A Dram with Annabel Meikle

From manning the bar at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society to travelling the world for Glenmorangie, Annabel Meikle had loads of experience before becoming the keeper of the 'Keepers' as she tells Tom Bruce-Gardyne…

"I like to call it the beating heart of the Scotch whisky industry," says Annabel Meikle about the Keepers of the Quaich, of which she's been the director since 2015. It's an exclusive, international club that you can't just join. You have to be proposed by one of the big distillers and unanimously accepted by the board before your induction at a lavish, biannual banquet at Blair Castle in Perthshire.  

"We're for the trade, and we're there to recognise and reward those who have made an outstanding contribution to the industry," she explains. "They could be a distiller, a distributor, a writer or someone in marketing - it really covers the whole breadth of Scotch. We've currently inducted just over 3,400 people from over 100 countries."

For someone flogging White Horse whisky in Paraguay for example, to be plucked from the frontline and thrust into the full Highland experience complete with drums, bagpipes, a sacrificial haggis and much whisky, must feel pretty surreal. Annabel's job is to make it magical and inspire lifelong loyalty to the spirit as a result.

She particularly enjoys the unbranded nature of the banquets, and says: "These companies like Diageo, Chivas Bros. and William Grant's are all slugging it out for market share 363 days a year. But for two days a year they leave their swords by the door, they come together, they share tables, they drink each other's drams and they break bread."

The whisky establishment is certainly well represented in the 'Keepers', though in the last eight years Annabel has seen an increase in applications from independent companies, which is something she actively encourages. She reckons the industry has become more corporate of late which is why, in her view: "the smaller, independents add something massive to the picture."

Annabel "stumbled into whisky" while working at Valvona & Crolla, Edinburgh's famous Italian deli at the top of Leith of Walk. The chef at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society persuaded her to come down the 'Walk' and visit the Vaults, the Society's home in Leith. One look at the big member's room with its log fire and comfy chesterfield sofas was enough. "I just thought I want to work here," she says.

That was 2001, and from shifts on the bar, she graduated to the Society's tasting panel under the guidance of whisky writer Charlie MacLean and the so-called 'Einstein of whisky', the late Dr Jim Swan who consulted on so many new whisky distilleries, here and abroad. Did she realise what a 'male world' she'd stumbled on? "No, I didn't really," she says, and in her experience and that of her female friends in the industry, it seems being a woman in whisky is no big deal.

That said, men dominated the Society tastings initially until she said to her boss: "It is a bit intimidating, coming in and drinking five cask strength whiskies, why don't we add some food?" And with the simple addition of cheese one night, seafood or chocolate another, she says: "Instantly the ratio changed to being about 60 : 40, men to women."

A recent survey of women working in the business found that over 80% claimed they'd been asked by colleagues or consumers if they even liked the spirit. Annabel is bemused and says: "The only people who ask me that are taxi drivers." As for all those whisky refuseniks, among them many women, and many who have never tried a dram, she smiles. "I love it when people say 'I don't like whisky'. I see it as a personal challenge."

Having joined Glenmorangie as sensory whisky creator in 2007, three years after the company was bought by LVMH, she was soon having to run tastings for employees at two of its sister fashion brands.

"There were all these Guerlain and Givenchy girls in their twenties and 90% said 'no, we don't like whisky,'" she recalls. It seems the issue was too many calories and the aroma, but she eventually converted half the room by explaining: "The smell of a fine malt is a beautiful thing. It's complex, rich and can be very perfumed." 

Mostly, she feels the industry more-or-less get the balance right when it comes to targeting female consumers. A glaring exception was a bubble-gum pink malt whisky liqueur called 'Strawberry Kiss' she was once asked about. "It came in a clear bottle, and I think even had a lipstick kiss on the side," she says, shuddering at the memory.

In the past there was a presumption that she wouldn't like something big and smoky from Islay, which she does, but she feels "the industry's got better at not assuming all women want to drink soft, honeyed Speysides or something gentle from the Lowlands."

Few if any still talk of Scotch as a male rite of passage - something that'll 'put hairs on your chest', and there's no real stigma, at least in most markets, of adding ice, a mixer or making a cocktail. In her words: "When it's in your glass, it's your whisky."

As for the state of the industry, she does wonder about the current scale of expansion. "I can hardly keep up with the production numbers at some distilleries," she says. "People will always love Scotch whisky – there's a kudos and a status to it, but I do think we probably have to ride out a few rough years. That said, I have a waiting list as long as my arm for the next Keeper's banquet."