Innholdsfortegnelse for Scotch Whisky 3 i Scotch Whisky

Wherever a Scotch whisky may end up, its journey will always begin with the seeds of a cereal crop. The UK’s Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) produces an annual Recommended List of favoured crop varieties that are tested for yield and disease resistance, among other parameters. For the 2023 harvest, the AHDB included 13 varieties of two-row malting barley on its spring barley list, and three varieties on its winter barley list. If you want to distil with that malted barley, rather than brew, the list gets narrower; the UK’s Malting Barley Committee (MBC) only has four varieties in its 2023 approved harvest list. Laureate is king among these; first put on the AHDB Recommended List in 2016, it now accounts for some 50 per cent of the UK’s…

It’s incredible to think that, up until 2018, there hadn’t been a single malt whisky officially bottled in Scotland’s biggest city since the turn of the previous century. In fact, though Glasgow had once been a hub of whisky distilling with more than 30 working sites when the original Glasgow Distillery (also known as Dundashill) closed in 1902, it would be well over a century before a new independent single malt distillery would be launched in the city. (Kinclaith, the name given to pot stills added to the Strathclyde grain distillery complex in 1957, was not officially released as a single malt and did not operate as a standalone production site. It closed in 1975.) It was with much excitement, then, that the inaugural release from the Glasgow Distillery Company…

GENERAL INFORMATION Distillery name: Torabhaig Distillery Parent company: Mossburn Distillers Address: Teangue, Isle of Skye, IV44 8RE Years of operation: 2017 – present day Open to the public: Yes TEAM & OUTPUT Distillery manager name: Hamish Fraser Production team size: 9 people, full time Maximum annual capacity: 550,000lpa Present working capacity: 500,000lpa Operation time: 24 hours Automation: Semi-automated WATER Water source: Allt Gleann and Allt Breacach rivers CEREALS Cereal varieties: In 2022, Laureate malted barley harvested in 2021 Cereal preparation: Crisp Maltings Average PPM of malt: 75–85ppm Peat source: Aberdeenshire Mill type: Roller mill Mash tun type: Semi-lauter Batch size: 1.6 tonne Wort clarity: Clear Mashes per week: Up to 19, depending on the weather FERMENTATION Washbacks/Fermenters: 8 Douglas fir, 10,000 litres Wash charge volume: 8,000 litres Temperature control: Yes…

There is much to feel positive about in the world of Scotch whisky at the moment, but a dark cloud is looming on the horizon. At the time of writing, there are no fewer than 136 malt distilleries in operation around Scotland, with many more under construction or at the planning stage in locations across all regions of the country. Additionally, the lost giants of Rosebank in the Lowlands and Port Ellen on Islay are well on the way back to production. When it comes to the practical business of making whisky, many of the new generation of start-up distilleries are not just copying existing models – they are looking backwards to the best of the past, and forwards to the future. For many years, most major distillers and the…

On a quiet Friday afternoon in March, I find myself being shown around Jenson Button’s personal whisky collection at his Los Angeles home by the British racing driver himself. Sure, it may have been via Zoom, but I still got a glimpse into what kind of whisky drinker the 2009 Formula 1 Champion is, with his boatload of Lagavulin (he’s into his peat), some Glenfiddich Grand Cru and a rather special bottle of Macallan he tells me he received as a gift. But I’m here to talk to him about another whisky altogether: Coachbuilt, a new blended Scotch created by Button in collaboration with whisky writer and consultant George Koutsakis. A blend of the five whiskymaking regions in Scotland (Highlands, Lowlands, Campbeltown, Islay and Speyside), Coachbuilt has been created to…

GENERAL INFORMATION Distillery Name: The Glasgow Distillery Co. Parent company: N/A Address: 8 Deanside Road, Glasgow, G12 9RR Years of operation: 2012 – present Open to the public: No TEAM & OUTPUT Distillery manager name: N/A – there is a team of distillers Production team size: 4 distillers, 1 cooper – all full time Maximum annual capacity: 360,000 lpa Present working capacity: 230,000 lpa Operation time: 16 hours per day, 7 days per week Automation: No WATER Water source: Mains – Loch Katrine CEREALS & MASHING Cereal varieties: Laureate malted barley, unpeated. Also Laureate malted barley, peated to 50ppm. The annual production is split into unpeated spirit for five months, peated for five months, and unpeated triple distilled for two months Cereal preparation: Muntons and Crisp maltsters Average PPM of…

The best way to understand why Caol Ila was built in a comparatively impenetrable location, between a steep cliff and the Sound of Islay, is to view the distillery from the sea. That way, its remote location on the far north-eastern shores of Islay makes most sense. Like most of Islay’s distilleries, Caol Ila was designed to be served directly from the sea, and the site was close to an extremely good water supply, rising through limestone in Loch nam Ban and entering the sea at Caol Ila. The distillery, near the ferry port of Port Askaig, has its origins in the first half of the 19th century. It was recently unveiled as the final ‘corner’ in Diageo’s Four Corners of Scotland quartet of distilleries that make major contributions to…

As the heat of summer took hold in Scotland in 2022, the launch of Finn Thomson Whisky was taking place in Perthshire. It’s not often a whisky bottler arrives on the scene with almost 300 years of history and a 50-year-old Glenlivet as a first release, but the generations before Finn Thomson provided him some excellent tools with which to launch his brand. The tale of the Thomson family is one of illicit distilling, innovative ideas, and reigniting a legacy. During a launch event, we visited locations around the Grandtully area which have been the backdrop to the Thomsons’ story for generations. Our tour starts at the Loch of Grandtully, where Finn, along with his sister Socha and father Andrew, recounts the tale of James Thomson, his six times great-grandfather,…

In common with all other major whisky-making regions, Scotland is undergoing a revolution in production, with near-weekly announcements of new distilleries breaking ground on their sites, starting up their stills, filling their first cask, or put their matured spirit into a bottle. With arguably a greater weight of heritage, tradition, and global prestige on its shoulders than any other whisky-making country, Scotland’s distillers, blenders, and independent bottlers have a vast wealth of knowledge on which to draw in the production of their spirits – but with the 21st-century whisky renaissance have come fresh attitudes toward Scotland’s national drink, and new ideas on how to make it. This new wave of ingenuity, combined with a dedication to and respect for the country’s distilling traditions, make the job of tasting its whiskies…

Future generations will surely look back on the present day as one of the major boom times for Scotch whisky – but amongst all the public fanfare of what is surely a golden era, there’s one story that quietly yet singularly attests to the industry’s sense of confidence: the founding of Morrison Scotch Whisky Distillers (MSWD). The Morrison family has been a recognised force in the world of Scotch whisky for five generations and is able to trace its involvement in just about every aspect of production. Notably, the opening of Aberargie Distillery near Perth in 2017 marked the family’s first return to distilling since the sale of Morrison Bowmore Distillers – a company dating from the 1950s that was established by patriarch Stanley P. Morrison and at its height…

Stretching from Shetland in the north to the Mull of Kintyre in the south, the Highland whisky region comprises a full third of Scotland’s land area and the majority of its mountain ranges. The local geography has an immense influence on the climate: prevailing westerly airflows from the Atlantic jet stream are forced upwards, clouds form, and rain ensues – in abundance. Consequently, the West Highlands (including the Hebrides) receive some of the wettest weather in the British Isles. But, in the words of Mark Twain, “While climate is what we expect, weather is what we get” – and, as I arrive on Skye, there is hardly a cloud to be seen. The prevailing wind has presumably changed, and yet there is precious little of that too. Even the midges…

GENERAL INFORMATION Distillery Name: Caol Ila Distillery Address: Caol Ila, Islay, PA46 7RL Parent company: Diageo Open to the public: Yes, however access needs to be arranged through brand home TEAM & OUTPUT Production team size: 7 operators, full time Distillery manager: Sam Hale Maximum capacity: Approx. 7mla Present working capacity: Approx. 6.7mla Operation time: 24 hours, 7 days per week Automation: Partial automation WATER Source: Loch nam Ban CEREALS Types: Laureate Preparation: Port Ellen Maltings Average PPM of malt: 38ppm Peat source: Islay Peat Mill type: Porteus roller mill Mash tun: Lauter Batch size: 12.8 tonnes Wort clarity: Cloudy Mashes per week: 26 FERMENTATION Washbacks: 8 Douglas fir (83,000 litres), 2 stainless steel (79,000 litres) Washback capacity: 51,000 litres Temperature control: No Switchers: Yes Duration: 60 hours Yeast: AB…

Two decades ago, visiting Scotland’s distilleries was mostly the pastime of die-hard whisky enthusiasts, who’d often just turn up at the door and ask to see the manager, or else the ‘coach tour’ crowd, who’d pop by, do a quick walk round, taste a dram with a piece of shortbread, and exit via the gift shop. Given that many of Scotland’s most popular rural areas have a limited number of places to stay, visitors to distilleries would often simply book wherever was available – or whichever hotel fit their budget. At that time, there was only a handful of what might be considered ‘luxury’ hotels in Scotland, and not all of these had whisky bars or even more than a couple of bottles on their shelves. How things have changed.…