In October of 2010 I posted a Blog entry reviewing a book by whisky expert, Charles Maclean entitled Whisky Tales. Maclean’s book is a collection of various essays on the topic of whisky, but a couple sections stood out for me. “The Firing of Stills” and “Worms,” as they are titled, had to do with how the flavor of whisky has changed over the ages because of the way Pot Stills are heated and how the whisky is condensed from vapor into spirit.

If you think of a still as a huge teapot, one has to have a source of heat to boil its contents. In the early days all stills would have been fired directly, with an open flame by burning coal or peat or wood. Maclean states that as early as 1888-89 Glenmorangie employed steam coils to heat their stills.  The reasons for moving to this form of heating were many. First you didn’t have the mess and constant tending of a fire, second, it helped control hot spots on the still which could lead to a burnt flavor of the wash and third, steam coils helped prevent the heat source from getting so hot that the spirit would boil over the neck of the still instead of rising as a vapor. BUT, was the flavor of the spirit still the same with indirect-heat? Well, some say yes and some say no, but according to Maclean, at the Glenfarclas Distillery, “one spirit still was converted to steam coils for a week in 1980, but, in the words of John Grant, the distillery’s owner, ‘The spirit it produced was not Glenfarclas – it had no guts.’” To this day all the Grant stills remain direct-fired. For those at Glenfarclas and elsewhere it is clear that indirect firing of the stills produces a more lightly flavored spirit.

Distilleries with direct-fired stills in use today: Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich,

GlenDronach (converted to steam in 2005), Macallan and Springbank.

So, in your giant teapot, (the still) you’ve got your wash or spirit boiling away, hopefully direct fired (a giant gas or oil burner beneath the still). As the distillate comes off the still, in a vapor, it must be condensed back into liquid to form the spirit, which is then filled into casks for aging. Here again, how that happens affects the flavor of the whisky. Maclean says it was only in the mid-1500’s that distillers began to use a pipe submerged in cool water to achieve this goal. The tube used was called the “worm”, and when it began to be coiled and submerged in a tub, the whole apparatus was called a worm-tub. This tube or worm is made out of copper. Copper is both malleable and as in the still itself, it purifies the spirit, helping remove sulphury compounds, which would give an “off” aroma and flavor. Shell-and-tube condensers were later to supplant the use of worm-tubs. These devices were built more like a radiator on a car with many tubes, closely packed, in a shell through which cool water runs. These were easier to maintain but seemed to make a lighter spirit. By the late 70’s only a few distilleries still used worm tubs. Distilleries with worm tubs are, “likely to be heavier in texture, and some would say, more characterful,” says Maclean.

Distilleries using worm-tubs today are: Balmenach, Benrinnes Cragganmore, Dalwhinnie, Edradour, Glen Elgin Glenkinchie, Mortlach, Oban, Royal Lochnagar, Springbank (wash still only) and Talisker.

All this background leads us to the whiskies we will taste. We’ll be returning to one distillery we have already sampled, Glenfiddich, but tasting a new and different bottlings and we’ll add two new distilleries to the list with Springbank and Cragganmore. All of our drams are from the combining of the two lists of distilleries that direct fire their stills and those that still use worm tubs to cool their spirit.

We’ll start with Glenfiddich, which is a distillery that has direct-fired stills.

As you may remember, Winter 2009 brought record snowfalls all over Europe and that was true in Scotland too. So much so that by January of 2010 many warehouses full of aging whisky had their roofs collapse. It is from this calamity that opportunity arose…at least for Glenfiddich.

“On the evening of Thursday 7th January, in the most remote part of the snow covered distillery, some of our warehouse roofs collapsed, ripped open by the sheer weight of snow, leaving maturing oak casks of Glenfiddich exposed to the winter sky. It was as if some of the distillery angels had finished their ‘share’ and had come back looking for more.

“In all 4 roofs collapsed and several more were badly damaged. The distillery engineers calculated that there were 400 kilograms [881 pounds] of snow on every square metre of warehouse roof - the equivalent of a herd of elephants standing on top of each warehouse. The Glenfiddich Distillery team immediately swung into action - working around the clock to clear snow from the distillery and neighbouring warehouses to make everything safe. Enduring temperatures as low as -19°C (-2°F) they could only work for a few hours in the bitter cold before having to go indoors to thaw out.

“Before the rebuilding of the warehouses could start, all the casks of maturing Glenfiddich had to be moved to other secure places where they could continue their maturation undisturbed.

“I came to see the warehouses for myself and standing amongst the wreckage decided to create a special Glenfiddich whisky to mark this moment in the distillery’s history and recognize the fantastic and difficult work carried out by the distillery team.

“To create this whisky I selected the finest casks from the snow damaged warehouses – marrying together different ages of mature Glenfiddich – some very old. Some of these casks had previously held Oloroso sherry and others were traditional whisky casks made of American oak. Each one was specially chosen to make a unique contribution to the taste and aroma of the final whisky.

“We have called it Snow Phoenix - a great Glenfiddich Single Malt born of chance and adversity. It is a limited edition, one of a kind and will only be bottled in 2010.”

Snow Phoenix Limited Edition, NAS, 47.6% ABV. The whiskies making up this bottling are from ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks ranging in age from 13-30 years old.

Tasting notes from the distillery:

Colour: Gold with bright copper highlights.

Nose: Creamy vanilla aromas mingle with vibrant notes of apple and pear - the whole complemented by the scent of fresh blossom.

Taste: This is Glenfiddich in the wild – apples roasted in the embers of a campfire, sweetened with heather honey and accompanied by a piece of chocolate, rich and complex with a whiff of burned sugar, coffee and wood smoke.

Finish: An exceptionally long finish - austere sherry notes mellow into a satisfying sweetness.

Notes from The Casks website:

The Nose: Zippy, fruity nose, pears and grapes in syrup with nice raisin-y notes. Really succulent notes of honey…specifically, toasted buttered bread with honey. Cinnamon-y tannic notes probably represent the older whiskies in the bottle.

The Palate: Honeyed and fruity to start, with the Oloroso influence quietly coming through next to some hints of bittersweet chocolate. 47.6% doesn’t exactly scream high alcohol whisky, but this does begin to burn nicely on the palate. Grows really pretty spicy and numbing with the alcohol and wood building to a delicious, juicy, yet tannic fireball.

The Finish: Spicy and oaky with nice lingering acidity. Just the faintest wisp of wood smoke sneaks in towards the very end.

Thoughts: Well done, Glenfiddich. Snow Phoenix is a pretty evocative name and coupled with that back-story, let’s just say my expectations were pretty high, and this stuff didn’t let me down. A great, inviting nose leads to a powerful, vibrant swell on the palate…a really expert vatting of a wide range of ages. At around $85, this is a pretty satisfying dram, all that fruit and spicy heat making it perfect for a Winter’s afternoon.

Score:  87

Glenfiddich History

Glenfiddich has the distinction of being the first single malt marketed in the UK and the rest of the world, in 1963. The William Grant family owns Glenfiddich and The Balvenie, having established the Glenfiddich distillery in 1886, and The Balvenie in 1892.  Their youngest distillery, Kininvie, was established in 1990.  A vatting of all three creates, BUMS favorite, Monkey Shoulder (not available in the US).

Set in the heart of the Highlands, Glenfiddich means ‘Valley of the Deer’ in Gaelic. This Scotch has the honor of being the best selling single malt in the world. With 27 stills, they have the largest capacity of a single distillery to distill Scotch in Scotland.

A unique feature in the aging and bottling process is marrying of different batches of whisky in a Tun, a large oak barrel, which holds approximately 30 casks of whisky.

To maintain a consistent quality of flavor, aroma and palate, the distillery combines or “marries” various casks, post-maturation, in a marrying tun.

Glenfiddich is the only single malt, which is still made using these oak Marrying Tuns. Their whiskies are married for up to nine months so that the different elements become unified into the special and distinctive taste of Glenfiddich. It is a dying art in the whisky world but the maker’s of Glenfiddich believe the time spent marrying is important because it ensures all the flavors of the whisky are in harmony and make the product even more unique.

Cost: $85-$105

Other media on Glenfiddich http://www.glenfiddich.com

The Cragganmore Distillery, owned by drinks giant, Diageo, was founded in 1869 in Moray, which is in the northwest portion of the Scottish mainland and is considered a Speyside whisky. Cragganmore 12, their standard bottling, became more well known in 1988 when it was marketed as one of the Classic Malts, which, at the time, also included Lagavulin, Oban, Talisker, Dalwhinnie, and Glenkinchie which were supposed to represent various distilling regions–Islay, West Highland, Isle of Skye, Highland, and Lowland with Cragganmore filling out the Speyside designation. Cragganmore sells only about 350,000 bottles per year and was originally used exclusively for blending by James Watson & Co. in 1815, in their then well-known #10 blend.  Today Cragganmore is a component single in the Old Parr blends. It is aged primarily in refill sherry casks.

The flavor profile of their best seller, Cragganmore 12, 40% ABV is, according to the 6th edition of Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch, “The most complex of any malt. Astonishingly fragrant and delicate with sweetish notes of cut grass and herbs (thyme perhaps)…Light to medium [body], but very firm and smooth.” On the palate: “Delicate, clean, restrained; a huge range of herbal flowery notes.” Rated 90.

In 2005 Wine Enthusiast Magazine rated this dram as one of its Fifty Best of that year, with these notes: CLASSIC / Highest Recommendation

Only 2,100 bottles for the U.S. Aromas of grapes, toffee, Sherry cask, ripe tropical fruit, meringue, egg whites and cocoa butter. Palate entry focuses on the honey/Sherry tag-team while the midpalate displays sublime butter cream, dark caramel and peanut butter tastes that thrill the taste buds. Ends up maple-like, with a backnote of white chocolate. The finest Cragganmore I’ve ever tasted. 96 of 100.

Jason Johnstone-Tellin, on the website Guid Scotch Drink, gives a glowing review of our dram:

Nose: Very floral (honeysuckle), creamy toffee notes surround the floral ones, hints of ground gray pepper in there, too, prickle from the high ABV

Palate: Deliciously oily mouthfeel, the honey notes fill the whole mouth, but it's also fruity and spicy -- well balanced considering the strength, although there is a little burn in to the chest

Finish: Long and sweet, the mouth waters with the memory of what has gone before, that delicious Cragganmore salt remains on the lips

With water: I don't like to add a drop or two of water because I love what cask strength whiskies bring to the table but in this instance I thought the move was warranted.  The toffee on the nose is more pronounced while the honey recedes; the chest burn has gone but the honey remains, the fruit and spice has receded; goes down very easily although neither as long nor as sweet

Overall: An insane bargain at $70 (you never know what you have till it's gone).  If I still lived in the UK I’d be buying a bottle of this a month at £45.  From the floral nose, through the oily, honey palate, into that long, sweet finish this is a top quality bottling.  It's like the much bigger brother of the Hazelburn 8 Year Old.  Did I mention it's delicious?

Cost: $70-$165

Additional media on Cragganmore: http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/B-40-Cragganmore.aspx#more

According to the 2010 Malt Whisky Yearbook, “Springbank produces three distinctive single malts with different phenol contents [peating levels] in the malted barley; Springbank is distilled two and an half times (12-15 ppm), Longrow is distilled twice (50-55 ppm) and Hazelburn is distilled three times (unpeated).”

So you may ask, “how is a whisky distilled 2 1/2 times?”

I’ll quote from their website, “Instead of using the conventional double distillation method, Springbank boasts three stills and operates a form of partial triple distillation. The wash is pumped into a wash still where the liquid is boiled. The resulting distillate produced, called low wines, is transferred to the low wines still, where it is boiled a second time. The product of this distillation, called feints, is then transferred to the spirit still, from which the sprit “cut” is collected.

[Most distilleries have only a wash still and a spirit still and the feints would never be isolated and mixed into the low wines that would go into the spirit still. And the spirit from the wash still only, is cooled in a worm tub. I know obscure knowledge, but that’s what whisky nerds love.]

“The method of continuously scraping solids including yeast and barley has always been considered an important factor in the whisky’s eventual character. When other distilleries switched from direct flame heating to solely steam coil heating in the 1960s, 70s and 80s many managers reported a change in the character of their spirit, and rarely for the better.”

Another peculiarity is that the wash still, is fired by both an open oil-fire flame and steam coils.

Our dram here is Spingbank 10 100 Proof, (50%ABV). As mentioned above this is lightly peated at 12-12 PPM.

In the 2010 Malt Whisky Yearbook, Dominic Roskrow describes our dram as, “Biscuit, toffee crisp, almonds and dried fruits on the nose, intense oily and complex taste with some oak, honey an spice notes and a rich full finish.” In the same publication, David Stirk has these notes, “Oily and earthy on the nose with heavy malt notes and rich shortbread. Again very oily with pronounced peat and malt flavours. A super-hot, cayenne, finish with pepperiness galore.”

Hansell gives this an 88, Jackson a 90 and Murray an 86.

Cost: 49-$65

Other media on Springbank: http://www.springbankwhisky.com/making.of/