Minnie Parmiter joined Tullibardine with a wealth of distilling knowledge from her time at Echlinville Distillery in Northern Ireland, Diageo’s Roseisle Distillery, BrewDog and, most recently, Copper Lion Distillery which she co-founded in 2020. Her background lies in biology and academic research, making her scientific and practical experience the perfect match for carrying the baton at Tullibardine.
Minnie takes over from David, who retired after a 20-year tenure at Tullibardine, helping shape the distillery as it is known today.
Minnie Parmiter - Tullibardine Distillery
The science behind how to create so many styles of spirit from three ingredients and a pretty restrictive set of rules.
I moved to Scotland in 2010 as an academic researcher and ended up spending a lot of time researching whisky!
I was actually trained at a small farm distillery in Northern Ireland after I completed my General Certificate in Distillation, which was entirely manual so a great place to learn. From there I went to Diageo as a trainee manager, then to BrewDog Distilling Co.
Then I set up a new distillery back in England before selling my half of the business and moving back to Scotland last year.
It can be very varied. I think the amount of work that is involved in maintaining consistency of character would surprise people. The most difficult thing in making whisky is maintaining character and countering drift, whilst also maintaining efficiency and keeping a very hard-working and plant running smoothly.
You need to be checking everything all the time - the grind on the mill, the drainage on the mash and the gravities, how the yeast is performing, the feistiness of the wash stills to prevent entrainment, the temperatures and flow rates on the spirit stills, timings on everything, checking for hidden leaks and plant deterioration, nosing every batch of new make and every cask that's filled or disgorged.
There is a lot of work involved in keeping things the same and that's before we get anywhere near the blending side.
For me as a distiller, the spirit has to have sufficient complexity and be working really hard before it goes anywhere near the wood. I love a fresh and light, spirit-led whisky, so I am aiming to produce a spirit that can be put in a simple bourbon cask and still produce fantastic results.
A hard-working spirit gives much more for the blender to play with in terms of wood management. It should have enough character and depth that it can hold its own in an intense sherry cask or be aged for several decades, but it's important to me that it also works well as a simple, bright young 10-15 year old whisky and has a recognisable distillery character.
I personally always try to taste new whiskies in a refill bourbon format as it lays the spirit bare - there's absolutely nowhere to hide and it should give you a sense of the house style, then if I love the spirit I will hunt down all the various bottlings in interesting casks.
Our spirit lends itself really well to all the lovely appellation wine finishes we are able to do because our owners also own vineyards - however my favourite is still and probably always will be the Tullibardine 15, which is all ex-bourbon matured, as to me it represents our distillery character.
Glenmorangie in a bar, Glengoyne in a distillery.
Our new make is a light Highland style with lots of fresh fruit character and a good dose of underlying malty sweetness.
If you reduce it down it also has some interesting trademark notes, for example a grains of paradise spiciness which to me is very recognisable as Tullibardine. I haven't ever found that note on another new make yet.
Lots of interesting single casks - we have a really interesting Orange Wine Finished single cask at the moment with honeysuckle notes and a lovely Calvados finish one is currently being bottled.
Probably someone like Rachel Barrie for someone I haven't met - she produces very good whiskies, and I've tried some phenomenal single casks of hers so I definitely have a lot of respect for her skill.
For someone who I have met - I would say Gordon Steele - he worked at SWRI for 20 years or so. He has an absolutely incredible amount of knowledge and has been a bit of a mentor to me.
As well as of course our own David Myles who recently retired after running Tullibardine for 20 years - I have learnt an incredible amount from him so far and he continues to be very generous in his support with the handover of the distillery. Each old-school trick he teaches me feels like it's been passed down through the ages, so I feel like I have a responsibility to pass them all on in the future.
The wood is not most of the flavour - or shouldn't be if you are doing it well!
I'm very picky with sherry casks also as I'm very sensitive to sulphur - my preference for light whiskies isn't very fashionable!
Kelly Macdonald
Bright, light and fruity.
Work in Progress
