Secrets of Scotch whisky
“Slàinte mhath!” they say in Scotland when they raise a glass of the local whisky. Literally translating as “health,” it expresses the welcoming atmosphere found when drinking the world’s finest whisky.
Scotch whisky comes from five regions and 125 distilleries, each with its own style.
Whisky can be broadly categorized as light, delicate, rich, and smoky. Words like grassy, herbal, nutty, citrus, peaty, and spicy are used to discuss the flavor and aroma.
The infinite range of whisky comes from just three ingredients: barley, yeast and water. And, of course, the distiller’s art.
At the Highland Park Distillery on the far-north, windswept island of Orkney, 20 percent of the barley is floor malted — a traditionbound, labor-intensive process where the germinating barley is spread on the floor and turned three times a day for a week.
The malted barley is then dried over a kiln fire — an important step for the final flavor.
A good deal of the Scottish highlands is a boggy peat marsh. It’s made up of decaying plants that have been building up for thousands of years. The peat is dug up in slabs, dried for six months, and then burned as a fuel for home fireplaces and barley kilns. Highlanders wax poetic about the aroma of their peat fires.
It’s the peat that gives Scotch its smoky character. Distilleries use more or less depending on their house style. At Highland park, peat is burned for the first 16 to 22 hours of drying for a delicate smoke character before switching to coal.
Our guide, Kate, showed us Orkney peat from the top layer still with its roots and branches of heather; and another block from roughly a foot down that was dense, heavy and about 4,000 years old. It’s the heather, she told us, that gives Highland Park whisky its distinctive floralhoney character.
The dried barley is brewed with yeast and water to create a “beer” called wash. The wash is then distilled twice to a level of about 70 percent alcohol. At this point the whisky is rough, unrefined and perfectly clear.
What happens next is the secret of Scotch. The newmade spirit is put into oak barrels and aged for at least 10 years, but often many more.
Barrels give the whisky its color, flavor, nuance and subtlety. A lot of effort and expense is put into making the barrels.
Highland Park meticulously controls the process, starting with the trees. Their oak comes from forests in both Missouri and Spain. Before being filled with whisky, the barrels spend two years filled with sherry. “We only rent the sherry.” Kate told us.
“After two years we give it back and don’t know what happens to it.” She showed us a stave with a line where the sherry had soaked halfway through the thickness of the barrel — flavor that would be imparted to the maturing whisky.
A properly made and prepared barrel can cost $1,000 or more.
After that, it’s all about patience. By law, the whisky must be aged at least 10 years. Most are aged 12 and more. The practical limit is about 50 years in the barrel.
The barrels rest in long stone sheds without heat or air conditioning, enjoying the damp Scottish climate, which rarely gets very hot or cold.
Each year a small portion of the whisky evaporates (called the angels’ share). At Highland Park they have 45,000 barrels resting in the sheds.
Single malt whisky is the most popular now. It is the product of a single distillery, but still blended from multiple barrels. The age on the label is from the youngest component.