Adam Harding, co-founder covering Whisky, Sales & Strategy at Tailored Spirits Co., chats about discovering his passion for whisky on a cold Canadian mountain, the balance between flavour and branding, and what makes Tailored Spirits Co. stand out from the crowd of bottlers in Scotland and beyond.
Hello Adam. Can you introduce yourselves and your career path in whisky?
I’m Adam, one of the co-founders here at Tailored Spirits Co. – you could call me the whisky guy. I’m a bit of a whisky enthusiast and love to study the history of Scotch whisky distilleries. I head up the whisky selection, sales and marketing functions of the business.
Tom is our Creative Director, ensuring all of our projects look and feel exquisite. Carl is a whiz with a spreadsheet and planning so heads up our operations and finance functions.
Collectively we have 16 or so years working in the whisky industry. In a variety of roles, from wholesale whisky supply, brand design, ambassadorial and now of course in our business as independent bottlers and private label partners for our private and business clients around the world.
What inspired your career in whisky? Did you have any misconceptions about the industry before entering?
As many others, I didn’t really like whisky to start with – too harsh, it burns, an old man’s drink. Though I do remember the first whisky that got me hooked.
I was living in Canada in around 2018. It was one of those deathly cold days in Whistler (-21°C) and I was up on the ski hill with a good friend from Scotland. We were on the chairlift heading back up when he presented me with a hip flask and insisted I have a wee dram. Hesitantly I proclaimed the same words I had for years before ‘I don’t really like whisky’, but he refused to accept that excuse and passed me the flask.
I am mighty glad he did as this ‘wee dram’ was transformative; a warming, silky smooth, fruity flow of velvet. A burst of flavour that I couldn’t quite believe tasted this good and enjoyed at the top of a mountain in well below freezing temperatures. An old Aberlour, in that setting, with good company and that was it, hooked. I clearly had expensive taste.
I then moved back to the UK and Scotland and was adamant that transformative dram was something I wanted to share with others too. A career in whisky was the path for me.
How has the trajectory of your careers shaped your views on whisky?
It was a meeting of minds in previous roles that meant all three of us saw the opportunity to do something a little different and really add value to the category. It was the ideal environment to see where customers really needed support that didn’t exist at the time.
Whisky for many is so much more than just a drink. We’ve seen the passion it brings out, the curiosity, the conversation, the opportunity to slow down and savour something made by true artisans, the want to collect bottles that tell stories. When it is so much more personal an experience, why are there so few opportunities to personally connect with the whisky brands themselves? If you can collect a whisky, why can’t you have the ultimate experience and commission a whisky from your favoured distillery?
Can you tell us about Tailored Spirits Co.’s values? What do you feel makes you stand out as bottlers?
This is actually something we have worked to codify this year, as the team is growing, how do we identify and instil our core values across the team. Ultimately, we are whisky people first and foremost, though we understand we are but custodians for a short time in Scotch whisky history. So how can we add something of value to the category that was here long before us and will be here long after?
Connection: This is one of our key drivers. What really drives whisky forwards is our ability to connect across borders, bringing people together with a shared appreciation; bringing those people to Scotland and helping them become ambassadors for both Scotland and Scotch whisky.
Curiosity: This filters through much of what we do, from our Experimental whisky bottlings to finding a solution to challenges that have often been a road block. Like typical minimum order quantities, something a single cask owner would come up against a lot, we’ve built a business to service smaller volume projects with a bigger focus on premium quality.
Commitment to quality: For us, this is what ties everything together, understanding what motivates our clients is connection and curiosity. Those key drivers mean knowing the origin of the wood used in premium display cases, meeting the artisan metalworkers producing here in Scotland, hearing the story of the craftsperson that hand engraves the unique decanters designed personally for our clients. There are cheaper ways to produce packaging but that’s not what motivates our passionate private clients. Connection and curiosity do, and there are stories to be told.
What was the inspiration behind the branding of your Experimental Whisky series?
The Experimental series for us is the embodiment of our curiosity with whisky. Knowing there is a whole world of flavours and aromas outside of what you might expect, something adventurous and connective. Something that would get people discussing, ruminating and exploring.
That’s the whisky and we couldn’t have an Experimental range of whisky without making the bottle design an Experiment too.
The process to produce the label design with a tear off ticket is not easy but we don’t bottle easy. The bottle art and whisky information is designed to look like a lab ticket, bold colours help suggest the variety within the series, the tear off ticket was something we really spent a lot of time to get right. We wanted these bottles to be collectable, but not to sit on a shelf without being enjoyed, so you can collect the tear off ticket and show how many Experiments you have tried. If you collect six, you’ll then get access to a break even ‘black label’ bottle –only available to those avid adventurers.
The tear off ticket was inspired by years gone by on ski hills where your day pass was a ticket clipped to the zip of your snow jacket. If you were a keen adventurer by the end of the season you’d have a stack of passes still attached to your jacket, how cool were they! Glenshee still uses the stick on day passes today.
If you had to choose a whisky and design a bottle for yourself, what would it taste/look like?
I actually have an answer for this that I am hoping becomes a reality. I am quite sentimental and nostalgic for 80s and 90s music and movies, and my vision (along with Tom) is to create a whisky that is from that same time period selected and bottled with flavours, aromas and style matching our favourite movies. Imagine a Back to the Future whisky, distilled in 1985, tasting like wisps of smoke at 88mph, and a flux capacitor with some tropical fruits.
Where is the most interesting or unconventional place you have enjoyed a dram?
I’ve been very fortunate to enjoy a dram in a few incredible places around the world. We hosted a tasting alongside the F1 track in Abu Dhabi which was pretty incredible, especially in a region not known for whisky enjoyment.
What is your controversial/unpopular whisky opinion?
Well, somewhat blasphemous on my part, I like a single cube of ice in my whisky at home. Though if I am ‘tasting’ a whisky and assessing it for character; as it comes, ambient temperature, nothing added. But something a little more controversial – brand story is just as important as the whisky in the bottle.
With Scotch, great whisky is expected as a minimum, though a strong brand story and presentation builds connection and allows genuine loyalty and ‘buy in’ from customers around the world. The whisky still needs to be great too. A great brand with bland whisky will struggle; an excellent whisky with a weak brand may find some cult fans but will struggle to grow. When both work harmoniously, you’ve got the recipe for success.
What is your go-to dram and what is the dram you have as a treat?
I’ve been a big fan of GlenAllachie since Billy Walker took the helm, so I’ve always got a few bottles open, the 12 is my go to, or the Scottish Oak. I’ve got two bottles that are my current ‘treats’ a bottle of Lagavulin Distillers Edition from 2022 – PX and peat in perfect harmony, or I’ve got a Glenturret 30 year old which is such a brilliant whisky, tropical fruits and no suggestion of over-oaking.
What international dram are you enjoying at the moment?
I’ve really enjoyed a few of the M&H whiskies recently, one of which is matured on the roof of a hotel, inland below sea level, and very tasty. But I am really enjoying a whisky from Mackmyra distillery in Sweden. I got it from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and it’s a wonderfully curious thing.
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