Monthly Archives: December 2008

Diageo's Classic Malts of Scotland

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Diageo Six Classic Malts of Scotland

Diageo Six Classic Malts of Scotland


In 1988, the United Distillers and Vintners began marketing the “Classic Malts of Scotland” as a selection of six single malt scotch whiskies that were representative of the best Scotch whiskey available. The United Distillers and Vintners was later purchased by Diageo, who has continued the marketing campaign. The “regions” in the six classic malts of Scotland differ from the official Scotch Whiskey Association region classifications, most likely so that they could include other scotches to the list of classics.

It’s not an official designation, just a marketing one. That doesn’t stop the six from being fine scotches though.

The six Classic Malts of Scotland are:

  • Dalwhinnie 15 – Highland
  • Talisker 10 – Isle of Skye
  • Cragganmore 12 – Speyside
  • Oban 14 – West Highland
  • Lagavulin 16 – Islay
  • Glenkinchie 12 – Lowland

As you can see, Isle of Skye (part of the Island subregion of the Highlands in the SWA’s official regions) isn’t an officially recognized region and Campbeltown, where Diageo does not own a distillery, isn’t represented on the list.

The Senses in Tasting Scotch

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When it comes to enjoy scotch and “tasting” it, many of your senses come into play. You can see the color of the scotch, you smell the aromatics as you swirl it in your glass, you taste the flavors that awaken you as you sip it, and then comes the finish… the warmth and in your throat and the aftertaste that lingers in your mouth. Combined, the aromatics, the flavor, the heat, the mouthfeel, they all contribute to the act of “tasting” scotch.

One of the most important things about tasting is to become familiar with the flavors themselves. How can you understand what tastes “peaty” if you don’t know what “peaty” is? It’s like a child who has never tasted coconut, there is no way they can pull out that flavor from a rum cake, right? The best way to build your sense of flavors is to get a feeling for what each flavor is independently so that you can figure out what it is when you combine them either other flavors.

Let’s get to the senses…

The Eye

The first way yo always interact with scotch is by looking at it, right? Scotches aged for a short period in oak casks will look very light golden in color. As they are more or are introduced to rum casks or sherry casks, the color becomes a darker amber. In general, a light colored scotch will be light in flavor and a dark scotch will often have more flavor complexity.

The Nose

The first part of tasting scotch involves your nose and detecting the scents that leave the scotch. As I sniff more and more scotch, I’m getting better at detecting the various aromatics that leave the glass. Peatiness is likely the easiest to detect but there are other flavors as well like fruitiness, grass, heather, salt, sherry, spiciness, etc. Much like flavor, it will be like a symphony in which you will try to identify individual notes.

The Mouth

Your mouth is how you will get the three other components in tasting – body, palate, and finish. Body refers to how full the scotch feels. Some will feel light, others will have a weightier feel to them. As you drink more, you’ll be able to see how the body of each scotch differs and be able to figure out what is considered “light” and what is considered “full.” Body is also often called mouthfeel.

Palate refers to the flavors you taste and, as Michael Jackson has noted in many of his books, an experienced taster will have to return frequently to a scotch, over several days, to get a full sense of its flavors. As I said before in the Nose, it’s like a symphony. You know there are a lot of instruments but it takes a lot of time to identify them correctly.

Finish refers to the after-taste and more. After you swallow, there will be a lingering flavor that joins the warmth of the scotch going down your throat. It’s this flavor, along with the warmth, that finish refers to. When I began tasting scotch, all the finishes tasted similar (not the same, but similar) but as I enjoyed more varieties I discovered each ended differently and in complement with the other tasting aspects. Some ended more sharply than others, some had some spiciness, and others simply warmed the body like a warm blanket by the fire.

The one thing to take away from this isn’t that you should try to identify everything or try to know everything, just try to figure out one new thing per sip (or couple of sips). Think of a bottle as a novel, you learn one new thing each time you turn the page, and you’ll be able to enjoy it for a long time (and isn’t that what it’s all about?).

12/27/08 Tasting Notes – Lavagulin 16 – Smoky, Grassy

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Lagavulin 16Lagavulin 16 is another scotch I’ve had on many an occasion but I never really sat down to sip it with the intent of breaking it down and pulling out the flavors. Lagavulin is rated a 95 in Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch, pretty high praise when you consider most of the scotches listed don’t even crack 90, let alone hit 95. In fact, in my brief flipping through the book, I’ve only seen a couple 96 and they’re all extremely limited vintage Macallans (“1841” and The Macallan 1948). In fact, the 95 puts it on par with the Macallan 25 and Macallan 30, but at a fraction of the price. All I know is that I enjoy Lagavulin for its smoky peat and it’s rich textures.

Jackson’s guide says that the palate is a peaty dryness like gunpowder tea (never had it, must try now). As the palate develops, oily, grassy, and, in particular, salty notes emerge. I can’t tell whether it’s oily and I also can’t get a sense of the salt, but the grassy is certainly there. It has a hint of what a freshly mowed lawn smells like, the sharpness of that flavor is in there. The finish is cutely described as a bear hug.

One tip I read online in helping get a better sniff is to cover the top of the glass for a few seconds. This lets the aromatics accumulate in the glass so you can get a better smell of it. I find this helps since as a child I had my note cauterized (because of nose bleeds) and I think this may have had an effect on my olfactory sense. It definitely stings when I take a deep breath, it is 43% alcohol (a little higher than the standard/required 40%), but I can’t get the sea spray sense that is often called out.

Either way, it’s tasty. 🙂

12/26/08 Tasting Notes – The Glenlivet 12 – Finding Peach!

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The Glenlivet 12Tonight I decided to have some more of The Glenlivet… I feel a little pretentious writing “The” Glenlivet, it’s like when football players say “The” Ohio State University. I suppose The Glenlivet’s history gives it more right to add the “The” than OSU, but in this post I’ll call it Glenlivet from now on! 🙂

Glenlivet is one of my favorite to drink when I was something crisp, smooth, and soothing. It doesn’t have the peatiness and smokiness that my other favorite, Lavagulin, has so I feel compelled to engage it. I can just relax and sip it down.

According to Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch, the palate is flowery, peachy, notes of vanilla, delicate balance. Having had this many times, I’ve noticed the vanilla flavor in the past (though had a difficult time identifying it) but the peachiness never really struck me too strongly. I think one of the difficulties with the Glenlivet 12 is that the alcohol attacks your senses, dulling them for the flavors that come after it. The heat it brings, both when you taste it and when you sniff it, seems to hide the rest a little unless you carefully look for them. However, as I looked online for tips on how to accentuate my palate, I came across a note about how you should be properly sipping scotch.

I can’t find it but the notes say that when sipping, get enough to coat your moth, and then swirl it around so that you coat everything part of your mouth and tongue. I hadn’t done that in a while so I tried it… and the peachiness came through. It wasn’t until it touched the sides of my tongue did I really discover it. It was a little surprising too because I wasn’t thinking “taste the peach,” I was only thinking “coat my tongue and see what happens.” It was certainly a delight, especially since it came through the heat of the alcohol.

I’ve always enjoyed Glenlivet and haven’t had much of the 12 until recently, opting as the novice does, to go for the older bottles (older is better, right!?); but I’m becoming a fan of the 12 as I notice more of its subtleties. The heat is at times a little off-putting but I don’t mind it too much.

What is Scotch?

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Scotch is the name used for whiskey, or whisky, produced in Scotland. In order for a whiskey to be called Scotch, it has to produced in adherence to the Scotch Whisky Act 1988 and the Scotch Whisky Order 1990, both of which were passed under United Kingdom law. The law states in order for a whiskey to be named a scotch, a whiskey:

(a) which has been produced at a distillery in Scotland from water and malted barley (to which only whole grains of other cereals may be added) all of which have been:
   (i) processed at that distillery into a mash;
   (ii) converted to a fermentable substrate only by endogenous enzyme systems; and
   (iii) fermented only by the addition of yeast;

(b) which has been distilled at an alcoholic strength by volume of less than 94.8% so that the distillate has an aroma and taste derived from the raw materials used in, and the method of, its production;

(c) which has been matured in an excise warehouse in Scotland in oak casks of a capacity not exceeding 700 litres, the period of that maturation being not less than three years;

(d) which retains the colour, aroma and taste derived from the raw materials used in, and the method of, its production and maturation, and to which no substance other than water and spirit caramel has been added.

In layman’s terms, it has to be whiskey produced in Scotland and matured in a warehouse in Scotland in oak casks for at least three years. If it follows those rules, it can be labeled a Scotch.