{"id":48532,"date":"2022-11-17T10:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-17T10:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/post\/can-there-be-only-one-highlander\/"},"modified":"2022-11-21T09:43:59","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T09:43:59","slug":"can-there-be-only-one-highlander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.masterofmalt.com\/blog\/post\/can-there-be-only-one-highlander\/","title":{"rendered":"Can there be only one Highlander?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well it\u2019s Thursday again, isn\u2019t it? Isn\u2019t it just. That means, as ever, only one thing: it\u2019s new Master of Malt independent bottling day!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week is a very, very \u2018traditional\u2019 week in terms of the liquids we\u2019re releasing. If you looked in the dictionary under \u2018whisky<\/a>\u2019, there would probably be a group shot of this week\u2019s bottlings next to a roaring peat fire with a stag\u2019s head mounted above it in a stone-walled bothy, with a wizened old chap with marvellous facial hair under a woolen tartan rug in a leather chesterfield armchair contemplating views which, even now, many in society would find unprogressive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"whisky\"

We couldn’t find an image of a stone-walled bothy with a wizened old chap<\/p><\/div>\n

Highlanders. But also, not.<\/h5>\n

Seven out of eight of this week\u2019s releases are from the Highlands<\/a>, one from Orkney, all are Scotch<\/a>, and all are single malts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>So shall we start with a Speyside<\/a>?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo what Ben? You said they were all from the Highlands except for one which was from Orkney!\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Well, yes, you see technically the entire Speyside region is contained within the Highlands. The Highlands (at least according to the most recent Scotch Whisky Regulations) also encompasses the various whisky producing Islands, with all their various intricacies and idiosyncrasies of production. Except for Islay<\/a>, of course, which is an island, but isn\u2019t caught by the Highlands region. Confused yet? I know I am.<\/span><\/p>\n

My controversial opinion of the week (I\u2019m aware this is becoming a theme) is that the carving up of Scotch whisky production by region (legally protected Geographical Indication or GI for short no less) for the benefit of consumer understanding is a concept which, whilst well-intentioned, doesn\u2019t stand up to even the most basic scrutiny. If anything, its navigation requires significant knowledge so as not to fall into any one of dozens of Heffalump traps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a consumer, you\u2019ve probably seen other GIs and used them as a handy shorthand for two things: quality, and consistency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"vintage

Some vintage stilton. On a whisky blog<\/p><\/div>\n

From cheese to the\u00a0Cote d\u2019Or in Burgundy<\/h5>\n

I know, for example, that if I buy a nice piece of vintage blue Stilton, it\u2019s going to have been produced either in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, or Nottinghamshire*, I know that it\u2019s made from full cream pasteurised cow\u2019s milk, formed into a cylinder, and inoculated with penicillium roqueforti. I know that it\u2019s going to be at least 48% fat by the time it\u2019s ready for the table, and that it\u2019s going to have a \u201cmellow mature flavour\u201d. These are prerequisites for the GI. There\u2019s zero chance that I\u2019m going to buy a hunk of Stilton, get it home, whack it on a cracker, and be disappointed that it tastes, looks, and to all intents and purposes *is* Cheddar. The GI protects the consumer by prescribing production methodology within really very tight parameters, meaning that whilst there will certainly be differences between producers, these are likely to be the difference between \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018amazing\u2019 rather than the difference between \u2018Stilton\u2019 and \u2018Not Stilton\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, if I pop into Berry Bros. for a bottle of Burgundy, I know that if I select a bottle of Romanee Conti, it will be made from grapes grown within a tightly-defined 4.6-acre area, will be made from pinot noir (with a maximum 15% of a few select additional varieties) planted at a density of no more than 9,000 vines per hectare with a yield not exceeding 35 hectolitres per hectare. Extremely tight** controls are put in place in order to ensure consumer confidence, the same way as the hunk of Stilton above. <\/span><\/p>\n

Where Burgundy differs though, is that the actual terroir (the magical combination of soil, microclimate, hours of sun, and topography) has a simply colossal impact on the finished product. The Cote d\u2019Or in Burgundy is perhaps the most pronounced exemplar of this effect, where the difference between a plot figuratively located where you are sitting reading this right now, and one you could land a tennis ball in with one vigorous serve can legitimately be the difference between a Grand Cru Romanee Conti with notes of violet, white truffle, exotic fruit, wild strawberry, and crushed limestone (and retailing at over \u00a35,000 a bottle) and a Villages-level Les Barreaux with earthy cigar box and vanilla (and \u00a350 a pop).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Barley\"

Beautiful barley<\/p><\/div>\n

From cheese to the\u00a0Cote d\u2019Or in Burgundy<\/h5>\n

A single grape from the vineyard responsible for the former would retail for the equivalent of nearly three fully mature bottles of the latter.\u00a0<\/span>Scotch whisky though. That\u2019s what we\u2019re here to discuss, right? Well, we sort of are already through means of a sneaky anti-analogy. An antinalogy<\/em> if you will. You see, as much as there are great similarities between wine and whisky in terms of production methodology, maturation choices, and (gawd knows) secondary market valuations \u2013 in stark contrast to the wine grape exposition above (and to the exclusion of the exception which proves the rule, peat content) the actual raw materials used in whisky\u2019s production from one region to the next (and indeed one distillery to the next) are basically identical***.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most distilleries buy their malt from the same supplier. Nearly none of it is grown locally to the distillery in question. The casks used to mature the spirit will have likely been made from oak grown in Spain or the USA, and whilst there\u2019s an argument to be made that the water source is an important part of the overall makeup of the spirit profile, it\u2019s not a very cogent one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This leads us back to the problem with the whole concept of the \u2018regionality\u2019 so often touted as being core to Scotch Whisky. <\/span>Visit Scotland<\/span><\/a> carve the regions up nicely for us:<\/span><\/p>\n

Speyside<\/b>: Smooth, sweet, caramel, and fruity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Islay<\/b>: Famous for smoky peated whiskies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lowland<\/b><\/a>: Malty, zesty with fruit and floral notes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campbeltown<\/b>: A wee whisky region with 3 working distilleries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Highland<\/b>: A large, diverse region with a whisky to suit every palette [sic \u2013 come on].<\/span><\/p>\n

Ask anyone who knows just enough about whisky to be dangerous and this is the spiel you get. Speyside is sweet, Islay is smoky, Lowlands are smooth, Cambeltown is weird, Highlands are, erm\u2026 diverse, I guess?\u00a0<\/span>So how can that be when the base materials are ostensibly identical, and the production methodology for each of these individual GIs has absolutely no protection whatsoever specific to the sub-division?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Scotch

The Scotch whisky regions as illustrated by the SWA<\/p><\/div>\n

The Scotch whisky regions<\/h5>\n

The answer is (in basic terms) historical precedent. I\u2019ll ask you to excuse the horrible over-simplification and bear with the theoretical exposition here:<\/span><\/p>\n

Lowland<\/b> malts tend to be seen as smooth because a larger proportion of the distilleries there employ(ed) triple distillation. This is probably more of a statistical anomaly than anything given that until comparatively recently (and certainly when the GIs were contemplated) the number of distilleries in the region could be counted on one hand. More on this below.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speyside<\/b> malts tend to be seen as sweet because most of them do not use peated malt in their production. What\u2019s the opposite of those yucky smoky whiskies from that godforsaken island that no one likes? Sweet. That\u2019s the one. Ours are sweet Mr customer, don\u2019t you worry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Islay<\/b> whiskies are smoky because until comparatively recently getting hold of gas, oil, electricity, or even coal to fire the kilns to dry the barley was a nightmare due to Islay\u2019s rugged landscape and stormy seas. Hence peat (found in abundance locally) was used to fire the kilns, lending peaty aroma compounds to the barley before it was distilled. This one\u2019s pretty much on the money TBH.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campbeltown and the Highlands<\/b>? Well obviously there are many factors going into the production of the <\/span><\/p>\n

locations that are pertinent<\/p>\n

to this discussion<\/p>\n

and we shall look\u2026<\/p>\n

have they gone? Can I come out now?<\/p>\n

\"Ardbeg

Islay’s characterisation might make sense.<\/p><\/div>\n

Categorising spirit character<\/h5>\n

Of all these precedents, as far as I can see, Islay stands alone as the only one with a functional reason for the spirit character (albeit a distant reason long ago overtaken by marketing requirements and embedded distribution). All the other regional variation (such as it is) is really only there because that\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This leaves consumers open to significant risk when choosing a whisky based on regional category where the producer has either historically not followed established precedent \u2013 as in the case of (to name a few) Bunnahabhain on Islay with their unpeated or extremely lightly-peated makes, Glenkinchie in the Lowlands with its \u2018normal\u2019 two still setup complete with wormtub condensers, or Caperdonich in Speyside with their historically significant peated output.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So far we\u2019ve only contemplated the long-established distilleries whose casks are traded around the place and will be available to independent bottlers such as us. The situation becomes infinitely more complex and hazardous when we think about the enormous proliferation of new distilleries in the recent ten years or so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n