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Written by Knight Ridder
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Wednesday, 28 June 2006 |
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Great Scot!
Or maybe that should be, “Great Scotch!”
Hold on there.
In all fairness, you have to give the Irish credit for inventing whiskey — and note that’s whiskey with an “e.”
But, me wee lads and lassies, it was the Scottish who took the invention and perfected it by means of the alchemy of transforming basic ingredients like barley, water and yeast into streams of golden Scotch whisky. Only then does it become whisky without the “e” — a spelling to which only the Scots can lay claim.
The process of making single-malt scotch is mystifying, even complicated, right down to its spelling. But for those with an appreciation of good scotch, a visit to Scotland to see how it’s done is definitely worth a crossing over the Pond.
Bucolic, pastoral Scotland.
Sure, it’s known for more things than scotch. For centuries, travelers have been lured to this bewitching land of misty moors; ancient castles and churches; fire-breathing dragons and lake-dwelling monsters; endless miles of stone walls and cobbled, green fields smeared with amethyst-hued heather and bright yellow gorse; untold herds of shaggy highland cows and at least a gazillion sheep; and more kilt-clad Scottish lads named Angus and Iain and James and Duncan than you ever thought possible.
Toss into the mix Scotland’s remarkable history and its legendary heroes like William Wallace (portrayed so memorably by a kilted Mel Gibson in “Braveheart”), Rob Roy McGregor, Robbie Burns and Robert the Bruce, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why Scotland is a magnet for tourists.
Oh, if you’re really brave at heart, you’ll also come for the chance to sample the haggis, a sausage-like meat that is considered the national dish of Scotland. As a semi-vegetarian, I couldn’t make myself eat it — which, depending upon whom you ask, is made either of beef, pork or even sheep innards — ewe! (Get it?)
Anyway, back to the spirits — the distilled kind, not the ghostly kind, but more on that momentarily.
The first thing to know is that single-malt Scotch whisky is not your everyday firewater. Compared to some American, Canadian or Irish whiskeys, which can be quite ornery and kick like a mule, true scotch seems more like a classy first cousin, in part because a number of factors must be present to produce it. Explaining the entire process is too complicated so I’ll simplify it as much as possible.
The primary building block of great scotch is the pure, sweet mineral-laden water that bubbles from beneath Scotland’s surface. The basic recipe is to malt barley in the water, then dry it with smoke (most distilleries add peat to their fires). Then it’s mashed and fermented with yeast. The distillation process is next, which results in a purer form of alcohol, and then it is placed in oak casks to mature. That’s it in a nutshell.
So, then, why does one scotch taste different from another? For lots of reasons, but the answer lies primarily in the method in which it is aged. Some of those oak casks previously contained other potent potables like sherry, cognac, bourbon or even beer, each of which lends a unique flavor to the scotch. Whisky matures slowly, so from the time it is casked, there it remains, soaking up the essence of the wood for at least three years and often for decades before it is bottled and sold. Just so you know, to be classified as genuine scotch, the whisky must be distilled twice and aged in the cask in Scotland for at least three years before it can be sold.
One of the great features of Scotland is that it is fairly compact, so to travel the whisky trail, all you have to do is take a short flight or drive to one of the four scotch-producing regions of the country — Islay, Speyside, the Highlands and the Lowlands — to experience the myriad tastes and moods of authentic Scotch whisky. | Only registered users can write comments.
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