“A Wee Drappie”
“I am the great-great grandson of James Eadie on my Mother’s side,” says Rupert Patrick. “My grandfather Jim Eadie, was the last Eadie to be directly employed by the business. He retired as Chairman shortly after the Second World War.”
Rupert has vast experience in the whisky trade: “I started my career at Ian Macleod Distillers, 1991-2004, as Export Manager and then Director; I worked at Beam Suntory from 2004 to 2011; I moved to Diageo in January 2012 and stayed there until June 2014 when I left to set up WhiskyInvestDirect and James Eadie Ltd.”
So who was James Eadie and why would a blended Scotch whisky of interest to The Beertonian?
James Eadie was born in the village of Blackford in Perthshire in 1827; his family owned a large posting business and to which they later added a small brewery. Eadie moved to England in search of his fortune and joined his uncle in Fazeley, working in the industry of that great British drink, tea.
After his uncle returned to Scotland due to ill health, James stayed and expanded his skills to a Maltster. He’d sell his malt in Burton and as his business became more successful his monthly visits became more and more frequent until he decided to settle in the town. Realising that Burton Pale Ale was becoming a very popular drink he turned his hand to brewing and leased an area of land on Cross Street where he built a small brewery in 1854. By all accounts he learnt his trade over a number of years, eventually perfecting his own Pale Ale.
To cope with increasing demand the brewery was expanded, including a Maltings on Park Street, until it was decided in 1883 to build a new premises, this was opened on 31 January 1888, by which time Mr Eadie’s sons were helping to run the business.
Along with his brewing interests James Eadie was also famed for his own blend of Scotch whisky, which had been created by his father. It was described by The Wine Trade Review in 1877: “… little Highland whisky is now consumed as distilled. The public find blends so much better balanced and palatable.”
James Eadie’s registered an X as his trade mark in 1877 and this adorned both his ale and whisky. The brand survived after James Eadie’s death in 1903 and the brewery was sold to Bass in 1933. By the mid 1940’s both beer and whisky ceased production, although the company James Eadie dealt in wines and spirits into the 1960’s; and that is where the story might have ended …
“We managed to track down the James Eadie whisky ledgers from the late 19th century,” says Rupert, revealing where the germ of an idea originated. “These are in the National Brewery Centre Archive and contain around twenty years of whisky blending history. They are very well preserved and show in great detail how Mr Eadie was making his whisky. It also shows the cask types he used for maturation and the ages at which he bottled the various malts and grains that were blended together to produce Trade Mark X.”
Following this Rupert was given two bottles that dated back to the 1940’s which once belonged to Jim Eadie, the last Chairman: “My uncle Alastair Eadie has a few bottles left over from the closure of the business. I’m guessing that his father asked for enough whisky to last his lifetime! Alastair, kindly, gave me a couple of bottles when I showed signs of reviving the business.”
The whisky lived up to expectations: “The bottle we tasted from the 1940’s was outstandingly delicious!”
“We have a total of fourteen whiskies in our blend including great names such as Lagavulin, Glendronach, Blair Athol, Glenturret, Talisker and Caol Ila,” these whiskies are also in great demand as Single Malts, making Trade Mark X a unique blend. “Eadie’s also used whiskies from three or four other distilleries which shut down at the turn of 20th century so clearly we had no chance of using these ones!”
Two of the fourteen were to prove a challenge in sourcing, but they were necessary to ensure an authentic recreation: “The hardest to track down were the Cambus grain and Littlemill malt; these distilleries closed down in the early 1990s so stock is old, scarce and expensive! The Littlemill commands a huge premium in the market mainly because independent bottlers are chasing it and the market for such malts is very active,” Rupert had to use all of his connections. “I managed to find some but I don’t divulge where I got the stock! Luckily the quality of the whisky was extremely good.”
“The Cambus is a little easier to track down but still rare and in demand. We were very lucky to get access to Sherry Butt stock and it really is outstanding, so much so that we decided to bottle one butt of it as a single grain. This is a 24 year old Cambus, bottled as a James Eadie single grain; it is selling very well and will be sold out within another few weeks.”
With all the whiskies found it was time to call in an expert: “Norman Mathison was selected to be our Master Blender, he worked for Invergordon/Whyte & Mackay for most of his career and has 50 years blending experience! When he saw the ledgers and the whiskies therein he jumped at the chance to revive it.”
So how does the 2017 version compare to the original: “It’s very much in the same ‘family style’, with quite a richly peated offset by the more fruity Speyside flavours. The 1940’s one was also slightly more sherried in nature, however the balance of the blend is consistent between the two.”
If this has whetted your appetite to try, as Victorian beer and whisky historian Alfred Barnard once said, “a wee drappie” of Trade Mark X, it is stocked by Royal Mile Whiskies, Master of Malt, 86 Waitrose branches, Daylesford shops and many independent retailers.
Sited under the railway arches on North Western Street in Manchester, Beer Nouveau’s The Temperance Brewery may not be the obvious choice for a feature on Burton upon Trent obsessed blog The Beertonian, but there is a very important connection which will become apparent later …
Steve is a great believer in attention to detail: “Recently I had a tonne of Chevallier kilned to my own pattern (Tetley’s 1860’s pale) to properly recreate an IPA and the difference is very noticeable.”
“Unfortunately there isn’t much of it, just the 5 barrel brew length we did,” hardly surprising if there is a chap drinking it in pints! “Truman’s took ten firkins and I believe they were sold before we’d even finished brewing it and I put a barrel’s worth into an old whisky barrel that’s ageing before bottling in time for Christmas. I did bottle some of the un-aged barley wine, which will be available on the brewery website when I sort that part of it out but again there isn’t much.”
I remember home brewing from when I was a young lad, one of my “uncles” (he was a friend of the family, so became a bonus uncle) used to knock up his own beer in the shed. There seemed to be just two measurements of quality: firstly how quickly it got you pissed and secondly how quickly your eyesight returned. I consider myself fortunate that I wasn’t old enough to ever try it; it may well have put me off beer for life.
The last word goes to Pat: “Creating the Home Brewers Club means that we can share knowledge from both sides and tap into all kinds of brewing talent, sometimes drawing inspiration from fresh ideas and creativity. It is always an absolute pleasure and we’ve all been motivated by the meetings.”
Not that much is known about Nunneley’s brewery; it was founded at 21 Bridge Street, Burton upon Trent, c.1835 probably by Thomas Newton, by 1843 the business was being run by Joseph Nunneley who rebuilt the brewery on the same site and added a townhouse which still stands today. The company was floated on the stock market in 1888 as J. Nunneley & Co. Ltd, before merging with the Burton Brewery Co. Ltd. in 1896 whom were directly next door.
Ash Corbett-Collins will be a familiar face to anyone connected to the Burton branch of CAMRA and he is about to become known at a national level too after this election to the CAMRA National Executive at last month’s AGM. Ash is proudly Burtonian and aside for a few years at university he lived in the town all his life until he moved to Birmingham about a year ago.