Apart from the central Speyside area in the heart of the Highlands
there are five other districts. The islands Orkney, Skye, Mull and Jura
are all considered to be part of the Highlands; the small island of
Islay is an 'official' region on its own.
Whiskies from the Midlands (a.k.a. South Highlands)
like Tullibardine or Glenturret are really quite different
from the expressive Northern Highland malts like Glen
Ord
or Dalmore. Considering over 80% of all malts are produced
in the Highlands (including Speyside), the phrase 'Highland Malt'
on a bottle doesn't tell you very much about the malt whisky inside..
Apart from some nice Blair Athol and Aberfeldy bottlings, few of the Midlands malts I've sampled so
far managed to impress me. Most Midlanders are just what you
would expect; a strange mixture of
Highland and Lowland characteristics. The younger official expressions from Deanston, Glenturret and
Tullibardine are usually not really my cup of tea. Edradour is a different story; the standard official
bottlings from the 1990's were never that special (and sometimes downright awful), but since Andrew
Symington took over the distillery they released a string of finished expressions, some of them great.
Michael Jackson puts Dalwhinnie in the (central) Speyside area but according to the label on the
OB's it's a Highland malt from 'Inverness-shire'. That puts it in
the Western Highlands, doesn't it?
As far as I'm concerned, the Western Highlands produces two decent malts: Oban and Ben Nevis.
The bottlings I've tried from Glengoyne, Glenlochy and Loch Lomond didn't really tickle my
fancy.
Well, wait a minute. During the 1990's the Glengoynes I tried seemed like average, run-of-the-mill,
malts. During the 2004 MM Awards I was proven wrong by a series of knockout Glengoyne bottlings.
Fate hasn't been kind to the distilleries in this corner of Scotland.
Over half of the distilleries in the area were closed in the last few decades; only (Old)
Fettercairn,
Glencadam, Glen Garioch and (Royal) Lochnagar are currently operational. Glencadam was mothballed
for some time as well, but it has been reopened in 2003.
As it turns out, I have difficulty finding specific characteristics for a 'typical' eastern Highland malt.
Glen Garioch and Royal Lochnagar bottlings tend to be quite fruity these days
(although Glen Garioch
produced a much smokier spirit before 1985), while Old Fettercairn and Lochside have a more malty
and oily character. Bottlings of Glencadam and Hillside / Glenesk I tried usually performed below
par.
Our group of 'Northern Highlanders' includes a few distilleries that Michael Jackson classifies as
Speyside distilleries; Royal Brackla (Findhorn Valley), Glen
Albyn (Inverness), Glen Mhor (Inverness),
Millburn (Inverness) and Tomatin (Findhorn Valley). The malt maniacs felt these distilleries belonged
in the Northern Highlands 'stylisticly'. The odd one out in this group is the
silent Brora distillery; for
a long time they were the only Highland distillery that produced a heavily peated malt whisky.
Ooooh - How I love those Northern Highland bouquets.
Big, sweet and malty; that's the nose of a 'typical' Northern Highlander for you.
Official bottlings like
the Dalmore 12yo, Glen Ord 12yo and Old Pulteney 12yo are fragrant with a
lot of complexity. There's nothing wrong with the taste of most of the Northerners I've tried either.
Sweet, a tad dry, often with a long finish.
Still, there's lots of variety among Northern Highlanders.
Glenmorangie, Balblair and Teaninich are a little bit 'lighter' in character than the rest, for example.
Balblair
(Royal) Brackla
Brora
Clynelish
Dalmore
Glen Albyn
Glen Mhor
Glenmorangie
Glen Ord
Millburn
Pulteney
Teaninich
Tomatin
Fettercairn
Glencadam
Glen Garioch
Glenugie
Glenury Royal
Hillside / Glenesk
Lochside
Lochnagar
North Port
Ben Nevis
Dalwhinnie
Glengoyne
Glenlochy
Loch Lomond
Oban
Aberfeldy
Blair Athol
Deanston
Edradour
Glenturret
Tullibardine
My favorite island is Islay, but that is a seperate
whisky region in its own right.
The island Skye comes right after that, even though it only has one distillery: Talisker.
Orkney is next with two distilleries; Highland Park and Scapa. The malts from Mull, Jura
and
Arran generally lack the power and intensity of these former islands, but the stocks
at Arran seem to be maturing nicely and I'm starting to look more closely at Isle of Jura
since they released some very interesting (and
very young), heavily peated bottlings.
Orkney
Orkney
Skye
Mull
Jura
Arran
Highland Park
Scapa
Talisker
Tobermory
Jura
Arran
Highland Districts:
For most of these geographical classifications I've followed Michael Jackson's lead, but after a 'Borderline Personalities'
session in June 2004 I decided to change
the classifications for a number of distilleries. Opinions amongst the professionals
seem to differ, so we had ourselves a vote amongst the malt maniacs. The classifications to reflect the majority opinion.
Single malts from the Highlands
The Highlands cover the largest part of Scotland - and include the important central Speyside
region. Anything North of the imaginary line between the Firth of Clyde
in the West and the
Firth of Tay
in the East (i.e. the line between Glasgow and Edinburgh) is considered to
be part of the Highlands. By far most single malt whiskies are distilled and bottled in
the Higlands; well over 50% of all the Scotch malt whiskies are produced in the
'Speyside' region alone. Because the 'Highlands' area is so large there's a wide
variety in terms of the conditions that shape the character of a single malt;
Scotland has many different 'micro
climates'. As a result, it's very hard to
identify any specific characteristics of 'THE Highland malt'.
|
|
|
|
|
DD Overview |
|
|
|
|
Attention Please! |
The Springbank distillery also produces the
more heavily peated 'Longrow' malts, as well
as a new spirit under the name 'Hazelburn'.
Once again, these are
second-hand names
of silent distilleries in the Campbeltown area.
