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A Whisky Podcast dedicated to beginners and veterens alike - accessible, interesting, quirky and sometimes a bit silly
Pour Favor Whisky Podcast (00:00)
Hello, welcome. Welcome to episode number? Four? Four. Four. Four ready. I'm going to touch this thing over here that you can see to make sure that stays on. Because we're so high tech. What are we going to talk about today, James? We're going to talk about whisky, or specifically Scotch whisky regions, geographical regions that...
don't really make much sense geographically. For a purchase of a ticket and say I want to go to the airport, and say I want to go to a name of a whisky region, they probably wouldn't know what you're listening I mean, if you bought it from a Scottish airline, then maybe. no, because for example,
Campbeltown You're starting off with that one, okay. Where is Campbeltown? I know where is because I researched it and looked at the map and I know it's a sticky, outy bit in the southwest of Scotland. The Highlands kind of Scotland. But yeah, mean, they're not the typical kind of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Aberdeen. So what are they? How many are there?
to begin with. think there's already a debate in how many there are. intense. My research says five. Yeah, so does mine. But I've heard about another. And I've read and I've seen it. know, when I go online, I want to purchase a whisky and put the region in parenthesis, they will name sometimes the sixth one as being, you know, a legitimate sixth region. I'm interested if I sixth one and it couldn't be the same. Okay, I'll reveal it. Okay, so...
Give us the list, give us the five. Okay, ⁓ we can automate. ⁓ Highland. Lowlands. Campbeltown. Speyside And... Islay Islay. That's right. And what's your six? Five, so the six would be islands. Exactly. And by islands... ⁓ What islands are we talking about? ⁓ The contentiousness of the...
It is not that I actually researched it but I was thinking did I just misunderstand people's accent and pronunciation of Isla? And I thought they said islands but... They did say islands. Islands. They did say islands. So like Isla, Skye, etc. Isla, Skye, Jura. Yeah. And I think there's a new one that we discovered. There's a few islands.
Well, there's one that has a discovery on it called Bembecula. Okay. Remember? So anyway, there's islands, not Islay, Islay is an island, but it's not part of the islands' 10th region. But the sixth, the sixth ⁓ region of islands, does it include Ireland? No, that's what saying, it does not. But the region, so the purists will say there's only five regions in those islands that we just named, Skye, Mull Jura
others are actually part of the larger highland. I love the fact that we're both discussing the intricacies of Scottish whisky regions. You're even wearing a Scottish rugby top. None of us have anything to do with Scotland. So please feel free to comment, be kind, but yeah if we're wrong just tell us happy to.
learn more. We're not here to educate, we're here to discuss. I haven't even set foot in Scotland ever. Have you? You probably have. Yes, A couple of times. For what? I went once for work, which ended up like a bit of a party. That was in Glasgow, East Kilbride. And I went for golf to St. Andrews. To St. Andrews? Five for all places.
Yeah, and that was good. And which... ⁓ and I've been to Edinburgh for the rugby. For the Six Nations, yeah. And we won. We. We.
But yeah, so what are the differences between these regions? Why are they important? Why differentiate highlands and low lands when it comes to whisky, etc. going back to a previous episode where we talked about peat and how important locations are,
where you get that stuff, the temperature changes, the landscape differences, they're all gonna have a different impact on the final taste profile. And... The profile, yes. They all have all these regions. Except maybe Highland, which does not really have a typical profile, all of the others kind of.
Well, we start with Highlands. It's the largest of the whisky regions. It encompasses the islands also, apart from Ireland. And perhaps its most distinguishing feature in terms of whisky is its diversity. I mean, it's full of fruity flowers, lots of rich characters. of whisky that produce fruity, that would be something...
repeated so it will not be so... You can get light, you can see it's very light whisky but then you've also got some kind of salty malts in there as well because there's a huge coastline that is part of region. So yeah, hugely diverse. It's difficult to pinpoint a highland profile really. But we said... I think... Is it the parallel with this? Am I going in the wrong direction? don't know but I won't mention it anyway. We said either...
This is an island, thick region, so-called region, but it doesn't include an island. But then there's the highland that does include, actually, doesn't include, but space-side, which is the next region I think we should talk about, is kind of an enclave. I'm starting to know that. It's like a French word. You should know that. ⁓
Enclave? Enclave? Enclave? You don't even know. It's an enclave. Inside or within the highlight. It's not separate. It's inside the highlight. You may just backtrack a tiny bit. You may remember I had an anecdote from the Pete, the Who is Pete episode. And this has something to do with the highlight of region. So, Speyside you're right.
is like a little area inside the Highland region. So both Speyside and Highlands have what's called Highland Peat. Highland Peat, typically one to three PPMs. Oh, the very subtle. don't even know it's there, but you can... Even more so. Remember the components that we talked about? The fennels, the Cressol...
Guiacol the Syringol, which is only aromatic, has no taste flavour. This is what's in Highland Peat. So it's 1-3 ppm and even though it's so low, doesn't matter, you will never taste it. Awesome. I didn't know that. That's super interesting. And that's also true in Speyside because, as you mentioned,
It is its own whisky region, but geographically in terms of the landscape, sits within the Highland landscape. So you're saying then the peak profile of the Speyside, peat and whisky would be similar to that of the Highland If they go with the Highland peat. Yeah, what they call the Highland peat. Because you can have coastal distilleries in Highland or in Maritime wars. So yeah, so examples of Highland distilleries.
We to apologize because we may not pronounce them the right way but... Tomatin or Tomatin? Tomatin. I think Tomatin is more... We had that recently. I don't know how to say it. Tomatin? Tomatieri or Deanston? wrote down. I've Dalmore. I've got Oh, I had that one too. Clineish I mean there's a bunch, I've got to this one because the...
Whisky Club in Madrid, I've just gone there, Ben Neves. ⁓ yeah? He just runs a distillery. And one of my personal favorites, a recent one, think it's only a few years old. more than that, I started producing whisky, not long ago, it's Ardnamurchan. Ardnamurchan. Ardnamurchan Island. Ardnamurchan, yeah, I like that one. So that's Highland, so how can we say it?
It doesn't have a distinct profile, its profile is its diversity. Its peated highland profile is very much on the nose. You're not going to taste much of it, but it's still very, very small. It's the largest of the regions. And we talked about the islands being a part of it. There's one island, a group of islands, that you mentioned, which is super important actually. They're not on the west side.
like where all the others that we talked about are. They're on east side? No, up north. North. Okne. Okne. Okne. And I mentioned it, you will know why a little bit later. Okay. Let's come back to that one. So which region are we going to next? So I said Speyside, we already talked about Speyside. Let's go with Speyside first. I'll continue that page. Speyside has a distinct profile, not dense. All whisky, I don't know actually, maybe all whisky is made in Speyside.
absolutely do share the same profile or generally speaking a space whisky will tend to present a profile that is higher concentration fruitiness, spiciness in per se, also the smooth character of space whisky is well-known.
And for that reason I think you mentioned the word elegant, because it's that kind of, I wouldn't say accessible but very relaxing experience. You're getting a lot of depth, lot of complexity but it's in that relatively smooth experience. But interestingly, going back just to the name, do know why it's called Speyside? Oh yeah, I think I do. Because of the river, Spey It's central to the Spey. exactly.
It's the most densely populated whisky region in the world. Now I thought that was going be Ireland. I don't know why, because there's like 10 distilleries on that little island. But no, it's a Speyside But do know, I do not know, do you know how many distilleries they have? I didn't get that far. It's got a research. Much more than we think. Yeah. I mean, but you're right, they're really a typical profile. You get some pecan there, full of fruit, apples.
I've tasted apples, some pear. It is sweet, like honeygav sweet also, distinctive. And you're right, spices, lots of different kinds of spices and very, very typically, not always, but typically matured in ex-Sherry casks. What do we say the word for Sherry? Bats. And in terms of...
famous the series in space rather there's the uber famous one which one Macallan The Macallan sorry, The Macallan is so cool ⁓ yeah the one which when i was a kid growing up or a teenager was like you know the well there's a bunch of Glens Glenallachie yeah but a bunch of if you if you see a whisky with the name starting with
Glenn is probably from... I mean there's a bunch of them, in Ireland too. I love them in the space. I don't know, maybe I'm just making a rule that it's not true, but I've seen a lot of Glenns in space. Mortlach is another one. yeah. Linkwood. I know you like think Aberlour is like... I never tried it. Next door, think it's the same... mean it's the name of this village.
Where... Macallan? Macallan? I don't know. I don't know it's nice. I've never tried it. I've seen it there on the shelves. It has this commercial... It's nice to get a feel in all these. And Dalmore as well. It looks elegant on the shelves. Is it being pretentious and commercial or is actually...
Probably full of caramel colours. We should try it. It's the slugs. Okay, we've covered Highland and Speyside and we've talked about the islands, so what is it? Lowlands, which I don't have much to say about it, except what I learned, and perhaps why I don't have much to say about it, is it's one of the most upcoming regions where a lot of the new distilleries are, the new make whiskys are.
like new distilleries in big cities like in Glasgow. ⁓ One of the ones I've got a special affinity for Port of Leith vertical distillery in the heart of Edinburgh. Like in a tall building. Yeah, so instead of like a super impressive kind of camped out farm distillery, bourbon up vertical, so cool. But Lohan, so what are the...
For me, it wasn't a region I was particularly attracted to. It like a boring region producing boring whisky but I hope that's the case actually. But it is lighter, right? It's a lighter, gentler type of profile that you will get out of Lowland whisky. Maybe more grassy also in terms of flavors and floral notes, a little bit of sweetness.
nothing really too aggressive or very mellow. Well I guess we'll see as well with these new distilleries what kind of profiles come out of them because they could entirely just change that profile map as well. for sure. I remember one of the examples of the distilleries in Lawrence is something we tried recently was Blacknock. I went there too. Very very much enjoyed that. Very good quality. But there's also like
You talked about the new distilleries there's also a very famous one that has closed for long time now. So if you find a bottle of them, that distillery probably costs about 500 pounds, or Yens I should say. Rose pack, have you ever heard of Rose pack? No. No, super famous Rose pack, but from my dad's generation. you come across one, I will definitely try one day. Another one?
⁓ Yes, I didn't put it I didn't want to pronounce it. This is a gland that's not... Kingsbarns which also has a great golf course.
Not on that story. so we're now in Lowland, we're in the southern part of whisky making Scotland and to the west of that we've got the other two regions. Which one are we going to talk about first? Campbeltown, because you can talk about Campbeltown first, because it's first one you name it in this episode. mean honestly it's the one I didn't know anything about. Islay was obviously like an island, the island about Islay.
Highlands obviously, high up lowlands.
So yeah, Campbeltown, had no idea where it was. Yeah, and I made a mistake. think we should have talking about Island because Campbeltown is kind of the way the ⁓ profile is described is a mix between the touch of lowlands, smoothness, smoothness, lightness and fruitiness mixed with
the Islay profile that we talked about. it's very much one on the coast, as I said, this sticky outy bit. But Islay smokiness in particular. So you mix the Islay smokiness with the lowland fruitiness and this is kind of the... It's also very close to Islay as well. Yeah, exactly. So that means the landscape is going to be very similar. It's like a little peninsula, isn't it? Yeah, it's a sticky outy peninsula and southwestern Islay is an island just...
I mean on the map it looks really close. Probably if you want to get to Ireland you go from Campbeltown? I don't know. But that's a trip we need to take and maybe we can shoot an episode from there. yeah you're right. My notes from Campbeltown can be varied but notes to smoke definitely. Fruit, vanilla, again.
Very similar to either. Strong, very rich, deep, complex, little bit light. yeah, they're very, very mixed bag in a good way. There are not many distilleries there. Or at least not. I think less than before even now, so there's very few. I mean, there's three that I've heard of, which I think is actually two. One is like a separated release from the other.
So I've got Springbank. Which is actually super well known. I think Longrow is actually a different brand. And the other one? Glen Scotia. But there's a lot of releases in those distilleries. You've got a lot of different Glen Scotias and Springbanks. mean different ages, different finishes. a huge amount.
So what's the last one? In the region, I think we just did it before. And it's Isla, not Isla, not Isla, no Isla, Isla. So Isla, we talked a lot about Isla on a previous episode if you recall. We did because it's typically its profile is peat. peat marriage. Or heavily peated fiery. Yeah, so we're carrying it.
The smokiness is typical, mean, you drink a smoky whisky, you think about it first. Yeah, and as we discussed, mean, peach and smoke don't have to be dominant. They can be subtle, they can be foundational, a foundational layer to other flavors. The tasting we had on the last episode, optimal. mean, 169 ppm is yet.
I think I had more orange and honey than I had smoke. just a huge scale and scope for complexity in that. Yeah, definitely. So that's the profile, The Isla is different kinds of peatiness the maritime one with more iodine notes and seaweed and whatnot, and the medicinal one and smoke fire notes.
All these kind of peat mills are typical of Isla. Does it mean that they cannot exist in other... No, no, other distilleries, typical of Isla. And of course, because they built the peat as a fuel, it's the original way that scotch was made, was distilled. They used peat as a way to fire the kilns. So it was a fuel source, it is a fossil fuel. And how many distilleries are there now?
Because it's almost a thing, it? You pick up a bottle and person is selling it to you and you oh, this is the eighth distillery of Ireland. I think there's ten. There's ten, yeah. I think if I didn't research, I could be wrong. I know of ten. Because I noticed very recently there's a few that...
Kilchomman is very recent. that's the I'm used to tasting on. That's the ninth. That's the ninth. And I know that Arnau opened after that, very recently. Actually they produced their first whisky think a year or two ago. So Ardnahoe must be the tenth in Marienkirchen. Kilchoman actually is the only farm distillery in Ireland. So typically distilleries were made on farms. You already had some equipment, already had some
industrial scale and yeah it's the only one that's still actually working farm. Nice because that's one of the most basic ones so we're going back to 20, 30 years. We're talking about the steroids, can we name them all? I don't know can name them, we'll think of common and animal. Yes, Bruichladdie Ardbeg.
Yeah. Bunnahabhain Lagavulin. Lagavulin. Laphroaig Laphroaig. And then... I've got... Which one am I missing? The first one. Bowmore Bowmore. Yes. And... We're missing one. Yeah, we're missing one. Maybe it's only me? No. If you know for a fact that Klikkoman is the number one. No, I had Ardbeg Kilchomman Laphroaig, Bowmore. there are viewers, listeners, comments. Which one are we?
Forget it, can just turn the PT on. I really feel like we're going to kick ourselves. ⁓
So that's the Whisky Regions. So huge scope and scale flavors. mean, why do the regions exist? I think it's like a cool brand as well. It's a cool branding thing where you've marked, this is a Highlands Whisky or this is a Lowlands, this is a Campbeltown. Because you haven't heard of those words in a map context geographically. So it's very specific to the Whisky Mark.
But are you saying it's a consequence of the regions existing that it's cool for marketing or do you think that's the reason why it exists and what is the sole purpose for have no idea actually how we came up with those regions specific to whisky, commercial whisky sales. But the fact that it's unique to whisky is very, very cool. Because other whisky producing countries, I Ireland just next door, they don't have...
similar concepts of regions there. I don't believe so. I mean in Wales we don't. It's a unique, it's harsh. And in fact, it's scotch, that's one thing. And then you've got another layer, it's like oh regions. And because you've never heard of them geographically, you actually research on what's that region? Oh, there's this risky, that sounds good. Then you end up buying something just because you've been forced into some research. So it's commercially also really...
efficient.
Well, it's time to try a whisky from these ridges. I am looking forward it. There's a reason why I put an emphasis on the islands we forgot, Orkney. Because this one is a single malt scotch whisky from Orkney Islands. They don't name this delivery, but everybody knows what it is.
And it actually says here, I don't know if you can see, region, highlight. It's very specific. Oh, look at Drawn from Cast Reference 30, but this is something... I mean, 18 years of age. 18. Bottled in 2018. this is... So there's only two...
think they start only two distilleries on them. One of 395 bottles, cast reference 13. And from Berry Brothers in Red. I think it's a shop in London. In They are an independent bottler as well. have lots of casts of super interesting things. How much is this? This bottle is 52.7.
So, yeah, a good whisky. it's Orkney it's going to be lightly beaten with Orkney Pete. And there's only two distilleries on Orkney, there's Highland Park and There's Highland Park on Orkney? I've never heard that. And Skapa. You heard of Skapa? Skapa. Skapa Flow? You a base, a naval base for the British. Ah, it's not about whisky. Ah, well, Skapa is...
that. Where Scapa Flow was. So anyway, it's not Scapa, this is Hyland Park, 80 years, bottled by Perry Brothers and Brent. Can we stop looking at it and actually try it?
I like this color. It's pale but has a golden hue to it.
Definitely. It was not true at all.
Light. Yeah, light. You can tell that it is beet, it was beated. Very light, definitely aromatic. It's one of my favorites, think you can tell from the... how much remains. It's very fresh.
wow. I'm gonna have to some more to understand it, but it was definitely a twist at the end there. It's complex, it's not, yeah, it's... How is it? Light, fresh, there's some honey which is, which I always find in the Highland Park, some honey notes.
Definitely honey.
long finish.
It kind of lingers but drifts away elegantly. It sounds weird but it doesn't dissolve into nothingness. It kind of just fades out and it's very light. I think this is a whisky that I could quite happily have on a hot day. You know don't typically think about whisky on a hot day. I think like an evening on a hot summer's day.
That would be really pleasant. It's not a hot day right now. It would also be pleasant on a cold day. It is. It is. that's a nice Did you say something, The nose starts with toffee brittle and salty sea breeze, which becomes salted caramel and menthol. Definitely. The freshness of the menthol definitely got that. The caramel.
Catwap. They won. Then the fresh cut wood note comes through. The taste is rolling, salty, breezy, and chee-spices. Then comes earthy peat. The finish starts with a waxy dryness. Then spice and soft peat. According to that. I definitely got that roller coaster kind of...
Perhaps the soft peak at the end is that. I need to look for it now that I've read about it. The fact that it's earthy peak first and soft peak at the I'm not sure the spices. I'm not sure what spices are on.
But it is pleasant, really, really... It rolls on the tongue. Probably one of the most elegant ones I've tried that wasn't super rich in character. This is more light, refreshing, but very, very elegant. I'm glad you like it. But the pressure's on the next time you need to pick something. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I'm gonna try it.
So the next episode, we'll be actually deciding what we're doing in the next episode. What were we talking about earlier? We were talking about... I feel like...
Did you? ⁓ We didn't actually decide on which one. So let's pick one now. Let's put ourselves in the outside. You want to pick one or shall I pick one? Go ahead and pick one. Me? Yeah. Okay. Let's go on from the single malt episode and the peat and who is peat episode and let's do fermentation and distillation. ⁓ should I say distillation and fermentation? No, you should say fermentation and distillation
That's why you should tune in to the next episode. I can be corrected accordingly. If you have any questions, comments, corrections, feel free to let us know. It's meant to be a discussion, it's not meant to be an education. Like all, whisky drinking should be contemplative. You shouldn't drink responsibly. Do we have to say that? I'm not saying anything, are we?
But you're doing it moderation. There's nothing wrong with Off camera, yes. Off camera, no. But that's a different story. If you like it, heart, subscribe, bell, thumbs up. All the buttons. All the buttons. Also, we've got a sister channel. I can't. Whisky and Shadows, is my dodgy whisky photography and even dodger tasting notes.
And remember, Nico knows.