Whisky Voices: Stephen Mathis

This interview is part of my ongoing Whisky Voices series, where I sit down with leading voices in the whisky world, from distillers and writers to ambassadors and innovators, to capture their unfiltered thoughts on heroes, villains, surprises, trends, and wishes.

For this edition, I spoke with Stephen Mathis, an American now turned Norwegian, and the guy behind Norway’s first and only independent bottler; The Single Malt Dreams. He is also a lifelong passionate whisky enthusiast and a Malt Impostor.

Whisky Hero

“Jim McEwan,” Stephen said without hesitation. “He gave me my first tour at Bruichladdich. I was at a low point in my life, and Duncan McGillivray took me around the distillery. About halfway through the tour, I started to really understand what he was saying. Then he brought me back to the office, and Jim took me through the warehouses for an hour and a half, maybe two. He opened up all kinds of amazing things, introduced me to Mortlach among others. It was like the gods had rained down gifts of love and forgiveness on me.”

Whisky Villain

Stephen laughed at the difficulty of this one before settling on an answer.

“I’m not going to go full Dawn Davies and say Macallan, although I do dislike them for a number of good reasons,” he admitted. “But my real whisky villains are high-end luxury bottlings. I hate them. They’re not what whisky is about. Whisky is consumable, damn it!”

A sharp reminder that whisky’s true value lies in the glass, not in the price tag.

Whisky Surprise

Stephen’s biggest surprise came from the north. “Nordic whiskies,” he said. “What these guys (and girls) are doing is some of the best work I’ve seen outside of Scotland. It’s fine, it’s careful, it’s thoughtful. It’s also experimental in ways you can’t always do elsewhere. That part really excites me.”

He paused, grinning. “Now I just need someone to help me find a chestnut cask..”

Whisky Trend

“So, I can be agnostic about this, right?” Stephen began. “The trend I’d identify is cask finishing. I don’t think it’s bad, and I don’t think it’s good. There’s a lot to be said for casks that are natural, not doctored or messed with. But sometimes the casks that the big boys make available to independent bottlers aren’t up to snuff, and you’ve got to do something about it. How you do something about it, that’s the difference between the good ones and the bad ones.”

Balanced, fair, and deeply pragmatic, exactly how Stephen approaches whisky.

Whisky Wish

His final wish came down to a simple equation every bottler and enthusiast understands, and for him it also makes business sense.

“I wish cask prices could stay down while demand goes up,” he said.

An impossible dream, perhaps, but one I’ll happily share!

Sláinte!
- Thomas