Used sherry casks impart different flavors than bourbon barrels, and the number of years a scotch spends in the barrel distinguishes it too.īetsy Andrews has been writing about wine and spirits for two decades. Highland scotches tend to be sweeter than smoky island scotches made from peated malt. That’s the most basic distinction in scotch.
Blended scotches are produced by blending single malt with whisky made from other grains. Scotch made from malted barley at a single distillery is called single malt scotch. The distillate that comes off the still is then aged in barrels, often for many years, to produce the deep, intense spirit we call scotch. The resulting “wash” is run through a copper-pot still, normally twice. Next, it is milled, mixed with hot water, and fermented. The sprouted grain, or malt, is then dried in wood- or a peat-fired kiln. In order to access its starch (which the yeast will convert into sugar during fermentation), the grain is malted, or soaked, so that it sprouts. Like all whiskey, scotch is distilled from grain. For whiskey to be scotch, it must be made in Scotland. On the palate, scotch is a journey that replicates the making of the spirit, from the grain to the malt to the wash to the whisky, and GlenDronach Revival 15-year-old ( view on Reserve Bar) exemplifies that layered, complex experience.įAQs What is the difference between scotch and other whiskeys?Īll scotch is whiskey (or, as they spell it in Scotland, whisky), but not all whiskeys are scotch. From the Highlands to the isle of Islay, here are the best scotch whiskies to get you started. “It’s exciting-it makes it more of an adventure for a novice who wants to start exploring scotch.” Our top choice, the GlenDronach Revival, is a great example of a scotch with a flavor that evolves and changes throughout the tasting experience. “There’s been a blurring of the lines in terms of flavor profiles, and there’s more experimentation going on,” says Pedro Shanahan, spirits guide for Los Angeles bar group Pouring with Heart.
The world of scotch is also evolving, with restless distillers nowadays playing around with various categories of the whisky, from heavily-peated smoke bombs to sherry-cask whiskies. But that’s just a starting point-there’s plenty of diversity to the nation’s signature spirit, including single malts, which are made with malted barley, and blended scotches, whose mash bills include other grains. “You can have a single malt in America, Japan, Taiwan or elsewhere, but to be scotch, it has to be made in Scotland,” says Tommy Tardie, owner of New York's The Flatiron Room and Fine and Rare.
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