Whisky: Of Rock and Water

It’s often said that the flavour of Scotch whisky embraces and reflects the Scottish landscape. The flavour and aroma can take you back there with every sip; to the salty air and crashing waves or the smell of grass and Scot’s pine.

The whisky regions are often one of the first things explored when embarking upon one’s journey through Scotch whiskies. When looking for diversity, it is never a bad idea to sample a flight of whiskies from all corners of Scotland.

It’s certain to be a varied collection and, depending on the malts selected, can well illustrate the styles associated with each region; the coastal tone of the Islands, the light grassy character of the Lowland’s or, reflecting strong links with the Spanish Sherry industry, the ‘sherried spice’ flavours of Speyside.

Associations between styles and regions have built-up over time, but the extent to which geographical influences are still relevant is debateable.

Before the era of mass production and easy transportation, distilleries had to use what was available to them locally.  With peat covering much of Islay and North-West Scotland, this was widely used in kilns used to dry the malted barley and, depending on the method, this would often impart a distinctive smoky/peaty flavour.  In contrast, peat isn’t available in the Lowlands and the malted barley was more commonly air dried or dried using a coal-fired kiln, leading to whiskies from this part of Scotland becoming known for their lighter character.   

These traditional flavours can still be found today. Thus where Auchentoshan produces a soft, triple distilled and unpeated spirit which is in every way a classic Lowlander, a powerful peaty flavour  is the first thing that comes to mind when tasting classic Islay malts such as Laphroaig, Ardbeg and Bowmore.

However, as most distilleries now buy peated or unpeated malt from a range of large-scale producers, these regional characteristics may be more a charming celebration of their history and tradition than differences set in stone. As Ian Buxton says in his appreciation of Aeneus Macdonald’s classic book ‘Whisky’, although ‘geography exerts an influence, secret and subtle upon whisky’, the value of geographical classifications may be less now than pre-wartime.

Local Environment

We know that during maturation in Scotland, about 2% of whisky is lost every year as the so-called Angel’s Share. As it evaporates and seeps through the cask into the air, that 2% of space is filled with air. As the cask breathes this air in, oxidation occurs and leads to reactions taking place within the spirit. It encourages for instance, the production of esters with fruity and floral overtones.  

The age and strength of the spirit, the nature of the barrel and even the character of the air will all have roles to play. This process is one of the most fascinating and least understood in the whisky world. We will come back to the processes taking place during maturation later in our Exploring Whisky blog series, but we know that as the whisky matures in the warehouse it will interact with the air outside. If for instance, the warehouse is sitting on a windy beach, the salty sea air may impact the final flavour.

In hotter countries like India, the cask can lose up to 10% of whisky a year during maturation. Other processes that impact flavour like additive maturation (attaining flavour from the cask) also speed up, and the whisky does not need to mature for so long in these climates.

Interestingly however, the process of subtractive maturation (which gradually rids the unwanted sulphurs responsible for the unpleasant metallic taste in new make spirit), can’t be hurried too much. Makers Mark Distillery in Kentucky solves this problem by keeping their whiskey on the higher, hotter floors in the warehouse during the first few years of maturation so they gain flavours from the cask, and then moves them down to lower, cooler floors to ensure that the sulphurous components in the spirit can then be absorbed by the cask.

One element that continues to impact a whisky’s character is the local water source. This may contribute to the feel, body and even flavour of the resulting spirit. For example, in Islay and parts of the highlands, the water will run through peat bogs which are naturally high in acidity. It’s been suggested that this brings out notes of iodine and pepper spice.

In contrast, the water used in the Talisker and Tobermory distilleries are sourced from springs in volcanic lava flows, with a mineral content completely different to waters rising from granite hills, used in distilleries like Cragganmore. Areas of the Highlands produce harder bodied water, more complex and mineral rich due to being filtrated through limestone and red sandstone.  

One great benefit of a blind tasting is that we can explore these subjects solely through the flavour of the spirit. If you have a particular fascination with regional characteristics, maybe familiarise yourself with the general flavour associations before blind tasting a classic selection. Look out for the soft, light character of the Lowlands, the richness of Highland spirits, or the hard-bodied, iodine, peat and complexity of Island malts.

When the malts are revealed following the tasting, did you pick up on these differences? Were they distinctive, or did the role of maturation, level of peat, use of worm tubs and the many other variables in production impact the flavour so much that these subtle regional differences were impossible to identify?

Find further reading links below, or delve into these fascinating subjects with an exciting group tasting.

It can be an interesting experiment to see whether the use of regional waters has an impact on your whisky. The Single Cask provides a selection of waters from different areas in Scotland. During your tasting, why not add a drop of these different waters to your whisky. Does Speyside water enhance and harmonize with a Macallan 12? Does the water from Islay add an element to the dram that wasn’t there before?

Get in touch to tell us what you find!

Further Reading;

• Book - Whisky by Aeneas Macdonald, with an Appreciation by Ian Buxton
• Article - The Importance of Water in Whisky - Scotch Whisky Magazine, Ask The Professor