"The
idea is, to produce a blend so perfect that it strikes the consumer as being
one liquid, not many - i.e. having absolute unity, tasting as one whole."
The
above quote is from a book called 'How To Blend Scotch Whisky' by the
much-lauded 19th Century whisky writer Alfred Barnard.
After
spending the better part of two years traversing what was then the British Isles,
Barnard visited all 162 of the working distilleries across England, Wales,
Scotland and Ireland. The culmination of his pilgrimage was the book The Whisky Distilleries of the United
Kingdom still often quoted today and providing an invaluable
snapshot of whisky distilling in the 1800's.
In
the above quote, Barnard is extolling the virtues of blended whisky.
He goes on
to say:
"Very
many persons think they can blend whisky, and that it is just a matter of
throwing a few brands together. The manipulation of whiskies requires as much
care as the most delicate wines."
Quite
a claim and not one many of us think about when quaffing a Bells and ginger ale
down the local, in our youth.
But
the man was bang on. The process of blending is a complex art and one which can
be lost in the folly of youth or the arrogance of old age, when we believe that
single malts provide a superior product to that of the blended whisky.
If
you're of that disposition, that single malts are far-and-away the principal
over their blended cousins; that blends are just made up of off-cuts from
single malt distilleries, the sausage of the spirit world; that they should be
hidden away in the attic like The Elephant Man, lest your friends see you
hanging out... then you must, and I mean MUST follow these simple instructions:
1.
Take your hands and place them firmly on your shoulders.
2.
With some force, pull downwards on your shoulders until you hear a loud
'popping' sound.
3.
At this stage, you should find that your head has now been removed from your
arse. Herein lies a warning: the light can be rather blinding, but embrace it.
4.
Once your eyes are fully open, find your nearest bar and order a large dram of
a blended whisky. Spend no more than £7 (but no less than £3) and sit back,
relax and enjoy the way the liquid has been constructed, the artistry behind
the flavour.
At
the start of this week, I was kindly invited up to Dufftown in the heart of the
Speyside region, to the Glenfiddich distillery.
"Great!"
I hear you cry. "They make some lovely single malts there. What's this
review going to be? A new 14 year old? Maybe a wacky finish [easy now! - Ed]?
Or something really old? How about a 55 year old??"
Nope,
none of those. And may I refer you to instructions 1 through to 4, above.
For
Glenfiddich is not just the home of the single malt to which it gives its name.
Yes, it produces some lovely drams. Yes, The Balvenie is a mere stumble away,
also producing some fantastic hooch. No, we didn't get to visit Kininvie distillery.
Again. But we did get to discover the very reason why these distilleries were
built... to supply blended whisky.
Born
in Dufftown in 1839, William Grant was a humble accountant, the bookkeeper at Mortlach distillery. However, his ambitions were great and soon he was installed as the manager
at the distillery. During his time there, he began planning to build his
own distillery and in 1886 he quit his job, bought some land and built the
Glenfiddich distillery, which ran its first distillation on Christmas Day,
1887.
One
of the reasons that William Grant was able to build his distillery was due to
an exclusive contract he had with a major blender of the day, the brilliantly
named William Williams. A few years later, William Grant saw an opportunity
when the largest blending company of the day, Pattison's (who ironically also make sausages)
went bankrupt, and he was able to launch his own blend. Thus Grant's Whisky was
born and today has climbed to the dizzy heights of the world's third largest
Scotch whisky brand by sales volume. Quite an achievement.
Oi! Are you still listening, or is your head
still up your arse? Yeah, I thought so...
Right, back to the present day.
Quite rightly, a lot of companies are pretty
proud of their history, so most employ an archivist, and Grant's is no exception. The
man in question, whose job it is to keep on top of an ever expanding archive,
is called Paul Kendall, a bloody nice chap whom I had the pleasure of having
lunch with.
Anyway,
some time ago Paul discovered the company’s oldest blending book, in which is
recorded the exact whiskies that William Grant used to create his first blend, Grant’s
Stand Fast. The date on these records was 11 June 1912; clearly some time after
the very first blend was made, but the very first records these remain,
nonetheless.
 |
| The Original Notes From 1912 |
And
so it was, that 100 years to the day, a group of us were invited to the home of
Grant's whisky to help the now Master Blender, Brian Kinsman, only the 6th
Master Blender ever at Grant's, have a stab at recreating this century-old blend...
The
task ahead was not easy. There was no reference point for the actual liquid; no
smoking gun, save for the records. There was one obvious issue: whisky
production has changed a lot over the past 100 years. Greater consistency in
grains, yeast, distilling and casks mean we have no real touch point for what
the constituent parts would have really tasted like. But no bother; this is 2012
and we'll work with what we have... some educated guess-work and selection of,
hopefully, similar casks.
Now,
the original recipe was made up of 18 whiskies, a lot less than makes up a
standard batch of a blend today. And the youngest was listed at just two years
old. Something that, due to tight (some would even say 'restrictive' SWA regulations...)
means we can't exactly replicate. Plus, there were some whiskies listed (mainly
the grains) which came from closed distilleries (Cambus, Caledonian and Port
Dundas). But fear not! Brian had been digging around in the Grant's warehouses
and found casks of each of these. Winner!
We
started by constructing a grain whisky base. Once this had been built (and seriously, some of those grains, particularly
the 1985 Caledonian were just fantastic) and we were pleased with the balance,
it was time to create a topdressing by blending together some of the malts.
 |
| As The Blend Will Be Bottled |
The
grain base had taken a couple of shots until we were happy to proceed, and the
same was true with the malt selection. In the research and chat beforehand, we
came to the conclusion that the malts from this period would have nearly all
been peated to some degree. The only island malt listed in the original blending
book was Highland Park and Brian had uncovered some peated Glenfiddich and peated
Balvenie. What a treat. These, along with some unpeated 'fiddich and 'venie,
were to make up our malt content.
Initially,
the blend came off too smoky, too powerful and too aggressive. Pulling back on
the smoke and dipping in some of the aged grains, we finally got to a point
where the team was happy. Was it 'Stand Fast' as William Grant would have know
it? Who knows. Was it tasty? Hell, yes!
As
the individual parts to our blend were all at natural cask strength, one of the
questions posed was how, in the early 1900's, was the whisky filtered? In a
time before chill filtration, whisky still had the issue of going cloudy when
water was added, or if the bottle was left in the cold.
 |
| Egg Filtration |
Eggs.
Apparently eggs are the answer. If you crack in some egg white and leave for a
few days, these attract the fatty acids which turn the liquid cloudy. Filtering
out the egg white then does a similar job to the modern day effort of chill
filtration... So, true to whisky production at the time, Brian added egg white
to the whisky and the concoction was left to marry in demijohns before it goes
on to be bottled.
Sadly,
only 100 of these little beauties will be bottled but the whole experience of
blending a whisky was one of education and entertainment, especially under the
guidance of Brian Kinsman, a proper expert in his field. Little did he know
that the information and experience was going to prove vital for what was going
to happen just two days later...
 |
| Blending Class At The RFH |
Over
the year, we have been hosting a series of whisky tastings in conjunction with
the Southbank Centre in London, having their members come along to the Royal
Festival Hall to learn about whisky in all forms; from single malts to blends
to world whiskeys.
This
week we hosted our first ever 'blending class', educating the attendees about
the joys of a well constructed blend (as well as the horrors of badly built
ones, too) before letting them loose with their own selection of grains, malts,
test tubes and pipettes. Much fun was had by all and, as we watched the sun
setting over Waterloo Bridge, I was reminded of the wisdom which Barnard leaves
us with in the very same book which opened this piece:
"The
greatest amount of ignorance prevails in England on the subject of blending...
".
I'm
glad this was written at the end of the 1800's, as I hope, with initiatives like
the Grant's trip and classes like ours, the opposite can be said in 2012.
 |
| Apprentice Master Blender, perhaps... |
It seems fitting then, that after 50 years Stewart has made a welcome return to the principle of DoubleWood, creating a brand new 17 year old expression. Like its younger brother, the 17 year old whisky has been matured for the large proportion of its life in American oak barrels, finally being transferred to larger European oak sherry casks. The Balvenie have always remained relatively tight-lipped about the exact length of time this 'finishing' process takes - and to be fair, we really don't care how long it takes - so long as the process works! 
