Matters of taste

Considering the way it is produced, there is something hopelessly archaic about malt whisky. Using an ancient recipe that is set in stone, malted barley, water and yeast are brewed up and then cooked in a large pot still. Even at its second attempt, this copper vessel can only achieve an impure spirit of about 65 per cent alcohol. Some of the impurities would probably kill you at a higher dose, but after years in an oak cask in some dank corner of Scotland, they re-merge to give whisky its astonishing spectrum of aromas and flavours.

Compare this with a free-market spirit like vodka, where anything goes on the ingredients front, and distillation is so brutally efficient that all character is stripped out. Into this vacuum of substance pours a torrent of style and spin.

Scotland now has about 90 malt distilleries and almost all have a single malt to their name, whether released by the distiller or an independent bottler. Add in the plethora of different age statements, the rare malts from defunct distilleries, and the choice multiplies exponentially. For the uninitiated, it can all seem rather daunting. While wine drinkers have grape varieties to guide them, malt whisky drinkers are told to start with the regions.

“Lowland” is about fresh, cereal flavours as in Glenkinchie and triple-distilled Auchentoshan, while “Islay” is the home of all that is pungent and peat-smoked. That generalisation works for Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg on the southern shore, but not for smoke-free Bunnahabhain at the other end of the island. “Speyside” suggests a smooth, heathery sweetness that dries on the finish, though there are plenty of exceptions, while “Highland” is the catch-all region for everything else.

If these regional signposts only take you so far, they also ignore the one factor that shapes a whisky more than any other: the wood in which it is matured. Only hand-me-down casks are used, the great majority ex-Bourbon barrels of American oak that sweeten the spirit with flavours of vanilla and coconut. The rest is matured in European oak sherry butts which impart a resinous, spicy, fruitcake character and a deep mahogany colour.

But it is more complex than that. There is the way the barrel is toasted or charred, and above all, how many times it has been used. A malt that would soon mellow in a fresh cask might never mature in a barrel that has been round the block three times. This rather undermines the belief that older whiskies are necessarily better. Kilchoman, a new boutique distillery on Islay, clearly thinks not and has just released a three-year-old malt which is proving popular, despite its price of £45.

You may also have noticed words like “Port,” “Madeira” or “Sauternes” on the label, as though the contents aspire to be something else. Such whiskies are “finished” in some exotic cask for months before bottling to add complexity. Among the more successful examples are Tullibardine’s Moscatel, Benriach’s Madeira cask and Glenmorangie’s Nectar d’Or (Sauternes).

The trend for “wood finishes” may have waned somewhat, but the mania for peat smoke continues. Bruichladdich and Ardbeg compete to produce the hairiest, smokiest whisky of all, though whether some of their expressions are drinkable is another matter. Far better, in my view, are some of Islay’s blended malts like Smokehead, Big Peat and The Peat Monster. Don’t be put off by the names, these are balanced whiskies for all their intensity.

But what if you don’t like peat and don’t want any more hairs on your chest? I have a soft spot for the supple complexities of good Speyside whiskies like Glenrothes, Glen Elgin and Cragganmore. Or, to pick just two more from opposite ends of the country, there is the silky smooth Scapa from Orkney and the light, popcorn-scented Glengoyne, distilled in the Campsie Fells north of Glasgow. For sherried whiskies, there is obviously Macallan, but my current favourite is a rich, spicy 12-year-old from GlenDronach.

For something more unique, how about a single cask malt whisky, or something that isn’t malt at all? There are some stunning grain whiskies (made from grains other than barley) like Hedonism and a range called Clan Denny from the independent bottler Douglas Laing. This is very much the territory of specialist shops such as Royal Mile Whiskies (Edinburgh and London), The Vintage House (London), the Whisky Shop chain (mainly Scotland) and Loch Fyne Whiskies (lfw.co.uk). To explore the world of Scotch whisky you need to venture beyond the big brands in the supermarket.