The Scotch Blog

Ballechin Act (repost)

I was wandering the floor at Whisky Live Paris when I saw Sukhinder Singh sitting behind the Edradour booth. I joined him when he thrust a glass into my hands and said those fateful words every whisky lover yearns to hear: "Try this".

While I was tasting, Andrew Symington, the Head guy at Edradour 7 Signatiry came over to chat.

Andrew Symington: How old do you think that is?

Kevin Erskine: <take a taste> Very Peaty - I would say it's a little young. <taste again> I'll say six.

AS: Three years and 5 months

KE: What was it aged in? It's got an interesting sweetness.

AS: First fill Burgundy casks.

KE: Exclusively?

Too many Bruichladdich editions?

Mark Reynier of Bruichladdich took some time to expand on and respond to the issues I raised in the recent story "The Laddie" - specifically the discussion of whether or not there are simply too many Bruichladdichs in the market.

As always, Mark is blunt and to the point.

Read on...

Curious & Authentic

Benriach has an interesting history - built in 1897, the distillery was closed just 6 years later and then  lay dormant for 62 years. In 1965, the distillery was reopened by new owners, Glenlivet Distillers, but closed again in 2002. In 2004 the distillery was purchased by a team which included Billy Walker, formerly of Burn Stewart.

Probably best known for Curiositas and Authenticus their 10 and 21 year old (respectively) heavily peated whiskies - a unique departure from the standard lightly peated Speyside style, BenRiach also offers 12, 16, 20, 25 and 30 year old (lightly peated) versions - as well as the non-aged labeled Heart of Speyside.

I met Billy at Whisky Live Paris where we talked about the past and future of BenRiach as well as some of the things one the horizon.

A visit to the Laddie

Much as it is the obligation of every Muslim to make “the Hajj”, the pilgrimage to Mecca; it is the obligation of the whisky lover to make the pilgrimage to Islay – arguably the origination point of the introduction of whisky to Scotland.

One should plan to visit all eight working distilleries on the island – as the variety of whiskies produced by these eight is as varied as the many whiskies produced across the whole of Scotland.

While most people associate Islay with the strongest and peatiest of all whiskies, this is simply a fallacy, as whiskies of great delicacy are to be found at both Bunnahabhain and Bruichladdich.

But it is only at Bruichladdich that one can observe whisky being made much as it was made 125 years ago – and interestingly enough, with much of the same equipment.

The staff of Bruichladdich take great pride in the fact that the whisky is made largely by hand, without a computer controlled gadget to be found.

Luddites? Not at all - the former distillery manager’s house (current Distillery Academy quarters and Bed & Breakfast) is wired for WiFi. Inventory is computerized - one concession to the computer age - though not tracked by bar code – Bruichladdich still stencils each and every cask with contents and year of distillation.

A Sleeping Giant

As you speed along the A95 on your way to Aberlour, Craigellachie and points beyond, you'll drive right by a small family owned distillery in Ballindalloch. But if you ever happen to be on that road headed towards Macallan or Glenfiddich - do what a growing number of people are doing in their whisky shop. Slow down, and check out Glenfarclas.

Originally built in 1836 by Robert Hay, it wasn't until 1865 that the Glenfarclas Distillery came under the ownership of the Grant Family - the distillery remains, to this day, independent and family run.

It all started with John Grant, who on June 8th 1865 purchased Glenfarclas for £511.19. In 1889, John's son George took ownership. In 1890, John and George, George's sons took over. In 1949, George, son of George took over. In 2001, the current chairman John Grant took the reins. And I was at Glenfarclas to meet with George, who is John's son.

Notice a pattern?

Drambuie makes their move...

Just-Drinks.com reports that Drambuie is about to kick off their "rejuvenation" campaign - kicking in a tidy sum to do the job - GBP10m (US$18.6m) will be invested in the international marketing campaign and will focus the product for younger consumers.

I talked about Drambuie in July 2005.

What is Drambuie?

In case you are one of the people who has never tried it, Drambuie is blended whisky, along wih  honey, and added "secret ingredients." It is sickeningly sweet when taken neat, but as a mixer it can be quite tasty - chances are that your grandparents drank it over ice.

UPDATE: Sherry; "Spanish Oak" - which is it?

On Monday I had a story about the effects of sherrry vs. Spanisk oak on sherried single malts.
The story resulted in a great comment from wine & sherry expert Beau Jarvis of Basic Juice.

Caspar MacRae, of The Macallan responds:

Hello Kevin,

Great - this is the sort of question that those of us involved with The Macallan can really get our teeth into!

Beau is largely right. The vast majority of sherry matured in the soleras of Jerez is matured in American Oak (Quercus alba) sherry butts. The oak is imported from the States prior to coopering and creating the large Bota Jerzana's sherry butts. A producer like Gonzales Byass will have in excess of 150,000 butts, of which the majority will be American oak.

Sherry; "Sherry Oak" - which is it?

Another excellent question from Alan Lazerow, who wrote the informative article Whisky and Orthodox Jews.

We have established that the unique taste of whisky aged in sherry cask is not due to the sherry, but rather, the wood involved (Spanish oak).

Presumably, this spanish oak is also used to hold port, madeira wine, burgundy wine, etc. If that's the case, what's the big deal if the Balvenie 21 is a Portwood? If the taste is from the oak, it should taste the same as a 21 year old madeira wood. Also, why the need for Glenmorangie to have a whole line of 12's (madeira, burgundy, sherry, port) - shouldn't it all taste the same - after all, it's all spanish oak?!

7 Casks, 7 Tastes

I'd like to talk about sampling whisky directly from cask samples - something most of us never get to do.

On a recent trip to visit the blending lab at Compass Box, I had a chance to try samples from 7 different casks which had been treated with 3 different toasting levels. Other than the toast of the wood, the contents of the casks and length of maturation was identical.

The thing that surprised me most was that all of the samples, even those from similarly toasted casks, each had it's own nose and taste characteristics - no two samples were alike.

I'm going to talk about the differences between those cask samples - I didn't take extensive tasting notes since you'll never be able to buy bottles from these individual casks. I'm also specficially not going into details about the whisky or the wood, as John has to keep some secrets. So don't ask.

The rare Saturday story

James Thompson* emailed me this morning to tell me about an article in today's Times (UK) which, on its surface, discusses the Ladybank distillery, but strayed to touch on issues of terroir - this time regarding water and its impact on the finished spirit.

Now before anyone jumps on me for the term terroir and how it is not applicable to the production of Scotch whisky - I'm still looking for someone to come up with a Gaelic term that means "the place where a thing is made" I'll happily start using that term.

Back to business...