019 Master Blender winner

Others might drink it -- on the rocks, with a dash of water or topped with soda -- but Master Blender' Stephanie Macleod has spent years studying the complexities that go into the making of whisky and suggests it's high time other women enter the business too.

Whisky is largely seen as a masculine drink, and that has to change too, said Macleod who recently became the first woman ever to bag the Master Blender of the Year award at the International Whisky competition in Las Vegas.

"It's not only important for women to join the industry but to take up as varied roles as possible, especially in the technical/operational fields like blending where you find very few female professionals. It would be great to see more women learn these arts and tap into traditionally male-held roles," the Glasgow-based Macleod told PTI in an email interview.

Women can take on many operational roles besides mixology in the industry.

"There are several subsets of the field beyond bartending that are just waiting for women to enter and conquer," she said.

A trip to India is high on her bucket list.

"I would love to travel and understand the consumption patterns in India as the country is among the highest whisky consumers across the globe," she said.

Macleod leads by example.

It has been 13 years since she took up the role of Master Blender at Dewar's, a leading Scotland-based blended Scotch whisky firm, and each day has been "more exciting and more challenging than the previous one", she said.

Macleod was awarded Master Blender of the Year for her innovation in the creation of whisky blends, one of her most popular ones being the Double-Double range.

An upgraded version of the brand's traditional double aging process, it involves four stages of aging, instead of the original two, enhancing the smoothness of the spirit.

She also has Dewar's single malt, 15 Year Old, to her credit. It is a blend of up to 40 whiskies aged in ex-sherry and bourbon casks, then blended together in oak casks.

During her stint at Dewar's, she has created six blended scotch whiskies, 21 single malt expressions, two spirit drinks and numerous single casks, finished casks and small batch bottlings.

Macleod's tryst with the whisky industry began in college.

She was studying Food Science at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland (1988-92) when she discovered the "fascinatingly complex" flavours of the woody brown spirit.

It was whisky's diverse nature, and its ability to render myriad flavours that caught her imagination, and blending seemed the natural thing to do.

"Scotch whisky is like no other spirit. The minute I began studying the liquid, I knew I wanted to be part of curating it," she said.

Whisky is her spirit of choice also because it has something to offer to everybody.

"There are so many flavour profiles and blends of different varieties, that one can only be spoilt for choice, never disappointed," she said.

To be able to explore the best that whisky has to offer, she suggests trying it neat.

"...nose and taste, then add water, and nose and taste again."