(dramatic music)
In an era where ideas travel at light speed
and trends change at the click of a button,
(tape rewinding)
how does one maintain timelessness?
I stand on the shoulder of giants.
Many people have gone before me
and have taught me what I know now today.
To temper one's resolve
and kindle the flames of a legacy.
(speaking in foreign language)
(hammer clinking)
To preserve a craft by taking the narrow path to perfection.
(speaking in foreign language)
To seek the connection with our physical world
in a digital age.
(speaking in foreign language)
Just what does it mean to learn
from history's rich tapestry
when everyone else just looks forward?
I love my trade, and I wanna see my children
do exactly the same, if they can.
(loom whirring)
It's magical to know that I've been part
of making something that is maybe
across the other side of the world.
(bright music)
The 21st century,
the pinnacle of our digital age,
where over 40% of the global population
is connected via the internet.
In fact, there are more mobile gadgets
then there are people in the world.
With the touch of a button, a sleight of hand,
we can work, share, and even explore virtual realms
at a speed that was unimaginable just two decades ago.
It's easy to take things for granted,
especially with some of the world's
most finely crafted things.
It takes time and tremendous skill to make them a reality.
And what they can teach us is invaluable,
even as modern society races relentlessly forward.
(somber music)
Located off the southwestern coast of Scotland,
the Isle of Islay is home to a tradition
that has spanned over five centuries.
(ship horn bellowing)
Spread across the island are 11 distilleries
that hand craft Scotland's
most iconic offering to the world.
(upbeat music)
Scotland is a very unique place.
It's the reason why Scotch whiskey is what it is.
There's a great heritage of whiskey making in Scotland.
The climate or the environment in Scotland,
it's neither too hot nor too cold,
we get wonderful, the warm Atlantic air comes across,
which is full of moisture.
And that is one of the reasons
why Scotch whiskey is so unique and so different
from other whiskeys made elsewhere.
To qualify as Scotch whiskey,
the spirit must mature in warehouses
within Scotland for three years.
(fire crackling)
And each year, Scottish distillers export
over 90 million cases of whiskey to 200 markets worldwide.
Yet beyond the time-honored craft of distilling
the celebrated brew, there's also the art of blending,
where different grain and malt whiskeys
are carefully selected to create blended whiskey.
(dog barking)
There's quite a lot of lineage
of master blenders within Johnnie Walker,
and it expands over almost 200 years.
I'm the most recent incarnation of that master blender.
I've been making whiskey for 37 years,
and it just gets more interesting every day.
Flavors have always fascinated me,
I love the idea of taking individual flavors
and wondering how they could be modified
by combining with other flavors,
essentially to satisfy my curiosity.
And also, if you like, to satisfy my palette.
Even at breakfast, I like to blend the flavors
of porridge and yogurt and honey
and just see how I can make these
very simple ingredients work together.
Blending whiskey is all about creating
something greater than the sum of the parts.
It's taking all these wonderful single malt
and single grain whiskeys and combining them
in a way that produces a blend
which surpasses each of the individuals,
and that's essentially what blending is all about.
(bright music)
Whiskey's made from water, yeast, and malted barley.
This is an exciting part of the process
because this is where it all begins.
You can see the barley here is beginning to germinate.
As the barley germinate, the starch held
in the barley begins to convert into sugar.
I just love the smell of this malted barley, it's wonderful.
And when it's finished germinating,
we're then going to dry it very quickly over a peat fire.
This is the peat, and it's made from decayed moss.
The moss rots down and compacts and creates this peat,
and when this is burnt, it creates a very unique aroma.
These strands of old, ancient moss,
that's thousands of years old.
Every time I smell the peat,
it reminds me where this smell comes from.
(bright music)
This is an amazing process.
The malted barley's mixed with warm water.
The enzymes in the malt convert to sugar,
and those sugars will then be used to ferment into alcohol.
Originally, it would be done by hand
and they'd be trying by trial and error
to perfect their art, and it's very technical.
But behind that technology, there's years and years
of hard work by distillers to try and perfect this process.
(upbeat music)
Ashing and fermentation help produce a strong beer.
So what we do is we take this strong beer and we distill it,
that distillate is going to create the whiskey.
This is full of liquid up to about here.
And we heat the liquid up, it's actually quite hot.
They're made of copper because copper
is a very reactive metal with lots of reactions
taking place, taking lots of flavors.
If the stills were made out of any other material,
it wouldn't be whiskey, it'd be completely different.
You can smell amazing smells coming across here,
and every minute, the flavors change.
When it starts at the beginning,
it smells very much like rich fruits.
As the distillation continues,
those flavors will become more complex.
(dramatic music)
I stand on the shoulder of giants.
Many people have gone before me
and have taught me what I know now today.
And so, right now it's critical for me to pass on
that knowledge to what will be the next generation.
Beyond teaching technical knowledge,
what else does it take to ensure a legacy?
What values should be passed on to a young generation
that have been brought up with a hunger
for the new, rather than the old?
(dramatic music)
(speaking in foreign language)
(sweeping music)
We live in a world oversaturated with choices,
where every decision is experienced through a screen,
or explored through digital realms,
realms that separate us, even as they connect many.
As technology gives us increasing ways
with which to interpret our surroundings,
can we maintain a connection that grounds us,
slows us down, so that we can appreciate the beauty
and textures of the world around us?
(birds chirping)
(upbeat music)
In a small town near the southeastern coast of Italy,
(bell ringing) one man is holding on tightly
to a tradition dating back to the 7th century
that helps him connect to nature
in ways that are fast disappearing.
(speaking in foreign language)
(happy music)
(bright music)
(chimes tinkling)
(dramatic music)
To break things down before creating something
totally unique isn't confined to just paper making.
Mastery over the elements is a crucial skill
to forge cutting edge art.
(sweeping music)
(sword chopping)
(dramatic music)
With advances in transport and communication technology,
our world today is a globalized one
where borders are more open and our most cosmopolitan cities
are blends of diverse cultures.
If art imitates life, how have our finest craftsman
interpreted this into their work?
For master blender Jim Beveridge,
the key to creating the perfect blend
comes with deep experience
and the ability to see the connections
even between seemingly opposite flavors.
Here are some whiskeys you can see here.
This one could be from Barnard's
or Ava's Famous Malt Whiskey.
And this could be some from Caol Ila.
Quite different flavors, and the art of blending
is knowing how to combine those two together,
considering their flavor and this has got lovely,
fresh, fruity flavors, this would be great.
So I'll take some of that and measure it out like this.
It takes a lot of patience to create a blend,
lots of trial and error,
til eventually I've combined all the whiskeys
into whiskeys that I want to be together.
(chimes tinkling)
(happy music)
So you look at the color, the aroma, and taste.
(waves crashing)
Drinking whiskey's an amazing experience.
I think a great analogy is the analogy where you consider
the flavors as if they were waves in the sea.
When some of the waves break on the shore,
it's like this huge burst of flavor that you experience.
Some of those flavors begin to spread out in the palette
and begin to emerge and begin to reveal themselves.
The long, lingering smokiness, for example,
it just stays on the palette as the whole experience
begins to subside and go back,
as it just goes back into the sea from where it came from.
And that's the great way
of describing the flavors of whiskey.
(dramatic music)
But is the sometimes subtle art
of craftsmanship lost on our post-industrial age
where the taste is now for much harder stuff?
The boom in world population following the last century's
great wars has led mankind to build upwards,
forging steel and glass into glittering skylines
that defy imagination.
In Shanghai alone, more than 60 skyscrapers
have been built in the last 10 years,
fueling a massive drive to bend the hardest of materials
to the whims of human needs.
It is a mechanical process that wraps
our cities in steel armor.
There are others, however, who prefer
the more organic process to forge an older metal,
a material that literally lives and breathes.
(speaking in foreign language)
(hammers clinking)
(sweeping music)
Nestled amongst rural mountains in the west of South Korea,
one man is seeking to strike a balance
between a modern world and his people's imperial heritage.
(speaking in foreign language)
(dog barking)
(fire crackling)
(hammers clinking)
Even as Master Lee struggles to find people
to continue his legacy, there are others who would make
personal sacrifices to ensure that the flames
never go out on a centuries old tradition.
(speaking in foreign language)
(somber music)
(soft music)
(water pouring)
For the Ito family,
great craftsmanship can often be a solo discipline.
For others, however, good teamwork
is almost always the only way to perfection.
(dramatic music)
We live in the most connected era of all human history,
data lines criss-cross our world,
connecting almost one in every two people on this planet.
Every minute, we send over 200 million emails,
conduct over three million online searches,
and share nearly a million experiences on social media.
But the digital web that we built around our modern society
isn't so far removed from what we,
as a species, have done for centuries.
(looms whirring)
Since the days of the earliest computers,
man always had the instinct
for weaving intricate tapestries.
(suspenseful music)
It's a traditional way of weaving.
On the new looms now, it's all computer,
pressing buttons, I prefer the old-fashioned way.
(soft music)
My name is Sue Thompson, I was born in Sudbury,
I've lived here all my life.
My name is Geoff Turkentine, I live in Sudbury.
The town means so much to me
because I've got a passion for the history.
This town is famous for Gainsborough the painter,
and also for the silk weaving.
(dramatic music)
The purpose is to get the yarn onto the bobbin,
spread evenly so it's ready for walking.
I work at Gainsborough Silks,
we've been here for over 100 years
and my jobs are a winder, a walker, and a weaver.
I started here when I was 18,
I asked if I could learn to weave,
and at the time, they didn't want me to
because it was just the men that did the weaving
and the women who did the preparatory work.
(looms whirring)
Quite a few years later, the boss came up
and asked me if I would like to learn to weave,
so I learnt to weave.
(upbeat music)
In this job, there's three types of dye,
violet, red, and yellow.
I am a textile technician, I oversee dying the silk.
Creatin' colors is not as easy as you think it is.
You can't just guess, it is a scientific process.
When we dye silk, we have to wash off all the chemicals
and it has to go up to a certain temperature.
You put the dye in and let the dye disperse
down into the arms all the nice needling.
The hardest part of my job is actually matching the color
at the end product, but that's part and parcel of dying,
you cannot get everything first time.
And the next day you could do exactly the same process
and you could get a different shade.
Mastery over the relationship
between different materials and different elements
is to reach the apex of one's craft.
Unlike digital ones and zeroes,
nature's elements have a life of their own.
No two objects are ever alike.
To connect and control the subtleties
of this physical world,
one requires sharp human instincts and a deft touch.
(fire crackling)
(sweeping music)
(speaking in foreign language)
(hammer pounding)
(birds chirping)
(bright music)
How legacies are grown differ from master to master.
And as each tradition gains a new generation,
they take on new personalities.
Old hands merge with fresh ideas
to create something familiar, yet unique.
(speaking in foreign language)
(looms whirring)
Crafts become living traditions
when they are protected and shaped by people
who possess the passion and the will,
each pair of hands forming an intimate relationship
with materials derived from nature.
How a living tradition rises to become art
requires not only mastery of the skills,
but also a uniqueness that is as special
as the prints on our fingers.
(dramatic music)
The 21st century is a time of unfettered creativity.
Thousands of mobile apps and digital products
help us to express ourselves with the touch of a button.
It's easy to take for granted the traditions
behind what make our lives better today.
(soft music)
For makers who still preserve the artistry of old,
attaining a high skill level requires knowledge,
sacrifice, and patience. (speaking in foreign language)
(sword chopping)
(looms whirring)
The threads of destiny can be woven very differently
for other makers where challenges are diverse
and require individual skill and teamwork to overcome
before true art can be achieved.
This is the walking mill and I've got 326 bobbins.
They are manually passed through this reed
and then manually passed into this little reed,
and that is what we call a section.
Now once I pull this up,
I must let go of the tension that way.
With silk, the tension's very important.
But the minute you cut it, you mustn't let go of it, at all.
Because if you let go of it before tie it round the pin,
it will just blow and go everywhere.
It's nerve-wracking (laughing).
To be really good at the job, you've got to really want
to do it, to learn to do it properly,
and then be proud of what you've done, what you've learned.
(looms whirring)
(soft music)
I have got a new hobby, keeping tropical fish.
The variety of colors inspires me
and it feeds passion towards my job.
You could get a majority of colors
we do in the mill through a fish tank.
Colors are different to different people's eyes.
Once we've done a dye press,
we test the eye and see if it's on shade.
We have to use a machine called a spectrometer.
Sometimes a spectrometer is accurate,
sometimes it's easier to go by natural eye.
It's not on shade at the moment,
I can see a little bit of green
and now I've got to do an alteration with it
by putting more violet into the bath.
Your eyes never lie.
(dramatic music)
Well this is the final stage.
This is one of the weaving looms,
and the pattern is determined by the cards
at the top there with all those holes in.
(loom whirring)
As the cards go around the cylinder,
each hole that is punched out of the card,
a pin goes through, so every time the shuttle goes through,
the threads cross, the cards turn,
and the pattern is created as you go along.
The cards are part of the history of this factory.
If someone turned up and wanted something
that was made here 100 years ago,
they could probably go back through the archives.
If they're old and damaged, fresh cards could be made.
(upbeat music)
This room is the showroom.
Here's one of our most famous customers,
Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge.
That's our fabric on the walls.
It's magical to know that I've been part of making something
that is maybe across the other side of the world.
That's called the Thompson stripe
because I made that, that's mine (laughing).
That means the world to me, that does,
that they gave me the opportunity to do it.
(loom whirring)
Beyond skill, sacrifice,
collaboration, and tradition, for these master makers,
what else does true legacy require?
Timelessness, and not just by design,
by connecting generations past, present,
and future, reinventing tradition.
I'm passionate about my job, and I'm getting
more passionate because at the end of the day,
I don't want to see it end and I want it go on
and on and on and on, and I want to see my children
do exactly the same, if they can.
That gets right through there.
(soft music)
(speaking in foreign language)
(hammers clinking)
I think whiskey has an amazing story.
Good to see you, hi.
Legacy is very, very important.
But a master blender is responsible for innovation,
making sure that we create new expressions
that will delight the consumers.
I've begun to understand the flavors
that come with whiskey, and now those flavors
evoke memories, most of them pleasant memories.
You have to make sure that the whiskeys that are being made
today will be fit for purpose in the future.
We kind of live in the future of making sure
that what we make today will be suitable for my successors.
(soft music)
(speaking in foreign language)
(dramatic music)