Alan Winchester

Alan Winchester grew up in Speyside, where distilling is a family trade rather than a career choice. He started on the production floor in the mid-1970s and worked his way through some of the region's best known sites, learning mashing, fermentation and still management by hand before computers arrived in the still house.

He joined The Glenlivet's owner in the 1990s and was appointed master distiller in 2009, a role he held until handing over in 2021 and continuing as master distiller emeritus. During his tenure The Glenlivet became the single malt with the widest global reach, and Winchester was the person who had to keep its house character intact while output grew year after year.

He is currently distillery advisor at The Cabrach, the community-owned distillery at Aberchirf in Banffshire that brought whisky making back to the Cabrach after a gap of some 170 years. It is a small project driven by shareholders and volunteers rather than a global brand, and his job is to pass on what he picked up across two dozen sites so the new make spirit has a real chance of standing on its own.