JUST FOR SIPPING

By Renee Hopkins

The singular sensation of single malt scotch

There’s no such thing as bad whisky. Some whiskys just happen to be better than others.
----  William Faulkner

One of our country’s greatest experts on the consumption, at least, of whisky – and no slouch as a writer, either — Faulkner’s words speak to the matter of individual taste and style, a theme that runs like a clear Scottish stream right to the heart of what attracts connoisseurs to single malt Scotches.

The variety of flavors, scents, and even textures among single malt Scotches is an irresistible draw for the single malt connoisseur, and just as Faulkner’s fiction captures the desolate yet enduring sense of the American South, single malt whisky conveys a microcosm of the harsh landscape and the history of proud, stubborn Scotland. With every sip, a single malt Scotch loudly proclaims the very specific and individual details of its geography and its making — details that may be indiscernible to anyone but an educated connoisseur of single malt Scotches.

 “The true single malt enthusiast wants to try everything that there is out there, and that’s part of the fun of single malt Scotch whisky,” says Alan Shayne, president of the U.S. chapter of the Edinburgh, Scotland-based Scotch Malt Whisky Society. “Consumers are definitely exploring and falling in love with single malt Scotches, because single malts, as opposed to any other category of distilled alcoholic beverage, offer a wider variety of flavors and tastes, more so than even cognac, brandy, or Armagnac.”

The best way to explore the wide range of styles and flavors of single malts is to gather together with other connoisseurs and explorers at a tasting dinner, and take the opportunity to sample a half-dozen or more single malts.

The Single Malt Scotch Whisky Society has sponsored tastings of single malt whiskies and cigars in Associate Clubs throughout the country. A partial list of Associate Clubs that have hosted Single Malt Scotch Whisky Society tastings over the past few years includes the Houston City Club; The City Club of San Francisco; the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia; the Tower Club at Charlotte Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Capital City Club in Raleigh, North Carolina; the Piedmont Club in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and the Heritage Club in Huntsville, Alabama.

To some, Huntsville might sound like an unusual place to find a large number of single malt Scotch enthusiasts, yet Shayne says the Heritage Club contingent of Scotch enthusiasts is one of the largest and most loyal of all the clubs in which he has held tastings.

“They have a collection of single malts there that is unprecedented,” he says. “I had gone there for the first tasting, and we had 40 to 50 members attending; tremendously successful. One member, Jack Montgomery [featured in “Clubs & Members,” July/August 1998], was so taken with single malts that he formed a single malt whisky club within the Heritage Club, called the Wee Dram Society.”

Tastings such as these are partly responsible for the increase in consumption of single malt Scotches. Shayne offers these growth figures: 10 percent increases each year from 1991 to 1994, then 16 percent in ’95, 22 percent in ’96, 17 percent in ’97, and an estimated 10 percent in ’98.

At a tasting, Shayne says, attendees celebrate the diversity of the flavors and tastes of the whisky. “We take a cask of whisky from any given distillery and bottle it at full-cask strength, no diluting, no chill-filtering. The whisky is as pure and natural as if it were straight out of the cask. We almost always taste Society whiskies, usually from five different casks, ranging from a sweet dark style to the other extreme, a dry, peaty Scotch like Lagavulin. Usually we’ll give a little bit of a lecture, but the real idea is to have the members taste the whiskies themselves. Depending upon the location, if permissible, we like to pair up the whiskies with fine, premium imported cigars. We only smoke during the last half hour of the tasting, because if you are trying to ‘nose’ whisky you can’t do it in a smoky room.”

“Nosing” is part of the single malt Scotch tasting ritual, the same kind of tasting ritual used for other spirits and for wine: First the color of the whisky is noted, then the aroma or “nose”; taste follows — a slow taste to first note texture, then flavor, then finish (how long the flavor lasts). A plate of bread or water to cleanse the palate between sips is helpful. Observations are recorded for future reference.

Single malt Scotch, in the baldest and most unromantic of terms, is made by boiling malted barley in water, then fermenting the liquid wort, distilling twice, and aging the resulting spirit in small oak barrels (usually American oak) for five to 20 or more years. In order to be called “single malt,” all of the whisky in the bottle must come from one distillery, and the whisky must be made from malted barley and no other grain or sugar, and matured for at least three years.

Experts offer a long list of characteristics that account for differences in taste among single malt Scotches. These characteristics include the water, the type of barley, how long the barley is steeped, how long the barley is dried, whether and which kind of peat is used in the drying process, the fermentation time, the shape and size of the stills, the speed at which the raw spirit is collected, the size and type of cask used, and the time spent on the aging process. Further considerations (especially for those with the romance of the moors in their souls) might include the local weather, proximity to the sea and the wind, the rocks over which the water supply tumbles, the amount of granite in that rock, the shape of the still used in distillation, and even the location of windows in the distillery, of which there are more than 100 in Scotland.

The four major regions of single malt production are the Highlands, Lowlands, Campbeltown, and Islay; there are subcategories, as well. These regions correspond very roughly in concept to the same kind of regional designations in use for French wines. While not all Speyside Highlands single malts taste alike, for example, there is enough similarity between single malts of the region that experts have classified Speyside whiskies as “elegant, fruity, and balanced by a nice dry smokiness” (Malt Whisky: A Comprehensive Guide for Both Novice and Connoisseur, Graham Nown, Smithmark Publishing, 1997).

The language of whisky isn’t nearly as old and advanced as the language of wine, but one does exist. It was developed in the 1970s at the Scotch Whisky Research Institute in Pentlands, using concrete descriptive words such as “toast,” “honey,” “peppery,” “roasted malt,” “husky,” and “hay-like” to convey the specific flavors found in single malt Scotch. Experts such as spirits-and-beer writer Michael Jackson have written extensively in the last decade or so about single malts, and the Internet has many sources for descriptions of various single malts. Reading others’ descriptions of tastings, then personally tasting those single malts and comparing impressions can be an excellent way to educate the palate.

Shayne offers the following recommendations for would-be connoisseurs who want to develop their palate for single malts: “One would probably want to start with a whisky that is in the middle of the road, a little on the lighter style, like a Dalwhinnie or a Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, Highland Park, Cardhu [Cardhu is the major malt component of the Johnnie Walker blend, so it will taste familiar to those who are used to drinking Walker blends]. These still have a lot of flavor, but if you start with something strong and peaty like a Laphroaig, either you love it or you hate it. Most people won’t love it, but those that do love it, love it passionately.” There are also strong-tasting single malts on the other end of the taste spectrum, sweeter whiskies that are aged in bourbon or sherry casks. The Macallan, for example, which is often touted as one of the smoothest and best single malts made, falls into this category. While easier to take than a peaty Laphroaig, Shayne says, a first-time malt drinker may still not take to The Macallan right away.

Further recommendations come from Jackson. The noted writer gives his top, five-star rating to just six distilleries: The Macallan, Auchentoshan, The Glenlivet, Highland Park, Lagavulin, and Springbank. Cheers magazine, a trade publication covering beverages in the restaurant industry, lists these top-selling brands of single malts: The Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, The Macallan, Glenmorangie, The Dalmore, Balvenie, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Aberlour, and McClelland.

Another way to fully experience single malts, of course, is to pair them with food. Says Shayne, “My feeling is that single malts are either an aperitif before a meal, or an after-dinner drink when finishing a meal. I don’t necessarily believe that whisky is as interesting to enjoy with a meal as wine is, but that doesn’t mean that people should refrain from it by any measure. For me, I’d rather try two aperitif-style whiskies before dinner than a flight of three or four different whiskies after dinner.”

Nown’s Malt Whisky quotes several Scottish chefs on pairing food and single malts, and on using a splash of single malt as flavoring when cooking. Substituting a sweet but full-bodied Macallan for the usual sherry in a whisky-flavored brown sauce can result in an excellent flavor, which is enhanced when the sauce is served with a fine beef tenderloin or prime rib and Macallan is consumed alongside it. Nown’s book makes these pairing recommendations: A Lowland malt such as Glenkinchie to accompany poultry or soups; the more peaty Oban to go with fish or lamb; Cragganmore to accompany light game; Talisker to accompany seafood; and smoky, peaty Lagavulin to go with red meats. For drinking with desserts, the lighter Dalwhinnie is recommended by Nown. And the stronger-tasting Macallan makes a fine flavoring, instead of cognac, when making simple, bittersweet-chocolate truffles, and tastes wonderful when sipped slowly alongside high-quality dark chocolate.

Most single malt drinkers, according to Shayne, want to try as many whiskies as possible in order to broaden their knowledge, educate their palates, and discover a range of favorites. This is unusual even in the world of whiskies, he says.

“With blended whiskies,” Shayne concludes, “you’ll taste until you find a favorite, Wild Turkey or Chivas Regal, maybe, and then you stick with that for 20 years. But with single malts, you’re always discovering something you haven’t tasted before.”

Free-lance writer Renee Hopkins enjoys sipping single malt Scotch. Just don’t ask her to match it with a fine cigar.

FOR  MORE  INFORMATION
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
U.S. chapter: 4604 North Hiatus Road, Sunrise, FL 33351
1-800-990-1991
www.fujipub.com/scotchmalt/

This Edinburgh-based Society boasts 20,000 members worldwide, and 4,500 in the United States. Alan Shayne, U.S. chapter president, says the Society’s goal is to provide services to its members, including “great, exclusive products that are not sold commercially. We have a tasting committee in Edinburgh, made up of nine industry veterans that meet every couple of weeks and sample whiskies in a blind tasting. If all nine members agree that a whisky is a high quality, they purchase a cask and the whisky is bottled and made available to our members. If any committee member doesn’t like a whisky, they pass. We turn away about 90 percent of what’s offered to us. You have to become a member in order to sample our whisky, and there are never more than 250 bottles that will taste alike, because that’s all you get in a single cask.” The Society also acts as a catalyst for the growth and awareness in the States of all single malt Scotch whiskies.

BOOKS
Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch, Michael Jackson, Running Press, 1994
Michael Jackson’s Malt Whisky Companion, Dorling Kindersley, 1989
The Malt Whisky File, John Lamond and Robin Tucek, Lyons Press, 1997
Malt Whisky: A Comprehensive Guide for Both Novice and Connoisseur, Graham Nown, Smithmark Publishing, 1997

 
WHISKY ON THE WEB
www.blackadder.com
www.scotch.com
www.scotchwhisky.com
www.single-malt.com
www.smws.com