Innholdsfortegnelse for Scotch Whisky 2 i Scotch Whisky

Brora. Just uttering that single word is capable of sending shivers down the spine of most fans of rare whisky. Established in 1819, Clynelish Distillery was originally created to utilise excess barley from local farmers, most of whom had been evicted from their land during the notorious Highland Clearances by the Marquis of Stafford. Such is the Marquis’s infamy, his statue, the ‘Mannie’ placed atop a local Sutherland hill, Ben Bhraggie, still gets vandalised to this day. (I was told locally that someone once strapped a World War Two hand grenade to it.) The name Brora, from both the town and a distillery perspective, is very dear to me on a personal level, not least because my little boy learned to swim in the pool at the Royal Marine Hotel…

I like speaking in metaphors,” says Dr Bill Lumsden, head of distilling and whisky creation at Glenmorangie, the morning after the grand unveiling of his new playground. It would be hard not to notice. Lumsden is known for his ability to make nuanced, intelligent and often unexpected conversation – and the same could be said of his whiskies, for that matter. “My favourite Tom Jones song is ‘Thunderball’, and the line ‘he acts while other men just talk’ is the philosophy of what we do at Glenmorangie,” he continues, grinning. Indeed, for four decades Lumsden has been conspicuous in the world of Scotch. Often referred to as the ‘Willy Wonka’ of whisky, he has put his stamp on the Glenmorangie brand. In his 26 years at the company, he’s become…

TASTER BIOGRAPHIES Phoebe Calver As editor of American Whiskey Magazine and deputy editor of Whisky Magazine, Phoebe splits her focus between the US and ‘global’ whisky scenes. She is also co-host of Whisky Live TV and a global whisky taster for this title. Christopher Coates A member of the team since 2013 and a keen whisky drinker long before that, Christopher was appointed as editor of Whisky Magazine in 2020. Beyond this, he is chair of judges for the World Whiskies Awards and Icons of Whisky. THE PROCESS All samples are blind tasted, with ABV, country, region and style the only information disclosed Samples are tasted individually over a two-week period Tasters work to tasting and scoring guidelines in order to assess samples consistently The top-scoring sample is awarded Editor’s…

Founded at Alness, Ross-shire, in 1839 by Alexander Matheson of East Asia traders Jardine Matheson & Company, Dalmore Distillery celebrated its 180th anniversary in 2019 and has marked the occasion in a way that befits one of Scotland’s most highly regarded luxury whisky brands. In November of that year, the company announced it would release three decanters of The Dalmore 60 Years Old 180th Anniversary Edition, which is formed of spirit matured in two sherry casks that were filled on 7 June 1951. This special bottling is significant not only for the milestone being marked but because the spirit is the company’s last remaining stock from the ‘Mackenzie era’, an important period of family ownership that saw The Dalmore brand come to be recognised across the globe. The Mackenzie era…

When David Ferguson started selling used Maker’s Mark casks to Malcolm Rennie, he knew the whisky veteran was up to something. That something was Lochlea Distillery, the only independent malt whisky distillery in Ayrshire – and, at the end of 2021, it released its first single malt Scotch whisky. If you’re scratching your head wondering why you haven’t heard of Lochlea until now, stop: its goings on have been a well-kept secret since the wheels really started turning on the project in 2015. Such was the level of secrecy that when the Malt Whisky Yearbook came out last year, Lochlea was the only operating distillery not to be included. The radio silence was a deliberate move, allowing distillery manager Rennie and his team to work on their liquid without disturbance…

Within the many secrets of malt whisky lies a simple and romantic fact often highlighted by distillers: it is made from nothing more than water, barley and yeast. Processed together, an incredible variety of complex aromas and flavours emerge. However, sourcing is the most important of the three, barley, is rarely questioned or considered by whisky drinkers. Nevertheless, some distillers are now beginning to rethink the impact of a particular element of their supply chain that has changed little over decades; namely, the one in which barley is grown as a monoculture with the use of significant volumes of added chemicals. Sparked by consumer interest, Scottish government policy and enlightened industry insiders, some pioneering distillers are entirely reconsidering how barley is sourced for production. They are releasing organic whisky that…

The trading of whisky has become such big business that long-established UK auctioneering names such as Bonhams, Christie’s and Sotheby’s now host dedicated whisky sales in a variety of locations around the world, including the USA, Hong Kong and Dubai, while the number of dedicated online whisky auction houses has proliferated to a remarkable degree during the past decade. By nature of their specialisation, these houses have largely succeeded in concentrating vintage whisky knowledge within their teams, while also tapping into whisky communities to highlight upcoming sales and achieve higher hammer prices. What’s more, high-profile and widely marketed auctions of large private collections, such as Richard Gooding’s ‘Perfect Collection’, Pat’s Whisk(e)y Collection and Emmanuel Dron’s collection of rare Samaroli and Corti Brothers whiskies (all brought to auction by Perthshire-based Whisky…

There are several elements that need to be put in place to establish a successful whisky distillery: location is the most important, closely followed by having the right team in place. With regards to the former, Ardnahoe Distillery couldn’t have a better placement, perched as it is on Islay’s northern coast and overlooking the Isle of Jura. As for the latter, it is family bonds, as well as vast industry experience, that ensures the company behind the project had the strongest possible foundations on which to build Islay’s ninth working distillery. Overseen by patriarch Stewart Laing – a whisky veteran who has worked in the industry for almost 60 years – the project saw the experienced managing director, along with sons Scott and Andrew, take the next step in the…

Not too many years ago, ‘Lowland’ was very much the poor relation of Scotch malt whisky production regions, with only Glenkinchie and Auchentoshan flying the flag for malt whiskies made below the ‘Highland line.’ Now, however, the situation is very different, thanks to the fact that the promoters of many recent start-up distilleries have seen the attractions of making whisky closer to centres of population. There are advantages in terms of transport links, access to specialist services, and the fact that there is a likelihood of increased visitor numbers across a broader spread of the year than in more remote areas with relatively short tourist seasons. Going from being the ‘Cinderella’ of whisky regions, the Lowlands has become home to no fewer than 17 malt whisky distilleries in recent years,…

Although now established as home to one of Scotland’s premier sherry-influenced single malts, Tamdhu distillery was originally created to help slake the thirst of the late Victorian blended Scotch boom, like so many of its Speyside compatriots. For more than a century its output continued to fulfil the role of ‘blending malt’, most notably as a component of The Famous Grouse. Remarkably, of the 33 distilleries that opened during the final expansive decade of the 19th century, no fewer than 21 were on Speyside. This was partly due to the blenders’ stylistic preferences, but also because the fertile agricultural land of the north east of Scotland grew high-quality malting barley, had abundant pure water and supplies of peat, and coal could be imported relatively easily by rail, with casks of…

For aficionados making the pilgrimage to Islay, the heady aroma of burning peat in a distillery’s kiln is an indispensable factor in the romance and allure of this Hebridean island and legendary whisky capital. Dried-out bogs scarred by trenches, the hallmarks of peat extraction, are common sights across the isle, the legacy of centuries of the fuel’s use for heating homes and smoking malted barley during the whisky-making process. Ask any ‘peathead’ or ‘peat freak’, as those bewitched by smoky flavours in whisky often call themselves, and they’ll say it is always a treat to dig up some peat, as is sometimes done during a tour of one of the island’s distilleries, before waxing lyrical about the nuances of phenolic parts per million, the ‘terroir’ of different regional sources and…

Before the global pandemic grounded international travel to a halt, anyone passing through an airport duty-free store would probably have noticed Glenfiddich making quite a lot of noise about its latest high-profile release: the 23-year-old expression called Grand Cru. Named for the influence imparted by partial maturation in ‘French cuvée casks’, the launch of Grand Cru also marked the creation of a new ‘Grand’ collection of venerably aged Glenfiddich expressions, which includes the rum-cask matured Gran Reserva 21 Years Old and a third whisky, called Grand Couronne, that’s aged 26 years with a prolonged finish in French oak Cognac casks. This new ‘Grand’ range sits apart from the Core range (12, 15, and 18 Years Old) and is also distinct from the distillery’s Experimental family of spirits, which includes the…

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