It
is widely accepted that whisky has been distilled in Scotland
for hundreds of years, and different hypotheses as to its origin
have been suggested. Some state that it was brought to this
country by missionary monks from Ireland, others point out that
as Arabs were amongst the first to learn distillation techniques,
knights, and men returning from the crusades could have brought
back the knowledge with them. It may well be, however, that
evolves simply as a means of using up barley which would have
otherwise been ruined after a wet harvest.
The name itself is derived from the Gaelic, uisge beatha, meaning
'water of life'. The Latin equivalent, aqua vitae, was a term
which was commonly used throughout Europe to describe the local
spirit. Aqua vitae made its first appearance in official Scottish
records in 1494, with the record of malt being sold to one Friar
John Cor with which to make spirit, but uisge seems to have
first been mentioned in the account of the funeral and wake
of a Highland Chieftan around 1618. The amount of whisky making
throughout Scotland increased greatly during the seventeenth
century, and nowhere more than in the Highlands, in fact, so
enthusiastic was the growth in distillation that before the
end of the sixteenth century there had been complaints to Parliament
that so much barley was being used in whisky production that
it was in short supply as a foodstuff!
The
distillers' method was basic and simple: a sack of barley might
be soaked in water - for example, in a burn for a day or two,
then the barley would be spread out in a dry place, allowing
it to sprout, for around 10 days. The sprouting would be halted
by drying the barley over a peat fire. It was then put in a
container with boiling water and yeast, to ferment. This mix
would be passed twice through a pot still, emerging as whisky
at the other end. These distillers had to be fairly skilled
at their job, to possess the judgement to know when to take
off the middle cut of the spirit (the drinkable part), avoiding
the poisonous strength, including setting fire to the spirit
to measure the amount of liquid left behind, avoiding the poisonous
foreshots and aftershots. Although they had no instruments,
methods did evolve of testing the whisky's strength, including
setting fire to the spirit to measure the amount of liquid left
behind and mixing it with gunpower to see how it reacted when
it ignited - if the gunpowder-and-whisky cocktail exploded,
it was known that the whisky was too strong!
There are six main whisky regions within Scotland, these are
-
Lowland
Islay
Campbeltown
Highland
Speyside
Orkney
Speyside is regarded to be the best whisky producing area of
Scotland due to it's pure spring water and having the best soil
to grow barley.
The whisky trail is only 40 miles away and there you will find
a malt to suit everybody's taste.
Whisky
tastings can be arranged for you at Culloden, Stephen Davies,
our General Manager holds tastings once a month in the Bonnie
Prince Charlie suite. You can taste such delights as - Ancestral,
which won a gold medal a the International Wine and Spirit Competition,
Islay or Highland Malts exclusively bottled by the Inverarity
Vaults, who bottle our own unique 10 year old Malt Whisky.
You can visit the Inverarity Vaults website at http://wwww.inverarity-vaults.com
Having sampled some of the malts you can purchase a bottle of
the Culloden House 10 year old, or should you wish, we can arrange
for Inverarity to send you any other bottles in their range.
With over 50 Malt Whiskies to choose from in our Forbes Library,
some of which are rare and cannot be found anywhere else, you
can take a tour of all six regions and enjoy one of the many
delights that only Scotland can offer - Malt Whisky.
Click on the button below to see a 360° view of the Adams
Lounge.
