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Time for whisky

One of the most interesting places to see in Edinburgh is the whisky distillery.

Aruna Harjani (The Jakarta Post)
Edinburg
Wed, January 2, 2019

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Time for whisky One of the most interesting places to see in Edinburgh is the whisky distillery. (Shutterstock/File)

T

he weather in Edinburgh, Scotland, is much colder than in London, which is just a four-and-a-half-hour train ride away, but the local whisky is definitely a warmer.

One of the most interesting places to see in the city is the whisky distillery.

At Glenturret Distillery, situated in Crieff — an hour from the city center, a tour of the distillery is available every hour for 10 pounds (US$12.7) per person, with instructions given before the tour starts. Taking pictures is not allowed in the “tour areas”.

The first part of the tour takes us to the origins of whisky.

John and Hugh Drummond founded the Glenturret Distillery, but it was the Gloag that who founded the Famous Grouse brand.

Mathew Gloag originally blended the Famous Grouse Brand whisky in 1896 in Perth, located about 50 kilometers to the north. Mathew named his special blend after Scotland’s national game bird, the red grouse. The Edrington Company now owns the Glenturret and the Famous Grouse.

Shona the tour guide then explains the three main ingredients of whisky: malted barley, water and yeast.

The barley is soaked in water for 18 to 24 hours, after which it goes through a germination process where it is spread on a malted floor for four to five days.

The next process is kilning, where the malt (barley) is dried in a kiln for 20 to 22 hours to stop the germination, an important process to convert the barley grain into soluble starch, which can be converted to fermented sugar.

The malted barley is grinded in grist, which resembles coarse flour. The grist is made of three parts: grit, husk and flour.

The grist is then boiled in a vessel filled with water. The boiling process goes through three different batches of water. The water drained out of the grist is a hot sweet liquid called the wort. The leftover grist, known as Draff, is fed to the cows.

In this area the owners of the distillery keep a cat to fend off mice.

“The most famous cat amongst all of them was named Towser, who started her career at the distillery in 1963 and lived to 24 years of age. It had killed a Guinness World Record of 28,899 mice,” Shona says. A bronze statue has been made for her at The Famous Grouse experience.

The wort is then cooled down and transferred to large vessels called wash backs. Yeast is added to the wort and the two are fermented for 90 to 100 hours, after which they are transferred into a pot still for the first distillation.

The wash (combination of the wort and yeast) is heated and vaporized, and the resulting liquid is called low wine with an average of 25 percent (alcohol by volume) ABV. The next step is the second distillation, which increases the alcohol level to a target of 75 percent ABV.

“Only the best spirit will be selected for the casks. Three cuts are made through the sample safe. These cuts are Head [fore shots], the Heart [middle cut] and the Tall [feints],” explained Shona.

The stillmen then use hydrometers and thermometers to select the finest spirit for cask maturation. Glenturret’s slow distillation helps create a sweet and light spirit compared to larger distilleries, where processing is quicker to meet high demand.

The casks are padlocked by the customs, as once they are bottled, the distilleries will be charged duties.

The spirits are then transferred from the still house to the filling store, and Loch Turret water is added before it is filled into the cask. This is to reduce the strength of the spirit to 69 percent ABV.

“The kind of oak cask used for maturing whiskies plays a big role in achieving a flavor,” Shona says.

The quality of whisky will depend on the quality of the oak cask used — the casks can only be used around three to six times before they are repurposed or recycled.

Glenturret Distilleries use casks that have been used to store American Bourbon or Spanish Sherry to produce the kind of flavor desired by the distillery.

Each oak cask costs a minimum of 80 to 100 pounds. Once the spirit has matured, it is sent to Glasgow for bottling. When the spirit is bottled, the alcohol content is brought down to 40 to 45 percent.

The Famous Grouse is a full golden in appearance, with an aroma of sherry and a touch of citrus. The taste is of a medium flavor, with speyside fruitiness.

The Famous Grouse boasts its own famous master blender named Kirsteen Campbell, who has been with the company for 17 years.

Campbell sits in the 106-sample room in the headquarters in Glasgow with 11,000 samples of single malt. She blends using her nose, which has been highly insured for 20 million pounds by the company. “Campbell never gets a cold, because of nosing different whiskies every day,” Shona says.

As Shona ends the tour, she says that when drinking whisky, there are four flavors one must look for, namely “the smoky, sweet, spicy and citrus notes”.

Edinburgh: A city for royalty

Much more laid-back than London, Edinburgh offers so much to look forward to.

The hop-on-hop-off tourist bus is a must, as it takes tourists to places worth visiting inside the city.

There are many stops to board these buses, but the most popular one is near Edinburgh Castle, the city’s main tourist spot, which is a worthwhile walk. The chambers inside the castle have beautiful historic interiors.

Holyrood Palace is the official residence of the Queen in Scotland, and many of its rooms and halls are open to visitors most of the year. Each room has an exquisite interior with beautiful paintings and furniture. The palace also has a gallery of paintings worth viewing.

Carlton Hill affords a view Edinburgh’s skyline and is also the place where the National Monument is also located. Although the hill, a UNESCO world heritage site, requires a number of steep stairs to climb, the picturesque view of the whole city is an adrenalin booster.

The façade of St. Giles Cathedral is an eye-catcher and makes for a good photo background. Its shape looks enthralling, especially against a blue sky. The interior is simple compared to other cathedrals in Europe, but the serenity is pleasing.

Look out for the Balmoral Hotel, a luxurious five-star property that opened more than 100 years ago, and the place where J.K. Rowling wrote some chapters of the Deathly Hallows, the seventh book of the Harry Potter 

series.

There are many more places to see inside the city depending on one’s preferences.

If one likes shopping, the Scottish shawls, biscuits in boxes inside beautifully printed cans are sold all over the city. Princess Street and the Grassmarket streets are convenient places for shopping. Designer brands are also available at some shopping centers.

If there is one thing unique about the city, it is that it is filled with Indian restaurants, each boasting of their own specialty.

The newest Indian restaurant in the city is Dishoom, which offers fast food in a posh interior. If you are very hungry and can’t wait long, this is the place to go to, as your order is served within 10 minutes. There is a line up though, but the food reaches you fast anyways.

Other restaurants serve delicious items of Japanese or Italian cuisine. One thing though, the food prices in Edinburgh are higher than in London — but cheer up, the whisky is about 20 percent cheaper.

Dome Bar and Restaurant is also worth visiting. It won’t be easy to get a table, but just sit by the bar and enjoy the place’s beautiful interior, which has a nice dome inside.

Edinburgh is a small city. When we ordered an Uber driver to take us to our next stop after having dinner, it was the same driver who had brought us to the restaurant.

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