Epcot Food & Wine 2010 – SCOTCH!

We were a bit jealous when we heard that our friends Lisa and Andy had gone to a scotch tasting at Food & Wine last year and we had missed the chance to go! So this year, we kept our eyes on the schedule – and signed up to do the “scotch tasting” all 3 days that it was offered… And we’re extremely glad that we did!

The Edrington Group

Highlands, Scotland

Presented by:  Martin Daraz

Sunday, October 24; Monday, October 25; and Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Tastings: Macallan 12yr old, Macallan FO 15yr old, Highland Park 18yr old

They produce Macallan, Highland Park, Famous Grouse, Cutty Sark

Disclaimer… Highland Park 12 has been our favorite, go-to, single malt for nearly two years…

We thought that Martin was a very funny presenter. He used a lot of self-deprecating humor; on Sunday and Tuesday the presentations were punctuated with lots of laughter, on Monday, not so much. This is the fifth year that Martin has done the Edrington Group Demonstration at Epcot Food & Wine (as such there’s a surprise at Tuesday’s event — look at the end of this post). He told us that he’s been with the distilleries for a quite a while, he started out in a boiler suit and is now in a business suit.

Martin tells us that “whisky is simple” and that there is a “culture of happiness in whisky”. You don’t need to see photos of Scotland in order to appreciate whisky. Single Malt Scotch Whisky is simple to understand… a single malt scotch is made in one location, by one distillery, through one distillation in the country of Scotland. Whisky is a simple product, made though a process similar to beer making. You make a beer solution without hops and boil it a few times… start with malted barley, soak it, sprout it, dry it, grind it up, add water to it, boil it, age it, and drink it. Of course, it isn’t as simple as all of that, after all, whiskey is from the country that brought you golf!

The Edrington Group (the EG) is very focused on making their smaller line of whiskies in a particular way with a particular flavor profile. And, since the Scottish people don’t like to spend money, they’re very particular about how they spend it. 60-80% of the flavor in a single malt comes from the barrel, thus, one of the largest investments that the EG makes is in their barrels. While 90% of scotch whisky is “done” in american bourbon barrels (these cost approximately $3500 each and are used by most other distilleries as many times as they chose), the EG uses Spanish sherry barrels… dry amoroso sherry barrels (they cost approximately $1000 to $1500 each). Further, the EG uses their sherry barrels twice; the first time for regular Macallan, the second time for Macallan FO (fine oak) or Highland Park, and occasionally the barrels are used for holding whiskey (as a side note, sometimes used barrels are employed to create furniture). So, although their sherry barrels may cost less initially, because they use them sparingly the actual cost per bottle may be higher than the “barrel cost” per bottle for other distilleries. Additionally, the EG “toasts” their barrels rather than “charring” their barrels, toasting creates a different flavor profile. Another difference in the flavor profile of their whiskeys is the lack of or sparing use of peat, the southern Scottish Islands (particularly Islay and Skye) use quite a bit of peat. You may have noticed that some scotch whiskies have a heavy smoky flavor, that’s from the peat used to smoke the barley. Scotch whisky from central Scotland and the Highlands tend to use little or no peat. A final difference in the whiskies from the EG is the “balance”, Martin said that the three whiskies we’d be tasting were “all very well balanced.” We agree, even though the Macallan 12 year old wasn’t to Nick’s taste, it was still well balanced.

The Macallan distillery is located in Speyside. Their whiskies are generally not peated, some are but it isn’t “common. All Macallans use the unique Spanish Amoroso sherry barrels. It takes six years to make a barrel and season it with sherry, at that time, each barrel contains about 11 liters of sherry soaked into the wood. They use so many barrels that the spanish produce more sherry than the world would ever want. At present, there are 50,000 barrels in Spain, slowly seasoning with sherry. The EG spend approximately $20,000,000 on their wood barrels, twice as much as everyone else! With the time necessary to make the barrels, season the barrels, aging the whisky in the barrels, and then bottling the whisky, it can take up to 20 years to get a 12 year old Macallan to your mouth! One note we found fascinating — if a bottle of scotch whisky is labeled as a “12 year old,” it means that the YOUNGEST whisky in that bottle is 12 years old.

One very interesting note… Martin began by saying that when you drink scotch whisky from the Edrington Group, “you’re drinking for the kids!” It turns out that the distilleries were bequeathed by a trio of sisters (apparently not very attractive sisters because they all died spinsters) with the charge that the distilleries maintain Scottish traditions. The Roberston Trust (TheRobertsonTrust.org.uk) is therefore the main shareholder of the distilleries! The EG gives much of their profits to this charity.

How to taste scotch whiskies

• nosing whiskies
  • when nosing the whisky, keep smelling for a few inhales (at least 15 seconds) to get past the high alcohol smell — really stick your nose in there & keep your mouth slightly open
  • most reliable characteristic
• looking at whiskies
  • viscosity can tell you what a spirit is… plus, heavier, slow rolling denotes older (typically) whisky… longer in the cask
  • viscosity – thick & oily means that the whisky is more mature and has spent more time in the cask
  • the slower legs/tears mean a heavier flavor (?stronger flavor)
  • color isn’t an attribute you should worry about… it doesn’t tell you anything real because some producers use spirit caramel to give their whisky deep/rich colors
• tasting whiskies
  • when tasting the whisky, chew it for 4 to 6 seconds… aftertaste is everything
  • a small amount of water or even a single cube of ice will break up the conjoiners in any spirit/whisky
  • too much ice in your whisky – as it melts, the flavor is greatly reduced, Martin suggests a single cube or an ice ball for less dilution

Macallan 12yo, Macallan FO 15yo, Highland Park 18yo