Fine & Rare Scottish Whisky

Different types of whiskey are made in different countries; in fact, some can legally only be made in a particular country. In the U.S., whiskeys include twomoreglasses bourbon (at least 51% corn), rye (at least 51% rye), and single malt . Single malt scotch is made in Scotland from a mash bill of 100% malted barley.

Chapter 7 Whisky

In recent years, though, Japanese whisky has grown in popularity on the global market. Japanese whiskies such as Suntory and Nikka won many prestigious international awards between 2007 and 2014. Sadly, there are no scientific comparisons between the flavour of different barley varieties. The early malting varieties were proportionally higher in protein and fat but lower in carbohydrates.

Big Flavour

The distillery was an early adopter of cask finishes with its DoubleWood 12, which is matured in ex-bourbon barrels and finished in sherry casks. It tells the story of the distillery that produced the whisky and the cask where it matured. There will never be a repeat performance; when all the bottles are sold there will never be any more.

Double distilled, with wafts of honey, orange and vanilla, accompanied by hints of herbaceous notes and light oak. That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

Whisky is a strictly regulated spirit worldwide with many classes and types. The typical unifying characteristics of the different classes and types are the fermentation of grains, distillation, and aging in wooden barrels. Our Chronicle series shows how time changes the flavour of maturing whisky.

Scottish whisky distilleries accommodate a variety of different pot stills. Volumes vary from the litre wash still of Glenkinchie to the 2179 litre spirit still of Edradour (artisanal sma' stills excluded) and height from a couple of metres to the 8m tall Glenmorangie stills. Most are roughly onion shaped, but there are significant differences from the tear-shaped Bunnahabhain and Lagavulin to the slender Glenmorangie and Bruichladdich stills. Many stills have a wide bottom and a constricted neck, while several have a bulbous boil ball (aka reflux ball, Milton/Balvenie ball or bulge) in the middle section.

Yamazaki Distillery

Bere was 6-row barley variety originating probably from northern Scandinavia with long stem and rapid growth (therefore also called 90-day-barley). Michel Couvreur revived the bere whisky in 1985 when he used bere from Orkney to distill whisky at Edradour. Since then at least Arran, Springbank and Bruichladdich have released bere whisky. Due to rapid growth in whisky production in the 1950s, more English and foreign barley was used. If six-row barley was used, the smaller grains were sold to the distillers and the plumper grain to the brewers.