Whisky Fundamentals
Slàinte Mhath
Published 13/06/2020
The Scottish Gaelic language is one of the Celtic languages and is spoken today only in parts of Scotland, mainly in the Hebrides, in the Scottish Highlands and partly in Glasgow. Scottish Gaelic is also closely related to Irish and the almost extinct language Manx. Anyone who spends any time around Scotch Whisky will inevitably come across the term Slàinte Mhath sooner or later. In everyday British life, the old Gaelic term was largely replaced by a cheerful cheers.
Distilleries, Lost Distilleries and Brands
Published 22/05/2020
The line between a brand and a distillery, and the linkages between distilleries of the same name can be somewhat complex. This is thanks to the turbulent history of whisky, Irish and Scotch Whisky in particular, closures, bankrupt businesses, discontinued brands, recreation of brands, regeneration of distilleries and other forms of necromancy and marketing. Deciding where to draw this line is actually more complex than we might think. Lost Distilleries and Distillery Resurrection Sometimes a closed distillery such as Brora or Port Ellen is recreated on the site of the former distillery.
The Science of Whisky Maturation
Published 22/05/2020
There are over 100 whisky distilleries in Scotland and yet the New Make spirit is unique and its chemical composition differs from distillery to distillery. This colorless distillate already contains some of the compounds contained in the final aroma of the matured whisky, such as long-chain alcohols, phenols, esters, lactones, aldehydes, fusel oils, compounds containing sulfur and nitrogen. But the really interesting things happen in the wooden barrel, in which the whisky gets its unique and round taste.
What is a Coffey still?
Published 22/05/2020
What is continuous distillation? Continuous distillation refers to the process by which a mixture of liquid, typically alcohol and water, is fractionally separated or split via the application of heat. Unlike conventional batch distillation which requires the manual removal of unwanted liquids before further distillation can occur, continuous distillation allows for a looping system meaning that distillation can continue with little to no interruption. This approach has a number of benefits over batch distillation.
Whisky by Aeneas MacDonald
Published 22/05/2020
Aeneas MacDonald was the pseudonym of George Malcolm Thomson (1899 - 1996), then an Edinburgh-based writer and journalist. He adopted the non de plume in deference to his mother, who was a strict teetotaller! (The original Aeneas MacDonald was one of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s earliest supporters, the so-called ‘Men of Moidart’, who acted as banker to the Jacobite troops during the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Thomson himself was an ardent Scottish nationalist though ironically he subsequently spent most of his life in London.