How do you think, what country in the world has the highest single malt scotch consumption per person? The United Kingdom? No. The United States? No, it is not. However, I suppose that you guessed right from the very beginning: it’s Taiwan, where single malt scotch per capita consumption is more than double of that in France, the nearest pursuer and the European leader. In addition, Taiwan is one of the most important single malt whisky markets for Scotland in the absolute figures too – it is the fourth in the world.
The range of whisky in a small country grocery shop in Taiwan is comparable to the range of some specialized alcohol shops in Moscow
Also, the remarkable fact is that lately Taiwan is discussed in the whisky world more as a whisky-producing country than as a whisky consuming country. And for me as for a whisky connoisseur, it means the only one thing – there will be more whisky for me from now on! When in 2015 a whisky from Taiwan became the best whisky in the world according to the WWA, it became clear that it is necessary to learn more about Taiwanese whisky. In 2017 I went to Taiwan for the first time to see the Kavalan Distillery (by the way, Kavalan had more than a million visitors that year – compare it with almost two million visitors to 75(!) available for visiting distilleries of Scotland for the same period). And at the beginning of May this year I managed to visit another distillery in Taiwan – Nantou Distillery, which produces its whisky under Omar and Yushan brands.
Taiwan’s scenery is extremely beautiful and unusual for an eye of Central Russia inhabitant. The water used later for whisky goes down from these mountains.
A little bit more about history. It is considered formally that whisky production in Taiwan started following the country’s accession to the WTO, which took place on January 1, 2002. It happened after 10 years of negotiations on the terms of the accession and 3 years of transition and adaptation period. Taiwan became the 144th member-country of the WTO and it was forced to cancel the existed state monopoly on alcoholic beverages production. And in 2006 the first private distillery, Kavalan, owned by King Car Group, opened its doors. This distillery claims to be the first manufacturer of whisky on the island.
The mountainous island has not so much place for living.
In fact, whisky has been made in Taiwan also before that, it was produced by the state-owned Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Company (TTL) starting from the year 1984. Another story is that it was a product designed solely for domestic consumption, malt spirits were purchased abroad and grain spirits were made in Taiwan. The blend of them had JADE brand and that whisky was sold inside the country. The distillation of malt spirits in Nantou started in 2008 – and this year is considered the official foundation date of the TTL whisky distillery, though liqueur production at the site in Nantou has a long history. At that period it was getting more and more difficult and more and more expensive to buy malt spirits in Scotland, so it was decided to start own malt whisky production.
2008 is the foundation year of the malt whisky distillery in Nantou
The success of Kavalan in whisky sales forced state-owned TTL to review its product range and to start marketing of own single malt whisky in 2013. The first editions were whisky classic – releases matured in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. This whisky got its first recognition already in the year 2014 – gold and silver medals at the International Spirits Challenge. And in 2017 another release from Nantou, Sherry Cask Cask Strength, won the nomination of «the best Taiwanese whisky» by the WWA (World Whisky Awards).
This is how the old visitor center in Nantou Winery looks, it is closed now (TTL prefers to call the entire production site in Nantou “winery”, not distillery). This building is printed on all the labels of Nantou whisky.
A devastating earthquake happened in September, 1999, and it left its mark at Nantou Winnery too. This stainless steel pot still, which was used for the production of local brandy, was thrown out from its place in the production shop and now is installed at the territory of the winery, becoming a monument to those sad events. The aftermath fire destroyed 5 warehouses out of 8 the winery had.
So, Nantou Winery is a big production site, but I was interested first and foremost in everything related to the production of whisky. Unlike in Japan, Taiwan has legislation defining what whisky is, but there is nothing that might surprise us. Mostly standard things like “not less than two years in wood containers” and “not less than 40% ABV bottling”. By the way, Omar keeps whisky in casks for not less than 3 years.
A wide range of liquors manufactured by TTL is presented on the shelves of a local store.
Barley does not grow in Taiwan, so all the malt for whisky production – peated and elegant — is purchased in the UK. I mentioned already about the water — despite the fact that Nantou uses water from a well, the water goes a long way descending from the surrounding mountains. Nantou does not treat water for production but filters it for dilution for casks filling and bottling stages (by the way, Nantou has its own bottling line at the site). The local water has a high minerals level and low pH.
Grains are grinded by not so impressive as Scottish mastodons, but no less reliable roller mills from the Swiss Buhler.
The composition of grist is very closely controlled at Nantou: it must contain 20% of husk and 10% of flour.
Mash tun has a very utilitarian look, it is of the semi-Lauter system.
Three «waters» — 65, 72 and 85 degrees Celsius – are used for washing the grist. However, these temperatures may vary depending on the time of year in accordance with changes in the ambient temperature.
Wort fermentation takes place in small metal tuns of 1500 liters capacity. Fermentation period varies from 60 to 84 hours. Why is it longer sometimes? Just because a batch may fall on a weekend (I have met the same approach in Scotland too).
At the Nantou distillery they do not believe that the spirit character depends a lot on the duration of fermentation. In addition, Nantou has experimented with wooden wash tuns, but decided not to use wood in the warm climate – there were a lot of problems due to bacterial contamination. As for the yeast, Nantou uses dry distillers’ yeast.
Distillation equipment was brought to Nantou from other TTL production sites in 2008. It was a pair of different pot stills – one was Italian and the other one Scottish, from Forsyths. Later, in 2009, two more Scottish stills were added, one of which was new. All stills have different shapes so, in order to achieve a sustainable character of the spirit before casks filling, spirits received on the different pairs of stills are mixed. Pot still have the following sizes: 9000, a pair of 5000, and 2000 litres. The current production capacity of the distillery is 400 thousand liters of pure alcohol per year.
Experiensed whisky fan will recognize on this photo that all the stills at the distillery are formally wash stills.
The strength of the «heart» is 69-71% ABV. Distillery works on peated malt during one month in a year, it is quite a lot. Peated malt has peatiness level of 50 ppm. Usually, tails are cut not lower than 64% ABV, but when distillery works with the peated malt the cut is done a bit later, at 62% ABV, in order to catch more phenolic compounds and to make a new make more oily.
Now we come to the spirit maturation. Nantou buys casks in the United States and in Europe, and these casks are used not only to age whisky but also for ageing other products, including fruit distillates. Both casks of American and European oak are used. If it is an ex-bourbon barrel, Nantou requires the charring level 3.
Nantou’s warehouses are standard, concrete, racked.
A part of one warehouse is now renovated to accept visitors, here you may experience testing whisky directly from casks.
Casks are filled at the alcohol strength slightly over 59% ABV. Why? Due to Taiwanese laws requiring a very serious firefighting and control equipment to be installed in the warehouses storing solutions with more than 60% ABV. It is cheaper to dilute new make.
As already probably all whisky connoisseurs know, the hot climate of Taiwan makes casks to work extremely actively, whisky matures much faster. Perhaps, we should not try to develop any sort of formula for compliance between ageing in Taiwan and in Scotland (for example one year of maturation in Taiwan equals three years in Scotland, and so on), but blind tastings unequivocally confirm that the Taiwanese whisky, while being formally young, quite successfully competes with much more aged releases from the British Isles.
In average the angels’ share here is 6-8% per year, and that is 3-4 times higher than in Scotland. So, this is not 15-20% (I ran across such giant figures on the Internet), but, of course, there are annual differences, plus losses depend on size of cask, time of maturation (the less whisky volume is in the casks, the more whisky evaporates), kind of warehouse, etc., so, figures may be bigger. The last Taiwanese whisky I purchased was matured in a wine barrique and lost approximately 38% for the 5.5 years of maturation; it corresponds to about 8.5% of loss per year.
In Nantou’s Visitors Center
For single malt whiskies Nantou chose the name «Omar». In Gaelic this word means «amber», it is also said that Scots called their country the same name. The choice of this name is a tribute to Scotland’s people and Scotch. However, the international sales growth of Omar whisky, in France in particular, showed that this name is more associated not with whisky but with a something of Middle East origin, and this brand-name is perceived mostly negatively. So, last year in addition to Omar brand another brand-name appeared – Yushan. This is the name of the local dominant mountain and it is of 100% Taiwanese origin. This brand is now used for a single malt whisky (at a commercial strength, which is 46% ABV for Nantou produce) and blended malt whisky. Omar brand remains solely for connoisseurs-level single malts, like cask strength editions and unique finishes.
Finally, we came to the whisky itself. I was lucky to try a core range of Nantou and several limited releases. But let’s start with the new make: Nantou makes moderately fruity spirit, quite pungent on the nose without dilution, there are no off-notes, it has a good dense texture. With water it releases, first of all, aromas of baked apples, it becomes fresh and light: an excellent base for ageing.
A core range from Nantou Distillery. Omar whisky does not know colouring and chill filtration.
Omar whisky aged in bourbon and sherry casks is already well known in the world; it is sold in Russia also (though only 46% ABV version, while there are cask strengths releases of these whiskies). In my opinion, this is a wonderful whisky, especially ex-bourbon versions. This time I was happy to try these releases again – they have become more mature, more interesting. May they have started to approach the limit of their maturation here, in Taiwan, on the border of tropical and subtropical climate? I don’t know, but I must say that the 8 years old single cask ex-bourbon release was just absolutely stunning and fabulous. Unfortunately, and no wonder why, it was no longer available at the distillery and I was not able to buy it.
If to speak about Nantou’s specialities, they are cask strength batches of whisky finished in casks previously used for the ageing of their other liquors, fruit distillates.
In Cask Strength series there are as vattings of several casks as single cask releases. Whisky blending is watched by the Master Blender, Mrs. Wang, concurrently holding the post of Head of Quality Control.
So, Nantou Distillery has whisky finished in casks which held lychee liqueur, a brandy made from local grapes of Black Queen variety, and orange brandy. Of course, it is very individual and subjective, but my favourite was the whisky finished in casks after lychee liqueur. After 4 years of maturation in ex-bourbon barrels, this whisky was finished for a year in lychee liqueur casks. It is a very bright and easy drinkable whisky, I could not feel 55% ABV completely. It is my next choice after the great ex-bourbon releases from Nantou and I could not resist buying a bottle of this whisky at the visitor’s center shop.
Whisky finished in grape and orange brandies casks are quite unusual. Black Queen grape has a thick skin full of tannins, and these tannins from the grapes go as a surplus to the woody work of the casks. It is very interesting and, basically, I liked this whisky, it willingly takes water and I would like to have more time to work with it in order to describe better.
Orange notes in the appropriate whisky finish were easily detectable from the very beginning. To my regret, I felt quite a lot of the orange peel bitterness probably coming from the brandy, although I have not tried that drink and I do not know anything about the technology of its production, namely, what happens with orange zest. Despite the fact that I love moderately bitter whisky, this whisky lacked the balance a little bit in my opinion.
Top and left is a unique release of the very first whisky distilled in 2008 – ten years in PX cask from a solera system. Bottom left is a magnificent single cask release of ex-bourbon maturation of a very solid age by Taiwanese standards. Top right is a powerful peaty whisky.
The peated version of Omar whisky is made from 50 ppm malt, as I mentioned already. This is quite a powerful smoky whisky, it has medical and iodine notes, but, surprisingly, I found also the maritime theme and even some salt in it. There is also much oak there. Interestingly, I had a chance to try the peated Omar whisky at three ages – three years, four years and five years. It is clear that all that were single cask releases and the result is highly dependent on a specific cask, but on the contrast to wine casks maturation, where 5 years is already quite a sufficient maturation period in the local climate, for the peaty whisky I clearly saw that from year to year this whisky becomes just better and better – the peatiness level falls exposing the other advantages of whisky and increasing its complexity and balance.
A hard mission of tasting 9 samples under the gaze of four pairs of eyes. Stephy Hsiao is responsible in TTL for the international markets, Pei-Yuan Chung controls whisky quality at Nantou, Chu-Yeh Cheng is responsible for packaging, and Cheng Yu-Yen is a brand ambassador of Omar.
What would I like to say in conclusion? It was a wonderful trip. Whisky world has become really very broad, and whisky-loving Taiwan now gives it back a superb whisky. Everything you need for that is just a desire and a passion. I would like to express my great gratitude to all the members of the TTL/Nantou crew for their love for their work – there is nothing better than to see passionate people at work!
What do you associate Italy with? With the Roman Empire? With an amazing cultural heritage — sculptures, paintings, architecture? With the fashion industry and designers’ clothing? With a light and melodious music? With spaghetti and pizza, mozzarella and parmesan cheese? With a wine, Martini, Campari or limoncello? With ristretto or espresso? Organized crime, the mafia? It is not possible to count what Italy has given the world… Meanwhile, for me, Italy is quite naturally associated with whisky. Why? Maybe you will be surprised, but in the 1970-es Italy was the world’s biggest (!) market for single malt Scotch. Such names as Samaroli, Silver Seal, Valinch & Mallet, Wilson & Morgan – names of independent Italian bottlers – are well-known for the true whisky connoisseurs. It is also not well known that a five-year-old Glen Grant, a single malt, began its journey from the Italian market in 1961, two years before Glenfiddich, which is considered to be the first single malt brand in the world, was launched in the United States. And it was a man from Glen Grant, with his experience of single malt sales in Italy, who was invited to the Macallan, which is considered to be the second brand of single malts in the world (launched in 1968): the Macallan team created a true marketing miracle finally, but that miracle had its start with dumping sales of seven-year-old single malt release at the same Italian market.
South Tyrol – views, which must be printed on postcards (does anybody still send postcards?)
How has it happened that Italians, who love and drink whisky, do not have their own distilleries? Actually, they had almost everything, but not their own whisky, and, finally, now Italian producers of whisky appeared! It would be fair also to note that at least two of three distilleries are located in or near South Tyrol, which was on the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire a certain number of years ago; so, you may hear people at distilleries using German language in their everyday life.
So now you understand why the name of the owner of a construction company and a whisky connoisseur Albrecht Ebensperger, who decided that Italy needs its own whisky, sounds not very Italian. But it was him and his family who built the first whisky distillery in Italy – the PUNI Distillery, which started to work in the year 2010. Quite a lot of time passed from the idea to the implementation (it took two years just to order and to receive pot stills from Forsyths), but this time was not wasted – a local architect has created a highly original, unusual and stylish building in the form of a cube built from bricks. Moreover, this building is incredibly functional also — there is a production area downstairs, a visitors’ centre at the ground level and office space upstairs.
The building of the distillery is not visible from the nearest highway, it is hidden in a kind of the local industrial zone. I think that this architecture is worth to be seen by more eyes.
There are mountains around the distillery. No need to say anything about the air and the water quality – if you have ever visited the Alps, you know it yourself. And this spring water is used for whisky production as it is.
The architect was inspired by the elements of traditional South Tyrol granaries while working on the design – such windows helped to air rye, which was harvested here in huge volumes previously.
Now apples start to dominate here. Here we see modern apple trees – maximum yields, minimum volume of the crowns.
A part of the visitors’ center – the pot stills are down and covered with glass caps. Spectacular!
Lukas Ebensperger, one of the three Albrecht’s sons, met me in the visitors’ center. He told me very interesting things that are quite unique for the whisky industry, and it is my pleasure to share them with you.
First of all, the Italian Malt Whisky is not a whisky made solely from barley. A mixture of barley, wheat and rye is used, although barley prevails in the mashbill (rye and wheat are local; barley is «a stranger»; now the distillery experiments with the local barley).
Barley, rye and wheat are the basis of whisky at the Puni distillery.
You may think that it is a sort of the US “mashbill” whisky production, but this is not the case. Firstly, all grains are malted – the local grains are transported to Germany especially for malting. Secondly, all malts are mixed together and then grinded and washed, i.e. the further technological cycle has little differences from the classical way of production, whereas in the United States they use unmalted grains, which are grinded separately and then boiled. Further, only natural enzymes are used for the saccharification process.
An eternal “porteus” type mill is used for making grist (left) and grist is rinsed with two waters, 65 and 85 degrees Celsius in a semi-Lauter tun with a copper lid.
Dry distillers’ yeast and five mash tuns from a local wood are used for fermentation – at Puni they believe in the “life” in the mash tun after the “death” of yeast (in processes attributed to lactic bacteria particularly). So, fermentation lasts for up to 96 hours. As well, Puni believes that despite any cleaning the wood of tuns retains some bacteria, and with time Puni will receive its own unique yeast strain.
Wash is not very strong at Puni, usually slightly over 7%.
Sophisticated readers may guess by the shape of pot stills that Albrecht Ebensperger obviously has some feelings to Glenmorangie whisky. Both wash and spirit stills have the same shape but differ in size – 2 and 3 thousand liters.
Despite the fact that in general stills look ordinary, they are equipped with a unique heating system in order to keep the water in coils not turning into steam (the aim is to heat the liquid inside the pot still absolutely evenly). The water in the system is under pressure (double coil system is used); as a result, the water does not convert into the steam even at the temperatures of 110-120 degrees. The idea came from the customer’s engineers, therefore, for Forsyths, it was a completely new experience to install such a system.
«Hearts» strength is 71-72% ABV – at Puni, they cut manually using alcohol meters, and they usually do not take distillate below 64-65%. The distillate is not accessible during the distillation process: whisky production is a novelty for Italian financial guardia, and the valiant local tax signora are at least in the middle of the last century from the perspective of fiscal control in Scotland, where spirit safes are now just a technological element of the production process, rather than an instrument of tax control. Puni’s safe is sealed, there is no access not only to newmake: guests can not visit warehouses, for example.
There are 140 (one hundred and forty!) different seals from the tax authorities at the distillery.
Three types casks are used mainly – ex-bourbon (Puni does not buy barrels in the United States directly, it receives casks from a friendly distillery in Scotland, which shares own supplies with Puni); casks from the Sicilian dessert wine Marsala, and other Italian wines casks. The distillery has also barrels after Islay whisky, which are used for finishing. Puni does not work with peated malt.
The distillery uses casks in the same condition as it receives them: «toasted» wine casks made from the European oak and ex-bourbon American oak barrels of medium charring level.
Casks are filled with a newmake diluted up to 60% ABV. This is also not a usual strength, and it is caused, on the one hand, by the Italian requirements for storing high spirit content liquids (above 60% ABV, the same way like in Taiwan), and, on the other hand, by quite specific climate of the Southern Alps: the annual fluctuation of the temperatures is over 40 degrees Celsius, so, the barrels are working very actively, and the distillers feared that high ethanol content would accelerate this process (here I should note that water-ethanol mixture has the maximum interaction with a wood at the volume of ethanol around 58%).
A warehouse of Puni with a big annual temperature difference. It was not measured especially, but Puni estimates annual losses at the level of 5 percent, which is considerably more than in Scotland.
Meanwhile, Puni has another type of warehouses – situated in the former military fortifications left from the World War II. There, on the contrary, the annual temperature fluctuations are insignificant, so, casks from that warehouses have not been used for whisky production yet: they are intended for long ageing, more than 10 years. We will hopefully learn soon enough whether it was justified, since the distillery, let me remind, started to work in 2010.
Another unusual fact: there is no master distiller at Puni. Whisky is created by all the family members together! So, they work on every batch all together and the decision is made by consensus – just like in Japan!
Lukas Ebensperger – an enthusiastic distiller, a friendly host and a wonderful storyteller
Puni whisky bottles have no less beauty than the distillery itself. You just want to grab one of them from the shelf to take it away with you. A local young man designed the bottles and it must be admitted that in everything concerning the design and appearance the Italians are still ahead of the world.
And what’s inside these bottles? Frankly speaking, I started not with whisky but with their new make. And it completely justified my expectations — very light, quite fruity, sweet, with the malt notes and a pleasant spiciness. Some rye-related notes are noticeable only at the finish, and only if you know what to look for. Wheat gives this newmake the body – it is an excellent work ready for maturation!
And then followed a lineup of the current regular releases:
NOVA: 43% ABV, this whisky will leave the regular releases bundle soon. In addition to the maturation in bourbon barrels, Nova was finished in a new European oak during 1-1, 5 months. The enthusiasm and strength of a virgin wood are reflected perfectly in this whisky – it is young not only by its age but by its nature: it is quite assertive and spicy. I would classify this whisky as aperitive.
GOLD: 43% ABV, five years in ex-bourbon barrels. I would say that this whisky has a classic profile for the maturation in bourbon – lots of vanilla, etc. The whisky is very light and very easy drinkable, not too complicated and thus not requiring too much attention to itself. I should say that it is a perfect table whisky.
SOLE: 46% ABV, 2 years in ex-bourbon barrels, after which Sole goes for another two years in Pedro Ximenez casks. This is a wonderfully balanced whisky, no either predominant influence of bourbon barrels nor excessive sherry pressure. I felt very nice tannins at the finish and in the aftertaste, it is a very universal kind of a drink.
VINA: 43% ABV, matured five years exclusively in ex-Marsala casks. By the way, the distillery does not use colouring, so colours of all Puni whiskies are natural, and Vina’s colour is expectedly darker than all its brothers have. I like the effect that Marsala casks give whiskies, but I had tried finishes only. Here is the whisky which saw nothing but only the Marsala casks, and there were first fill casks. I tested such type of whisky for the first time and I was not disappointed. It seems that the combination of the local “active” climate and European oak, from which the casks were made, sets the ageing limit exactly to five years plus-minus: if to mature whisky longer, there is a high possibility to have too much oak influence on it. This whisky has a very good mix: tannins, wine tones, the absence of excessive sweetness – I liked it very much.
ALBA: 43%, 2 years in Marsala, and then another year in Islay casks — in the casks which were filled with peated whisky previously. I should say that it is an amazing result for three years of maturation, Alba is very vivid and quite a peaty whisky. In blind testing I wouldn’t say that this whisky got its peatiness just by from the contact with peaty casks, I would probably decide that this whisky is made from peated malt. A combination of winy and peaty tones almost always gives interesting results, but I was really surprised that it happened in such a short time span. An excellent digestive, one bottle of this whisky left the distillery with me.
My story comes to the end, so, I would like to mention all those moments that make Puni whisky interesting and worth-to-try by whisky connoisseurs to make their own opinion:
The whisky is produced from a mixture of malted barley, malted rye and malted wheat;
Puni utilizes a long process of fermentation (up to 96 hours);
Slow distillation in a high pot stills with an unusual heating system (water under pressure);
Active use of whisky matured in ex-Marsala casks made from the European oak in different releases;
Specific climatic features for whisky maturation, which force casks to work very actively.
In conclusion, I wish to thank Lukas Ebensperger once again for the great time I spent with him.
Besides, I invite the readers to guess in comments why Puni has this logo. What does it symbolize?
Visitors at distilleries often ask a question about the strength of a water-ethanol mixture before casks filling. And often they have an answer to this question, but rarely they have any explanation why this specific level is chosen. That is why this matter is discussed quite regularly at different whisky-related conferences on the Internet. Though it seems that everything is quite obvious, the figure of 63.5% ABV for Scotland is well-known, nonetheless, this matter still remains a kind of a mystery, raising many questions. What kind of questions? Here they are, sometimes quite simple:
Does every distillery fill casks at 63.5% ABV? If not, why?
Are there any legal restrictions for the casks filling strength?
What is the reason for this figure, 63.5%?
And so on. Let’s try to find answers to these questions, not limiting ourselves only to Scotland, though Scotch will have a lot of attention. I bet you will hear something completely new.
Laws
Let’s start with the legislative restrictions. Are there any? Yes, but in the only one country — in the USA, where it is forbidden to fill barrels with a mixture having alcohol more than 62.5% by volume (125 US proof). Why is the upper limit set? Due to the same reason why any straight whiskey must be aged in new barrels in the United States – in order to support the woodworking industry. Whiskey is distilled usually using columns at a relatively high strength there, and filling barrels at the original new make strength would significantly reduce the need for new wood containers. An entry limit of 125 proof (62,5% ABV) appeared only in 1962 when the US Treasury raised it from 110 proof. Before that the barrel entry proof was set as an interval between 100 and 110 proof (50-55% ABV), it was done after the Prohibition and 100 proof was taken a base for duties calculation. Before the Prohibition, there were no legislative restrictions on entry proof, meanwhile Bottle-In-Bond Act of 1897 stipulated for the first time that whiskey of that category shall be not only aged in casks (not less than four years) but also shall be filled in bottles at 100 proof (50%ABV). This law just secured the good practice of pre-bottling era, when people were buying whiskey as a bulk, coming with their own jugs to taverns. Those times distillers practised filling barrels for whiskey transportation at around 103-107 proof (51,5%-53,5%) to secure that it will be delivered to customers at not less than 100 proof (50% ABV) – this strength considered to be right for drinking then.
So, that is the way legislative initiatives in the United States emerged and evolved at the intersection of consumer preferences and the wood industry lobby. There are no legislative restrictions nowhere else – neither in Scotland, nor in Ireland, nor in Canada, nor in Japan, and so on.
Does everybody fill barrels at 63.5%?
No, not everybody, even if we talk about Scotland only. However, let’s see first what are practices in other countries – fortunately, the world of whisky is very wide today.
As it has become clear, it is simply prohibited to fill barrels at 63.5% ABV in the United States, but often distilleries do not fill them at 62.5% also, they lay barrels at significantly smaller strength. For example, Wild Turkey had been diluting its new make to 52,5% for a long period, but then gradually shifted to 57,5% via 55%. Michters’ lays barrels only at 51,5%, Makers’ Mark at 55% and Four Roses at 60%. It happens not only because of the old memories, there are also other factors. First of all, new virgin oak is used in the USA and it should be used cautiously. Further, barrels “work” very actively in a dry climate and at considerable temperature differences (which is also aggravated by multi-level warehouses of American distilleries) and in such conditions water evaporates faster than ethanol, so, the strength of the spirit goes up in a significant part of barrels (usually from the middle to the top of warehouses).
As for Canada, there are many practices there, as well as there are many types of distillate produced. The “base whisky”, which is made using columns at high strengths, is laid at 76-78% ABV usually. The “flavour whisky” is produced in different ways (double distillation using column and pot still, single distillation using column, single distillation using a pot still with a column, double distillation using only pot stills) and it is filled into casks in different ways. For example, Hiram Walker & Sons, the largest distillery in the North America, fills barrels with corn, rye or wheat spirit at 58% ABV, meanwhile Glenora Distillery adheres to the Scottish tradition and lays its malt whisky at 63.5%, although at the very beginning they tried to start maturation process at a higher ethanol volume.
The Japanese follow the Scottish with 63.5%, and Swedes, for example, at Mackmyra, fill casks at a little less volume of ethanol, at 63%. In Taiwan there are no legislative restrictions for casks filling, but there are very strict requirements for fire-fighting equipment and control of warehouses if to lay casks with the mixture above 60% ABV, so, distillers prefer not to reach this figure. For example, Nantou Distillery fills casks at 59.5%.
In France Armorik also filled casks at higher strengths, but some time ago they began to lay casks at 63-64% of alcohol by volume.
Ireland amazes with its variety. Midleton and Tullamore DEW fill casks at 64% ABV, Teeling – at 62%, Waterford does not dilute its new make and lays it at around 71%, Dublin Liberties is going to do the same way, and Walsh has still not decided what to choose and continues experiments with different strengths.
Here we came back to Scotland finally. Indeed, most of the whisky distilleries use here the figure of 63.5% ABV. But not all. Here are some examples of distilleries laying casks at a different level of alcohol by volume in the water-ethanol mixture: Highland Park works at 69.8%, Aberlour at 69.1%, Bruichladdich at 70-72%, Knockando at 63%. I would like to remind you that we are talking now about malt spirit, as grain spirit is filled into casks in Scotland at a higher entry proof, 70-71% in standard.
1842 – excise officer gauges low-wines strength at the worm-end of the wash still after the first distillation
Where did the standard of 63.5% ABV come from?
To understand why someone follows «the rule of 63.5%» and why someone does not, let’s look for the most probable reason for this standard to appear in Scotland.
The practice to lay casks at 63.5% ABV (in British proof 11 over-proof, or 111 proof) exists for quite a long time, we may found evidence of such casks filling strength in the first third of the 20thcentury. But let’s go back, far more back, long before 1915 (it became mandatory to age whisky in wood containers in Scotland in that year), namely – to the first half of the 19th century. Those times casks were used to transport spirit from distillers to rectifiers – companies which by the re-distillation process “rectified” or purified the spirit, compounding it with various vegetable substances to impart flavour. In that way very popular drinks were produced in England then – British brandy, British rum, gin, different cordials. Scottish distilleries also supplied their spirit to English rectifiers and had to follow the legislature, which stated that the raw spirit may be sold by a distiller to a rectifier only at two different strengths – 23 over-proof (123° or 70,2% ABV) and… 11 over-proof (111° or 63,5% ABV). Shall I tell you now why later, when whisky ageing became mandatory and a kind of a casks filling standard was in need along with the appearance of excise warehouses, these strengths, well-known to the industry, were kept: grain spirits were filled at around 70%, and malt spirits at 63,5%?
Excise officers were always present at the casks filling process and certified a volume of alcohol in the mixture. Existance of the same ABV in all the casks simplified the calculation of duties at releasing casks from excise warehouses.
Of course, I would like to think personally that just a nice figure in British proof — 111° — played a certain role when the filling level was chosen, but the reality is always more prosaic – duties and taxes.
A kind of standard was in need not only in order to simplify duties calculations and payments. What is more important, the same strength of casks filling was necessary in order to realize casks trading and exchange between different producers of blended scotch. Since the blended Scotch whisky conquered the world at the beginning of the 20th century, the issue of an equal exchange of spirits was very vital (as you know, there are from 20 to 50 different malt spirits in one batch of blended whisky). All the distilleries were able to fill at 63,5% ABV, though they had different new make strengths, and at some distilleries new make proof was relatively low due to the sufficiently lower level of tails cut. Certainly, the strength of the matured whisky in casks was slightly different at the moment of sale/exchange, but it was possible to neglect this moment, considering that climatic conditions are almost identical practically everywhere in Scotland and lost of ethanol during maturation period is comparable.
It is yet necessary for me to work a little bit in the London Library sometime in order to understand why legislators appointed 123 and 111 proof as strengths for raw spirit trade in the first half of 19th century, but it was surely not related to the science, as there were no scientific researches on the interaction of spirit and wood those times. The science came later, in present times, in the second half of the 20th century. And these scientific studies have shown that at approximately 58% of the alcohol by volume in the spirit the ethanol-water mixture achieves the maximum possible interaction with a cask: the distillate absorbs the largest number of elements from wood.
L. Nykanen, Aroma Compounds Liberated from Oak Chips and Wooden Casks by Alcohol, 1984, from The Science and Commerce of Whisky by Ian Buxton and Paul S. Hughes, International Center for Brewing and Distilling, Heriot-Watt University, UK, 2014
The difference in the spirit interaction with the wood is explained by the fact that various proportions of water and ethanol in the solution (more precisely, different surface tension, viscosity and solvating power of mixture) in different ways penetrate into the wood and extract compounds from it. Water and ethanol «wash out» different components from wood. Alcohol «works» with lipophilic compounds, sterols, lactones, lignin-derived compounds. Water dissolves sugars (arabinose, glucose, xylose, fructose), tannins, glycerol, hemicelluloses. So, once chosen strength of 63.5% (111 proof) turned to be close enough to the ideal strength for spirit interaction with а cask. And interacting with a cask is a cornerstone matter for receiving a good whisky, so, this practice spread from Scotland to most of the other countries.
1947 – excise officer gauges strength of spirit to be filled in casks
Why don’t everyone use this standard?
Why then do some distilleries abandon this seemingly universally accepted standard of 63.5%? There are several reasons for that.
Methods of tax control have changed and improved, excise officers stopped to go to work in their offices at distilleries in Scotland since the early 1980s, though even before that not all the distilleries stuck to this standard. Further, now not all the companies are interested in casks exchange or sale, some companies sell almost all the volume of whisky they produced as a single malt whisky.
Besides, some distillers believe that changes in the extraction of wood-derived compounds are not so critical with the increase of the spirit strength up to 69-71%; another believe that decrease of the spirit strength would do the work better (and we may agree with both if to analyze the graph presented above). In both cases they choose alternative strengths to lay casks.
At the same time, the abandonment of new make reduction before casks filling, besides the fact that the technological process becomes shorter for one operation, helps to save significantly on required casks quantity. Thus, filling at 70% against 63.5% saves more than one barrel for every 10 filled (it is necessary to add more than 20 litres of water in order to bring 190 litres of 70% spirit to 63.5%). If to remember that it is necessary not only to buy and deliver these barrels, but also to store them somewhere for years… So, warehouse logistics also becomes much more effective when you decide to refuse from spirit reduction (and here we may also recall the Taiwanese requirements for fire-hazardous warehouses).
Simultaneously a distiller receives an opportunity to mature whisky for a longer period — both in terms of reduction of wood-derived components extraction level, and in terms of having the eligible strength of whisky in those climatic zones, where during ageing period evapourates from the water-ethanol mixture faster than water does. After all, we know that now almost everywhere you can not bottle whisky with the strength less than 40%.
2016 — a modern equipment helps excise officers to gauge quantity and quality of spirit to be filled, thus we do not see them on this photo
Conclusions
So, we found the origins for 63,5% ABV to become a kind of an industrial standard for casks filling, and we also managed to find quite a lot of reasons to follow this standard – financial, chemical and commercial. At the same time, it is also quite possible to understand those who do not follow this standard, as a result of legislative, economic and/or technological issues.
It is interesting that not all distilleries reveal data about the strength of distillate laid, arguing that they do not want to disclose their technological secrets. In my opinion, it is a bit strange, because thought whisky production process has become well-researched and very transparent now, it is so multifactorial and so specific for each distillery (terroir-like), that no disclosed data will allow to repeat the organoleptic profile of any distillery. In this regard, I always refer to the example of Springbank: boards with the description for all processes with all the figures are hanged on walls at each technological stage – whether it helped to anybody to become a second Springbank?
It is important to remember that the volume of alcohol in the water-ethanol mixture is only one of the factors that affect only one of the stages of whisky production – maturation. And at this stage, there are a lot of other very important factors: a type of the wood of the cask, cask volume, quantity of the previous cask fills, cask charring level, what was held in that cask previously, how and where it will be stored, etc. Therefore, the information about cask filling strength is extremely interesting but does not allow us to make any specific conclusions about what kind of whisky awaits us in the future.
Alexey Nearonov
I would like to express my deep gratitude for the help to the following gentlemen:
Don Livermore, Hiram Walker & Sons
Lauchie MacLean, Glenora Distillers
David Roussier, Distillerie Warenghem
David Lind (Loch Lomond Group) & Igor Shalamov (Ladoga Group)
Grant Macpherson (Springbank Distillery)
Chu-Yeh Cheng (Nantou Distillery)
Directions for a novice distiller — make your own Longrow
Everybody knows that it is possible to distinguish a real malt-maniac from a person who came to a tasting session accidentally by several questions, which such a malt-maniac asks the session host. One of these questions, of course, is haughtily asked: «and how much ppm are in this whisky?». Undoubtedly, the professionalism of the host is determined by a knowledge of the innermost information about the amount of phenolic ppm in the whisky he or she is presenting. Information about this figure makes connoisseurs whether to nod with their heads, crouching, or to smirk, slightly shaking their heads.
If to speak more seriously, at one of the master-classes at Moscow Whisky Live 2018, the host suggested that we can not understand anything by investigating these phenolic ppm figures. The argument was that phenols level, measured at malt, “reaches” a new make in a completely different volume after the process of distillation on various equipment of different distilleries. That is why the initial value of phenols volume in the malt is not informative and does not matter. In addition, there are a lot of phenolic compounds in general, some of them come from maturation (wood), that is why it is also useless to measure ppm level on a matured whisky.
I could also add several more points to these arguments. Peatiness also depends on the timing the tails are cut, and that increases variability even if to work on an identical malt on the same equipment. As well peatiness level decreases during spirit maturation in wood containers, and such a maturation is also held under different conditions in different casks. So, shall we forget about phenolic ppm forever and all whisky-geeks are disgraced? It is not so straight and simple, let’s try to sort it out.
What are phenols?
Phenols are aromatic compounds that contain in their molecule a hydrocarbon group (6 carbon atoms in a ring linked with hydrogen atoms), the basis of many organic compounds, to which one or more hydroxyl groups (OH) are bonded. Polyphenol compounds contain several hydrocarbon (aromatic) rings with one or several hydroxyl groups bonded to them.
Phenol compounds are present in plants everywhere, give them colour and aroma, play an important role in such processes as photosynthesis, resistance of plants to infectious diseases, growth and reproduction, etc.
Sounds too scientific? Now you may forget everything you read above and remember only that in barley, in peat, in casks’ wood – everywhere there are a lot of different aromatic hydrocarbons. Tannins are also phenolic compounds, for example. Peat is formed from plants, as you know:
Ref.(1)
So, why doesn’t peat have a specific smokey smell while whisky has? In fact, peat (especially wet) smells as peat (somebody could distinguish this smell like the smell of earth, but if you live in areas with peat, you know that it is a bit different). Before peat is heated (burned), peat has no smoky aromas and its samples look pretty alike. The valley peat from the centre of Scotland could look similar both by an appearance and an analysis to valley peat of Islay, and basin peat from Islay – to any other basin peat. Here is a spectrogram of peat from six different locations in Scotland, which looks very similar (three fields on Islay, two in the central part of Scotland, one on Orkney):
Ref.(2)
Where are smells of smoke and medicine which we are looking for? And why do peaty aromas of whisky differ?
We should burn the peat for that. As a result of pyrolysis (heating with limited access of oxygen), hydrogen atoms in hydrocarbon ring are substituted, if to simplify a little bit, by other groups of atoms. As a result, besides phenol itself (carbonic acid), more complex compounds are formed. We are particularly interested in cresols, methylphenols, ethylphenols, guaiacoles. Namely these phenolic compounds «stick» to malt during the drying process and then get into whisky, giving it smell of smoke, medicinal/tar aromas and ashy tones. The difference in aroma depends both on peat composition and on technological features of the malt drying process.
The proportion of phenols that get into the wort from barley husk is insignificant, so, the overwhelming part of phenols comes from peat. Therefore the term «peatiness» is fully correct.
Sometimes you may come across information that peatiness of whisky could also arise from natural water which is used in the production process. This is not true – even in case there are some organic substances in the water, these substances do not have relation to the smoky character of the whisky. Here is a water analysis on the components we are interested in for some distilleries:
Ref.(3)
As you see, there are only insignificant, far below the detection threshold level (33 μg/l), doses of 4-ethylguaiacol. By the way, if to assume that phenolic compounds in whisky have any relation to water composition, we should also agree that any tea made with untreated water from any bog must have smokey and medicinal aromas — check it yourself and you will see that this is not true — and here we speak about more complicated distillation process, where only volatiles find their way to the final product.
The same could be said about heavily charred casks – analysis of matured spirit made from unpeated malt showed the presence of phenol compounds in it, but no smokiness was observed. There are such derivatives of phenols as 4-ethylphenol (threshold level of determination of 425 μg/l) and 4-vinylphenol (605 μg/l) in the wood, which may give smokey aromas, but these compounds are not transferred in any significant quantities into the water/ethanol mixture while aging.
So, this is exactly drying of green malt on peat within a certain interval, when the moisture of sprouted grains is within 35-15% (according to other data – not less than 25%), what is fully responsible for a whisky peaty flavours. This process «anchors» the necessary types of phenol compounds in the malt.
How is this peatiness screened and measured?
The existence of phenolic compounds can be determined by spectrograph or chromatograph (and also by electrophoresis method). A spectrogram allows to determine the total number of phenolic compounds in a substance only, chromatography works better, it is possible to see what specific phenolic compounds are present. Given that we need to screen aromatic derivatives of phenolic compounds which give a smokey character to whisky, it is easier to measure peatiness on malt, as it contains mostly the phenols of the required spectrum (remember that there are also some tannins in the barley husk). If to measure phenolic compounds content on the matured whisky, you will see also “non-smokey” phenolic compounds, which were washed out from the wood.
In general, peatiness could be easily measured on a non-matured newmake, but, basically, nobody needs that – whisky producers obtain their malt in accordance to the required specification in terms of phenolic compounds content from malting companies and just continue to broadcast these figures to curious consumers.
Here are spectrograms of distillates made in 1975, analysing peated and unpeated malt:
Ref.(4)
As we can see, a group of phenolic compounds is clearly identified. And below we see a chromatogram, where it is possible to look at a layout of specific phenolic compounds:
Ref.(5)
The number of phenolic compounds is measured in “parts per million” or ppm, which we love so much. If to make it simple, it is one ten-thousandth part of a percent, i.e. 55 ppm equals to 0,0055%. What is ppm figure for the peatiest whisky for today, Octomore 8.3? 309 ppm, which means there is 0,03% of phenolic compounds in the liquid.
It is quite difficult to control peatiness level while malt drying (different moisture of malt, different peat burning temperature, etc.), so, malting companies simply mix peated and unpeated malt to make a mix with a required level of ppm to meet customers’ specification.
How does it smell like and how do we perceive it?
And now let’s finally see how it smells like:
Not bad, isn’t it?
So, now we understand what phenolic compounds are, how they get into whisky, how they smell and how they are measured, and also why they are mostly measured in malt, not in distillate or in matured whisky. But we have only slightly touched the topic of perception thresholds of phenolic aromas, and here we have very interesting things.
Look at the distribution of various phenolic compounds in the well-known islands’ malts:
Ref.(6)
Here is the quantitative expression for these compounds:
Ref.(7)
And here is phenolic aroma contribution of that compounds in the products:
Ref.(8)
So, we see that we have phenol itself, for example, quantitatively twice as much as guaiacol, but guaiacol is far more perceptible in the aroma. This happens due to the fact that guaiacol perception threshold is 4-5 times lower than that one of phenol, we are much more sensitive to the aroma of guaiacol. Thus, different amounts are necessary for different phenolic compounds in order to be spotted by a human nose. Combustion of different types of peat at different temperatures during the malt drying process, together with various modes of distillation on various pot stills, give us an unimaginable quantity of combinations of a peated whisky with accents on a different peat-related aromatic spectrum – medicine, tar, bonfire, ash, etc. And all that we can have at the same phenolic ppm level in the malt.
Besides, different people have different sensitivity to aromas of phenolic compounds. I ran across the information that about 2% of people in the Britain have «phenolic anosmia» – they can not determine a presence of smoke in a low-peated whisky. By the way, what whisky could be called low-peated? Usually, it is a whisky which was produced from the malt with peatiness level less than 5 ppm. In general, if to take into consideration the appearance of new ultra-peated whisky, it is possible to offer the following gradation:
There is one more interesting thing – it seems that a sort of “Marginal Peatiness Paradox” exists. It was repeatedly confirmed by various tasters that ultra-peated whiskies such as Ardbeg Supernova (100 ppm) or Octomore 10YO (167 ppm) may be perceived as less smoky than they should be, i.e. even less smokey than those with peatiness level in malt of 55 or even 40 ppm. It says us that probably human organoleptic apparatus may have a kind of a limit for the perception of a smokey spectrum, and with the excess of some threshold of phenolic compounds content, we stop to feel an increase of peatiness, while a taster may begin to feel other taste components even better. Isn’t it where hides a secret of success of such ultra-peated releases? On the other hand, during writing this article I intentionally conducted a blind tasting of such releases as Octomore 8.3 (309 ppm/5 years), Octomore 8.1 (167 ppm/8 years), Port Charlotte 10 YO (40 ppm/10 years), Port Charlotte Scottish Barley Heavily peated (40 ppm/7 years for the youngest spirit) and Mackmyra Svensk Rök (22 ppm/4 years for the youngest spirit). I recognized unmistakably the first two most peated whiskies in the corresponding sequence both by aroma and by taste. Nevertheless, I remember one case when I was exposed to the Marginal Peatiness Paradox too.
Some figures, finally
Did you notice that we have smoothly switched to a conversation and discussion with references to measurements in ppm? But how it could be if ppm do not tell us about anything?
Let’s go back to measurements. So, we have a malt with a certain amount of phenols. During the production process, we lose a part of the phenolic compounds – quite a bit during the fermentation stage and much more during distillation. Distillation decrease phenolics content, firstly, depending on the shape of pot stills – not all compounds can make their way to a distillate through high pot stills with a significant reflux – and, secondly, depending on the time of tails cut – phenolic compounds have a boiling temperature above the ethanol, i.e. comes in distillation closer to tails. Thus, if distillery tries to get lighter spirits and cuts tails early, then a significant part of phenolic compounds does not get in a new make.
The question is what these volumes are and what is the spread? Let’s look at the data available on the Internet:
We see that phenolic compounds quantity in a distillate is 2-3 times less than in malt on average. This is the figure we may keep in mind.
Now let’s see what happens during maturation, what are approximate losses in peatiness. Unfortunately, I could not find yet any more or less adequate scientific data for understanding that. Moreover, the data available is highly controversial. There is also no information about the methodology of measurements in matured whisky – so that we could be sure that no phenolic compounds extracted from wood during maturation are measured (tannins, ellagotanins, etc.)
Let’s look at some of the available data, data for Laphroaig (from Peat Smoke and Spirit by Andrew Jefford):
Here is another data, this study was conducted by Balvenie while working on its smoky release Peat Week (information sourced from Dmitry Cherkashin, brand-ambassador of Balvenie, a tasting session on November 2, 2017):
We see here fundamentally different and contradictory data for the same Laphroaig. Meanwhile, Lagavulin has even bigger phenolics level after ageing if to compare with the newmake analysis data! (tannins are also measured?)
How shall we understand and use ppm figures?
So, is this a problem for us in developing measurement criteria for the peated whisky? I don’t think so. In fact, we do not need to understand ppm figures in the absolute, to the comma, we need just to have an ability to compare one whisky with another whisky, an ability to have some anticipation and expectation. That is why I think it is quite enough to have an understanding of ppm level in the malt in order to create maybe not ideal and not very accurate, but a certain system of coordinates. The main point is that everybody shall use the same system of coordinates, otherwise there will be a lot of confusion. For example, once AnCnoc began to print on bottles the data of peatiness in the final product – matured whisky: Rutter 11 ppm, Flaughter 14.8 ppm, Tushkar 15 ppm, Cutter 20.5 ppm. When I tried the last one, I did not know that it was 20 ppm in whisky, not in malt – the gap between the expectations and the reality was so huge that I immediately checked the way the peatiness was measured: it was obvious that it was not 20 ppm in malt, it was much more, it was comparable to Ardbeg releases. So, this system of coordinates works!
As we have already understood, if to use a measurement of peatiness in malt, it is necessary to remember about a considerable variability in the production process. Probably, theoretically, we may reduce that dispersion by making extra studies, by comparing distilleries’ technological processes for prediction of peatiness level in a distillate and in an aged product. Everything is knowable, we may go on with analysis on pot stills shape, or with analysis of smoke of peat from different deposits on a gas chromatograph. The other question is, do we really need it? Is it necessary to check harmony with an algebra? Even with the data available now, if we know not only a figure of ppm in the malt, but if we understanding all the background of this matter, if we know something about a distillery, about maturation, basically, we can understand more or less what peatiness awaits us in whisky — by intensity, and, perhaps, by a character. And then we may compare our expectations and reality. And this is the most interesting thing! We do the same things with ex-bourbon whisky, with sherry-matured spirit, with finishes, etc. The distillery, age, barrels, etc. – we either know something about that and expect something or we try to guess blindly. So, why not to do the same thing with peatiness, using as a guideline phenolic ppm in the malt, though this figure does not fully reflect the real figure of peatiness in the liquid?
So, keep asking brand-ambassadors and tasting session hosts about ppm levels, gentlemen, keep asking, do not hesitate! And shake your heads!
Thanks for reading it up to the very end,
Alexey Nearonov
References and materials for a further reading:
(1), (3) Craig Alexander Wilson, The Role of Water Composition on Malt Spirit Quality, International Center for Brewing and Distilling, School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, September 2008;
(2) Barry Harrison (1,2), Joanne Ellis(3), David Broadhurst(3), Ken Reid(2), Royston Goodacre(3), Fergus G. Priest(1), Differentiation of Peats Used in Preparation of Malt for Scotch Whisky Production Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, (1)International Centre for Brewing and Distilling, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh; (2)Scotch Whisky Research Institute, Riccarton, Edinburgh; (3)School of Chemistry and Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre, University of Manchester, Manchester; The Institute of Brewing & Distilling, 2006;
(4) G. N. Bathgate and A. G. Taylor (Moray Firth Ltd, Inverness), The Qualitative and Quantitative Measurement of Peat Smoke on Distiller’s Malt, November 1976; The Institute for Brewing & Distilling, Vol.83, May-June 1977;
(5), (6), (7), (8) Tao Yang, The Impact of Whisky Blend Matrices on The Sensory Perception of Peaty Flavours, International Center for Brewing and Distilling, School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, September 2014;
J. R. Mosedale, Effects of Oak Wood on the Maturation of Alcoholic Beverages with Particular Reference to Whisky, Oxford Forestry Institute, 1995;
Bo Zhang, Jian Cai, Chang-Qing Duan, Malcolm J. Reeves, Fei He, A Review of Polyphenolic in Oak Woods, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2015;
Broom D., Phenol Fables: Peat’s Secrets Uncovered; 18/05/2016, scotchwhisky.com
All people who are fond of whisky are whisky collectors in a certain sense. Even if a person has only five or seven bottles of any whisky in the bar, he often puts a photo of these bottles in social networks with a note «My collection». Nevertheless, there are more serious collectors, whose stockpiles consist of hundreds of releases. However, any collection of whisky is made for a certain purpose. Do you want to know what purpose you have? Pass this test. Do not think long on what answer to choose, just prepare a piece of paper and write down the figure after the answer you selected on this paper, and then summarize these points.
1. You bought a bottle of whisky for 150 Euro in order to:
Drink it on a good occasion (4);
Expose it to a line tasting (2);
Leave it as it is, it is just getting more and more expensive (6);
2. You started to drink an expensive long matured whisky and you realize that you don’t like a lot of things in it. You think:
Well, for such money whisky just cannot be bad (6);
This evening is clearly a fail (4);
Wow, never thought that such things could happen! (2)
3. How often do you participate in tastings:
1-2 times a month or less (4);
1-2 times a week or more often (2);
I can arrange any kind of tasting myself, if I decide to open some bottles from my reserves (6);
4. When you are offered an interesting bottle at a good price, you:
Will ask if there are any more bottles (6);
Are thinking to divide it as samples via your web-group (2);
Remember that a friend’s birthday is coming soon, so, it is probably better to take it (4);
5. When you are told about unique features of some whisky at a presentation, you are:
Taking notes (2);
Looking forward to starting the tasting (4);
Checking the price of the presented release in your phone (6);
6. You have a rare bottle of whisky and you are offered to sell it. You:
Plan to open it for a coming great occasion, so it is unlikely that you sell it (4);
Add 10% to the auction price and check the reaction (6);
Ask whether your vis-à-vis may have a bottle you have been looking for for an exchange (2);
7. You came to visit and after the dinner the host offers you a dram of a terrific whisky. You will:
Tell him how the price of this bottle has changed for the last couple of years (6);
Drink it with pleasure, as much as possible (4);
Ask the host to make a sample for you so that you may sit with this whisky quietly later at home (2);
8. Does it matter what kind of whisky you drink – single malt, blended, grain?
Sometimes grain whisky could be more interesting than a single malt (2);
The main point is that whisky should be good and you must like it (4);
Japanese blends could be equal in price to a case of single malt whisky! (6)
9. Is it allowed to add water or ice into a good single malt whisky?
Why not, you have to drink whisky as you like (4);
This is called «An Idiot Cocktail» (6);
You even have to add water in order to open up the flavour characteristics of the product (2);
What’s the difference, the most important that they have to make a good whisky (4);
This is all a marketing stuff, they just want to earn more (6).
Summarize the points and see what category you are in:
(54-60) Businessman. The financial side of whisky is of the primary importance for you. Basically, you could be equally interested in anything else that could potentially generate revenue. Just we know that there is no better category than whisky. Your collection is your gold and currency reserve. Beware, crises are cyclical and the next is not far off!
(46-52) Businessman-Hedonist. Despite the fact that you like a financial approach very much and the figures of the growing value of bottles in your collection warm your soul, you love whisky not only for that, but also for the pleasure that a good dram brings you. Although you add more bottles to your collection than you take from it for drinking, you never forget to open something good for yourself.
(36-44) Hedonist. Your love for whisky is absolutely pure and selfless. In exchange, whisky gives you unforgettable moments of pleasure. You’re making stocks just because you don’t want to miss nice bottles, but your collection is a real bar. That’s why your friends love you so much!
(26-34) Hedonist-Geek. Whisky is beautiful, and what surrounds it is even more beautiful – heather hills, brave men in kilts, experienced old coopers and copper pot stills. With all that the content of glass becomes even more attractive, and your stories about whisky and whisky history leave a long-lasting impression on your friends. It is possible to find whisky of all kinds and types of whisky in your collection.
(20-24) Geek. How can they make such a magic drink? Why has someone succeed in it, and someone did not? What’s the secret? Raw materials? Equipment? People? The answer surely exists and you are looking for it, not having time to open another bottle from your collection, which resembles more a catalogued scientific library (even if to ignore a huge quantity of vials with samples). А scientist needs to have a sober mind. What to do, someone has to bear this burden.
P.S. If you are a wife of a whisky collector, and you “have devoted your whole life to this fool», you may also want to know more about your idiot-husband, who spends tremendous money on whisky. Ask him to pass this test and just replace in the last part the terms «geek», «hedonist» and «businessman» for the words «anorak», «alcoholic» and «huckster» 😉
On July 17th, 1901, in Edinburgh, in a building at Chambers Street, 27, a gentleman in his middle-age, wearing a striped jacket, was standing and listening to the judge. Then he nervously straightened his moustache and loudly said: “My brother is entirely innocent of charges two and four”. This man’s name was Robert Pattison, and his brother, who was also there, was Walter Pattison. They have been just sentenced to imprisonment for 18 and 9 months respectively, for defrauding the public and overvaluation, and this verdict formally completed an amazing period in the history of the Scotch whisky industry, when about 40 whisky distilleries were built in only 10 years.
Although we should not blame Pattison brothers, ingenious marketing professionals, for all what had happened, but rather we should put the blame on a technical progress with its steamships, which allowed phylloxera to move from the New World to France, and, what is more important, the greed of banks, willing to finance the bubble on а commodity market without close look at the real supply/demand ratio and basing its decisions on extremely optimistic market forecasts.
Furthermore, on December 19, 1898, after the Pattisons company appeared to have problems, Dundee Evening Telegraph newspaper wrote the following: ”In the 12 months ended 31st March last, the quantity of Scotch whisky consumed was in round figures 12 ½ millions of gallons, which was a record, but on the day named there were 89 millions in bond in Scotland, or over seven years’ supply at that abnormal rate consumption, even if every factory in Scotland was closed until 1905. Some of the immense quantity in stock is, no doubt, Irish whisky, but, it is understood, not more than 1 million gallons, two years’ supply, for Scotland. These figures are perfectly clear, yet only a few days ago was shown communications from various proprietors the Highlands to their London clients which they spoke of only three-years’ supply being in hand”.
Let’s go back to the present days. There were two events recently in my life that made me remember this passage, which I came across once read The British Newspaper Archive. The first one – in November 2018 I had a chance to travel across Ireland and to visit several distilleries, which were whether under construction, or had been just built, or had just started to sell their own whiskey. I had a full sense of travel in time as I went back to Scotland of the end of the 19th century. And when I returned from that trip, I bought the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2019 and started to read it and I was very surprised.
If to speak about Ireland, we have been hearing about Irish whiskey industry renaissance for several years already. The country, which is proud of its place in a whisk(e)y history, and which once produced the most volume of whisky in the world, had actually only one normally working distillery by the mid-1970s. Maybe that is why it is so important for Irish that the industry is recovering and new distilleries are appearing, and that is why this issue is so much spoken, so much information about it is available.
However, if to analyze the available information, the growth of Irish whiskey production is not as high as the growth of newly established distilleries number, moreover, production surplus is largely provided by investments in the expansion of the production of existing distilleries, e.g Midleton.
The growth of whiskеy production in Ireland in 10 years by 2020 will give extra 25 million liters of pure alcohol in total, which is, however, quite comparable to the increase in sales of Irish whiskey in the world (plus 11 million litre of pure alcohol for 2011-2016), first of all in the USA, Europe and Russia. Nevertheless, the figures are still impressive — plus 18 distilleries since 2007, and more 19 distilleries are planned!
It seems that it is absolutely unreal and could not be compared with Scotland, where, of course, new distilleries also appear from time to time, but there is no a lot of noise on such occasions. But let us look at the figures. In 10 years, from 2007 to 2017, there were opened… 25 distilleries with a total capacity of almost 45 million litres of pure alcohol in Scotland! And if we add the expansion of production capacity at Macallan (in fact, the construction of a new distillery) and at the Glenlivet, the additionally introduced capacities for this period will amount to more than 60 million litres. Further, the expansion of Glenfiddich capacity is at the final stage; that will increase the production capacity of the distillery 1.5 times (plus more than 6 million litres). At least more 15 distilleries are in different stages of construction projects – and there is no doubt that such projects as Ardnahoe, Lagg, Port Against, Brora and Rosebank will be implemented soon.
What Ireland! Just think about what happens in Scotland – whisky production capacity for the past ten years added newly more than half of capacity of the whole Irish industry! And it’s interesting that a kind of “hidden giants” appeared in Scotland recently — distilleries, which names are not known widely, but which are real giants. What do you know about Dalmunach? Meanwhile, this distillery produces 10 million litres of malt distillate. And what about Ailsa Bay with its 12 million? About Roseisle with 12,5 million? As for the trends, at least 7 new distilleries, not counting Bladnoch, started their operations only in 2017!
Thus, we understand that the supply of whisky will be abundant, especially since in addition to Scotland and Ireland, the other countries also «work» to increase the supply side. One thousand of micro-distilleries appeared in the U.S. since 2016 only, and that is without consideration of such success stories as Michter’s (at the same time, big producers like Wild Turkey, for example, pretend not to recognize that «craft» business is of any trouble for them. Nevertheless, if you look at the widely discussed proposals to change the US whiskey legislation – prohibition of maturation in small casks; prohibition to call whiskey a bourbon after finishing it in different types of casks; obligation to indicate the source of spirit on labels, etc. – you will see that the situation is not so unambiguous). Further, for example, in August 2018 I was unable to get into the stills room at the Japanese Yamazaki – they were installing new pot stills… Meanwhile, there are now 20 whisky distilleries in Japan already. And in March 2018 I had an option to choose between 10 distilleries to visit in small Sweden…
So, the supply side is growing everywhere, but let’s go back to the Scotch and let’s check the demand for Scotch. As the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2019 writes, «starting 2013, Scotch Whisky has been struggling with declining figures and in 2014 both volumes and values were down – for the first time in decade«. After that I looked at the sales statistics of Scotch whisky in the world for 2015, 2016 and 2017 (p.291) and tried to recalculate the 9-liter boxes into pure alcohol, by which the production capacity of distilleries is measured.
In order to make 40-42% ABV solution out of a litre of pure (96.4%) alcohol, you need about 1.4 litres of water. Thus, if to neglect the “angel’s share” (which in Scotland is insignificant) during maturation, especially with the current trend for NAS releases), the sales volume can be estimated as follows:
Worldwide consumption growth (CAGR, Compound Annual Growth Rate) is predicted to be 2% for Scotch for 2017-2022 (compare with 7.4% for Irish whiskey). Tell me where I’m wrong in these calculations, but it turns out that only the 2007-2017 increase in the production capacity of malt whisky in Scotland exceeds entirely the annual sales of single malt Scotch in the world. Let me remind you that the production capacity of almost 60 million litres of malt spirits has been added in Scotland for that period.
If the calculations are correct, how and when all this can lead to an overproduction crisis? It is clear that the whisky industry has a long horizon of planning, and it is not necessary to use all the production capacity to make whisky as well as excessively laid spirits will be not spoiled, but will turn into a well-matured good whisky. But at the same time, a lot of projects, which have been already launched and which will be launched soon, will demand their share on the market in any case, even if their capacity will be not fully involved. And it will inevitably sharpen the competition. From the point of view of owners and investors, it is not the most optimistic prospects. They may put in use such words as “to shut down” and “to mothball” again.
From the point of view of consumers and the industry as a whole, there is nothing to worry about. Almost until the last couple of decades of the 19th century, Scotch was a kind of distillate drunk mainly in Scotland itself, as gin was the most popular drink in the cities of the United Kingdom, in port cities everybody was used to drink rum, and the aristocracy preferred brandy. The growth in demand, though overestimated, and the followed investments in the industry made Scotch whisky famous all over the world and made it similar to a beverage that we love so much today. A new round of investments, an attempt to find a place on a shelf through an amazing work with the wood, unbelievable finishes, experiments with peat, etc., all that may leave its own footprint in the whisky history too. And an overproduction crisis, perhaps, will make all this whisky quite affordable to us.
