Robert Nixon Snr

Head Stillman

Joined the company in 1976

The first distillate, known as low wines, is collected in a receiving vessel and then run off into the spirit still, where the distillation process is repeated more slowly. The flow of the raw spirit that emerges is divided into 3 parts. The first, “foreshots” contains oils and other impurities. The second and purest, the “centre cut”, is collected to become whisky. Finally comes the “feints”, the end of the run, which together with the foreshots is returned to the process to be re-distilled with the next batch of low wines.

It is Robert's task to analyse and monitor the flow of spirit and to ensure only the centre cuts are used to make Tomatin.