The Whisky Trail, on our way to Inverness
Trip Start
Oct 12, 2005
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6
7
Trip End
Oct 26, 2005
Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
After a wild Mad Hatter's Ride through the highlands, on a single lane road, for 20 miles through some of the bizarrest landscape I've ever seen, we finally arrived in Dufftown, unofficial home base of the Speyside distilleries, known as such for their proximity to the Spey river. (I'm sorry, am I the only one that thinks that Dufftown sounds like something out of an episode of The Simpsons?) We'd planned on going to Glenlivet first, but Glenfiddich was right down the street so we decided to start there.
What a great place. First off, it's pronounced glen fid' dik. It was the slow time of year so there were only four of us on a tour. We learned the process: ingredients barley, water and yeast. The barley is malted (soaked in water and allowed to germinate for awhile) and then kiln dried to stop the germination. The malted barley is then ground into a rough flour called grist. The grist is mixed with water (called the mash) and stirred, releasing the sugars into the liquid culled from the mash called the wort. The wort is placed in large (!) vats called wash tons and yeast is added--the mixture (called the wash) ferments for a couple of days until the yeast runs out of food. At this point, the mixture is more like beer than whiskey. The wash is pumped into stills where the actual distillation process takes place.
The wash is boiled in the stills. Since alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, it rises first and is condensed in pipes immersed in cold water called worm tubes. The condensed mixture is separated into three parts. The upper part has too much alcohol, the lower part too little. Unlike the three bears, the middle part is just right. The middle part is siphoned off, the upper and lower parts are mixed together and fed back into the still with a new batch of wash.
The actual alcohol that comes out of the stills is clear and fairly flavorless. (It's called spirits at this point.) It's not legally Scotch Whiskey until it's been aged in an oak barrel for at least three years. Most barrels come from the US where they've been used once to age bourbon, or from Spain where they've held ports or brandies. The tannins (and charring on the inside of the barrel) in the wood impart much of the flavor and color to Scotch Whiskey. It's made from malted barley, hence the Malt part, and comes from a single distillery which is where the Single moniker comes from.
The whiskey can remain in barrels for 10 years or more. Further aging tends to mellow the flavor and intensify the color, but because a barrel loses 1 1/2% to 2 1/2% of its volume (water and alcohol) each year, you eventually run out of time. (This loss is known as the Angel's Share, supposedly taken by the angels in exchange for guarding your booty.)
At the end of the tour, we were offered the usual dram for tasting. However, Glenfiddich had something up their sleeves--in addition the typical 10-year whiskey, we were offered the choice of a Malt Whiskey Liqueur. The whiskey is aged its typical 10 years at which point honey is added and it's allowed to age a couple of years longer. The result is, well, orgasmic. It's like Drambuie, except that it uses single malt whiskey instead of a blend. Sweet like a berry liqueur but with the finish of a fine single malt. You can't get this in the states--we picked up a couple of bottles for good measure.
After Glenfiddich, we headed for Macallan which was close by. What a difference. No tours were operating, and we were left to fend for ourselves in its gift shop. The guy behind the counter was the only employee on site, so he offered us a dram and went about his business. Shame. I typically order Macallan when I'm in the mood for a single malt, but they allowed other makers to gain my mindshare. I've got lots more to choose from now.
The Glenfiddich tour took a couple of hours total, and Macallan was a complete disappointment, so we blew off the rest of the tour and headed for Inverness. We would have a couple more distilleries to stop at before we were done with this trip, so I didn't feel like we were missing much.
