When I was young and ignorant, I naively thought that the brandy brands such as Hennessy and Rémy Martin and chiva and Ballantine were one thing.
After starting to contact whisky, I was surprised to find that not only foreign wine cannot be equated with whisky and brandy, but even the whisky itself is incomparably complex. Out of curiosity, there is the following dialogue:
Big Guy: What whiskey are you going to drink?
Me: What? What is whiskey.
Big Guy: I asked what type of whiskey you want to drink, Japanese? American? harmony? Or single wheat?
Me: Denmark feels pretty advanced, so I'm going to drink Danish whiskey. You bully me for not knowing English, which is written above made in Scotland, not Danish.
Big Guy: MMP, where did the mentally retarded come from...
In order to let the newcomer friends who like whisky not take their own detours, today's article, I will take you to a few minutes to understand what kind of whisky is what it is, and what are the common whiskies.
The word whisk(e)y is derived from the Gaelic word 'uisque beatha', which means water of life. Today, whisky is produced in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, and Japan.
Although the output flavor of each country is different, and the process is also different, the general logic is the same, and the traditional formal production process is roughly as follows:
The starch in grains such as barley and corn is first saccharified, and yeast is added to ferment to obtain a low-alcohol liquid called wash, similar to beer.
This liquid is then distilled in a still, and the resulting high-alcohol new wine is transferred to a wooden barrel and matured. After the ripening time has reached a certain level, these liquids can be called whiskey.
In this process, the type of yeast, the local climate and other factors will affect the flavor of the finished product. But the factors that affect it the most are the variety and proportion of the grain, the distillation process, the barrel and age of the barrel used for maturation, and the blending method.
The classification of whisky is also closely related to these factors.
So, back to today's point: how should whiskies be classified? Here, they can be roughly classified according to the two ideas of origin and process.
The first line of thought is simple and crude, classifying the whisky according to its origin.
Traditional appellations resemble the old world of wine, with the four largest categories here including Scotch, Irish, American and Canadian whiskies;
New World can be understood as the rising stars of the whisky industry, and the more representative ones are Japanese whisky, Indian whisky, Welsh whisky, English whisky and Taiwan whisky.
In addition, Sweden, Australia, Germany and other places will also manufacture some good products, and domestic and foreign capital has slowly begun to lay out in China's mainland region.
When categorized according to this standard, there are three places that need to be explained:
1. Under the large category of Scotch whisky, it is further subdivided into 5 small appellations in Scottish law:
The sweet sprites with the densest distillery, the fresh and gentle lowlands, the unpredictable highlands, the isle of Airey, known for its strong peat, and campbell's city, where the distillery is almost extinct.
As for the island appellation we often hear, it is actually a work used to describe the marine flavor of the island distillery in the high estate area, the most typical of which is the two Teeska and the Highland Knights, and there is no such thing as an "island appellation" at the scottish legal level.
2. American whisky is actually a big category and cannot be equated with Bourbon.
Americans brew whiskey in a saying called mash bill, that is, the ratio of different kinds of grains in the raw material.
If the proportion of corn in the mash bill reaches more than 51%, it can be called bourbon, which is also the most representative category of American whisky. Of course, the proportion of grains is only part of the legal definition of bourbon, and there are many other factors in the legal definition of bourbon.
Similarly, if spicy rye accounts for 51% or more of the mash bill, this type of whisky is called rye whisky.
In addition to these two most common categories, there are wheat whisky, corn whisky and Tennessee whisky with wheat as the main raw material.
Corn accounts for more than 80% of the raw materials of whisky in U.S. law, which can be called corn whisky. Tennessee whisky, on the other hand, uses 51%-79% corn as a raw material, and it takes 2 weeks to slowly pass through 10 feet of maple charcoal when filtering, the most famous of which is the large black bottle Jack Danny.
3. In addition to single-origin players, there are a small number of whisky brands mainly from Japan that blend and bottle original wines from all over the world.
Whatever name it wraps itself in, essentially, these smorgasbords are the world's whiskies.
In this part, the most famous is probably Suntory's Beao , a "world major harmony" that contains five origins of scotland, Ireland, Canada, the United States and Japan.
Leaving aside the whiskies such as bourbon and rye that have just been discussed in American whiskies, according to the process classification, there are two words that are most likely to cause trouble to everyone: "single single" and "blended".
There are five main types of whiskies associated with the term: Single Malt, which is predominantly Scottish, Single Grain, Blended, and Single Pot Stills, which are only produced in Ireland.
1. Single Malt, Single Grain Whisky:
Two names that can easily bother us are mainly derived from the classification of whiskies in Scottish law. The single here is not a grain variety, but a single distillery.
Scotland requires single malt whisky to use 100% sprouted barley for grain raw materials, copper pot stills, and distillation, maturation and other processes must be completed in the same distillery.
In addition to single barrels of whiskey, before bottling, the master bartender in charge of taste control usually blends different batches of original wine taken from different barrels in the right proportion to achieve a balance of taste.
Get a bottle of whisky, even if it uses more than one barley variety, as long as it comes from a distillery and does not use other types of grains, this bottle of wine is called single malt whisky in Scotland, and this type of whiskey flavor can be very diverse.
In the same way, Scotland stipulates that the "single" of single grain whisky also refers to the same distillery, most of the distillers use efficient continuous distillers, as for the type and proportion of grains used, there is almost no limit, barley, corn, wheat, rye, etc. can be used as raw materials, and the finished product is simple and easy to drink.
2. Blending, blending malt, blending grain whiskies also derives primarily from the classification of whiskies in Scottish law:
Understanding the above single, the word of reconciliation will be much easier to understand. Similarly, the Scottish regulations on blended whisky refer to the finished original wine coming from different distilleries, not to different grain types.
Most of the original wines in blended whiskies include two broad categories of cereal whisky and malt whisky, generally accounting for the simple and easy to drink grain whisky, and the relatively small amount of malt whisky is responsible for providing characteristic flavor.
A bottle of blended whisky comes from two distilleries at a minimum, and more than a dozen or dozens of them are possible. On the basis of understanding blended whisky, blending malt and blending grain whisky is also easy to understand.
Take blended malt, for example: Scotland stipulates that the original wine of this whisky is obtained from the original wine from different malt whisky distilleries and must not contain grain whisky original wine, and the common monkey shoulder on the market belongs to this category.
The same goes for blending grain whiskies, but it's hard to see this category on the market right now.
3. Single pot still whisky:
Ireland's most famous and best-selling whisky brand is Zunmei Alcohol, a blended whisky brand.
But when it comes to Ireland, it is undoubtedly a single pot of still whisky that is only produced in Ireland, which is represented by brands such as green spot and redbreast.
In general, the raw materials of this whisky are similar to those of Scottish single malt whisky, they all use barley as the main raw material, use a pot still, the original wine comes from the same distillery, and in recent years, the selection of barrels has also been very innovative.
The core difference between the two is actually only one, a single malt whisky must use 100% germinated barley, while the raw materials for single pot still whisky must include both sprouted and ungentured barley, and can also contain other raw materials for ungentured grains.
As for the specific proportion, it is determined by the product flavor trend formulated by the manufacturer itself.
As usual, before the end, there is a personal experience I would like to share with you: unlike many things that can be learned from the articles and books, whisky is a subject that needs to be practiced, and if you really want to understand the magical water of life, it may be the best way to feel it carefully with your eyes, nose and tongue.