Visual Slices from Lagavulin

My first uisgeous love from Islay was Lagavulin's classic 16 year old from the core range of the distillery. The power of the sophisticated spirit as well as the elegant design of the bottle and the traditional label all strongly appealed to my aesthetic sense and taste. Therefore, it was also a true pleasure to be able to actually visit the site of origin, to enjoy the imposing surroundings at Lagavulin Bay, and to meet some of the people involved in person.

Iain McArthur, Lagavulin's Whisky Legend

Sensory bliss at the Warehouse Tasting

The setting at the Premium Tasting, including the new make

The distillery site on Islay's Kildalton Coast

between Laphroaig and Ardbeg

Our knowledgeable Distillery Tour guide

The distillery's water source

A wee dram back at The Islay Hotel

(both highly recommended - the dram and the hotel!)

Photographs from Islay

Below are some pictorial impressions of Islay, "The Whiskiest Island", from September 2012. By clicking on the photos, you can view them in greater size.

Feel like getting on the bus?...

My kind of road sign!

The third of the Kildalton trio

Malted barley at Bowmore

Yours Truly performing a vintage bottling at Laphroaig
with instruction and assistance from David

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Alko is a limited company owned by the Finnish Government, and acting as the national alcoholic beverage retailing monopoly in Finland. Going through the single malt Scotch whiskies listed in Alko’s catalogue, I had noticed some time ago that somewhere along the line, the ‘E150a’ markings had mysteriously disappeared. When had this happened? Closer inspection in personal archives soon revealed that the vanishing had occurred already towards the end of 2011. The 7 June – 2 October catalogue still contained information on the caramel colouring of whiskies, but from the next one (3 October 2011 – 31 January 2012), the markings were gone. The natural follow-up question was: Why had such a deletion taken place?

The Alcohol Control Laboratory (ACL), which is part of Alko’s organisation and responsible for testing the quality of alcoholic beverages, told that this was based on Alko’s own decision. There were various reasons for the ruling. Some producers claim to be using the colouring only for the purpose of retaining consistency between batches, which would mean that E150a would not always be needed. Also earlier, the ‘E’ markings were only to be found on more recently introduced products, while the older ones remained unmarked. This constituted an obvious breach of impartiality. Moreover, although the EU regulations do require the labelling of potentially harmful allergens, E150a is not classified among them.

However, probably the most important reason given by the ACL was that it turned out to be practically impossible to maintain a reliable record of the use of E150a, because its chemical analysis proved too challenging under prevailing conditions. The liquid chromatography method used by the laboratory could not reliably detect the presence of E150a, and since the colouring itself is quite harmless, the decision was made to remove the markings altogether. The director of the laboratory suggested that the situation would be altered, if a reliable method of analysis could be found.

Some links related with the topic:

• Dramming on Caramel in whisky
• Master of Malt on Can you taste Caramel (E150a) in whisky?
• Whisky Science on Caramel E150
• Ralfy on Caramel (E150a)

Finnish Teerenpeli Single Malt Comes of Age

The Finnish Teerenpeli distillery produced its first new-make spirit ten years ago, on the 23rd of September 2002 to be precise. Finland's largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat recognized the event quite splendidly, and the October 2012 issue of Whisky Magazine joined in the festivities on an international level by featuring a story by Ian Buxton on the distillery that has now been operational for a full decade, having thus reached what is standardly considered full adulthood in the world of single malt whiskies. With the following photographs, the Malt Whisky Observer offers its warmest gongratulations to the Teerenpeli distillery and single malt!

The distillery is situated in the basement of the restaurant
Taivaanranta at the city of Lahti

Jaakko Joki, the distiller and whisky ambassador of Teerenpeli

Grist-grinding facilities, where malt is ground into a rough flour

The mash tun of 350 kilos capacity - the grist is mixed with
hot water, and the conversion from starch to sugar takes place

One of two stainless steel washbacks, where fermentation

occurs after the addition of yeast

First distillation: the wash still holding 1.500 litres per charge

Second distillation: spirit still with 900 litres capacity

The spirit safe through which the distillate flows, and where the

stillman rules on the foreshots, heart and feints of the run

A sign on the door saying "Tread carefully - whisky maturing"

Whisky maturing in and interacting with oak casks

The effects of oak maturation nicely demonstrated by

new-make spirit straight from the still, 3 year old, and 6 year old products

References

This first posting at the foundation of the blog is intended to function as a gradually extending warehouse of literary and other types of references connected with writings published in the present context. I hope it to prove useful, for myself as well as for the reader, to have all the references conveniently located in the same place.

Malted barley - an ingredient of fundamental importance

in the production of single malt Scotch whisky

 

 

The List of References:



• Buxton, Ian, 2012, "A Flirtatious Spirit" (A Distillery Focus on Teerenpeli), Whisky Magazine, October 2012, Issue 106, 40-43.
• MacDonald, Aeneas, 1930, Whisky, 2006 Edition with "Foreword" by Charles MacLean and "An Appreciation" by Ian Buxton, Canongate, Edinburgh.