The ultimate beginner's guide to SCOTCH WHISKY

Sit down. Listen. You are going to follow me as we go deep into the world of scotch. Actually, we're not going that deep. This is more of an intro into scotch. You see, scotch is a very diverse category of whiskeys. And I am going to show you some tricks to have an idea, a better idea, of what it is that's in those bottles so you are not confused when you go to the liquor store. We're gonna talk about the different types of scotch whiskey. We're gonna talk about the different regions. We're not gonna go over the history and we're not gonna go over how it's made. That's for another time, for another channel. Somebody else can talk about that. We're just going to break it down little by little and I will mention some bottles that I really like. So if you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button for more tips, tips, and recipes and let's go talk scotch to the bar. Scotch whiskey, W-H-I-S-K-Y. Now, sometimes you see whiskey spelled E-Y and they're all whiskeys. The difference is where it's made. So in Scotland, there is no E-Y, it's just Y. Ireland has an E, the United States has an E, although not all of them, Makers Mark is with a Y. Basically, whiskey with an E or whiskey without the E, they're all whiskey. Now that that is cleared up, we can move on. So I'm gonna start here by going over five rules that need to happen for a distiller to call scotch scotch. Now there are many more stipulations, but that's for the distillers. We're just gonna talk about some basics. Number one, all scotch whiskey needs to be produced, distilled, and bottled in Scotland. And if you follow all the other rules and you make it outside of Scotland, obviously you can't call it scotch. Number two, they need to be made with malted barley, water, and yeast. Now other grains are accepted. In fact, a little bit of caramel coloring is accepted, but the main thing is you do have to have malted barley because barley grows all over Scotland. Rule number three, all scotch needs to be aged three years on oak in casks, barrels, so that it takes on the flavor of the wood. And it has to be at least three years, no younger. Another rule here based on that is you will see age statements on bottles. And that tells you how long it's been aging, right? But in a blended whiskey, that age has to be the age of the youngest whiskey that's used in the blending, okay? Good. And then finally, all of the scotches, once they're bottled, they can be no less than 40% alcohol or 80 proof. There you have it. Like I said, there are more stipulations, but that's for those making scotch. So that brings me to lesson number two, five more things. The five different types of scotch whiskey. In scotch whiskey, we have single malt, single grain, blended malt, blended grain, and blended scotch whiskey. Cool, right? On to lesson three. I'm kidding. I'm gonna break that down. It's actually, it's quite easy. Really at the top here, we have the single malt and the single grain. Single does not mean one malt or one grain. It's actually referring to the distillery. It has to be made at one single distillery. Malt means it has to be made with 100% malted barley. Remember the malted barley was part of the rules. All scotch whiskey has to have some malted barley. Well, single malt whiskey has to be 100% malted barley. For example, Edredauer is a Highland single malt whiskey. Most of these are actually single malt whiskeys. Now, single grain whiskey, I do not have one here, but we will still talk about it because it's very important. A single grain whiskey, just like a single malt, has to be made at one single distillery. Grain means it must be made with malted barley plus other cereal grains or whole grains, and then you can call it a single grain whiskey. Now, let's talk about the blends. Okay, I've got a couple blends here. Monkey Shoulder is a blended malt. Now, a blended malt is made from taking whiskey from different distilleries, and there are at least a minimum of two single malt whiskeys blended in here. A blended grain whiskey, again, is taken from multiple distilleries, and that is a blend of at least two single grain whiskeys. Very good. A minimum of two single grain whiskeys from different distilleries. And then we have the blended scotch, which is kind of a mashup of both. You've got a minimum of one single malt, and a minimum of one single grain that are blended. That's it. Call it blended scotch. I like to, who am I kidding? I like to use all of them for mixing. Blended scotch tends to be used mostly for mixing cocktails. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not gonna say that. People drink blended scotch because it's smooth and it's nice. Blended scotch tends to be a little bit more affordable. However, that doesn't mean it's lesser quality. Some are really smooth. Some are not quite as smooth. They work well in cocktails. Maybe you like sipping them neat. There's nothing wrong with that either. So those are the five types of scotch whiskey. Now onto the fun bit, the regions of Scotland. This is really interesting because we get to show you a map. Look, I'm gonna go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, what they are. We've got Speyside, Highlands, Lowlands, Campbelltown, and Islay. Those are the five regions. But of course, it's not that simple. Let's start with Speyside. I've got a couple right here. Monkey Shoulder is a blended malt. Then we have a single malt, which is the Glenfiddich. This region is the most densely populated region in terms of distilleries. You're gonna find more whiskeys that are made in Speyside than anywhere else. Some examples, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, McAllen. A lot of the big names you find, they're gonna be really rich, bold. They tend to be a little bit sweet, kind of a honey sweetness. Sometimes you get orchard fruit, maybe a little spice. And this region is called Speyside because of the River Spey, which brings good, clean water to the distilleries. An important part of making whiskey is to have good water. Of course, there are gonna be some outliers. There are a ton of distilleries, as I mentioned, and they're not all gonna taste the same. So let's just leave it there, okay? It's good. So let's move on to the next one. We're gonna move from Speyside to the neighboring Highlands. Oh boy, this is really one we could talk about for a while. So the Highlands, let's see. I've got a couple of Highlands here. The Highlands are the largest region in terms of geography. And so there's gonna be all different expressions of whiskey throughout the Highlands. In fact, within the Highlands, you have sub-regions. You've got Central, Western, Northern, Eastern, and the Islands. Each region is gonna taste a little bit different. The Islands is a big sub-region within the Highlands. In fact, many people classify the Islands as a sixth and separate region for Scotch whiskey. But legally, that's not the case. It's all the Highlands. You can get flavors from smoky to briny to sweet to fruity to spicy. You can have a lighter whiskey. You can have a heavier whiskey. The Highlands, they cover it all. Now, I've got a couple here. I've got a few here. The Aberfeldy 12 Year, this is really light. Last year, Oz and I visited the distillery. We had a good time, grabbed a bottle of whiskey. One of my personal favorites is the Edgerdauer. We could not visit the distillery because it's a very small operation and it wasn't open to the public. That's okay. We visited Aberfeldy instead. Talisker is the largest distillery in the Islands. And this whiskey is very different than these others. It's got a bit more smoke, a little brininess. It's a bit stronger flavor, but it is still considered a Highland whiskey. Some other whiskeys would be Glenmorangie or the Delmore. The Highland whiskeys are probably the widest ranging whiskeys out of all the regions. You kind of have to just taste them for yourself. That's not a bad thing, but don't be scared. There's a little something for everybody in this category of whiskeys. So onto the Lowlands. I have one Lowland whiskey here, Akintoshin. The Lowland whiskeys tend to be the lightest of the batch. They're a little bit grassier in flavor, a little sweet. You're not gonna find a whole lot of heavy, peaty, smoky flavors. A lot of these are double or triple distilled. So this is a good grouping of whiskeys for those looking to break into Scotch. Of course, again, that's a generalization. I can't speak for all of them. The thing about the Lowlands though is there aren't a ton of whiskeys available to me here in Chicago in the United States compared to the Highlands or Speyside. I think there's just less distilleries. I don't have a whole lot to say about the Lowlands. The Lowlands sit below the Highlands, both in terms of elevation and in terms of latitude. So yeah, not bad, right? So away we go. Now let's talk about Campbelltown. Campbelltown is a small region in the Southwest. It's on the end of a peninsula. I've got a Campbelltown whiskey here. Campbelltown is the region I am least familiar with because there aren't a whole lot available here in the States. And if they are, they're pretty expensive. Once upon a time, this small region in the Southwest was considered the whiskey capital of the world because they were making so much whiskey. But back then, they were focused more on quantity over quality. At least that's what I read. Now, during the First World War, all of that came to a halt and these distilleries ended up closing. So there were only a handful of distilleries left and those distilleries later decided to focus more on the quality. Campbelltown whiskeys tend to be aged a little bit longer. They're a bit more rich and they're aged out on the coast so you get some salt notes, some fruit notes, but they do tend to be a bit more expensive. This one is Springbank, but there's also Glen Scotia, Glen Guile. Yeah, there's just so many Scotches out there and there's only so much time and I only have so much money. But now I'm trying the Springbank Tenure. Campbelltown Single Malt Scotch Whiskey, so we know what that means. One distillery, single, and the malt, 100% malted barley, and it's 46% ABV. Oz, would you like to try this? Yeah. What do you think? Onto our last, our final region, Islay. Now I saved this one for the end because this is a big one. The region actually is not that big. It's an island, but it's different from all of the other islands that are part of the highlands. This is its own region. And when you think about those really big, smoky whiskeys, odds are they're from Islay. I've got some examples here. The Lafroide Tenure, this one I like to use in mixing cocktails. Big, smoky, peaty flavor. Peat is kind of the precursor to coal. It's organic matter that's been compressed into the earth and you can take that, dry it out, and burn it as fuel. When they are making the whiskey, and I know earlier I said I wasn't gonna talk about how they make the whiskey, but I'm gonna touch on this one point. After the barley has started to sprout, you want to stop that process, so you need to add heat. So what they would do is burn peat. That smoke would heat up and stop the process. Now, that smoke also imparts a lot of flavor, that intense, peaty flavor, which is kind of that overly Band-Aid flavor, kind of tastes like iodine. But again, this is a broad generalization and not all Islay Scotches are gonna be peaty. In fact, this one right here, the Buna Havan, is an unpeated whiskey. Other well-known Scotches from the region are, well, Laphroaig, you've got Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Coelilla, Bruklati. I'm gonna stop there. Most of them are gonna be that big, bold, strong flavor that some people just love and other people like to mix them into cocktails. Speaking of which, mixing fine Scotches into cocktails, is that blasphemy? I think not. If it's your bottle, you should do whatever you want with that whiskey, okay? Now, back to the whiskey at hand here. I have found, I've got two Laphroaigs here. One of them's an 18-year, one of them's a 10-year. I like to use the 10-year in my cocktails because it is a little bit stronger, smoky flavor. That's what I find. I find that the older the Scotch gets, it kind of mellows out a little bit and it's nice for sipping neat, which is pretty much it for all of the regions. Yeah, so now quickly some recommendations. If you're just starting out, if you're looking to grab a bottle of Scotch to mix with, I really do like the Monkey Shoulder. It's a Speyside, blended malt, that's a good one. A blended Scotch, which is a good value for the price, is the Famous Grouse. They're really easy to work with because they aren't too punchy, but they're also nice to sip on their own. So it's a good starting point. And you're not spending too much money for a bottle of whiskey if you're not sure if you even really like Scotch at all. If you are thinking, hey, I want a single malt that is going to be light and easy and a good intro into Scotch, then you could look at the Akintoshan or the Aberfeldy 12-Year. These are light, smooth, easy to sip on. If you want something a bit bigger and smoky and you really want that strong flavor, I really do like the Lafroix 10-Year, Ardbeg 5 if you want a really smoky one. I don't have it here. Lagavulin, of course. But those can get pretty pricey. They're good whiskeys, so you're gonna pay for it. One that I recently picked up, Glenfiddich 12. You can find this everywhere, and it's a classic Speyside, and it's really tasty. Now Scotch, in general, can get very pricey. Most of these bottles ranged between $20 and $80. The Springbank came in at $100. The Lafroix 18 was a gift, but that is gonna be a little bit over $100. The cheapest one here was the Famous Grouse. So it's good to go in with a little bit of knowledge. As always, check out my collection on Curiata. I'm updating it with new bottles all the time, and most of these should be up already if you wanna grab a new bottle. So here we are at the end. What have we learned? We've learned a lot. There is so much more that we could say about Scotch that we just don't have time for today. But I hope that this video has given you a broader understanding of the spirit so that you're not intimidated when you go into the shop. S-H-O-P-P-E, ye old shop. Poor Oz is gonna have to piece this one together. But I felt like this was an important one to make. This was an important video to make for you. If you are some Scotch expert and you wanna add something down below, feel free. But otherwise, I hope that you found this educational. I hope that you found this entertaining. I hope I didn't butcher any of the names of these fine bottles of whiskey. And I hope that I will see you next time. Thank you for watching. Like, subscribe, get outta here. Cheers.