Visiting Distilleries

No visit to Scotland is complete without a visit to a working Scotch Malt Whisky Distillery. How better to capture the true spirit of the nation? From mountain to glen and island to lowland, you’ll find beautifully sited distilleries still dispensing individual charm, history and the local ’water of life’. All waiting to be discovered, wherever you are in Scotland.

So if you are ever in Scotland and wish to visit the distilleries make sure you have a copy of Visiting Distilleries, the book which helps whisky enthusiasts learn more about the malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and Northern Ireland which actively welcome visitors. Furthermore, the book is a publication of a journey to 40 malt distilleries, one cooperage and two other related facilities with critical and objective analysis of what is on offer for the visitor.

Singlemalt.TV

Whisky TV Channel To Launch on September 29, 2006 - www.SingleMalt.tv

An internet TV channel devoted to 24-hour coverage of the world of single malt whisky is being launched by a Hollywood producer.

Australian Rob Draper, who has worked on some of tinsel town’s biggest films, says there is huge interest in Singlemalt.tv – which he hopes will go live at the end of the month.

Draper told the Scotsman: "Internet television is the future. So far the interest has been phenomenal - we put a place-holder website up on the web and we have already shut down one server in the United States because it can't handle the volume of traffic coming into it."

"Singlemalt.tv is not an internet site, it is a television channel broadcast through the internet. I have done a lot of work on internet television going back to 1997 and it really is the future of television and the future of internet.”

Source: Singlemalt.TV

Treasures of India

Amrut Single Malt Whisky is made from select Indian malted barley grown in Punjab and Rajasthan, the north-west frontier states of India. In Punjab, the waters from the great Himalayas flow through the river Sutlej and irrigate the land under the Bhakra Nangal dam scheme. The cold winters and fiery summers create a unique quality of barley, rich in flavour. Malting takes place at maltsters in Jaipur and Delhi to the exacting standards laid down by Amrut Distilleries Ltd. The malted barley is then transported south to Bangalore where it is carefully mashed and distilled in small batches to preserve the natural aromas. The whisky then undergoes maturation in imported oak barrels for over three years in a unique tropical condition at a warehouse on the distillery premises in Bangalore, the Garden City of India, which is at an altitude of 3,000 ft above sea level and enjoying a salubrious climate all year round.This unique natural geographical location allows an intense maturation process, by losing considerable amount of whisky as the “Angel’s share”. To maintain the natural character of the product, the whisky is not chill filtered. Therefore, there may be mild cloudiness on dilution which is natural for all classic malts.

Source: Amrut Whisky

Whisk(e)y

Whisk(e)y - A spirituous liquor distilled from a fermented mash of grains (usually rye, barley, wheat or corn), matured in wooden casks, usually for 3 years or more. Inferior grades are made from potatoes, beets, or other roots. Scotch whisky, usually blend, takes its dry, somewhat smoky flavour from the barley malt, cured with peat, used in its preparation. The somewhat similar Irish whiskey, for which no peat is used, has a full, sweet taste. American whiskeys, classified as rye or as bourbon (a corn liquor), are higher in flavour and deeper in colour than Scotch or Irish whiskeys. Canadian whiskey, characteristically light, is produced from cereal grain only. First distilled in monasteries in 11th century England, whiskey has been manufactured commercially since the 16th century.

First of all: There are three main categories of Scotch whisky; malt whisky, grain whisky and blended whisky. One of the characteristics that all three of them share is the fact that they have matured for at least three years; a minimum set by British law. Anything younger than 3 years isn't 'whisky'.

By far the most whiskies that go over the counter at your local liquorist are BLENDED WHISKY - a 'blend' of roughly 2/3 grain whiskies combined with about 1/3 malt whiskies from several different distilleries to form a drink that applies to the tastes (and wallets) of as many people as possible.

The less said about GRAIN WHISKY the better, if you ask me. It's made from a mash of cereal grains (usually barley, wheat and maize). Both malted barley (barley which has started to germinate before it was dried to stop the germination) and unmalted barley (barley which remains dormant) are used in the production of grain whisky. Grain whisky is distilled in a continuous process, using so-called 'Coffey Stills'. Unless casked and aged properly, the end result often resembles the revolting Dutch drink Jenever (gin).

My personal favourite 'type' of whisky is MALT WHISKY - produced from 100% malted barley (fermented with yeast) and distilled in traditional 'pot stills'. No other grain product or fermentable material is allowed. Finally, we have SINGLE MALT WHISKY - the product from one single distillery, which has not been blended with whisky from any other distillery. Only plain water is added before it is bottled, and in the case of so-called 'cask strength' bottlings not even that. There are bottlings with an alcohol-percentage of well over 60% available!