Over a luscious dinner in the cellar of the Peller Estates winery I asked Brian about his experiments and what told him when an experiment was ready, and what told him if one was failing, to which he told me that “some have died as they could not work commercially, for examples casks from Russia we wanted to play with just could not work from a commercial and logistical standpoint, others have not matched the Glenfiddich house style despite sometimes being absolutely lovely and me loving it personally. The thing with our experiments is that they must be a true expression of the brand character.”

Craig McDonald, winemaker at Peller Estates, who’s icewine casks were used in this experiment added that “it is our main business to do our core products well, then at the top end is a wine playground; seventy percent of what we do is core, twenty percent is retail and winery products and at the top is ten percent playground products where we have a go at creating the new, and interesting and boundary-pushing products. I always say to me team that it is important that we make mistakes, but that they must always be smart mistakes that have been attempted for a reason; that’s experimentation.”

Curiously, for a man as credible and as accomplished as Kinsman, he has a side to him that is thoroughly intriguing once you scratch the surface, especially when asked about what he finds hard about what he does – “the hardest part for me is writing tasting notes, verbalising what I am thinking and feeling and making that relatable is a challenge, and the biggest tip I can give anyone who wants to be able to articulate tasting notes better is to smell what is around them, in supermarkets, in airports, look at how these ingredients are described and start to build up your vocabulary”.