Category Archives: Scotch

Ardbeg, Dexter Gordon, Duke Ellington, Jazz, John Coltrane, Legends, The Balvenie, Uigeadail, Yamazaki

Drinking in My Dreams

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ONE OF THE THINGS that makes us uniquely human is our ability to use our minds to imagine scenarios that we would not otherwise experience.  Our brains are extraordinarily complex, and our dreams can often times seem real. It gives us the ability to answer one of the most often asked questions posed by friends.  If you could have dinner with someone famous, who would it be? We all ponder it whether asked or not.  As a jazz fan, I think dinner with some of the luminaries of the past would be kind of boring.  However, drinking a glass of Scotch with some of them would probably be more in line with the vibe that I get when listening to my favorite artists recordings.

Ardbeg Uigeadail is one of my favorite Scotches.  It’s rich and weighty with intoxicating and smoky aromatics. The initial aroma is a mix of walnut oil and violets with fresh ocean spice, pine needles and cedar. It’s reminiscent of a smoldering coal fire that brings warmth on a cold winters’ night. It’s full-flavored with a rich, deep, tongue-coating texture that is an intricate balance of sweet, spicy, and deep smoke.

When I think of jazz and smoke, I immediately recall a photograph of Dexter Gordon, one of the legends of the tenor saxophone. In the photograph, he’s wearing one of his trademark hats and smoking a cigarette.  He started his career while still a teenager, touring with the great Lionel Hampton. He eventually moved to New York City to pursue his dream of being a professional jazz musician.  He spent the majority of his career in Europe in what can only be described as exile, living in Denmark, and traveling to France and Germany to perform and record music.  Among his many accomplishments, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in the movie ‘Round Midnight. I imagine it would be fun to speak with Dexter Gordon at a café in Paris.  We’d probably just talk about life.  His experiences as a musician during the 1950s and 1960s could not have been ideal, but to persevere as he did would no doubt lead to some interesting conversations about the things he learned along the way, both the good and the bad.

If you’re a jazz fan like me, the only name that comes to mind when you think of smooth and elegant is Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington.  His stage presence made him seem almost regal. Duke Ellington was a famous and successful musician and band leader when it wasn’t in the best interest of an American of African descent to be either.  He rose above the prejudice of his time and became not only an ambassador for the music, but an ambassador for his race.  Every interview I’ve ever read or television program where I saw him interviewed, he was always gracious, honest, and thoughtful.  A person who had every right to be bitter about the way he and others like him were treated and I don’t ever recall him lashing out.  I’d love to hear his views on the state of today’s music.  I doubt that he’d be critical of it, but it would be great to hear the opinion of someone who was there when Jazz was in its infancy to talk about its evolution and where it’s headed in the twenty-first century.  As a non-musician, I would find it fascinating to hear his views. I would love to enjoy a glass of Yamazaki 18 with him while discussing what influenced him when he wrote his famous suites.

Yamazaki whisky is not Scotch, but it’s made with the tradition of the whiskies of Scotland at its core.  Spiritual and deep, the soul place of Japanese whiskey is one of the ways that it’s been described.  Yamazaki 18-year-old whisky is elegant with a deep amber color.  It has aromas of apricot, raisin, truffles, marmalade, Oloroso Sherry, and Japanese oak. The palate is rich and bittersweet with heather roots, cigar leaves, honey, toffee, apples, plum wine, and black pepper.  The finish is long, spicy, fruity, and smooth. It’s such an elegant expression of the Scotch tradition that it was voted best whisky in the world in 2014, besting ALL whiskeys, whiskys, and bourbons around the globe.

Another outstanding whisky is The Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14-year-old Scotch–a traditional single malt from Speyside, a subdivision of the Highlands.  In order to be considered Speyside Scotch, the whisky must be made near the river Spey. Balvenie 14 is initially aged in a traditional oak cask before it is finished in a cask which previously held Caribbean rum. This imparts an extra sweetness and warmth to the whisky. What makes this whisky even more fascinating is that the malt master at Balvenie created his own blend of West Indian rums, filled it into the rum casks, and then eventually replaced his rum with Balvenie 14 whisky. This particular Balvenie has rich aromas that include tropical fruits and toffee.  The palate has a creamy vanilla feel with notes of apples and mangoes with a hint of orange. Its finish lingers with a more focused vanilla character. 

The level of complexity with the added layers of ingenuity used to create this whisky reminds me of one person—John Coltrane. John Coltrane passed away in 1967 and since that time, musicians and scholars are still trying to understand the music that he created.  There isn’t a saxophone player alive who isn’t influenced by his playing.  He studied eastern religions and incorporated those ideas into his music.  Not only that, but he was also a big fan of Albert Einstein.  He studied Einstein’s theories and had a deep understanding of the underlying physics and mathematics.  In the book The Jazz of Physics by Stephon Alexander, the author talks about how Einstein inspired Coltrane to put physics and geometry at the core of his music.  Music that has secrets yet to be unraveled by today’s musicians.  John Coltrane was incredibly soft spoken and very reserved.  His thoughts always seemed to come across as deep and introspective in his interviews.  His interests in mathematics, physics, and eastern cultures would lead to some interesting conversations.  It would be really interesting to listen to him expound upon ideas that none of my friends would find interesting.  Topics such as the belief that the catalyst for the Big Bang was literally a sound or a tone. A tone whose remnants still exist somewhere in our vast Universe. You’d need a complex Scotch to get into the details beneath the surface of this complexed topic. Possibly more than one bottle. It would be a sacrifice worth making.

As I said at the beginning, the brain is an incredible tool.  Even when our technology advances to the point where we can virtually enjoy our dreams, it will still allow us to dream big.  I hope humanity never loses that ability.

Alcohol, Scotch

Single Malt Scotch — Unloched

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Recently, I was asked the following question:  “What, exactly, is Single Malt Scotch?”  I love these kinds of questions the most.  Not because I know the answer, but because the answer is usually a surprise for the person that asked the question.

Single Malt Scotch is a type of whisky, distilled by a single distillery, usually in a pot still, using malted barley, in Scotland.  All Scotch whisky, including Single Malt Scotch must be distilled in Scotland and matured in oak casks in Scotland for at least three years.  Most Single Malts are matured for much longer.  The word single indicates that all the malts in the bottle come from a single distillery.  The word malt indicates that the whisky is distilled from a single malted grain.  In the case of Single Malt Scotch, barley is always the grain used.

The distillation of whisky has taken place in Scotland for at least 500 years.  The first written record of it dates back to 1494 with an entry on the famous Exchequer Rolls.  The years that followed saw the various governments of Scotland taxing the production of whisky to the point where most of Scotland’s whisky was produced illegally.  By 1823, the Scottish Parliament passed an act making the commercial distillation of  whisky more profitable, while imposing severe punishments on landowners with unlicensed distilleries on their property.  A man by the name of George Smith was the first to receive a license for a distillery under the new law.  This distillery, Glenlivet, was founded in 1824 and still exists today.

All Single Malt Scotch goes through a batch production process.  At the time that it is bottled, various batches are mixed together to achieve consistent flavors from one bottling to the next.  Water is the most important ingredient in the production of single malts and is used in each phase of  the process.  It is first added to the barley to promote germination.  It is mixed with ground barley to create mash.  It is also used to dilute the whisky before it is mature and again before bottling.  Most distilleries use different water sources for the different steps.  Most modern distilleries use distilled water for diluting the whisky before it is put into casks.  They also use distilled water to dilute the whisky to 40-46% alcohol by volume before bottling.  Some distilleries, like Bruichladdich, use local spring water for dilution before casking.

Barley is the other key ingredient in single malts.  Barley is malted by soaking the grain in water for 2-3 days and then allowing it to germinate in order to produce the necessary enzymes required to convert starch into sugar.  Before modern techniques were developed, most distilleries had their own malting floor.  The germinating seeds were regularly turned there.  These days, distilleries use commercial malt companies that make malts for individual distilleries to their exact specifications.  After 3-5 days, the germination process is stopped.  Then the germinated barley is dried using hot air produced by burning oil or coal or by using an electric heating source.  At this point, peat smoke is introduced to add phenols, a smoky aroma and flavor to the whisky.  The best examples of this  type of Single Malt Scotch come from the Isle of Islay.  I’ve tried a couple of them, most notably Lagavulin and Laphroaig.  Lagavulin is very smooth and delicious.  Laphroaig, on the other hand, has a very peaty aroma and taste.  It’s definitely unique among the Single Malts I’ve tasted.

Once the malt is dried, it is milled into a coarse flour, known as grist.  It is then added to hot water to activate the enzymes which will convert the starch to sugar.  The long starch chains are broken down into glucose, maltose, and maltroise.  The sugary liquid that is produced is called wort.  Yeast is added to the wort which is then contained in large vessels, usually thousands of liters in size.  They are either made of stainless steel or Oregon Pine.  The yeast consumes the sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide.  You’ll probably recognize this process.  It’s called fermentation and we’ve seen this in the production of beer.  When this process is complete, we are left with something known as wash.

The wash is pumped into a copper pot still, a wash still, for distillation.  It is heated to boil off the alcohol.  The vapor is captured in a condenser that has been submerged in cool water which causes the vapor to condense back into a liquid.  This liquid has an alcohol content of 20-40%.   From here, the liquid is pumped into a second still, a spirit still, and distilled a second time.  This final spirit, called new-make spirit, has about 60-70% alcohol content. It should be noted that some spirits get a third distillation.

At this point, the new-make spirit is placed in oak casks to mature.  Scottish law requires that all Scotch whisky must be aged a minimum of 3 years in oak casks in Scotland.  You’ve probably noticed that most of the Single Malt Scotches at your favorite bar are aged much longer.  It’s not uncommon for a Single Malt to be aged for 20 years or more.  Like cognac, which I’ve written about recently, the alcohol content decreases during the maturation process in the cask due to evaporation.  And like cognac, this loss is referred to as the angels’ share.

The type of casks used for aging have a profound effect on the finished product.  Single malts are too delicate to be aged in new oak casks because new oak can overpower the whisky with vanillin (the primary component of vanilla bean extract) and tannin.  Instead, used casks are used.  The most common practice is to purchase used casks from American whiskey makers.  You may recall that U. S. law require bourbon and Tennessee whiskey to be aged in new oak casks, so after their first use they are taken out of service.  Another recent trend is the practice of using sherry casks.  They are far more expensive than bourbon casks, so they are rarely used.  One of the benefits of using sherry casks is that it imparts the flavor of the sherry and gives the whisky a heavier body and a deep amber color.  Single Malt Scotch that has been matured in sherry cask are highly sought after.  Macallan Distillery actually builds casks, leases them to sherry cellars in Spain, and then has them shipped back to Scotland to be used to make Scotch.

Finally, after a bit of aging, the whisky is bottled.  The bottle can only contain malted barley produced at a single distillery.  Otherwise, the contents are referred to as a vatted malt or a blended malt.  Single malt whisky mixed with grain whisky is called blended Scotch whisky.  There is no law to dictate who bottles the finished product.  They can either be bottled by the distillery or by an independent bottler.  The age on the bottle refers to the age of the youngest malt in the mix.  Mixing of whiskies from several different years is done in order to maintain consistency.  One recent trend has been to bottle cask strength or undiluted whisky which can have a alcohol content approaching 60%.  There are also Single Cask offerings which is whisky bottled from a single cask rather than blended from multiple casks.

Before I finish, I wanted to add a couple of final notes.  Unlike wine, once bottled, whisky does not continue to mature.  Also, its quality doesn’t diminish once opened.  Lastly, Drambuie, the honey and herb flavored golden Scotch liqueur, also made in Scotland, is made with a Single Malt Scotch called Talisker. Talisker is made on the Isle of Skye and is my personal favorite when Single Malt Scotch is my flavor of the day.