The best whiskies for Burns Night

[Celerity]

From a bargain supermarket single malt to boutique blends, Jane MacQuitty picks her top bottles

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/food-drink/article/best-whiskies-burns-night-9phlztf0k

https://archive.ph/8zu5Q

A warming smoke, fire and peat dram to celebrate Robbie Burns’s birthday next Saturday is just what this cold, dreary month needs. What amazes me is the flood of new blends, casks, ages, strengths and wood regimes that wash up here every year. Scotland has about 150 distilleries but its whisky blenders are hellbent on creating not just the signature styles that made them famous but hundreds of different expressions. Getting to grips with Scotland’s five leading whisky regions — smoky, peaty Islay, soft Lowland, fruity Speyside, the silky fudge of Campbeltown and heathery Highland — is not enough. There’s an explosion of complex new flavours to digest, from citrus and floral, through butterscotch and spicy Dundee cake, right up to the medicinal, tarry whack of an aged Islay.

Unlike gin and vodka, which can be distilled in a day, good whisky takes at least ten years to show its true class. Still, even at the Aldi and Lidl single malt level, where the oldest whisky won’t be much more than the statutory minimum of three years, there are some decent drams here for less than £20 — see star buys. Spend twice that, if you can, on the tasty Kilchoman 46 per cent Islay blend at Marks & Spencer. It’s from a family-run field-to-bottle distillery that does the lot, including growing and malting its own barley. Or plump for Johnnie Walker’s brilliant Green Label 15-Year-Old blended malt (43 per cent, Waitrose, £49). It’s an elegant, ginger biscuit snap mix of four different distilleries’ malts, with the woodsmoke and fruit of Skye’s Talisker at its heart. Talisker’s own 10 Year Old is a sparky, sea spray and richly fruited 45.8 per cent wonder, well worth splashing out £51 for at Sainsbury’s.

Each whisky cask is unique, regardless of the same water, air, still and malt used in its creation, and batches do vary despite distillers’ determination to maintain consistency in big brands. If that’s not difficult enough, I am in awe of the skill required by boutique whisky makers such as Compass Box and Woven to create their showstopping blends. Check out Compass Box’s amazing 46 per cent Nectarosity, thewhiskyexchange.com, £52.25, with its glorious, silky, cinnamon-spiced stone fruit and tingly, salt lick finish care of sherry, bourbon and American oak butts. Woven goes a step further, combining whisky aged in Scottish, Irish and even English casks, plus American bourbon barrels, to create an aptly named but very unusual 46.1 per cent Superblend, thewhiskyexchange.com, £48.50, bursting with toffee, smoke, spice and all things nice.


From left: Ben Bracken Islay Single Malt; Kilchoman Single Malt; Ledaig Aged 10 Years Single Malt; Glen Marnoch Single Malt



snip

[yonder]

1. Speaking of which ...

Here's a song from Robin Laing, celebrating the virtues of the 'crayture', an anthem to "the pulse of one small nation". These lyrics outshine the gorgeous song, IMO.

Take clear water from the hill
And barley from the lowlands.
Take a master craftsman's skill
And something harder to define,
Like secrets in the shape of coppered stills
Or the slow, silent, magic work of time.

Whiskey or the devil in disguise
At least to some that's the way it seems
But you're more like an angel in my eyes
Catch the heady vapours as they rise
And turn them into dreams

Bring home sherry casks from Spain, Sanlucar de Barrameda,
And fill them up again
With the spirit of the land.
Then let the wood work to the spirits gain
In a process no one fully understands.

Whiskey or the devil in disguise
At least to some that's the way it seems
But you're more like an angel in my eyes
Catch the heady vapours as they rise
And turn them into dreams

Oh, the spirit starts out clear,
But see the transformation
After many patient years
When at last the tale unfolds.
For the colours of the seasons will appear
From palest yellow to the deepest gold.

Whiskey or the devil in disguise
At least to some that's the way it seems
But you're more like an angel in my eyes
Catch the heady vapours as they rise
And turn them into dreams

When you hold it in your hand
It's the pulse of one small nation
So much more than just a dram
You can see it if you will -
The people and the weather and the land.
The past into the present is distilled.

Whiskey or the devil in disguise
At least to some that's the way it seems
But you're more like an angel in my eyes
Catch the heady vapours as they rise
And turn them into peaceful peasent dreams.

... I'm sober these days but still very much appreciate the craft and the rare drop or two of the creature upon my tongue. Thanks for your post and the reminder.