— title: “Whisky regions of Scotland” date: 2021-08-16T12:06:49+01:00 type: single draft: true feature: /scotland description: .

When it comes to whisky, Scotland immediately springs to mind, even to the uninitiated. Indeed, Scotland is famous for its whisky. The Scots are still arguing with the Irish about who invented the whisky. Both have good and understandable arguments, which you are welcome to read in our posts on the history of Scottish whisky and the history of Irish whisky . In this post, we don’t want to argue, but rather introduce you to the five whisky regions in Scotland. Come on our flight to Scotland and get to know the Speyside, the Highlands, Islay, the Lowlands and Campbeltown.

• Highlands
• Speyside
• Islay
• Lowlands
• Campbeltown

Whisky regions in Scotland - an overview Scotland is the country where most of the whisky is produced and where there are also most of the distilleries. In 2017 there were 111 active distilleries. In addition, there are innumerable distilleries that have been closed or only partially closed. It is agreed to speak of around 100 distilleries in Scotland. Scotland is divided into five whisky regions, each with its own unique style. The number of regions always fluctuates, because until a while ago the Islands were still considered a separate region, but have now been assigned to the Highlands and the Campbeltown region was added later. Currently, however, the SWA defines the whisky regions in Scotland as follows: Lowlands, Speyside, Highlands, Islay and Campbeltown. However, it will be many years before the islands are no longer viewed as an independent region in everyday life. That’s why most whisky shops, like us at Whisky Fox, still run the islands as a separate region so as not to completely confuse customers. Let’s take a look at these five regions.

Lowlands

The Lowlands are known for particularly light and mild whisky. The Lowlands stretch across mainland Scotland from north of the English border and south of the imaginary line between Greenrock and Dundee. There aren’t many distilleries left in the Scottish plains. These include the only remaining single malt distilleries Glenkinchie, Bladnoch and Auchentoshan distilleries . There were once twelve distilleries here, but most of them have been mothballed or closed entirely over time. However, the Lowlands still have the highest-output distilleries. These are the grain whisky producing distilleries North British, Strathclyde and Cameronbridge. Mainly grain whisky is used here for the production of blended whisky produced.

Lowland whisky is a good entry-level whisky because, as already mentioned, it is rather mild and light in taste. It is either very little or not peated at all, which is particularly pleasing to the beginner’s palate. The whiskies from the three distilleries mentioned may be light, but not inferior. With the Auchentoshan Three Wood, for example, you will find a very good whisky that has matured in three different wooden barrels and is very well received.

Highlands

The Highlands are basically the rest of mainland Scotland. This makes the Highands the geographically largest whisky region in Scotland. Some still differentiate between the northern, southern and central highlands. There are many distilleries here and, above all, probably the largest range of whisky typesand taste nuances. This is of course explained by the variety of climatic conditions, which differ greatly from north to south. The whiskies of the Highlands are usually quite strong in taste, have medium peat notes, but sometimes no peat at all and pronounced aromas of nuts, honey and heather. The coastal whiskies also have an interesting salt note. Very malty whiskies are often produced in the north. You can also find wonderful whiskies with a nice sherry note here. Well-known distilleries in the Highlands are Aberfeldy, Glenmorangie, Dalmore, Oban and Dalwhinnie.

The highlands now also include the whiskies from the islands of Jura, Orkney, Skye, Mull, Oban, Clynelish and Arran. These whiskies have a completely different character than the strong, complex Highland whiskies. Like the islands themselves, they are quite uneven, not quite as peaty as the Islay whiskies, and often a bit salty than those from the mainland, although the latter is only appreciated by true connoisseurs, or at least claim it is.

One of the best-known whiskies from the Highlands is definitely the heavily peated Ardmore, although experts disagree on whether this should be assigned to the Speyside or the Highlands. This difficult to classify category also includes other whiskies near Speyside, which stand out with a mild taste and sometimes smoke that is otherwise completely absent in the Highland whiskies. These include Macduff, Glen Garioch or the Knockdhu (An Cnoc).

Speyside

The Speyside is not a separate geographical or political region in Scotland, but part of the Highlands. But in view of the fact that almost half of the active Scottish distilleries are located here in a very small area, it was decided to count the Speyside to the independent whisky regions in Scotland. Speyside whiskies are the most famous Scottish whiskies in the world. Aberdour, Glenfiddich and The Glenvilet are just three of the incredible and excellent diversity of Speyside. The region’s whisky is often malty-sweet and has fine peat notes.

The Speyside is an area along the River Spey in Moray County. These are the former counties of Morayshire and Banffshire, which are the cradle of Scottish whisky production. This is where The Glenvilet bought the first Scottish license to distill whisky and is still famous today for its extraordinarily good Scotch. The incredibly high density of distilleries in Speyside is not only explained by the good access to the raw materials for the production of whisky, the barley and the water, but also because the area used to be very difficult to access. This led to the fact that in times of illegality and the black market during the American prohibition it was possible to burn here undisturbed. Hardly any distillery was closed here or caught doing business and punished. An ideal place for the early whisky makers. The very popular Malt Whisky Trail was also laid out in Speyside . But we’ll tell you more about that when the next blog post in Whisky Fox Magazine is about Speyside .

Islay

Islay, although only a single island, is still one of the independent whisky regions in Scotland. There are eight distilleries on the actually quite small island. But these have it all. Well-known brands such as Ardberg, Bowmore, Bruichladdich Laphroaig, Lagavulin and the very new Kilchoman produce here. Most of these distilleries, which I am sure you are also familiar with, have had a very difficult time, but have recovered and developed splendidly. Islay whisky differs significantly from the rest of Scottish whiskies. The soil is very peaty, which you can clearly see in the islays. Bad tongues speak of sheep dung whisky, as the widespread sheep farming affects the peat. And in general, Islay’s whiskies are rated quite differently. One of them tastes leather the next peat and again another thinks you can taste seaweed and medicine. The best thing to do is to let an Islay whisky melt in your mouth yourself.

Campbeltown

As the name suggests, Campbeltown is a town in Scotland. At the very end of the island of Kintyre, it was the center of whisky production in the middle of the 19th century. The small town had 34 distilleries in its heyday and was considered the whisky capital of the world. Today there are only three distilleries left in Campbeltown. Glen Scotia, Springbank and Glengyle are at home here. Campbeltown whisky is known for its salty and smoky taste.

The Springback distillery is probably the best known and produces three different whiskies, none of which are cool-filtered and do not have any color additives. Only a few hundred meters away, which bottles their whisky under the name Kilkerran. One reason for this is that Campbeltown does not actually bottle whiskies under the Glen label. But wait a minute, what about Glen Scotia? You are probably thinking now. Glen Scotia was and is an exception to this rule. Most of the distillery was shut down in the 20th century, but today it is again producing excellent whisky in old stills and old, restored walls.

With a view of the smallest of the whisky regions in Scotland, our tour of Whisky Scotland ends. We hope you enjoyed it and aroused your curiosity. We will of course also dedicate a separate article to each individual region and will certainly also take a closer look at well-known Scottish whiskies and distilleries. So it is worthwhile to stop by Whisky-Fox’s whisky magazine from time to time.