GLENLIVET

The only whisky allowed to call itself 'The Glenlivet' is historically the most famous Speyside malt. The appelation 'The Glenlivet' is restricted even further in that it appears on only the 'official' bottlings from the owning company of the distillery, Seagram. These are branded as The Glenlivet with the legend 'Distilled by George & J.G. Smith' in small type at the bottom of the label, referring to the company set up by a father and son that originally founded the distillery. The glen of the Livet is also the home of two other malt distilleries, the unconnected Tamnavulin and Braes of Glenlivet. All of these distilleries use the sub-title Glenlivet on their labels as an appellation of district. The glen of the Livet has clean spring water that makes especially delicate whiskies. Among the distilling districts it is the one most deeply set into mountains. Its water rises from granite and frequently flows undergrounf for many miles. The mountain setting also provides for the weather that whisky-distillers like.

HIGHLAND PARK

The greatest all-rounded in the world of malt whisky and definitely in an island style. It is said to have been founded in the 1790s by Magnus Eunson of Gallowhill and inits early years operated entirely illegally, hiding its output in numerous places including the curch pulpit. In 1888, son of the manager of The Glenlivet became managing partner and later owner until Highland Distilleries acquired it in 1937. The distillery has its own floor maltings and malts and kilns about 20% of the barley it uses and imports the other 80%. A well-peated malt is used. The peat is dug locally, from shallowed beds that provide a 'young' rooty heathery character. Some maltsters traditionally tried to achieve this character by throwing heather onto the fire. The smokiness in Highland park does seem to vary slightly. The distillery has 12 washbacks and two pairs of stills. It matures about 10% of the whisky in sherry casks and the rest in Bourbon. The ratios differ depending on the destination of the malt and the 12-year old single will contain a much higher proportion of the sherry casks.

THE MACALLAN

The Macallan established a reputation early on and applied for a licence in1824. The distillery changed hands several times throughout the 19th century and in 1892 was bought by an Elgin merchant, Robert Kemp, who owned Talisker Distillery in Skye. The brand currently stands at number three in the UK malt whisky market, number five in the world. It is also a favourite among the local people of Speyside. Since 1970s The Macallan's entire output has been matured in sherry wood - it is the only ditillery to use sherry wood exclusively. When the availability of casks became a problem in1976 the company began to buy its own new wood in Spain and have it seasoned in the bodegas of Jerez for four years before shipping it and filling it with whisky in 1976. This is an expensive policy (the cost of a sherry butt is about ten times that of a bourbon cask), but it makes a major contribution to Macallan's uniqueness.

OBAN

The story of Oban is told on the label of the 14-years old malt. This version is replacing the 12-year old which was put into a bottle that looked as though it contained perfume. The traveller returning from the islands of Mull or Iona, or from Fingal's cave sees Oban as a Victorian town, with the distillery growing out of the cliffs. The distillery is said to have been founded in 1794 (longer than most of the town) though the present buildings probably date from the 1880s. The stillhouse was rebuilt in the late 1960s and early 1970s and there was further work in 1991. Work in 1890 involved cutting into the cliff behind the distillery, revealing a cave with human bones and imlements, now at the Scottish Museum of Antiquity. The Oban malt whisky has contributed to various Jihn Hopkins blend, including one romantically called Old Mull.

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