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THE MASTER BLENDER

Sandy Hyslop

 A Scotch whisky legend with over 40 years’ experience,
Sandy Hyslop has one of the highest pressured and enviable jobs in
Speyside as Royal Salute’s Director of Blending & Inventory.

Sandy began working in the whisky industry in 1983 as a Quality Controller at a whisky plant in Dundee. At a very early stage he was asked to assess whisky samples and showed a natural aptitude, due to his highly astute sense of taste and smell. 

In September 2016, Sandy took on the prestigious role of Director of Blending across the Chivas Brothers blended Scotch whisky portfolio. In this role he is responsible for maintaining the quality and consistency of the Royal Salute permanent collection, as well as crafting new and exciting limited edition blends.

Safeguarding our legacy

Sandy’s meticulous attention to detail and commitment to upholding the highest quality sees him nosing over 1500 whisky samples a week. It’s very much a traditional, hands-on approach, but when blending such rare, high aged whiskies, it’s the only way to ensure perfection.
Understanding long maturations and how they affect the distillate is a unique skill. It’s only with decades of experience in the industry that means Sandy and his team can recognise the exact moment when a whisky is ready to be released from its cask. It’s this level of commitment and care that enables him to guarantee the continuity of quality and flavour of Royal Salute year on year.

95% of my job is done on the nose. I am nosing many samples every week, perhaps 1500 samples in a week, whereas I only taste about five or six. That gives everyone a sense of scale of how important the nose is when evaluating the quality of whiskies.
Sandy Hyslop

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