The dour demeanoured 46-year-old had started his career making products in the dental industry, but after being recruited 21 years ago by whisky-maker Glenfiddich, to help with the distilling process, it gradually became apparent he was a natural.

“It still is important having the nose,” he says. “I came in through the lab, which was full of other chemists, but had an ability to nose and probably the right temperament — that’s a big part of it.”

Being a malt master at a distillery, especially a storied Scottish one, is one of the most revered jobs in the trade. Kinsman was handed the role by William Grant & Sons master blender David Stewart in 2009.

Stewart, who has spent 50 years at the company also came to it through his nose, rising up from keeping the inventory to being awarded an MBE by the Queen.

“You do need to have a bit of patience and calm heads because, you know, whisky it’s not a fast game,” Kinsman adds.

Globally, whisky has become the big game in town, with a boom in interest that market analysts Technavio attribute to a range of new products, flavours and product innovation.

It forecasts the global market will grow by close to 6 per cent over the next four years. Scotland, its traditional home, now accounts for just 20 per cent of global production.

Even in Australia, a place known better for XXXX and Bundaberg Rum, there are now an estimated 38 whisky distillers around the country.

Tasmania’s craft industry, in particular — led by the likes of Lark, Sullivan’s Cove and Hellyers Road distilleries — has put Australian whisky on the map. Sullivan’s Cove has led the way internationally, being named best whisky in the world four years ago.

“They are very good,” comments Kinsman on Australia’s burgeoning distillers.

And it’s just such small firms that are fuelling both growth and competition.

Glenfiddich, a fifth generation family-run distiller, has increasingly experimented with production to remain relevant.

It’s latest limited-edition release, Winter Storm, is a 21-year-old single malt aged in Canadian ice wine casks, an obscure by-product of the boutique wine industry.

Ice wine is made from harvesting frozen grapes in the middle of the night and produces a much smaller yield of juice.

It is largely made in Canada, but is also produced here in Australia by the Frogmore Creek winery outside Hobart. To the layman it means the whisky is imbued with a subtle sweetness imparted by the dessert wine soaked into the oak casks.

“The single biggest learning was if you’re going to put a whisky into a sweet wine cask, make sure it’s already quite a big whisky because the natural sweetness of the wine cask can quite easily swamp it, if it’s not got that depth and body to cope,” Kinsman says.

Luke Sanderson, Glenfiddich’s Australian brand ambassador, says: “Brian started experimenting with the ice wine casks, filling them with a variety of aged Glenfiddich single malt whiskies for up to six months.

“He found only 21-year-old Glenfiddich could stand up the intensity and sweetness of the ice wine, finding the perfect harmony of sweetness and typical Glenfiddich fruity character.”

At $350 a bottle, Winter Storm is for a select drinker and Kinsman is aware whatever he produces combines the traditional standard expected by whisky drinkers with subtle new tones. It is a delicate balancing act.

“When you look at the global growth of other people making whisky,” Kinsman says, “as long as we keep our quality standards high and deliver every time, that’s first and foremost.

“After that the innovation becomes important. But it’s got to be innovation that’s authentic, that’s got integrity, it’s not a gimmick. It’s about keeping things solid.”

Kinsman admits there is a “huge amount of trial and error”. “We’re buying experimental casks pretty much every month and trying them,” he says.

“And some will taste amazing but we’ll never release them because they don’t set, or they’re not sustainable, or there’s just not a place in the range at the moment …

“You get others that are fine, they don’t sort of set you on fire in terms of thinking that’s amazing, but until you try stuff you never know. So we’re trying things constantly.”

Glenfiddich’s parent company William Grant & Sons has an annual turnover of close to $A2 billion. It is one of the whales of the industry but also collaborates with other distillers, including Pernod Ricard’s Chivas and the world’s biggest producer Diageo.

In fact there is a communal spirit between the Scottish distillers that belies their competitive nature.

Reporting on the Whiskies Awards five years ago I watched as various old Scottish families arrived at London’s Waldorf Hotel hooting and hollering like Texan cattle barons, keen to make the most of a trip to the big smoke.

There was also a lot of mutual admiration on show and a genuine bonhomie.

Kinsman thinks the niche carved out by whisky of quality and consistency is what’s behind the current interest in the spirit.

“When you see it on the back bar, people look at it and think ‘I know that’s going to be good’.”