Strengthens the claim that consistency is produced by managing variation and makes the role of categories, inventory, sensory controls, and wood explicit.
The operational example is Scotch, but it demonstrates a general blending-governance method relevant to repeatable American products.
Macleod explains that a whisky recipe encodes component percentages, minimum age, and cask types. Sensory categories organize available makes and permit bounded substitution when one component is unavailable, while wood-policy categories remain part of the recipe. Test liquids are checked against the brief through blind sensory assessment before the specification is frozen.
Printed p. 319 / PDF sheet 810
Printed p. 316 / PDF sheet 806
Chapter 17 — Recipe, wood policy, and the blender’s challenge
Verified against extracted text and rendered PDF sheets 806–810 on 2026-08-27.
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