Scotland: Single malt whisky through the producing distilleries: history, making and tasting

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Introduction: Some generalities about whisky

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Scotland 

The Northern part of Great Britain is an endless wild landscape, where the majestic mountains rivals with the charming lakes (called lochs). In the winter, the sun is so lazy that people hardly see him. In the summer, at least when there are no dark clouds around, the sundown is very late, just before sunrise. It is probably because the long summer days are so hard for him to manage that he is so lazy during the long winter months.

The sun's job during the summer is to rise the barley, which will be used during the long winter eves to warm up the hearts of people living is the mythic country.
Barley will be malted, then brewed and distilled, and finally matured in oak casks, in order to become one of the most remarkable products of agriculture: single malt whisky.

Single Malt Whisky 

Whisky which is produced by one distillery and bottled without being merged with non malted grain nor whisky from other distilleries is called "Single Malt". Not so long ago, single malt whisky was just sold in Scotland, because of its lack of standardisation. Each distillery (there are about 100 active distilleries in Scotland nowadays) has its own style and each whisky is different from all others. The average consumer is used to drink standardized alcohols, always remaining true to form, with no room for hazard.

For those reasons, Scotch distillers invented at the end of the XIXth century the blended whisky. Blended whisky guarantees a constant taste through the years, regardless of circumstances, just like Cognac does. Cognacs are merely also blended alcoholic beverages, where the selection of dozens of carefully merged alcohols is very important in the final result.

Blended Whisky 

Blended Whisky is the result of merging single malts from several distilleries with grain whisky. The proportion of grain whisky contributes to determine the quality of the final beverage.

This site... 

This site is exclusively dedicated to scotch single malt whisky. Even if there are very nice irish, american, canadian and even japanese whisk(e)ys, they will not be mentioned here.

Last years have seen a growing fancy for single malt whisky, and it becomes easier to find great single malts on the market. Single malt is often bottled by the distillery itself, of by independent bottlers..

A new era is coming. This site has been created in order to help all whisky lovers, beginners or experienced ones to appreciate and to know their favourite beverage. I do not pretend to learn anything to anybody, but being myself a passionate lover, I gathered lots of information during the past months, and I can share my knowledge with anybody sharing my passion.

sources:click here

 

 
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