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Whiskey (spelled Whisky in Scotland and elsewhere) is the distilled product of fermented grains, including malted and unmalted barley, corn, rye, wheat, and oats. The word derives from the Gaelic uisgebeatha or “water or life,” and legend attributes its invention to St. Patrick in the 5th Century, while the first written record of Whiskey dates to 1494.

Scotch Whisky Production

All Scotch is produced from malted barley and other grains, water, and yeast; likewise, all Scotch is distilled, matured, and bottled in Scotland. The process begins with barley which is soaked in water, allowing the grain to begin to germinate and produce the enzyme necessary to convert the grain’s starch into fermentable sugar (a process known as malting). When this point has been reached, the malt must be kilned or dried with heat in order to halt the germination and preserve this enzyme. The method of kilning can have an impact on the finished spirit, with the peat bogs traditionally used as fuel in the coastal and island distilleries imparting a distinct smokiness.

When the malt has been roasted, it is milled or ground, and then the resulting grist is mixed with hot water in a large vessel called a mash tun. As soon as this happens, the conversion of starch to sugar takes place, and the sugar-rich liquid produced is called the wort. Yeast is then added to initiate fermentation, and this converts the wort into what distillers call the wash (essentially, a beer with an ABV of 8% - though the length and temperature of fermentation will help determine the character of the beer and therefore the finished spirit).

The wash is then distilled twice in copper pot stills, the first distillation producing a “low wine” of around 23% ABV, and the second producing a spirit of no more than 94.8% ABV that is divided into foreshots, hearts, and feints. Only the heart is reserve for maturation. This spirit is then cut with distilled water to reduce the ABV to 63.5%, and then it is aged in oak casks for a minimum of three years (but often much longer in practice). Scotch producers typically employ used 200L Bourbon barrels or used 600L Sherry butts (though producers like Glenmorangie and Balvenie experiment with used Port and Sauternes for more sweetness and accessibility). As such, oak plays a lesser role in determining the final character of Scotch than the method of malting as well as the various decisions a distiller must make during the process of production.

Scotch Categories

• Single Malt - produced from malted barley in a pot still at a single distillery
• Single Grain - produced at a single distillery from unmalted barley, wheat, or corn
• Blended Malt - blend of single malts
• Blended Grain - blended single grains
• Blended Scotch - a mixture of malt and grain spirits produced at different distilleries