Territoire Whisky : Sales of high-end whisky Territoire Whisky : Sales of high-end whisky

The development of a whisky must be in oak barrels, and should last at least three years for the right to bear the name of whisky. The production is divided into five main steps :

• The malting :

  Malting consists in making germinate the barley by spreading it out and by humidifying it during ten days. The barley manufactures an enzyme, the maltase, which breaks the starch contained in the grain. Malting can be stopped in two ways : by drying in furnaces closed in Ireland, and by a fed peat fire in Scotland, which gives to the whisky a part of its character. Then, the malt is crushed in a kind of flour, called "grist".

• Mixing :

  The grist is mixed with hot water from the source or a shaft of each distillery. Water has paramount importance, as it will give the whisky "taste" of the soil in which it rose, bringing some mineral aromas sometimes peated according to the site. Brewing turns starch into sugar, which will ferment. The mixing is done in wooden vats called "mash tun". Oncebrewed, the mixture takes the name of "wort".

• Fermentation :

  One then adds to the wort yeasts to start alcoholic fermentation. At this stage, the whisky is very similar to beer, and it also happens that some are eventually transformed in beer, and not distilled.

• Distillation :

  The mixture undergoes a double (Scotland) or a triple distillation (Ireland), whose goal is to separate water from the alcohol. We use outskirts of major copper stills broad-based with the name “wash stills” .The principle is the same for all the stills : the distilled liquid is heated, and then the alcohol vapors are grouped and cooled. Then we start the operation in the "spirits stills", stills of different shape orwherelcohol is refined. The head (the beginning of the distillation) and tails (the end of the distillation, about the last third) are lower quality and are to be incorporated into the next distillation, to be sold to assemblers to make the blends. The best, "middle cut" is then placed in oak barrels. After distillation, whisky is colorless, and its alcohol content is usually close to 70 degrees, with variations between 65 ° and 90 ° (!), The latter figure being more rare.

• The aging :

  Whisky is placed in oak barrels, most usually in barrels having contained bourbon before. Different types of drums are used to age whisky : the barrels of bourbon, of course, the most numerous (approximately 350000 barrels are imported each year in Scotland!) Followed by drums Xeres (Sherry in English - about 18000 imported annually), or the new oak barrels. The whiskies may experience several drums during their ageing, which gives them a wider range aromatic, each drum has its own characteristics. A number of essays and exchanges take place for several years. Now, there are quite common whiskies who completed their aging in casks of port, rum, sauternes or other wines. Adding caramel is often necessary for the blends, in order to maintain a uniform colour among all bottles produced. The top-of-the-range whiskies do not know this kind of practice. They can therefore be very clear or on the contrary a variety of colors and sometimes very intense, depending on the drums used in the course of their aging.

  The duration of aging varies enormously, three years for most blends up to 30 years for the best, but the majority is often bottled between 8 and 12 years. Depending on the area of aging, the whiskey is undergoing transformation and may take such as iodine or salty flavors for those whose cellars are situated by the sea. The process varies depending on whiskies and major production regions. For example, Tennessee Whiskey, made from corn, is filtered through a layer of coal that can reach 9 feet !

  At the end of its period of maturation, the whisky still generally titrates 60° (alcohol decreases by approximately 1° per year, but this average is subjected to strong variations. Thus, the air saturated with moisture of the edge of sea supports the conservation of the degree of alcohol in the barrels).

• The bottling :

  So that it is immediately consumable, whisky is usually diluted with water from the source that was used for the distillation. The whiskies most common display approximately 40 ° (legal minimum to be entitled to the appellation whisky), but some high-end whiskies are diluted to 43 ° or 46 °, which is often an ideal balance between strength and expression of aromas. Some bottles are even bottled at the strength of the drum "cask strength" in English, and then it is up to consumers to dilute its own whisky according to his desire. The ultimate is to dilute his whisky with water from the source that feeds the distillery, which is often impossible, apart from on the spot.

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