The Spirit of Speyside
6/11/15 -
(The toposcope at the summit of Ben Rinnes provides the location of many Speyside distilleries.)
The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, held annually as April turns to May, offers a a chance for in-depth visits to distilleries (normally off-limits to the public) in this small northeast corner of Britain that is home to over half the distilleries in Scotland. The high concentration of smokestacks in a relatively circumscribed area was due, in part, to the commercial expansion of the British Empire and the engineering expansion of Scotland's railways.
However, there was another less foreseeable historical event that allowed for the whisky boom of the late 19th Century, a black swan set against a sea of white. The vineyard blight of phylloxera brought over a decade of significantly smaller grape harvests and provided an opening for the Scottish dram, which had long lived in the commercial shadow of European brandies. The Great Whisky Boom of the 1890s had begun.
The boom spurred competition, followed by a search for differentiation. It was no longer sufficient for a distillery to claim a unique water source or locally grown barley as the factors that set their spirit apart. Thankfully, distillation is a process that allows for a great many variations that can lead to a wide range of spirits.
Although choice of barley, choice of yeast, length and temperature of fermentation, and above all cask selection are responsible for most of a whisky’s aromatic profile, the still house and the spirit run remain key determinants of a new make spirit’s qualities. Each distillation or spirit run is divided into foreshots, heads, hearts, and tails, with the heart or middle cut being the most prized and utilized for the new make spirit (the recently distilled and unaged spirit). Speyside is the perfect setting to explore how variations in distillation can give rise to distinctive and memorable drams.
Beginning with our first Speysider, Craigellachie is located just south of Rothes, near the Victorian-era Craigellachie Hotel with its renowned Scotch Bar, the Quaich. Adding to the attraction of Craigellachie is nearby Speyside Cooperage, the only cooperage in Britain open to visitors. The distillery dates back to the Great Whisky Boom of the 1890s and it retains worm tubs, once the industry standard, now rarely seen.
Worm tubs are long copper tubes sitting, typically, in cold water, as shown in the small model above. Lyne arms (long, elevated, slender tubing pictured below) join the stills to the worm tubs, which are used to condense the vaporized spirit back to liquid form. The effects on a whisky's profile will vary based on the length, the diameter, and the number of turns of the tubes, as well as the temperature of the water. Generally speaking, worm tubs offer less copper contact than modern condensers, so the new make spirit tends to be heavier and meatier.
There are only about ten distilleries in Scotland that still use worm tubs. Benrinnes adds a wrinkle to the copper play by employing the even rarer technique of partial triple distillation, whereby at least some part of the spirit run is triple distilled. There are many possible variations to a partial triple, but Benrinnes’ version focuses on the feints or the tail end of the spirit run. The feints' copper contact is increased, resulting in a new make spirit that is a bit of a chameleon, exhibiting both finer and floral aromas, in addition to meatier, almost charcuterie-like scents.
In southern Speyside (at the foot of the Cromdale Hills and near one of the few remaining beds of freshwater pearl mussels on the River Spey) stands the Tormore distillery, which uses purifiers that allow the heavier spirits to float back down from the lyne arm to the still and give the new make spirit a refined character.
Onto a relative newbie distillery, starting produciton in 1960, Glen Keith can be found about 15 kilometers inland from Spey bay on the Moray Firth. Its stills are noteworthy for their long, slender, and slightly upward angled lyne arms (pictured below). The upward angled lyne arms reduce the amount of heavier spirits that pass onto the condenser and result in a lighter, but more concentrated new make spirit.
Finally, one of life’s rare pleasures, three precious bottles from the now silent Imperial distillery have made their way to our shelves. Originally built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, its new make spirit was known for being among the most cream soda-like and floral in Scotland. Imperial was mothballed in 1999 and demolished in 2013. However, a new distillery, Dalmunach, opened on the same site in 2014; its elegant stills (pictured below) were inspired by Imperial's.
History has come round and we stand at the beginning of a new golden for Scotch whisky. In the following bottles, the inventiveness and the stylistic range of Speyside are on full display. It’s been a real treat to bring them together.
David Salinas
