How the Scots chant the heroic qualities of their ‘water of life’

Press, 3 December 1982, Page 14

How the Scots chant the heroic qualities of their ‘water of life’

From

DIANA DEKKER

in London

"Don't let's kid ourselves that we are dealing in a product. We are dealing in dreams." says a baron of the Scotch whisky industry, glass in hand.

The golden liquid is real enough — there are more (han three billion litres of it, mature and maturing, stored away in Scotland at present.

But the attitude of the industry to its manufacture is a curiously charming one. No eccentric maker of French wine could regard his product with more veneration and jealousy than distillers and managing directors regard their Scotch whisky. They call the product "a heroic drink" and are proud that it outsells “every other noble spirit” on world markets.

On a more basic level they are even happy to discuss recipes for hangovers — "The best cure is more.” Or, from a director of the giant Dewars company, "two large glasses of lemon juice with some very fine sugar sprinkled on it." Far better still: "If you just slowly drink whisky and water all night you don't get a hangover,” according to another executive from Dewars.

The precious and potent liquid is enormously big business in Scotland, and one of Britain’s major industries.

Scotch whisky gives employment to more than 23.000 people and sells in 200 world markets. It dominates the British spirits market and its exports are likely to earn $2OOO million this'year.

The United States is the leading overseas market, taking 30 per cent of exports, and sales to the European Economic Community account for more than 20 per cent. While the recession has trimmed down demand from some countries, both Australia and New Zealand have increased their consumption of Scotch whisky.

In the first half of this year, New Zealand took 601,000 litres — the equivalent of just over two million bottles. This, according to official industry statistics, was an increase of 15 per cent on the first half of 1980. Australian consumption shot up over the two years by 15 per cent to nearly four million litres in the first haif of this year. In spite of the recession, exports of Scotch whisky in the first half of 1982 totalled 119,926,000 litres of pure alcohol — the equivalent of about 400 million bottles.

Yet. the Scotch whisky men still worry. They have the problem of working so far into the future, forecasting likely demand for 10 years or more ahead. Maturing presents financial problems that are almost unique to the industry.

Scotch whisky is manufactured in much the same way as it always has been — a product of grain, water, and fire.

It was more than 500 years ago that Highland farmers began distilling the "ardent spirit” from their surplus barley. The drink sustained them during the long winters and was given the Gaelic name of “uisge beatha," or "water of life.”

The backache of its production has eased over the years with modern technology, but basically its production remains the same.

Barley grows well in Scotland and there is a plentiful supply of peat which, when used to dry the malted barley, gives it the characteristic “smoky” flavour. The whisky men also believe that Scotland’s soft, gentle air eases the spirit to

a mellow perfection during the years when it lies maturing in wood. Important, too, is the water. Highland water is clear and sparkling. Flowing over beds of granite and through banks of peat, it possesses the softness and purity essential for the production of fine whisky. Malt whisky is distilled from a mash of malted barley in traditional pot stills at 116 distilleries throughout Scotland. A further 14 distilleries produce grain whisky from malted barley and other cereals in patent stills. When Scottish distillers experimented with the blending of malt whisky and grain whisky 120 years ago, they began a process that was to change the drinking habits of the world and turn a cottage industry into one of Britain’s leading export money spinners. Blending now accounts for 98 per cent of the 920 million bottles of Scotch whisky consumed each year. Blenders, like Dewars, are key figures in the industry, using as many as 50 individual malt and grain whiskies to produce the characteristics of their brands.

But while the massive blending plants have the highest profiles with their torrents of mixed whisky, it is the smaller distilleries which keep the mystique alive. One such distillery is Laphroaig on the windswept island of Islay, at the edge of the Hebrides, halfway to Ire-. land. Islay has few people, primitive roads, black-faced sheep, and peat ‘bogs laced with fast running streams. The distillery is almost on the beach, with spray against its windows and a heavy smell of seaweed around. The distillery was licensed by the Excise in 1823. Some of the men who work there are the third generation of their families to do so. Scottish barley, eight tonnes at a time, is steeped in the essential peaty Laphroaig water at the beginning of the malting process and the "green” malt is dried out over a fire of Islay peat. The shape of the’copper stills is considered of prime importance. When they need replacing, every dent and curve is copied, sometimes down to the "battle scars.” Laphroaig whisky is heavy and peaty, best drunk with the island’s peculiar water after it has spent a full 10 years in oaken casks in the cool warehouses of Islay. It is, says the distillery manager, seriously. no whisky for casual drinking. “But let it proclaim itself when you are cold or tired, let it round off an evening of good food and wine, use it to deepen the larger enjoyments of life, and you'll realise that if ever a whisky deserved to be called heroic, then that whisky must be Laphroaig.” Even if you don’t enjoy the taste much, such sentiments make you appreciate that whisky is not just any old drink. It is poetry — or dreams — in a bottle.