Islay

Islay, Old Norse for Yula’s isle, is the home to such popular distillers as Laphroaig, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg. The distilleries are located on the coasts, with the most well known found on the southern end (including all those named). In all of Scotland, peat was the most plentiful source of fuel to roast the barley until the 60s, when better technology came around. Other areas converted to the newer technology. They are marked by a strong smokiness and peat character because they never converted to another fuel source, citing tradition.

Peatiness is a measurable characteristic and often calculated as parts per million (PPM) of phenol. Ardbeg is often considered the most peaty of all Scotch, including the Islays, and is a produce of Glenmorangie, which is a distillery better known for its own namesake Scotch distilled in the Highland region. The standard bottling of Ardbeg has a 50-60 ppm and they have a cask strength “Supernova” bottle (58.9% ABV) with a 100 ppm phenol count.

Speyside

Speyside, which is regarded as the area around the river Spey, scotch distilleries number in the several dozen. On a recent trip to the region, we passed a sign (or two or three) for a distillery every few minutes. The area is packed full of distilleries because many once tapped the river as a source of water, one of the critical ingredients in the production of Scotch. The Glenlivet and Glenfiddich, two of the best selling scotches (and The Macallan, one of the best known), hail from the region.

After the conversion to another fuel source in the 1960s, scotch dropped its peatiness and smokiness, which allowed other flavors to “get through.” If you read the tasting notes of various Highlands and Speysides, you’ll note a heavier emphasis on fruit notes and other complementary flavors like nutmeg and vanilla. Those flavors are often masked by smoke, which is why they are rarely used to describe Islays (or when used, are not emphasized).

Both styles are fantastic and the one you choose should depend on your mood. It also makes it easier to buy a gift for someone if you know which one they prefer. I am a fan of both “buckets” but sometimes people prefer one over the other (I know people who hate islays and those who think Speys are “boring”), so this can help you decide what to buy!

Image Credit: Islay map to Wikipedia, Speyside map to Moray Ways

I visited the Macallan distillery about a year ago, took part in their Most Precious Tour and had a fantastic time. I sampled everything from their New Make Whisky to their 30 Year Fine Oak and can say that my favorite was the Macallan 18. The 30 Year was fantastic but you simply can’t beat the quality and price point of the Macallan 18 (around $150 for 750 mL).

If you aren’t sure what to get your favorite Scotch loving friend this winter, consider an old favorite in a fancy limited edition box.

When whisky is made, it’s stored in casks, or barrels, for many years. This new make whisky, as it’s called, can have an alcohol content anywhere from 60%-75%, depending on distillation. It’s potent stuff. As it matures, it loses some of its potency, known as the angel’s share. When it’s removed, depending on how old it is, it can still have a fairly high percentage of alcohol.

Normally distilled water is added to normalize the alcohol content to the standard bottling levels, however sometimes they normalize it at a might higher alcohol content for cask strength bottlings. For example, The Macallan Cask Strength, which has no age statement, has an alcohol by volume of 58.5%.

Is cask strength better? That’s debatable. At 58.5%, the burn of alcohol overpowers many of the subtle flavors in scotch. However, some people like the idea that you can get a taste of what it’s like straight out of the barrel, before water is added to bring it down to more pedestrian alcohol by volume levels. You can adjust it to your liking, instead of accepting the more standard levels of 43% or 40%.

I think it’s worth a try but unless you like your nose hairs singed off, I’d avoid getting a whole bottle.

Just in time for the holidays, The Balvenie is offering the chance to win a one-of-a-kind prize: An exclusive Scotch Whisky nosing and tasting kit. This unique kit contains 24 separate aromas and a dedicated nosing guide, as well as other essential whisky tasting tools. The lucky winner will also receive an exquisite Balvenie hipflask.

One of the coolest parts of the Macallan tour was their coopering and nosing areas where we could smell various aromas (it really highlighted the difference, at least for us, between dried and fresh fruits). This nosing kit is that fantastic experience in a kit and it’s appropriate that another premium scotch producer, Balvenie, is the one to come up with it. I’m a huge fan of their DoubleWood and at the moment I have a PortWood I bought in Heathrow duty-free just sitting in the case… waiting for the perfect occasion.

This would make a fantastic holiday gift, but I don’t believe they sell it.

Through the power of the internets, I know now what actually happens inside the tasting room courtesy of David at Scotchblog.ca. From the photos, the event seemed to be much like the tasting room at the Macallan distillery tour. Tasters were treated to the 12, 15, 18, and 21 (plus the 10 in the beginning), making it a pretty good tasting considering the price (free).

As an added bonus, each taster was given a leather-bound, velvet lined shoe box with a Fine Oak 10, 12, tumbler, and pen. Not bad!

Unfortunately, the duty free shop at Heathrow doesn’t carry any of the standard bottles of The Macallan. Much like how The Macallan Elegancia was created for duty free and travel retail outlets, all of the Macallans at Heathrow (and I suspect elsewhere) had special names and lacked an age statement!

As it turns out, they announced on July 21st, 2009 (we started our trip before the announcement!) that they were launching The 1824 Collection specifically for the Global Travel Retail market! There are four expressions: The Macallan Select Oak, Whisky Maker’s Edition, the Estate Reserve, and the 1824 Limited Release.

While Macallan has spun this as a exclusive offer available only in duty free, maybe they did this so that you couldn’t just wait to buy the sherry oak or fine oak Macallans on the cheap in duty free.

We weren’t worried until one of the staff walked to the group in front of us and warned that the building only held 200 and they were around 220. Yikes. We didn’t travel nearly an hour just to turn around and go back!

The Outer Room

As we waited in the next line to get into the presentation, we discovered that we were the first group to be denied entry. When we peeked inside, we saw that the other room they were in was packed to the gills. Even if we were let in, it wouldn’t have made for an all too pleasant experience.

We stayed in the outer room where very light h’orderves were served and were treated to samples of the Macallan 18, a treat we certainly accepted as a nice consolation prize. All in all, we still had a good time. They offered to put us on the VIP list for another event this week, which simply meant we were given priority to get in, but we didn’t think we’d make the trip a second time.

In the future, I hope Macallan fixes their RSVP system so that they don’t have this problem but they handled the circumstances quite well.

My wife stopped at a Costco store in Delaware, where they are able to sell liquor, on her way to a friends’ house. While she was there, she saw a bottle of 18 year old scotch sporting both the Kirkland brand, which is Costco’s private label, and The Macallan Distillery! (I was very surprised to see this, but apparently they’ve done this in the past)

She immediately called me up, asking me if I wanted to give it a try. Apparently The Macallan does this regularly with any extra scotch that doesn’t make it into their other bottles because 1,200 cases are available at $59.99 a piece. A typical Macallan 18 goes for around $150, so the $60 price is a steal.

This particular bottle has a sherry oak finish and you can read more about it from the product label. I’ll be sure to give it a try the next time I get a chance!

Not sure which day I’ll be going, leaning towards Wednesday, but I wish there was more information online about what happens during these celebrations. I’m thinking it might be like the tasting I experienced at the Macallan distillery?

The Fine Oak line is a fun idea because they mature it in three different casks – Spanish oak casks seasoned with sherry, American oak casks seasoned with sherry, and American oak casks seasoned with bourbon. My novice ability probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between triple cask matured versus a blend of three separately matured whiskeys blended together but I imagine there’s a difference. You don’t go through all that trouble for it not to come out in the end product (or it could just be marketing?).

Incidentally, they say that the Precious tour takes two hours but the guide will stay with you in the tasting room as long as you want. The Precious tour normally has ten people but six people on our tour never showed up, so it was an intimate four-person tour that lasted nearly three hours!

So how was it? Smooth… so smooth that my wife, who doesn’t like whisky, said that she liked it. She liked it! She went from hating the taste of scotch to liking a Macallan 30 Year Fine Oak… she has expensive tastes.

So, here are the notes they offered on the nose that I found entertaining – “Rich, exotic, heady and aromatic, reminiscent of an orange grove.” I get everything in that statement except… exotic. What does an “exotic nose” mean?

Besides that little descriptive quandary, I definitely got a lot of orange peel, vanilla, with a spiciness on the back end. It’s light color, atypical for a 30 year, gave away its slightly muted oakiness. All of the Macallans in the Fine Oak line are far lighter than the standard bottlings, so I’d imagine the oakiness is toned down as well.