The company has invested a staggering $230 million into a range of whisky tourism initiatives, with a significant portion of this funding allocated to the technological exploration of whisky maturation through a system known as SmokeDNAi.
SmokeDNAi has been instrumental in the testing and analysis of the flavor profiles and mouthfeel of a pair of non-identical twin whiskies, distilled in different casks – one original and one remnant. Named Port Ellen Gemini, these rare whiskies retail at a hefty $50,000 per bottle.
The primary objective of this analysis is to gain a deeper understanding of the aging process of whisky in a barrel. The unveiling of SmokeDNAi coincides with the reopening of the Port Ellen distillery in Scotland, which, after a 40-year hiatus, has welcomed back tourists with modern advancements in both construction and whisky-making.
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Ewan Morgan, the National Luxury Ambassador and Head of Whisky Outreach at Diageo North America, explained the company's intentions to Fox News Digital. "What we want to do is have this wonderful slow maturation in a barrel where we’re controlling the flavor," he said. "We have a much better understanding of why they taste the way they taste, or why they smell the way they smell, or the mouth-feel."
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In a comparison of two whisky casks from Port Ellen, a distillery located in Islay, the vanillin characteristic, which imparts a vanilla flavor, varied significantly. One cask contained approximately 3% vanillin, while the other more than doubled that, with around 6%. The remnant cask housed liquors from the 1960s and 1980s, Morgan revealed.
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"We can get a much better understanding of what the final product is going to be like," Morgan stated, suggesting that Port Ellen could utilize these data sets to optimize production, flavor, and sales of whisky and new blends in the future.
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The analysis process involves subjecting whisky samples to gas chromatography or liquid chromatography, with an algorithm subsequently breaking down the data sets of distinct components.
"It basically takes a signature of that liquid, and then it gives us a reading or a spike reading of the different compounds that are in there," Morgan explained.
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In addition to understanding the chemical composition of their whiskies, Diageo also aimed to provide consumers with a visual representation of taste and flavor. In collaboration with Bose Collins, design experts created Out of the Ether, an algorithmic machine-generated work of art that uses SmokeDNAi technology to produce images of whisky smoke over time.
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"We have an overlay there that will have the chemical name like vanillin, for example, which smells and tastes like vanilla," Morgan said. This allows whisky enthusiasts to visually explore flavor combinations, aromas, and distinct profiles that would otherwise be invisible.
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Visual profiles may encompass a range of flavors, including coconut, smoky, earthy, medicinal, floral, and sweet. "It gives you kind of a really great, at a glance, visualization of what's going on inside the barrel," Morgan concluded. "It just gives us a much, much clearer understanding of our own whisky."
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