About a month ago, I led a Scotch tasting at Town Hall Brewery in Minneapolis. Over the next few days, I will be posting the notes I used, and ending with some of the questions people asked during the event.
First, an introduction. The tasting involved six Scotches: A lowland, two Speysides, two Highlands (Islands), and ending with an Islay. The first three had lighter tones, and the second set of three were more robust.
Now an overview of Scotch. It's a whisky, from Scotland, hence the name. The six Scotches were single malts, which means they come from a single distillery. There are approximately 100 distilleries in Scotland, and most of their whisky is put into blends. The largest variety and most uniqueness are in the single malt category. And though you can legally call it Scotch once its aged at least three years, most single malts won't carry the distillery name until the whisky is at least ten years old. The oldest whisky at the tasting was a 30 year old, but most of them were in the teens (12-18).
The regions typically break down as the Lowlands, Highlands, Speyside, and Islay. Depending on who you talk to they might mention the Islands or Campbeltown, but they're all used to geographically classify the distilleries. Lowlands tend to be lighter, the Islays more peaty, the Highlands more smoky, and the Speysides more floral. These are broad-stroke generalizations, but safe expectations when dealing with single malts.