Guide
Whisky flavours
Four families of flavour, and the visits on this map that usually sit in each one.
Scotch gets described as if it were a library. It is really four rooms, and most glasses live in one of them.
Orchard. Apple, pear, barley sweetness, sometimes a little citrus. Glenfiddich and The Glenlivet are the Speyside pair. Kingsbarns, Lindores Abbey and the Borders Distillery sit in the same mood, and so do the Clydeside, the Glasgow Distillery’s fruity flagship, Holyrood, Stirling Distillery, Nc’nean and 8 Doors. Port of Leith is the new-make visit, before a cask has chosen.
Honey and height. Softer, floral, a bit of heather. Dalwhinnie stands on the A9. Glenmorangie, in Tain, is the other light highland glass.
The shore. Salt, pepper, a fire somewhere nearby. Talisker and Torabhaig are the Skye pair. Isle of Raasay smokes more gently. Ardnahoe is the Islay visit on this map. Ardnamurchan, Oban and Tobermory are the western harbours, Oban the mildest of them.
Richer. Dried fruit, a darker sweetness, the sort of glass that wants a seat. Aberlour is in the village. The Macallan is on the estate, with no pavement from Craigellachie. Ben Nevis and Royal Lochnagar are the heavier highland glasses. The Glasgow Distillery can land here too, once the cask has gone darker.
Johnnie Walker Princes Street is the visit if you want several of these moods in one afternoon. It is an experience, not a working still.
These are directions, not a promise of what is in the glass that day. Casks change. Your nose is allowed to disagree. The palate finder asks a few questions and lays out every visit in the room you picked.