Malted love

“Exports of single malts only began in the 1960s,” explains Marshall,the global brand ambassador for Dewar’s,which is based in Aberfeldy,a small Scottish highland town. “Although globalisation helped,the glut in the market in the 1970s and 1980s meant that there were several closures and distilleries had to diversify and manufacture single malts,” he adds.

The difference between single malts and blended scotch is both in the process and the products. Blended whisky is made from a blend of multiple malts and grains. But single malts are singularly produced from one distillery. “Therein lies the difference; it takes immense skill to blend whisky as the aim is to have the same final flavour while single malts can differ from year to year,” Marshall says. It is therefore not rare to see single malts with vintages,given that the whisky produced in that particular year can differ in flavour from that of another year,just like wine. The similarity with wine doesn’t end there—Marshall points out that cataloguing tasting notes for whisky has been borrowed from the wine world. Also,Michael Jackson (the late English writer),published an influential guide to whisky that used a Robert Parker-style rating out of 100.

The main difference between wine and whisky,however,is that whisky doesn’t age once bottled unlike wine. Also,unlike wine,scotch can only be matured in oak casks without additives like wooden chips. When asked about the relationship between flavour and age,Marshall ponders for a moment and then animatedly resorts to a notepad and pencil to draw a bell-shaped graph. “For the first two years,the impact on the whisky is negative—the oak absorbs flavour from the spirit,” he demonstrates. “From then onwards,the flavour in the spirit intensifies until it peaks at around 18-21 years. After that,the flavour gets overly woody as it is influenced by the cask.” Marshall points out that every year,two per cent of the volume of the spirit evaporates—this is one factor for the high-price of aged whisky.

Due to the complex flavours of vintage whisky,however,the comparisons with wine do not end. “Whisky is a lot more complicated than wine since every cask is different. A typical blind tasting would have only around a three per cent success rate,” Marshall justifies. Asked about pairing whisky with food,Marshall defensively points out that it is common,at least in Scotland. “We pair young scotch with oysters and the older whiskies with smoked salmon or game meat.”

Unlike some purists,Marshall isn’t against whisky cocktails,as long as the flavour is not overpowered. While it is perceived as a stuffy,old man’s drink,Marshall expects the market in India to be driven by the youth.

He recalls as a student he was a wine drinker but realised later that he “felt no emotional connection with wine”. Marshall won a competition to visit a distillery in Islay and says,“I tried three casks from 1964 and each was unique. That was when I fell in love with whisky.”