Jonathan MilesGlobal Spirits Business Development Manager at LALLEMAND BIOFUELS & DISTILLED SPIRITS, South AfricaSpeaker
Profile
Jonathan has worked in the liquor industry for 41 years and has covered the whole spectrum of Beer, Wine and Spirits, Retail and Wholesale. He has also worked in the fermentation world for Fuel and Beverage products with Anchor Yeast and Lallemand Biofuels and Distilled Spirits for over 13 years.
He now consults extensively to the liquor and allied industries around the world. His current client base includes Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits in the USA; Anchor Yeast, William Grant & Sons and Dragon Brands in South Africa.
His most recent experience has been developing markets for yeast supplies to distilleries in Scotland, Ireland, Thailand, Taiwan, Africa and the USA. The emergence of craft distillers in many markets has also created opportunities to develop specific yeast strains to impart particular flavours to different spirit types.
In 2014, Jonathan delivered a paper at the Worldwide Distilled Spirits Conference in Glasgow on the use of different strains to enhance flavours in whisky making in the first instance and white spirits in the second instance.
Jonathan has a passion for whisky and in 1999 he founded the Whisky Academy in South Africa through which he runs courses (Whisky One; Whisky Two and An introduction to Whisky) and provides tastings and education to the liquor trade and consumers around the world.
He was made a Keeper of the Quaich by the Scotch Whisky Industry in 2011 in recognition of his work on Scotch whisky in the many markets he visits every year.
He has a B Comm. from the University of South Africa and has worked for such giants as SAB Miller and Makro SA in Finance, Sales, Marketing and Procurement.
One of his new projects includes working on flavours and aromas of whisky, wine and gin where some exciting developments are coming to the fore, particularly in the now rapidly growing gin category.
Sugar & Ethanol Africa has merged with Africa Sugar. To find out more about the new event please visit the new website: www.africasugar.com