It makes a great Christmas present: a nicely packaged bottle of Scotch, maybe a single malt such as Glenfiddich or Laphroaig, or perhaps one of the more exotic whiskies from countries such as Japan, which often come in unusual and beautifully designed bottles. In pubs and bars across the country there will be a surge in whisky consumption during the festive season and at New Year, either neat, or in cocktails and hot toddies. And looking further ahead, Burns Night on January 25 will see another spike in whisky consumption. This celebration of the poet Robert Burns is an increasingly popular “themed” event in pubs and bars, perking up takings for the pub trade during an otherwise quiet time of year.
Whisky Secrets
But what exactly is whisky? Is it the same thing as whiskey? What gives it its special qualities? And can other countries match Scotland for the quality of its Scotch?
The process of distilling liquids – heating them up and drawing off the condensed results – has been around for at least 2,000 years, to refine chemicals and make perfumes and medicines. But it is thought that medieval Arabs were the first to distil spirits from wine. This process spread to Italy and across Europe, where wine was distilled into “aqua vitae” (“water of life”) and brandy from around the 13th century onwards. By the 15th century, distilling had spread to Scotland and Ireland, where grains – mainly barley – were fermented and then distilled into what is known in Scots Gaelic as “uisge beatha” (“water of life”), which became shortened and anglicised as “whisky”.
These early whiskies were pretty crude and harsh; they would be barely recognisable as the drink we know today as whisky. Most early spirits were made by monks in monasteries and sold for “medicinal” purposes or used in religious ceremonies. When Henry VIII broke up the monasteries from 1536-41, monks in Scotland began to produce whisky privately. It was still variable in quality but distilling expertise grew and spread.
Outside the Law
A couple of centuries later, after the Act of Union between England and Scotland, a new “malt tax” was introduced which forced most of Scotland’s whisky distilleries to either shut down or go underground. As is always the way, when a new tax is introduced, people will find a way to avoid it. Illicit distilleries continued to operate, but they did so at night, when the smoke from their stills could not been so easily; hence the name of their product, “moonshine”.
Finally in 1823 a law was passed enabling the legal production of whisky, and the industry began to thrive, with regulations and laws to ensure that standards of quality were maintained. Today Scotch whisky is a major export earner for Scotland, with overseas sales reaching £4.36 billion in 2017, around 20 per cent of all UK exports of food and drink. Sales of the more specialist whiskies in particular are growing, with drinkers hankering after the unique qualities of particular regions or distilleries.
Elsewhere in the world, distilleries became well established in America, often set up by immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. (Whiskey, with an “e”, is used to describe whiskies made in Ireland and America.) Japanese whisky took off in the late 19th century with distilleries deliberately aiming to emulate the qualities of Scotch whisky, with increasing success – connoisseurs have come to prize Japanese whiskies such as Hakushu and Suntory; the best examples can sell for more than £100 a bottle. Whisky is also made in England, Wales Australia, Denmark and India.
Going With the Grain
So how, exactly, is whisky made? The process begins with a grain – in Scotch whisky, this is always barley - which is malted (germinated) and dried; sometimes other whole grains are then added. Sometimes burning peat is used to dry the barley, which gives the resulting whisky its distinctive smoky, peaty flavour – an increasingly popular option among whisky drinkers. The grain is fermented in a vat to create a “mash”, a kind of beer. This is heated in a still where the alcohol evaporates and condenses. The still will be made from, or lined with, copper, which chemically removes some of the unpleasant-tasting impurities in the liquid.
To begin with, at lower temperatures, the distilled alcohol is foul-tasting and dangerous stuff. This is drawn off and disposed of – though some of these by-products are now being turned into biofuels for cars. At higher temperatures, what is known as the “heart” is created: this is what will eventually become whisky. The final products, the “tails”, are often recycled for use in the next batch of whisky. The whisky that is kept is a colourless liquid.
To improve purity and enhance the alcohol content, Scotch whiskies are distilled at least twice, sometimes three times, and occasionally as many as 20 times. By law, Scotch whisky has to be kept in oak barrels to mature for at least three years – though many varieties, mainly the single malts, are kept for longer. Here the whisky takes on some of the qualities of the wood in which it is kept, as well as its colour. Some barrels are charred, which gives whisky flavour-notes such as florals and caramels. Sometimes old sherry casks are used, giving a darker colour and sweetish flavour to the whisky.
Singular Whiskies
“Single malt” means whisky from a single distillery made from malted barley. These are the finest whiskies, a cut above the blended whiskies that make up the bulk of whisky sales; some have been aged 10 years or more. (Once a whisky has been bottled, it does not improve with age.) These single malts are treasured for their unique qualities, with different regions and distilleries making whiskies that are light, dark, peaty, smoky, and so on.
Many distilleries make great play of the way their locality contributes to the whisky: the barley, the soil, the water, and so on. In fact, most of the flavours in a whisky come not from these factors, but from the method used to make the whisky – dried or smoked barley, for instance – as well as the yeasts used, and from the type of wood used in the barrels. Water, too, has been shown to influence the flavours of the finished product. The barley used to make whisky does not always come from Scotland: increasing demand has led some distilleries to import their barley from, whisper it, England.
Whisky Gets Cool
With so many whiskies now available, there has been a boom in the number of whisky bars across the UK. Drinkers are becoming more interested in the provenance of their drinks and their ingredients – hence the rise of premium gins and vodkas. Whisky is shaking off its stuffy old image and becoming similarly cool.
One of the coolest whisky bars is Black Rock in trendy Shoreditch, east London, a compact space where the central table is perhaps unique among bar tables: it is hewn from a single section of an oak tree; the table has two glass-topped canals containing the bar’s own blends of whisky, which can be poured directly from taps in the end of the trunk. On surrounding shelves are bottles of whisky in 250 varieties from around the world. The central table and the surrounding tables – simple metal-framed, with wooden-topped bar stools - are equipped with taps dispensing filtered water for mixing with the whisky.
Going for the Burns
If this seems a trifle ambitious, pub and bar owners could simply expand their range of whiskies on offer and host whisky-themed nights with tastings of different whiskies; perhaps a blind tasting of Scotch vs Japanese whiskies might yield surprising results. Now is also a good time to start planning a Burns Night celebration, featuring haggis, neeps, tatties, a recital of Burns’s “Address to a Haggis” – and whisky. Your pub furniture will need to be re-arranged to accommodate the ceremony, with pride of place for the haggis, and space made for the procession of the haggis to the table. Restaurants, too, could host a Burns supper with variations on the haggis/neeps/tatties theme.
Bear in mind that not everyone likes the taste of neat whisky, so you could offer whisky-based cocktails such as an old fashioned or a whisky sour. But for most whisky drinkers, it is best drunk neat or with a little water. The pleasure of whisky lies in the special flavours, aromas and colours of this ancient “water of life”.