{"id":1170,"date":"2017-04-12T07:05:54","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T05:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/?p=1170"},"modified":"2017-04-12T07:05:54","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T05:05:54","slug":"interview-with-david-allen-regional-sales-manager-at-springbank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/?p=1170&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Interview with David Allen, Regional Sales Manager at Springbank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you tell the readers a little about yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yep. So my role at Springbank is as a regional sales manager, so the regions I look tare Sweden, Norway, Holland and Asia. That changes at a monthly basis, since the markets change as we come and go. At Springbank you\u2019re not really tied down to a specific role. By coming to Sweden this week I\u2019ve actually managed to dodge the floor maltings, since some of the guys are on holiday and they need some extra bodies to help out. On Thursday morning I should have been pitching a 12 ton malt floor down at six in the morning, so thanks to being here I miss that. But really you\u2019re involved in every part of the production at Springbank, so part of my job will be to taste the whiskies from the casks to see if they\u2019re ready, so it\u2019s quite an exciting job. No two days are the same and I work in an incredibly relaxed environment, as you can imagine. I leave my house at five minutes to nine in the morning and am at my desk at nine o’clock. I go home at lunchtime for an hour to meet my family for lunch, and then ten past five people would comment that I\u2019m working late. So that\u2019s my life at Springbank. Before that I actually had a polar opposite job. I worked with commercial property in Glasgow, and I had to do evaluation of things like industry units and shops. When I got married my wife and I went on a honeymoon to Thailand and if you\u2019ve ever been to Thailand you appreciate that there is more to this world, to life, than doing a commute to a job that\u2019s stressful and long hours. So we made the decision to change something about our lives, even if it meant moving to Thailand and teaching English to school kids or something. We just wanted to do something different and love life. When I got back I opened up the Sunday paper and saw this dream job advertisement for Springbank and thought \u201cWow – this is the ideal job for me! It\u2019s travelling, it\u2019s whisky, I’d love to do it. It’s a shame I don\u2019t have the sales or the whisky experience necessary.\u201c. But I have a mot of life experience so I sent them a letter and a CV and much to my surprise I was offered an interview and then the job. So I\u2019ve been at Springbank for a little more than two and a half years now and it\u2019s been the best two- and a half years of my life. It\u2019s been great, I\u2019ve loved every minute. I get to travel the world, meet great people, talk about a great company, a great whisky and then I get to go back to a very sort of sleepy, remote, rural Scottish town and enjoy the slow pace of life there.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what\u2019s your first whisky memory? What was it that got you hooked to begin with?<\/b><\/p>\n

Eeerhm, I\u2019m not sure if you can put this on your blog but I was actually underaged\u2026 We were in a place called Cumbria and there was a bar there and had an hour to wait for the ferry so we said \u201coky, let\u2019s go in here and see if they\u2019ll serve us a beer.\u201c. At the time my friend knew a bit more about whisky than me and we saw a \u201cmalt of the month\u201d-thing, it was Highland Park. My friend said \u201cYou should try that, you\u2019d like it\u201d and I said \u201cNo, I can\u2019t drink whisky, it\u2019s too strong\u201d and he said \u201cWell, nose it like this and then you\u2019ll get different tasting notes from it\u201d and broke it down for me. I said something like \u201cactually, I do taste this and that\u201d and ever since then I was interested in it and appreciated it. I was never a whisky anorak or anything as far as that, but really appreciated it and to then get the job at Springbank was just a dream come true. When people ask me what my job is and I tell them it\u2019s basically travelling around the world, talking about Springbank, I can see that the want to punch me in the face. <\/span><\/p>\n

One thing I really love about Springbank is that they honour tradition but still experiment with a lot of different cask types. Do you have any exciting new releases or plans or experiments concerning cask types?<\/b><\/p>\n

One of our new releases now is our \u201cLocal Barley\u201d with six new \u201cLocal Barley\u201d with barley taken from farms local to Campbeltown, which is something they actually did back in the 1960s and they\u2019ve gone on to become one of the most iconic Springbanks ever produced. Now we go back to that and do a contemporary version of that with barley from the same farm that supplied the original barley back in the 60s. I think it\u2019s great and it\u2019s going back to a richer provenance of the barley. Most of the barley comes from the east coast of Scotland where you get a higher yield of alcohol for your ton of barley, so it\u2019s more costly to use locally sourced barley but the whisky is fantastic. I\u2019m really proud of the way it\u2019s turned out and living up to the hype of the traditions of local barley which is great so I\u2019m really, really pleased about that. This is the first release in a series of five. It\u2019s gonna be a series for five years so it\u2019s great to see something with a bit of longevity in it.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that obviously connects back to the whole idea of the tradition and origin of Springbank. So will those bottlings be traditional when it comes to cask types as well or will you experiment with for example rum cask or anything like that?<\/b><\/p>\n

The casks will probably be about 80 % bourbon and 20 % sherry casks, and we plan to keep that fairly regular in terms of bourbon and sherry casks. We\u2019ve had our wood expressions previously, and the Calvados one is one of my favourites. In fact, I didn\u2019t have a bottle of it myself and I’ve not been able to track one down until recently when I saw one on the shelf in a whisky shop. The price was good and I said to the guy \u201cDo you have any more of that one\u201d and he said \u201cNo, it\u2019s the last one\u201d and I thought, well I\u2019m gonna grab that\u201d and I don’t think he\u2019s too used to people doing their sales tours and ending up buying their own stock. Another really successful expressions is the Longrow Red series, and it\u2019s a typical Springbank story. We hadn\u2019t plan to do a Longrow Red series, really that came out of the blue. We had a phone call from our lawyers. It came a week after our trademarks and they phoned up to say that there is a winery in Australia called Angove Winery that had started releasing a label called Long Row so there\u2019s some copyright issues. So our chairman, a very astute businessman, said \u201cAlright, leave it to us, we\u2019ll contact them\u201d, didn\u2019t wanna pay for lawyer fees and such as well you know. So he contacted the winery directly and said \u201cOkey, we are the Springbank distillery and produce a Longrow whisky and we understand you do the same with wine, but to be honest we\u2019re in Scotland producing Scotch whisky, you\u2019re in Australia producing wine. We can\u2019t really see that there\u2019s any conflict there, so we\u2019re happy for you to pursue this and call the wine Long Row but it\u2019ll be really nice if you\u2019d send over a case of your wine and maybe some barrels once you\u2019ve finished using them.\u201c. So that\u2019s what happened. They sent over some casks that had previously held some Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz and then we put some Longrow in them and it worked really, really well so that\u2019s how that whole thing started. And the recent Longrow Red Pinot Noir came about when I was doing a tasting in New Zealand and told the same story I told you. After the tasting a guy comes up to me and says \u201cI really liked the story you told us about Longrow Red. I own a winery with a great Pinot Noir and I\u2019d love for Springbank to use some of my casks.\u201d. Of course, he\u2019d been at a whisky fair all day and he\u2019d just had six whiskies and I took advantage of that and shook his hand to seal the deal right on the spot. I\u2019ve visited the winery since then and it\u2019s an absolutely beautiful part of the world. This also typical of Springbank, these sort of stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of my readers are new to whisky so do you have any piece of advice for them?<\/b><\/p>\n

Yeah, I think people are overwhelmed by different complex tasting notes, so instead of trying to find honeycomb or raisins, really try to go back to basics – do I like the whisky or not? If you like the whisky that\u2019s all you need to worry about, you know. Don\u2019t be afraid to try it with a bit of water. I\u2019m not gonna tell you how much water you should put in the whisky, I\u2019m not gonna tell you how to drink your whisky but if you like it with a bit of water to try and get different flavours from it, do that. Just go with something you like and definitely try to get to whisky fairs where you can try many different whiskies without having to commit to buying a whole bottle. Just treat it as fun, don\u2019t take it too seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you think of the so-called whisky boom?<\/b><\/p>\n

It seems to be a difficulty getting hold of older whisky, that\u2019s why we have these non-age-statement whiskies. The Japanese whisky industry has been quite transparent and said that\u2019s why they\u2019re doing it, which I think is commendable. At Springbank we\u2019ve always had a problem with our stock of older whisky. The oldest whisky we\u2019ve got in the warehouse is twenty-five years old. But since we\u2019re a bit of an odd company in different ways we don\u2019t really mind running out of older whisky. As long as we\u2019re making enough whisky at the moment to profit and for the community of Campbelltown to benefit, we\u2019re happy with that. Whether there will be a sort of whisky bust or not, I don’t think it\u2019ll be on the same scale a previous generations have seen. Distilleries now scale back production rather than doing like a new jerk stop with productions, which I think is a healthier way to make whisky. Springbank has been owned by the same family since the 1820s so we\u2019ve seen many whisky booms and busts, so we simply make enough whisky to make profit and make sure we don\u2019t have an over supply for a future generation to deal with. Springbank has obviously stood the test of time so that business ethos has payed off. That’s really important to us, to not over-stretch ourselves and cause problems for future generations. We employ 70 people in Campbeltown, which is a lot considering we last year produced 135 00 litres of alcohol. It\u2019s so inefficient on so many levels but we do all of the production and bottling ourselves. I could do my job anywhere in the world with a computer and Internet connection but I live in Campbeltown and am a part of the community so the community benefits from it. \u00a0That\u2019s a great thing about Springbank. We like to make our whisky with a hands-on approach, creating a truly artisan style whisky. \u00a0And also, in order to prevent the distillery being sold to another company, creating a more efficient style of production and probably cutting down on jobs, all of the 70 people who work for the distillery have to vote before a sale goes through. We also have a unique pension scheme at Springbank where me and all of the members of staff have the opportunity to buy casks twice a year. After ten years the distillery will buy them back from me or I can get four casks to replace that one cask I owned. And those four casks will become even more casks ten years later, which will mean a nice pension scheme for me. Also, if a company is looking to buy the distillery they wouldn\u2019t own most of the stock which would make the distillery unattractive to buy. This ensures the company to become more likely to stay independent and it also provides the staff with a nice pension scheme.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to you, which is the best moment or environment to enjoy whisky?<\/b><\/p>\n

Sometimes after a day at work, or if you’re on a business trip and you don’t want to drink a beer on your own, you can sip a whisky and it sort of opens up for conversations where people will ask \u201cwhat\u2019s that you’re drinking\u201d, it creates a sort of social circle. One of the first times I ever drank Springbank was at a backpackers hostel. Me and some friends had done a kayaking trip and we had brought some Springbank 10 to drink, so we asked some Australians if they wanted to come and have a drink. Whisky gets everyone involved. You can drink it alone but I personally like to drink it with people. It\u2019s not even so much about analyzing the whisky, it\u2019s just a social lubricant and a great drink for that. You can even just nose the whisky and savour it. You can just sit and enjoy it, you don\u2019t have to stress it or drink it like before the ice melts or anything like that, as opposed to cocktails for example.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you think there are a lot of prejudices in the whisky society? <\/b>
\nWe try to make the whisky industry as open as possible but whisky has had the stigma of being \u201can old man\u2019s drink\u201d. thankfully more and more younger people and women are drinking whisky. My wife, for instance, have enjoyed whisky for some time and she sees it as not only a high-alcoholic drink, but something you can pick out different flavours from and savour. So I think that these sort of barriers are coming down. There\u2019s also a prejudice against non-age statement whisky, but for me, if the whisky tastes good and you like it that\u2019s the main thing. It doesn\u2019t matter what age it is. Springbank have had non-age statement whisky for some time, but are moving away from it more and more, in the opposite direction of many other distilleries, which is kind of typical of Springbank. We like the fact that we\u2019re being quite transparent about the whisky. We believe it\u2019s good to show the age statement where we can. I think people like to know what they\u2019re drinking, but ultimately all that matters is if the whisky you\u2019re drinking is good or not according to yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you tell the readers a little about yourself? Yep. So my role at Springbank is as a regional sales…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-okategoriserade-en"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PMD0-iS","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1171,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglarnasandel.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}