A drink of Kings and Princes, poets and politicians, Scotch is embraced by a new
generation of drinkers as a proud symbol of national parade and global success.
I'm Ewan Gunn, Global Scotch Whisky Master, and I'm going to take you on a
whistle-stop tour to find out more about why Scotch is the world's favourite
whisky. Did you know that Scotch sells more in terms of value and volume than
any other international whisky and is known and loved globally? Scotch has long
been known as aqua vitae: the water of life. It's the pride of Scotland, exported
from our homeland to millions of bars everywhere. The world's favourite whisky
was born in Scotland over 500 years ago and made the same way today. It's footprint
stretches from the romantic west coast, through the whiskey heartland of
Speyside to the vibrant urban central belt. The timelessness and magic of
Scotch is encapsulated in our distilleries, scattered all over Scotland,
many at the heart of their communities. Some like Lagavulin and Talisker are in
heartbreakingly romantic locations. Others like Mortlach veil the mysteries
of their spirit with an impenetrable complexity. Through these distilleries, we
make the very best grain whiskies and the very best malt whiskies, all to make sure
that we can craft the very best blends, including the world's most valuable
spirit: Johnnie Walker. Here are some Scotch facts: Scotch can
only be made in Scotland. Scotch can only be matured in oak casks. A blended Scotch
can potentially contain over 100 different Scotch whiskies. The age on a
bottle of any single malt or blended Scotch refers to the youngest whisky in
the mixture. There are just over 100 distilleries in Scotland. Every drop of
Scotch in the world will have come from one or more of them. Scotch whisky offers
a wider range of tastes, textures and flavours than any other type of spirit.
Making Scotch inspires a passion rarely found in these modern times, shared by
those in large and small companies alike. We're proud to have generations of
craftsmen in our coppersmiths, cooperage, maltings, distilleries and warehouses, all
carrying on their family traditions in whisky making and sharing their skill,
experience and enthusiasm with newcomers. So, how do we make it? Well, let's first
talk about how we make single malts because they tend to have a wide variety
of flavour and style. Only three basic raw materials are used to make Scotch: water,
cereals and yeast. The first step is malting, which is done in three stages.
First of all: steeping, when the barley is soaked in water; and then germination, when
the barley starts to grow and generate energy; and lastly kilning, where we halt the
growing process. During kilning, we can choose to add peat smoke.
This is peat, and depending on how much peat smoke we expose the barley to, will
achieve differing levels of smokiness in the final whisky. Some examples of
heavily peated whisky would be Lagavulin or Cool Ila. A medium peated whisky
would be Talisker and a great example of a lightly seated whisky would be Oban.
Finally, a non-peated whisky: Cardhu is a great example. The next building block of
favor is mashing. Mashing is when we take the crushed up barley and drain water
through it, initially at a temperature of around 64 degrees centigrade, but
increasing over time, and this extracts the fermentable sugars needed to make
alcohol. Fermenting is a next building block of flavour. We take the sweet liquid
from the mashing, we cool it down and we add yeast to make alcohol for the very
first time. At this stage, we're basically making a beer that will be roughly eight
or nine percent alcohol by volume, but how long we leave it after the alcohol has
been created makes from marked difference in the final character of the
spirit. The beer like liquid is now called wash. Distillation is the next building block
of flavour. The wash is distilled in copper pots stills. Now alcohol boils at a lower
temperature than water and as long as we keep the boiling temperature a bit below
100 degrees centigrade, the water stays and the alcohol separates as a vapour and
is then cooled back down to a liquid. The first time we do this, the end
product is still not strong enough to be called a spirit and we call this liquid
"low wines". Now traditionally in Scotland we do a double distillation, so we
distill the "low wines" a further time and after the second distillation, we'll have
a spirit of approximately 70% alcohol by volume. Distilling slowly allows lots of
copper contact and this gives you a light and delicate spirit. Distilling
quickly on the other hand minimises copper contact and this gives you a
heavier, oilier spirit. The final building block of flavour is maturation and is one
of the most influential, as between 30 and 70 percent of the final flavour
profile can come from the cask. That's why having a good wood policy and
skilled coopers is imperative if you want to have great Scotch. Main species
are American Oak, which tends to give vanilla and caramel sweetness, and of
course, European Oak, which tends to give richer, fruitier notes. Most blended
Scotch whiskies and many single malts will contain a combination of both
styles. The final stage, often taking place many years later, is blending. In
the case of a single malt Scotch whisky, this is when several casks from the same
one distillery are blended together to create a consistently great liquid. In
the case of a blended Scotch whisky, this is when many casks of Scotch from single
malt and single grain distilleries are combined by our skilled team of blenders
to create a consistent balanced and excellent liquid. There's never been a
right or wrong way to enjoy your Scotch. From classic cocktails on the menus of
the great hotel bars a century ago to unusual serves and the hipster bars of
Hoxton, Kreuzberg and Williamsburg, Scotch cocktails have always been cool.