For a whiskey to be classified as Scotch, it must be distilled and aged on Scottish soil. While whiskeys are made throughout the world, Scotch comes only from Scotland. Learn more about the five unique Scotch producing regions of Scotland.
The story of Scotch in Scotland begins as early as the 15th century. The Exchequer Rolls, the tax records of the day, include an entry from 1494 noting the issue of “Eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae (or strong alcoholic spirit).”
There are more than 100 distilleries in Scotland. Although all follow the basic processes of fermentation, distillation, and maturation, they produce a amazingly wide variety of Scotch with an equally wide range of flavors and characteristics, each distinct to the region of their source.
Those regions are the Highlands, Speyside, Campbeltown, Lowlands, and Islay. Varying in size and covering the entirety of the island, each produces Scotch that is highly individualized, formed by the local climate, vegetation, and water source.
Highlands
The Highlands is the largest region in Scotland – almost 12,000 square miles – and its geography includes mountain peaks, wooded glens, the country’s famous lochs, and large stretches of seaside coasts. Unlike the other regions of Scotland, barley was scarce in the Highlands, so distilleries used smaller stills, which allowed oilier, heavier alcohols to move into the neck of the stills and condense there, making those whiskeys richer and more deeply flavored.
Soil and geology vary widely throughout the region, from hard granite to sandstone and mudstone. Water sources, including rivers, springs, and contact with peat bogs (soil made of decayed moss), all impact flavor. It’s no surprise that a region as large as the Highlands produces sub-region specific Scotch in terms of taste. Scotches from the north are full-bodied, rich, and sweet, with hints of ginger, cloves, and black pepper. The south produces lighter, drier, and fruitier Scotch; and, from the east, are full, fruity flavors that can be dry or sweet. Distilleries in the west produce Scotch that is full and pungent.
Speyside
The first license to make whiskey in Speyside was issued in 1824, and more than half of all the distilleries in Scotland are in that region. The landscape is one of rolling hills and pine forests, with distilleries dotting the shores of the clear, salmon-filled waters of the River Spey. The quality of the water is enhanced by having the lowest levels of dissolved minerals of any Scottish region. Another growth driver for distillers in Speyside was its relative inaccessibility before the railroad boom in the mid-19th century. The area’s remoteness made the region largely out of reach of the whiskey excise tax collectors – known unaffectionately as “gaugers.”
Speyside Scotch is often matured in sherry casks and is known for its smooth, fruity, and sometimes honeyed character, while also possessing prominent notes of apple, pear, vanilla, and spice. Internationally famed Speyside distilleries include The Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, The Macallan, GlenAllachie, and Murray McDavid.
Campbeltown
Campbeltown in the southwest of Scotland is the smallest of the five regions. Although only 40 miles long and 10 miles wide, there were once more than 30 distilleries in the the area. However, changing tastes and world events all but devastated Campbeltown’s scotch industry. Once thriving, the dryness and taste of Campbeltown whiskeys became less desirable. To make matters worse, prohibition in America and the Great Depression dropped exports drastically. The economic downturn in the U.S. spread around the world, driving massive immigration from Europe to the United States. By the 1930s, only two distilleries remained, though another with a history dating back to 1872 reopened in 2004.
Today’s Campbeltown distilleries produce Scotch with a wide range of taste profiles, from robust and heavily smoky to light and grassy. However, each is full of flavor, and they do share common taste characteristics, including various combinations of fruit, salt, vanilla, and toffee.
Lowlands
Scotch whiskey has been produced in the Lowlands region of Scotland since the late 15th century when a local friar was licensed to make whiskey for King James IV. The region gained prominence in the 1800s, though, when local distilleries pioneered continuous distillation. But money can change everything, including Scotch production in the Lowlands. Heavy excise taxes drove producers to use cheaper grain spirits and create more blended Scotches – and the local whiskey-producing industry suffered for some time. Fortunately, a resurgent interest in the region’s single malts shined a light on the Lowland distilleries’ reputations for producing fine, lighter and smoother whiskeys.
Lowland Scotch owes its unique taste to the triple distillation process, which removes heavy components like oil and protein, resulting in flavors that are lighter and more floral. Without the presence of peat, Lowland Scotch flavors tend to have a grassier profile and a soft body. Their elegant palate with hints of honeysuckle, cream, ginger, toffee, toast, and cinnamon makes them lighter in character which many find perfect for pre-dinner drinks.
Islay
The Islay region is a small island where whiskey-making began when Irish monks introduced distillation to the area in the 1300s. Islay is flat and mostly peat, which is used as fuel for malting barley. The peat, along with sea winds and rain, impacts the taste of the whiskeys produced there.
Over the next 400 years, the island became the site of large-scale whiskey production, despite the government’s tax on whiskey in 1644. The new tax laws were not enforced until the late 1700s, allowing “illicit stills” to continue to thrive for another 130 years. The first legal distillery was registered in 1779 – and is still operating to this day.
The level of smokiness in Islay Scotch is determined by the time and type of smoldering peat the barley is exposed to during its drying process. The peat on Islay, fed on a constant diet of rain and sea spray, is particularly pungent and adds a strong smoky, earthy taste with a touch of salty seaweed. Common flavor profiles include salty, seaweedy flavors with traces of that peat, plus smoke and iodine.
Mike’s brings Scotland’s finest and Speyside’s best to Kansas City!
The history of whiskey-making, and Scotch in particular, is long and rich in those spirits’ country of origin, and Mike’s is proud to offer up five of the best. Selections from two of Speyside’s most recognized and respected distilleries, GlenAllachie and Murray McDavid, are available to aficionados of Scotch throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area. Neat, on the rocks, with a splash of water, or as a cocktail ingredient, these 9 to 15-year-old products, born of a distillation process almost 1,000 years old, are perfect additions to any connoisseur’s collection.
GlenAllachie 15 year
GlenAllachie 15 year is an indulgent single malt scotch with layers of cinnamon, orange zest, vanilla toffee and dark chocolate.
GlenAllachie 10 year
GlenAllachie 10 year offers up hints of hazelnuts and heather honey, with traces of orchard fruits, cinnamon spice and gingersnaps.
Murray McDavid Caol Ila 9yr
The nose of Murray McDavid Caol Ila 9yr is one of crisp apple and charred oak; the palate oily citrus and ginger; and a leathery, salted caramel finish.
Murray McDavid Glentauchers 13
Murray McDavid Glentauchers 13 offers a fruit cake, chocolate, and raisin nose; a creamy sherry, prune, and mocha palate, and a finish of sweet oak spice and soft caramel.
Murray McDavid Auchroisk 12 yr
The nose, palate and finish of Murray McDavid Auchroisk 12 yr is rich with florals, spice, smoke, malt, candy cane, and oak.
