Noble Spirits The Story of Whisky

It has a life of its own, filled with movement and power. It surrounds us all, and from the very start, it has had the same decisive importance for all life on earth. We use it daily all over the world, but in Scotland, water has a very special significance. Nobody can be sure about the origin of whisky, but we do know that its name How the art of distilling came to Scotland is also difficult to say, but we know that it has wandered a very long way before the pagoda silhouettes of the distilleries rose up against the backdrop of the Scottish landscape. It is said that people were distilling spirits as early as 1116 BC in China, and someone has said that spirits are something men cannot live without. The art of distilling spread westwards, and we know that by 200 BC the Egyptians were distilling spirits from barley, which is still the most important grain used in the manufacture of malt whisky. In the 8th century AD, the Arabs refined the technique of distilling before it reached Spain and Europe. The art of making whisky is said to have been brought to Scotland by missionary monks by way of Ireland, where whisky is thought to have been produced before the 11th century. Exactly when it arrived in Scotland, we don't know, but the first historical document mentioning whisky production in Scotland doesn't appear until the 15th century. The art of distilling soon became so common that pretty well everyone was making their own whisky. Parliament took a dim view of the situation, and in 1579 strict measures were taken to stem the growing production. Only the best families were allowed to produce whisky, while ordinary folks risked heavy penalties. The actual effect was of course the opposite, as it turned out, and the illicit production of whisky continued to increase steadily. When the British Parliament introduced a special malt tax in 1713, it marked the beginning of the smugglers' true heyday. The very few legal distilleries that had grown up were made to pay tax, and thus had little or no chance against the enormous amounts of illicit whisky flooding the market. By the end of the 18th century, there were, in the Edinburgh district alone, almost 400 private distilleries continually distilling and smuggling whisky. They say there was even an illicit still under the church in the high street in the middle of the city. 1823 was the year in which 14,000 illicit stills were impounded. George Smith, an illegal distiller from Speyside in the Highlands, was among the first to be granted a license to distill whisky. He founded the Glenlivet distillery, now famous all over the world. In the late 19th century, whisky began to spread even faster, partly due to an increase in popularity, but also because of the unstoppable phylloxera insect which was scourging the European vineyards and causing a major shortage of wine, and above all of brandy, which was then whisky's biggest competitor in Europe and England. When Parliament, after much discussion, relaxed the strict rules governing what could be classed as Scotch whisky in 1909, sales grew even more. It now became legal to mix different types of whisky and make what is known as blended whisky, with a more even and somewhat milder taste. Despite all the duties and restrictions down the years and rationing during both world wars, nothing has been able to stop whisky becoming what it now is, the biggest selling short drink in the world. Scotland is the doyenne of whisky-producing countries, and its more than 100 distilleries divide into four main production districts. Campeltowns, the Lowlands, the Islands, and the Highlands. The Campeltowns, which was one of the first and then very productive whisky districts with 30 or so distilleries, is now the smallest with only a few left. The whisky produced here has a fairly distinct, slightly salty-sweet taste. One well-known brand from the district is Springbank. The Lowlands is another district that, with time, has diminished in importance. There are only a handful of distilleries in operation today, and the whisky from these distilleries generally has a fairly soft taste. One of the best-known brands is Rosebank. The Islands is, in terms of whisky production today, only one island in reality. Islay, off the west coast of Scotland. There are a number of distilleries here famous for their strongly flavoured peaty whiskies, with an aroma clearly influenced by the location on the Atlantic coast. Laphroaig is one example of a very powerful Islay whisky, with tones of both sea and seaweed. Last and best known of the Scottish whisky districts is the Highlands. There are around 60 distilleries here, and they don't live off whisky alone, but also off an ever-growing trail of tourists. On the guided tours, you get to see the whole manufacturing process, and not least, test the results. That is, take a dram yourself. In the Speyside area, surrounding the River Spey, well known to whisky connoisseurs, the distilleries have created what they call the Malt Whisky Trail, which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists annually. They're driven along the narrow roads through the Scottish landscape, where there's no doubting what the whisky industry means for the local population. There are eight malt whisky distilleries along the Malt Whisky Trail, all beautifully set close to their watercourses. Here, for example, you find Glenfiddich, the world's biggest single malt, and also one of the few distilleries with the right to bottle its own whisky. Evocative names like Kardu, Glenfarklas, Glengrant, Glenlivet, Trathisla, Tanavulin, and Tamdu are all distilleries here among the Highland Glens. The Highland Park, the most northerly whisky distillery in the world, is also counted as belonging to the Highlands, even though it is in the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland. The first evidence of human settlement dates back to around 4000 BC, and the ancient Norse names around the islands are a reminder that the Vikings settled here over a thousand years ago. No one can leave the Orkneys unaffected by the scenery, the stones, and the mystery of the past that haunts these islands. The Orkney Islanders have long known the art of distilling whisky, and the Highland Park distillery was founded as early as the end of the 18th century, and is today one of the few distilleries where you can follow the entire classic whisky process from start to finish. Pure, fresh spring water, barley, and yeast are the basic ingredients of a malt whisky. When the barley has been delivered to the distillery, the manufacturing process that leads to malt whisky can begin. The first stage is the malting. The barley is steeped in water for three days and then spread out on malting floors to germinate and produce the enzymes which will later convert the starch into sugar. To maintain the right temperature, and so that the germs don't get caught in each other as they grow, the barley is turned two to three times a day. It takes six to seven days for the germs to grow just the right length to give the best results. Then they're transported up to the kiln towers that give the distilleries their distinctive silhouettes. This is where what is now called the green malt is spread out to be dried and smoked in the heat from the large kilns in the cellar, fired with dried peat. For centuries, peat has been used to fire the kilns in the Scottish distilleries. It's been maturing for thousands of years and is dug out in pieces the right size for fuel. This is the way peat was dug traditionally. Nowadays it's done almost entirely by machine. The heat and the smoke from the burning peat rises up through the floor and dries the green malt and the smoke flavours the germs. The smoking time varies from brand to brand depending on how smoky a taste you want. So it's here and now that whisky gets its characteristic smoked character. The dried malt is ground into a coarse flour or grist and mixed with hot water. And it's during this mashing that the starches are converted into a yellowish sugary solution known as wort, which is led off and mixed with yeast in huge vats called washbacks. Almost 300 kilos of yeast is mixed into 30,000 litres of wort. The nutrients in the sugar set off the fermentation which forms alcohol and produces a type of beer with an alcohol content of seven to eight percent. The distillation itself is done in huge copper pot stills. Each distillery has its own shape of pot and if one of them has to be replaced the new one has to be identical so as not to adversely affect the result. This is the true heart of the distillery and it's the job of the stillman to monitor the whole process very carefully. The wash is distilled in two stages. In the first stage the alcohol is separated from the water, yeast and other waste. In the second phase this distillate is redistilled to produce the pure and clear spirit which is to become whisky. The stillman follows the flow through the spirit safe whose locks are by tradition sealed by the customs and excise so that no whisky could be led astray to avoid tax. When the second distillation is done it's only the pure centre cut that's approved for maturation. The four shots and faints, the oily spirits that come off first and last are channeled off to be redistilled in the next batch. The newly distilled spirit which is now completely colourless is then diluted to a maturing strength of 63 percent and filled into oak casks to be matured for at least three years. All over Scotland rows upon rows of casks lie stored in silent majesty. Enormous quantities of scotch in classic oak casks which have become an industry in themselves in the wake of the whisky trade. The whisky has now entered the decisive maturation process. It's stored in huge unheated warehouses which means that the Scottish climate and geographical site of the distilleries has a major effect on the character of the matured whisky. The oak itself affects the taste and softness of the whisky to some degree but above all it gives it its colour and for whisky to take exactly the right colour it should preferably be stored in casks previously used for sherry. At Macallan one of the most prestigious of the single malts and known specifically for the way it's stored in Spanish sherry casks we meet David Robertson. You can see a number of fresh sherry casks that just come back from Spain made in 1997 for the Macallan. So now what we have to do is nose the cask and make sure it's fine for us to fill our new spirit into the cask. So this is one of our casks that we're going to open. Built in 1997, sat in Spain for four years full of dry Oloroso sherry. Now we're going to smell the cask. And when you actually nose the cask you can smell the dry Oloroso sherry, the spices, the resins, things like cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, some dried fruits. Perfect for us to fill our new spirit into the cask and then we put it in our warehouse for 12, 18 or 25 years for maturation. Attempts have been made at maturing Scotch whisky in other countries but the result has been a completely different type of whisky. They've even copied and built identical distilleries in other countries but have never got anywhere near copying true Scotch. For a whisky to be called Scotch it must by law have been distilled and matured in Scotland for at least three years. When the whisky is mature after anything from three to more than 20 years only about five percent is actually bottled and sold as the distillery's own whisky, that is as single malt. The other 95 percent goes to the blending industry where it's blended with as many as 50 other whiskies to make such famous brands as Johnny Walker, the famous Grouse, Ballantynes, Bells, J&B and Grant's. The lid has always been kept pretty tight on the different techniques applied within the whisky industry and distillation processes vary from distillery to distillery. But there's one thing all whisky producers have in common, whether they're producing single malts or blends. Almost all whiskies, even single malts, have to be blended before they're bottled. That puts a great deal of responsibility on the shoulders of a few key persons. So the difference between a master blender and a master distiller or a whisky maker, essentially a master blender is in charge of creating blended Scotch whisky and about 95 percent of all the Scotch sold in the world is a blended whisky, where you're combining grain whiskies with different single malt whiskies to create a blended whisky. That's what the master blender does. A whisky maker or a master distiller is in charge of a single malt brand. So at Macallan, for example, I'm the master distiller and I work with a team. The other person that helps me is Bob Delgarno, our whisky maker, and we're in charge of selecting all the casts from the warehouse and deciding which casts will combine together well to give us a consistent 12-year-old or 18-year-old or 25-year-old. So master blender makes blends, master distiller or whisky maker makes single malt brands. At the famous Grasse, home of the blended whisky that the Scots themselves drink most of, we meet now retired master blender Alan Reid. There are no recipes, so everything depends entirely on the skill of the small group of blenders to match different tastes and to keep the character of the blend exactly the same from year to year. Only a tiny percentage of the population has that super sensitive sense of smell and taste that the task of blending calls for. To ensure continuity, a constant search is in progress to find tomorrow's blenders. There is a 10-year difference between the master blender and his prospective heir, with another apprentice 10 years younger being trained for the longer term. The people who know it and who are doing the evaluation of the blend, we as a group would never travel together just in case of an accident, so that there is always someone left behind to carry on the tradition of blending famous Grasse. When the blender has decided what quantities of the various whiskies will make up the final blended Scotch, the blending itself is done in huge blending vats. It is then filled into casks again for the tastes to marry for a few months before it's finally bottled. In Elgin, near the mouth of the River Spey, we find Gordon and Macphail on the very same spot it's occupied since 1895. Its shelves boast one of the broadest assortments of whisky in the world, currently about 660 different whiskies. We have all sorts of people come here from whisky connoisseurs and whisky collectors to tourists who have come from overseas and just want to come and visit a shop with a large selection of whisky. Many of the UK visitors come here and are looking for something a little bit out of the ordinary. Also we have people who come all the way across the world to visit this store, from New Zealand, Korea, Japan, Russia, from all over. We had one Brazilian in once who appeared here at five o'clock one night and almost cleared our shelves. He bought nearly one bottle of everything we sell and I think he spent around seven or eight thousand pounds in one go. He was a nice customer to have. And for anyone wishing to do some really serious whisky tasting, we recommend the Krogallachie Hotel. You're unlikely to find many hotel bars anywhere that can offer as wide a choice of whiskies as the bar of this much-talked-about establishment by the River Spey. How the whisky is to be drunk is a point for debate, but at the Krogallachie, they know exactly how it should be served. Water does actually bring out more flavour, more aroma, so it's the proper way to drink it. So just a smallest amount of water, not too much, just about that, nothing more than that. Give it a few minutes, give it a swirl, then have a smell, and that one smells very nice. Whisky is now produced mainly in five countries. Scotland, Ireland, the USA, Canada and Japan. Most aspects of both production methods and taste are different in the different countries, and even the name whisky itself is spelt differently. In Ireland, they say they were the first to distill whisky, a source of lively discussion between the Scots and the Irish. The Irish whisky produced here has an E in it, which Scotch doesn't. It's made from a number of different types of grain which aren't smoked, but only dried using hot air, and then distilled three times to give it its distinctive character, without smokiness. Jameson's is one of the best-known brands. In the United States, the whisky industry was founded in the 18th century by immigrant Scots and Irishmen who settled in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. They talk of a Baptist preacher by the name of Cray who lived in Bourbon County as the first man to make whisky, giving rise to what is now the protected name, bourbon whisky, spelt like the Irish with an EY at the end. As well as bourbon, they also make rye whisky, but it's bourbon that's become famous as American whisky. Bourbon has to be distilled from a mixture containing at least 51% maize and rye whisky, a minimum of 51% rye. Jim Beam is the classic example of a bourbon. One well-known whisky that reminds one of bourbon but which is actually yet another type of American whisky is Jack Daniel's, a so-called Tennessee whisky. Canadian whisky also has its roots with Scottish and Irish immigrants. It's generally called rye whisky and is spelt like scotch with just a Y at the end. Unlike American whisky, there are no set proportions for the various types of cereal ingredients. Canadian Club is just one of many Canadian whiskies that are exported all over the A great deal of whisky is consumed in Japan and there's been rapid development in whisky production, just as there has in other areas of Japanese industry. The first distillery was built in 1923 in Japan and the production rate has been on the increase ever since, despite them having to import scotch malt whisky to mix with their own spirits and thus produce Japanese whisky. The spelling here follows the Scot and Canadians with just a Y at the end. Suntory is one of the best known brands today, made in what is now the biggest distillery in the world. In spite of the fact that whisky is now made all over the world, there is no other country that we identify with whisky as we do Scotland. At present, there are 2,540,000,000 litres of whisky maturing in Scotland. 650,000,000 litres are sold every year on 190 different markets all over the globe. About 85% of all scotch is exported, above all to Europe, the United States and Japan, and the whisky industry is among the five largest income earners in the entire United Kingdom. So, whisky is the biggest selling short drink in the world and one need hardly mention its importance for everyone living in Scotland. It's summed up perfectly in the original Gaelic name for whisky, Ischibacha, the water of life.