Sukhinder Singh, your navigator along The Elixir Trails, shares his passion for the spirits of the world – and, in typically frank interview, debunks a few drinks business myths along the way.

What is the idea behind The Elixir Trails?

We are offering something to spirits enthusiasts with a sense of adventure... a journey around the wonderful variety of drinks the world has to offer. We hope to broaden people’s horizons and introduce new flavours that can be found in, for example world whisky and rums from around the Caribbean and beyond. And there will be more Trails to come – we don’t want to be restricted by category; what’s important is how good a drink tastes.

So, how do you decide what qualifies for an Elixir Trails bottling?

We put together our Trails like a specialist tour operator would design a travel itinerary. In each category, we have selected highlight destinations that are going to wow you. But it’s important that each one has a unique character and the liquid strongly represents its origin, otherwise everything would be a bit samey. We want each stop on the journey to give you a new perspective.

Do you have to be a bit of a geek to appreciate these bottles?

No, it’s the exact opposite. They are very approachable, pourable drinks. There’s a phrase I don’t like that sometimes gets used for spirits that are not really enjoyable to drink: “It’s interesting.” Half of the time that means it’s unusual but not really very good! With Trails bottlings, we’re not saying you should try this because it’s different; we’re saying you should try it because it’s delicious! We’ve tried all the “interesting” spirits and only selected the really good ones.

In person, you’re always recommending new things, pulling bottles out of cupboards and saying, “Try this...” Is this essentially an extension of that?

Correct! Or, put it another way... imagine you’re standing in the middle of a whisky show and looking around for something new, but not sure of where to go next, Elixir Trails is like a trusted friend who will point you in the right direction, because we’ve tasted liquid from many distilleries and made a selection.

There’s often hype around a rising whisky-producing country... “Is X the new Japan?”... Is that something to be wary of?

You sometimes get a surge of new distilleries opening or being built, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll all produce great spirit – I won’t name names, but in one European country there will soon be 50 whisky distilleries. I’ve tasted liquid from a lot of them and there are maybe five that are going in the right direction. Elixir Trails aims to introduce spirits enthusiasts to new experiences, broaden their horizons – but not for just the sake of having something from an unusual source... it has to be unusually good and say something about that place.

Are there any assumptions you’re challenging in the world of rum as well?

Well, again, we are celebrating rum from very different parts of the world, but you have to be careful not to just assume that each country makes one style of rum. It’s not even the case that one distillery makes one type of rum. They often have different stills and different recipes or processes (they call them marques in Jamaica). There is some snobbery – some people will say, “I only drink pot still rum” - but that’s to ignore the tasty stuff being produced from column stills or as blends. In the right hands, the right design of column still can produce a really complex spirit but one that’s smooth and very drinkable. The other bit of geekery we’re challenging is bottling rum at high ABV. Too often, it’s not very approachable and drinkers end up watering it down anyway. But it takes time to merge the rum and water properly, so we think it’s better to dilute it before bottling and give it time to integrate, so it’s delicious as soon as it’s poured.

So, for people who are unaware, could you explain your experience in the drinks business. Put bluntly, why should consumers trust you?

I hope that our track record as spirits makers, bottlers and sellers has earned us that confidence. Every member of the Elixir Distillers team is a spirits enthusiast with immense knowledge and a mission to find or produce the world’s next great drink. I pretty much started in the drinks business as a kid – stacking the shelves of my parents’ off-licence. They were the first Asians in Britain to have an off sales licence. That’s where I started to learn about whisky and, because we had a lot of Caribbean customers, rums as well. When my brother, Rajbir, and I grew up and started The Whisky Exchange, we continued to explore and expand our experience, offering an incredibly wide range. And with Elixir, we have taken that understanding into creating liquids too.

As an independent bottler, is there more to it than identifying great distilleries and saying, “We’ll buy some casks”?

It certainly goes beyond identifying the best distilleries... First, we have to select the best casks they have to offer. And by best, I mean the ones that best reflect the distiller’s craft. That’s why we travel to the distilleries ourselves – either to identify batches that are ready to bottle immediately or spirits we believe have potential and that we can improve. And that’s where it goes further still. We don’t simply buy it and bottle it. That’s where our experience of maturing spirits and blending come in. For example, we blend Islay malt whiskies to produce our Elements of Islay series; and we use various techniques (such as a solera system and a perpetual blend) to create our Black Tot rums... We are always looking to nurture liquids so that they’re at their best when we bottle them.

So does that mean you are “finishing” spirits?

No, it’s not finishing – let me be clear on that. We’re not taking average whiskies and suddenly throwing them into, say, a port cask, just to compensate for what the spirit lacks. What we do sometimes is re-cask in order to allow secondary maturation to allow the distillery character to evolve – but not with the excessive influence of wood. It’s the same with rum: the initial tropical maturation quickly brings out the bright, warm flavours of a rum. But, over time, that can be too much because tropical ageing is about three times faster than continental ageing. Further maturation in our warehouse in Scotland allows more complex flavours to develop at a calmer pace, without the rum becoming over-wooded and losing the character of the place it was made, which is what got us excited in the first place.

So far, you’ve created a Rum Trail and a Whisky Trail. What else can we expect?

Well, there are more exciting destinations on those two Trails. But the next one may start in France... whether it will go further afield, I can’t say!