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This is the story of whisky,

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and I start it right here,
in the heart of Tokyo.

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Around these streets are bars
crammed with people

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imbibing the amber liquid.

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It will be a fascinating journey,

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so come with me as I tell the story
of Scotland's gift to the world.

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I'm going on a pilgrimage to
find out why such a simple drink

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has come to mean so much.

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Hi, my name is Jim,
I'm from Scotland.

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From the makers to the marketeers,

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and the chemists
to the cocktail makers,

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and from the Highlands
to Hobart in Tasmania.

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I'll be meeting the people and
travelling to the places immersed

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in Scottish whisky's world story.

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This is the tale of an ancient craft
that became a global colossus.

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It is the tale of Scotch.

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Isn't it grand that
this stuff's made in Scotland?

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Aye, but that's gey true.

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The one country that has given its
name unchallengeably to a product

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that is known and accepted in every
corner of the world, Scotch -

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enjoyed by all peoples
on all occasions.

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For half a millennium,

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Scotch whisky has been made by
the fermenting and distilling

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of water and barley.

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The spirit these ingredients conjure
up is then filtered into oak casks

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and left to mature.

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It is a raw, simple recipe,

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and yet the result is a drink
loved by millions of people

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across the planet.

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The nature of distillation is that
distillers use what grow around
them.

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If you're in France,
you use grapes to make brandy.

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If you're in Mexico, you use agave
to make mescal or tequila.

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If you're in the Caribbean,
you use cane to make rum.

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In Scotland, Scotland's geology
means we grow barley.

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So immediately you're talking about
distillers having a sense of place

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and a sense of location.

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And their spirits are embedded
within the ground and soil,

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and I would also argue
the culture of that place.

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In simple terms
it is distilled beer.

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And, you know, made from good
Scottish barley, normally,

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and nice, good water.

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This is Scotland
as seen through whisky.

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Each light represents one of
Scotland's 118 working distilleries.

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Each twinkle is where the alchemy
happens and whisky is born.

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By tradition, there are
five main whisky regions -

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Highland, Speyside,

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Islay, Campbeltown and Lowland.

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Most of these distilleries produce
malt whisky made from barley.

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Some of it is drunk
as single Scotch,

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but most of it goes
into blended whisky.

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And just as vital for blends
is grain whisky,

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produced in seven distilleries
across Scotland.

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And when you view
all of it together,

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from this perspective
it is truly breathtaking.

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A tiny country on the fringes
of north-western Europe

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produces an amber liquid
that spreads around the world.

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No wonder Scotland regards itself
as the home of whisky.

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It can feel as if
that status is under threat

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from a number of
pretenders to the throne.

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Fellow whisky giants
like Japan and America are chasing

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Scotland's crown. Scottish
distilleries are being bought up

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by multinational companies.

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And there is an energetic
craft whisky movement,

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with fresh methods of production.

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Scotch is at a crossroads.

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No pretender, though, will ever have
Scotch whisky's greatest advantage -

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the way it is interlaced with
the identity of an entire nation.

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The production of whisky is sort of
woven into the texture and fabric

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of the nation,
from Lowlands to Highlands.

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You don't go too far
without being touched by whisky

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in one respect or another.
Its footprint covers the nation.

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It's a bit like in Canada people
talk about the Mounties are, you
know,

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part of Canadian fabric, and the
maple leaf and things like that.

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You have these symbols that
represent a country,

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and I have to say if ever there was
a symbol that represented a country,

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Scotch whisky has got to take
the top honours.

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Passion, I think, is the one word,

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if somebody said, "How would you
describe, define Scotch?"

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Passion. And that's from the people
who create it to the people

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who drink it, to the people
who market it and package it.

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Passion is always
at the heart of Scotch.

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The writer Charlie MacLean described
it as the blood of one small nation.

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This is a drink
of heartfelt sentiment,

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and a character trait
of Scotland itself.

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Yet the dram reaches our lips
via a colossal global industry.

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In whisky there is money,
vast amounts of it.

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And down the years,
multinational companies,

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some from outside
of Scotland and the UK,

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have bought up Scotland's
whisky distilleries.

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The largest is Diageo,
a British company, which owns 28.

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Chivas Brothers,
a French company, own 15,

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largely concentrated
around Speyside.

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And in fact, France is still the
largest consumer of Scotch whisky

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in the world.

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Bacardi has another five.

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Beam Suntory, a Japanese company,
has five,

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as do Thai and
Philippine corporations.

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Large-scale Scottish ownership
is sadly rare.

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William Grant has five distilleries,
Edrington four.

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And right across Scotland you have
the independents like Springbank

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and Campbeltown,
or the new craft distilleries

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which are part of
a burgeoning scene.

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But there's also a sadness in the
fact that whisky has moved so far

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from its homely origins, and that
only a fraction of the vast wealth

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it creates stays
within these shores.

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This is so much more than a drink -

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it's an industry, it's a brand.

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This is Stirling,
the ancient capital of Scotland,

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and looking east from here
towards Alloa,

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lying between us
is another capital.

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It is the capital of the biggest
manufacturer of spirits in the
world.

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And it's also the biggest
manufacturer of Scotch whisky,

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and it's owned by Diageo,
and it is, in effect, an empire.

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Diageo's Blackgrange warehouse site
stretches out over 250 acres,

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and has the capacity to store
over 3 million casks of whisky.

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There are ten miles of roadway here,

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and Blackgrange even has
its own fire brigade.

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It is just one portion of
this £50 billion drinks company.

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When you think about the whisky
industry, it's something

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that had very humble origins,

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in a little croft somewhere in a
misty glen in the Highlands

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or the islands of Scotland,
hundreds of years ago.

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When you cut to today,
there is a massive,

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multi-billion pound enterprise
that spans the world.

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And, even here in Diageo's
warehouse and cooperage,

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it's like a small town
in its own right.

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And Diageo is running an empire.

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Well, I think empire
is probably a key word,

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because the growth of Scotch
really went in parallel

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with two or three things.

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The first was the growth
of the British Empire,

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the colonial economy,

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Scotsmen travelling all over the
world taking a thirst and a love

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for whisky with them,

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which is really what promoted
the earliest exports

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in the 1850s and 1860s.

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And then from the Empire you have
the growth of global economies,

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and Scotch whisky, whether people
like it or not, is a global drink.

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It's Scotland's gift of the world.

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And it was...

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That's a lovely way of putting it.
It is, isn't it? It is our gift of
the world, yes.

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It's absolutely true. And along with
that went, I think, another gift

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from Scotland, which was in the
late 19th and early 20th century,

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astonishing visionary
entrepreneurship.

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You know, the people like the
Ballantines and the Chivas brothers,

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and the Johnnie Walkers
and the Dewars,

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these guys who took this crofting
thing, this wonderful drink,

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and had the vision to turn it
into something on an absolutely

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global scale. Which meant
inventing things like...

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What you're seeing today was
invented about 100 years ago -

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the logistics on a huge scale
that people never thought of doing.

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The fundamentals are still the same.

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Absolutely the same.
And the process has been refined.

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Yeah. The process has been refined,

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but the thing about
these early entrepreneurs,

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which actually is what you've
been seeing as well today -

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they were obsessed by quality.

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They were obsessed by quality
and obsessed by consistency.

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So how you make your stills,
how you make your barrels,

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how you put your blends together,

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is what's going to give you the
drink that will conquer the world.

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And that's what they wanted to do
then, and that's what we do now,

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we just do it at this huge scale.

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I think that the big companies
actually drive a lot of quality,

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and I've got a lot of respect
for that, actually.

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I think it is a really good,
powerful thing.

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I mean, ultimately, these smaller
distilleries wouldn't be starting up

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here in Scotland if it wasn't for
all the efforts that the big boys

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have put into creating great
products that go around the world

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telling everybody about
what we do in Scotland.

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Working with smaller companies,
family-owned companies,

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the few that are left, they can
typically make faster decisions,

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they can make
more decisive decisions.

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They're not as committee-bound.

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But they don't have the depth
of resources that perhaps

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the multinationals do, they don't
have the global distribution reach,

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they don't have the power of a
bigger portfolio of spirits

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that helps those multinationals
in trade negotiations

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with the trade
right round the world.

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Whether small distillery
or industrial titan,

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whisky is underpinned
by traditional craft skills.

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Whisky production will
always need human hands.

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Despite its own size, Diageo
seem to know this homely truth,

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as I found in visits to their
coppersmiths and then cooperage.

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Charlie, where are we going now?

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So this is the copper shop where we
fabricate all the copper stills.

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We obviously have to keep it
separate from the other metals

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that we are fabricating in, so we
don't get cross-contamination

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of the different materials.

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They're beautiful beasts,
aren't they?

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I love them. I love the way the
light catches them,

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you know, the burnished copper.

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They actually look like
sculptures in copper.

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They do. They are like works of art.

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There are different shapes,
different shapes for different
distilleries.

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Yes.

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00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,080
So these are made to order?

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00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:24,120
Yes, these are for Mannochmore.

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And if we went back, I'll have the
original engineering drawings for
these.

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So we don't have to
design ourselves,

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we just replicate exactly what
they've got in the distillery.

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You have to touch it, don't you?

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It feels alive, it really does,
and hear the echo.

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Most of this is done by hand?

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00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,320
All of the important parts
are done by hand, yes.

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00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:54,200
The shape of the still is
probably the most critical part

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00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:56,120
in the whisky-making process.

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What happens is,

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as the spirit vapours run up,

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more and more of them will condense
on the side of the still.

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They'll run back down into liquid,
and be re-distilled.

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00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:08,920
And the more times that happens,

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00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:13,680
the lighter the character
of the whisky you will get.

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00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:16,200
And that will ultimately affect
the final flavour of the whisky?

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00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:18,280
The character of the whisky, yes.

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00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:21,200
Fittingly, for a drink
steeped in mythology,

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there seems to be little
agreement about what exactly

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makes whisky's flavour.

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You cannot make whisky
unless you use copper.

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You would say that.
No, no, the scientists,

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the clever people
have tried, not me.

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They have tried in the past -
it's got to be copper.

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Tell me, how much do you think the
copper influences the final taste of
the whisky?

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Absolutely. You can put it in
barrels to get flavour
enhancement...

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What do you mean you CAN put it
in barrels? You have to put it in
barrels.

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You can do it in different types of
barrels to get flavour enhancements.

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But copper's the most important part
of the whisky-making process.

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That determines the character
of your whisky.

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You're a hard man
to argue with, Charlie.

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By law, all Scotch whiskies for
the home market have to mature

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00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:10,600
for at least three years,

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and the casks in which they are
stored are all-important.

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00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:17,600
Used sherry casks made of stout
Spanish oak have a special place

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00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:19,440
in the Scotch whisky industry.

235
00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:24,720
Tom, what are these guys doing?

236
00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,480
Well, what they are doing here,
David... These are actually

237
00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:31,000
ex-wine casks that have been
broken down and palletised.

238
00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,880
So basically they've been used
in the wine industry.

239
00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:36,600
What the guys are doing is taking
them off the pallets and putting

240
00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:40,080
them onto the barrows there. And
typically we'll rise that cask.

241
00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:41,920
So you can see from
that stave there,

242
00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:44,000
that's actually been
a red wine cask.

243
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,440
So what we'll do with that is,
through the process,

244
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:50,680
we will re-fire that cask
and put a nice char on that cask.

245
00:13:50,680 --> 00:13:52,920
That's exactly what
we are looking for.

246
00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:56,920
The cask is the most important thing
for the whisky industry.

247
00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:59,280
That's where the whisky is matured,

248
00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:01,760
that's where it gets its flavour
and its colour from.

249
00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:04,240
It's very important
to the whisky industry.

250
00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:07,080
Now, you see, the copper workers
where they make the stills

251
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:09,160
would disagree with you.
I agree with you -

252
00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:12,760
I think it's the cask that gives you
the predominant taste in the whisky.

253
00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:17,360
Yeah. I mean, the coppersmiths play
a very important part, you know,

254
00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:21,840
for distinctive distilleries
in getting the flavour as well.

255
00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:25,320
But, for me, the important part is
really the cask and how it goes
through

256
00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:29,360
the maturation process in the
warehouses, so it's very important
for us.

257
00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:34,560
What puts the flavour into whisky
are a lot of things, sometimes you

258
00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:38,000
easily say that it's around
60%, 70% of the flavour

259
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,720
comes from the barrel,
from the maturation, from the oak.

260
00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:47,040
It could very well be that the thing
with producing malt whisky

261
00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:51,520
is that we really don't know exactly
where the flavour comes from.

262
00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:55,680
It probably comes from
the barley as well.

263
00:14:55,680 --> 00:14:58,680
Least of all it comes from the
water, I can probably say that.

264
00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:02,320
We used to notice,
when we were nosing the whisky,

265
00:15:02,320 --> 00:15:05,680
that if a man came on shift

266
00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:09,480
and he had a fight with his wife
before he came on shift,

267
00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:14,480
his attitude to distilling was very
different if he'd just come out

268
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,720
having given her a
nice kiss before he left.

269
00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:19,800
It was a completely
different approach -

270
00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:24,800
a loving approach on the one hand,
and a hateful approach on the other.

271
00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:27,360
And the whisky definitely,

272
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:30,520
you know, reflected
that kind of attitude.

273
00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:32,360
You know, people who
know their craft,

274
00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:35,320
they know when the spirit is right.

275
00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:39,920
They know when those casks are able
to be reused or if they should

276
00:15:39,920 --> 00:15:42,120
have a stave changed.

277
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,960
There's these little bits
that are, you know...

278
00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,160
Science is hugely important
to it and we can't deny that,

279
00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:52,960
but humans and our impact on it and
how each person makes their whisky

280
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:55,280
in their own way,
or each distillery does,

281
00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:57,280
is still very important, I think.

282
00:15:57,280 --> 00:15:59,440
And that adds the slight magic
to it as well.

283
00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:02,240
I'm an advocate of the magicry.

284
00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:04,840
But behind all the magicry,
there is a logic and a science.

285
00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:08,280
But it is more about feeling
and understanding the whisky,

286
00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:10,800
and understanding the DNA
of the whisky.

287
00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,760
We actually... For almost
every cask we have,

288
00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:16,760
we have got a fingerprint
of how it's been developing

289
00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:19,240
over the last...whatever -

290
00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:21,280
eight, nine, ten years.

291
00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:24,840
Casks... Typically, a cask will
last in excess of 100 years.

292
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:29,560
So casks will come in here,
we'll rejuvenate the cask,

293
00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,920
and we might not see it again
for 25 or 30 years.

294
00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:36,320
Then it will come back again
and we can rejuvenate it again.

295
00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:39,840
And it goes on like that.

296
00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,240
OK, David, so this, as you can see,

297
00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:44,920
this is a cask that's been
through the charring process.

298
00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:48,240
You can see the nice char
we've got inside the cask -

299
00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:49,880
that's exactly what
we're looking for,

300
00:16:49,880 --> 00:16:51,600
a good uniformed char.

301
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:53,680
The edge is really blackened,
isn't it?

302
00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:56,680
Yes, it's really black.
Do you scrape that?

303
00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:59,240
That's it finished,
that's it ready for filling now,

304
00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:01,160
that's exactly what
we're looking for.

305
00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:04,120
So you'll put the liquor
straight into that barrel now?

306
00:17:04,120 --> 00:17:05,760
Yes, absolutely, yes.

307
00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:08,680
Since this has been in the furnace
there, the internal flames,

308
00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:10,040
it hasn't been touched?

309
00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,160
It's only been sprayed with water
to cool it down, and that's it?

310
00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:14,520
Yes, that's it.

311
00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:17,320
What we'll do now is we'll put
the cask ends back in the cask,

312
00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:20,640
retighten the hoops and off
it'll go and that will be filled

313
00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:22,920
in the filling store today,

314
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:26,760
and be back in the warehouses,
if not tonight, tomorrow.

315
00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:29,520
And it will lie there for another
five, six, whatever years.

316
00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:33,200
And this all ends up
in my single malt whisky?

317
00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,440
That's it, yeah. That's how you
can sit back and enjoy it.

318
00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:38,240
No wonder I like burnt toast!

319
00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:02,880
This is Paul.

320
00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:04,880
Paul's a third year apprentice.

321
00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:07,080
And this is John, John's his tutor.

322
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:08,200
This is David.

323
00:18:08,200 --> 00:18:10,360
Coopering isn't for everyone.

324
00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:14,840
Obviously, a laddie who's got a good
bit of strength about him helps.

325
00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:17,800
If you're a good build
laddie it helps,

326
00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:21,480
but when I started I was
tiny, I was a wee skinny thing.

327
00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:25,720
That's what your apprenticeship's
all about, for the four years it
helps build up your core,

328
00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:30,400
your body strength to become...
The end result is a cooper.

329
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:33,480
It's not something that happens
overnight, as I say, four years.

330
00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:36,440
That's it been cut back, it used
to be a lot longer, five years,
seven years.

331
00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:39,760
When my grandfather was a cooper
it was seven, sometimes nine.

332
00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:41,400
So...

333
00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:45,320
Surely that was just an excuse
not to pay them a full wage?

334
00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:48,560
Maybe! Rather than taking seven
or eight years to train.

335
00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:51,200
A lot of the system
was changed by machines,

336
00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:53,800
so a lot of the hand work
was taken out of it.

337
00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,480
What we're left with now
is just the core.

338
00:18:56,480 --> 00:18:59,160
This is something that
they really need to learn.

339
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:01,840
Basically, if they were wanting
to go anywhere in the world

340
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:03,560
they would be
employable anywhere.

341
00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:07,440
They could make a barrel
anywhere, not just in Diageo.

342
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,760
Like many whisky companies,
Diageo is a member of

343
00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:14,280
the Scotch Whisky Association,
or SWA.

344
00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:18,480
Based in Edinburgh, the SWA seeks
to give the industry a unified,

345
00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:19,800
global voice.

346
00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:25,320
We do lots of things, but we do
two things in particular.

347
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:28,400
First of all we try
and chase down fake,

348
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:30,400
fraudulent Scotch whisky
round the world,

349
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:34,440
we have a team of legal advisers
who help us do that.

350
00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:38,160
And second we help get Scotch
whisky into markets overseas,

351
00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,920
we work to influence other
governments to take down barriers

352
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:45,920
so that there is fair competition
for our product around the world.

353
00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:48,880
According to the SWA,

354
00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:53,320
each year the Scotch whisky industry
adds £5 billion of value

355
00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:55,080
to the UK economy.

356
00:19:56,560 --> 00:19:59,440
Vital to Scotch whisky
is the export market -

357
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,800
this drink now reaches
175 countries.

358
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:08,120
Over 1 billion bottles of Scotch
whisky are exported annually,

359
00:20:08,120 --> 00:20:11,800
at a value of around £4 billion.

360
00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:15,440
It also contributes £1 billion
to the UK Exchequer,

361
00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:22,560
with an average bottle taxed at a
rate of 76% in VAT and excise duty.

362
00:20:22,560 --> 00:20:25,440
Whisky and tax have
long gang thegither.

363
00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:31,520
The mother of parliaments, its
tentacles spread across the land,

364
00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:33,320
ensnaring all in their wake.

365
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:35,600
They always have.

366
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:38,440
And in the century after the
Act Of Union, this place

367
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:40,440
grappled hard with
the whisky industry.

368
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:43,520
What Westminster wanted to
do was to curb excessive drinking,

369
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:47,520
while at the same time
reap the revenues from whisky sales.

370
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:51,320
Throughout the 18th century,
Westminster churned out legislation

371
00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:55,040
that entangled distilleries
large and small.

372
00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:58,880
Therefore, Islay, Campbeltown
and Speyside...

373
00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:01,160
The whisky making went underground

374
00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:03,920
so the amber nectar became
moonshine,

375
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,640
and Scotland's
illicit stills flourished.

376
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:12,480
While the taxed industry ploughed
on, the moonshiners thrived.

377
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:16,320
Hidden from view and hard to reach
for the dreaded excise man,

378
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,280
illicit distillers
perfected their craft.

379
00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:21,920
Theirs became the whisky
drunk not only by crofters,

380
00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:26,760
peasants and the urban poor,
but by the aristocracy too.

381
00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:30,960
The illicit whisky was seen
as the true quality.

382
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,840
So it was asked for

383
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,920
on King George IV's
visit of Scotland,

384
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:40,400
1822.

385
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:43,880
Sir Walter Scott very
carefully stage-managed,

386
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:48,280
the King asked for a drop of the
real Glenlivet, long in the wood,

387
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:50,200
and long in uncorked bottles.

388
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:52,680
So, you know, street cred
was pretty good -

389
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:54,360
he was asking for Glenlivet.

390
00:21:54,360 --> 00:21:59,960
And from that, the reform of the
distilling acts were speeded up

391
00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:03,800
by the landed gentry who wanted to
see an end to the illicit
distilling,

392
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:08,200
but saw that there was a way of
improving their estates, etc.

393
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:10,680
And controlling it, of course.

394
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:15,520
In the 1820s, law changes eased
conditions and taxation

395
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:19,240
and turned the old centres of
illicit distilling into booming,

396
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:21,600
legitimate whisky areas.

397
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:24,560
Among them, Campbeltown flourished.

398
00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:30,480
This is Campbeltown.
It was once Whisky Mecca,

399
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,480
for in its heyday
it had 34 distilleries.

400
00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:36,280
Sadly, today, there are only three.

401
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,920
Up every alleyway was a portal
to another distillery.

402
00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,120
The air must have hung
like a strange perfume,

403
00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:46,120
heady, intoxicating,
delightful.

404
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:50,920
You can almost sense the ghosts
of distilleries past.

405
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:53,200
"Campbeltown Loch,
I wish you were whisky,"

406
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:55,120
were the words of an old
music hall song,

407
00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:56,560
and it might just as well have been,

408
00:22:56,560 --> 00:23:00,040
because this bay would have
swarmed with ships ready to take

409
00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,360
the liquid delights from Campbeltown
out across the oceans

410
00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:04,760
to the rest of the world.

411
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:09,440
Campbeltown thrived thanks to its
deep natural harbour,

412
00:23:09,440 --> 00:23:12,840
rich raw materials and
ready access to the ocean

413
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:15,440
and, therefore, export markets.

414
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:19,560
In Victorian times it was nicknamed
the Whisky Metropolis.

415
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:23,480
Then after World War I, a dreadful
combination of factors

416
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:26,440
all but ended whisky making here.

417
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,720
This is the shell of one of the 34
distilleries that used to exist

418
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:32,280
in Campbeltown.

419
00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:36,320
The ghosts of whisky past.

420
00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:42,160
The only spirits that are here now
are the spirits of the whisky makers

421
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,000
of bygone days.

422
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:46,240
God, I bet these stones
could tell a tale or two.

423
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:53,680
Campbeltown had produced too much
whisky, much of it low in quality,

424
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:57,320
at a time when consumption levels
were falling.

425
00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,440
What's more, natural resources
were running low,

426
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:03,600
and the railways that helped roll
Highland and Speyside whisky

427
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,800
out to the markets
never arrived here.

428
00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:10,720
It's time to find an antidote to
that tale of woe, a place where

429
00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:14,480
the best of Campbeltown remains
well and truly alive.

430
00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:19,800
This is Springbank distillery
in the heart of Campbeltown

431
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:22,080
and it's a very unique place
I've always wanted to visit.

432
00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:25,400
For a start it's been owned
by the same whisky family

433
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,360
for over 200 years.
And also, every single part

434
00:24:28,360 --> 00:24:30,280
of the whisky making process,

435
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:31,880
from the malting, the distilling,

436
00:24:31,880 --> 00:24:34,680
the maturing and the bottling
is all done on site,

437
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:37,880
and I'm going to witness
the whole process.

438
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:40,640
Springbank is at the centre
of the community here

439
00:24:40,640 --> 00:24:43,240
and employs more than 70 locals.

440
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:48,080
Today I'm joining them,
having enrolled in one of

441
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:51,600
their whisky schools under
the capable guidance of Kerry,

442
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,520
who has worked her way up
from shop floor to distiller.

443
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:57,320
Kerry, how long has this been
soaking?

444
00:24:57,320 --> 00:24:59,240
This has been soaking for two days,

445
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:00,720
12 hours at a time.

446
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:02,720
So the first time
we'll soak it for 12 hours,

447
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:04,520
we'll leave it to dry
for 12 hours.

448
00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:06,240
Leave it to dry in here in the tank?

449
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:09,120
Yeah. And then we'll re-fill it
with water for 12 hours,

450
00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:12,640
and then again dry for 12 before
it's laid out onto the floor.

451
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:14,280
Tip it up.

452
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:27,920
Starch in the barley
has been modified

453
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:30,760
so that later in the process,
it will become sugar.

454
00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:38,360
The new barley is wet and warm.

455
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:42,480
In three days,
some whiskery roots appear.

456
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,840
After seven days it's almost
ready for the drying.

457
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:51,280
As the barley dries, it is regularly
turned to help its germination.

458
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,240
You'll see it actually lifting from
the bottom and throwing it over,

459
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:55,760
so it's turning.

460
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,760
We've been making whiskies,
most of us, for a long time.

461
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:00,960
So, yeah,

462
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,440
it's part of our rhythm of life.

463
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,640
The year goes round, a distilling
year, very much like a farming year,

464
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,320
which we are connected to. The crops
are being put in just now,

465
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,840
we'll be watching the progress
of the barley throughout Scotland

466
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:18,800
for the next few months,
we'll watch the harvest, etc,

467
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,600
and, yes, it's just...

468
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,800
I live in a village where there are
ten distilleries so I can't help

469
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,800
but bump into folk that are
involved in distilleries.

470
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:35,280
Being a student of whisky made me
realise the amount of hard toil

471
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,760
that goes into distilling when
it's undertaken traditionally,

472
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:42,000
as it is here at Springbank.

473
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:43,640
You earn your dram.

474
00:26:48,360 --> 00:26:49,680
This is quite steep.

475
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:55,600
Oh! You can smell it,
you can smell the peat,

476
00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:57,440
the smell of smoke.

477
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:00,920
So this is the first half
we put away this morning.

478
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:03,720
This is the second half
just dropping in now.

479
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:06,760
So what you've seen from above,
this is where it's dropping into.

480
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:11,400
That's coming off
the conveyor belt upstairs?

481
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:14,400
Exactly. And dropping in, yeah.

482
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:18,000
A conveyor belts transports
the barley into a kiln,

483
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,840
where it is either dried
or smoked with peat,

484
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,960
depending on the type
of whisky being made.

485
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:27,880
I'm very biased, I have to say,
I would like to see, as there are,

486
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:31,760
more individual distilleries opening
up because each individual
distillery

487
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,440
has to find a market
for its whisky,

488
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:36,800
as in its single malt whisky.

489
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:40,240
If the majority of what you make
is going off to be blended,

490
00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:44,120
which is a very big market,

491
00:27:44,120 --> 00:27:46,760
it's something which means
you're making more and more,

492
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:48,800
rather than you're watching
what you're making.

493
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,880
So small, independent distilleries,

494
00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:53,960
like ourselves and a few others...

495
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,960
The quality of what they're
going to put their label on

496
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:58,960
is very important to them.

497
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,720
If they become too big
then it starts to become

498
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:03,920
the quantity they can sell,

499
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,920
and I think that's something which
makes the difference between

500
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:11,000
a corporate with lots of
shareholders to fund

501
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:14,080
and something like Springbank.

502
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:18,120
As we're making a batch of peaty
whisky, it's time to light the fire.

503
00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:22,000
I'm just about to set Springbank
distillery on fire.

504
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,000
It's this peat reek,
an essential part of the process

505
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,320
which helps to give the
malt whiskies their individuality.

506
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:54,120
The dried malt is stored
ready for use. A grinding mill,

507
00:28:54,120 --> 00:28:56,720
the first of many modern machines
in today's process,

508
00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,320
replaces the two flat stones
used by our great-grandfathers.

509
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:02,560
The malt is reduced to grist -

510
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,440
coarse, medium and fine.

511
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:13,560
Next, Springbank veteran Gavin takes
me to the Porteous rolling mill,

512
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:17,400
where the peat smoked barley
is ground down to become grist.

513
00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:20,080
It's easier for the water...

514
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:23,440
Then a process called
mashing takes place.

515
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,520
In a mash tun, the grist is mixed
with hot water to change its starch

516
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:29,000
into fermentable sugars.

517
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,680
Oh, there's life going on
in there, isn't there?

518
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:36,160
The sugary liquid produced, called
wort, is then put into wash bags.

519
00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,120
Yeast is added
and fermentation begins,

520
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:42,480
resulting in a beer-like
liquid known as wash,

521
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:45,000
of around 8% to 10% ABV.

522
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:50,400
It'll go around, eating up all the
sugars, converting it into alcohol.

523
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,000
You know, the whole thing's live,
that's an organic process going on,

524
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,080
gurgling and bubbling.

525
00:29:56,080 --> 00:30:01,080
It's quite ferocious,
more powerful than I thought.

526
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:03,520
Get the vapours from that, eh?
I'm really getting the vapour.

527
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:04,840
Clears the sinuses.

528
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,960
This wash is transferred
into copper stills,

529
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:14,680
heated and then distilled twice
to create clear, new make spirit.

530
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,040
There must be some heat in there.

531
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,560
Springbank has a wonderful
old-fashioned atmosphere,

532
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:33,120
and traditional way of doing things,

533
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:35,680
even down to the warning bell
that tells the workers

534
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:37,760
that everything is running to plan.

535
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:43,360
Hazelburn's one, two, three.

536
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:46,160
But the Springbank's
at one, two and a half.

537
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:49,920
The distiller must be able to judge
exactly which part of the spirit

538
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:54,840
from the second distillation
is to be retained as new make,

539
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:59,560
checking on its progress as it
runs through the spirit safe.

540
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,040
Now, do you do it...

541
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,800
When you know when the middle part
is ready, do you do it by taste,

542
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:05,160
or by smell, or by sight?

543
00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:07,680
It's all done by temperature...

544
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:09,560
as well, when it's coming in.

545
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,120
You'll know as well -
it will be cloudy to start

546
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,360
when they're checking the glasses.

547
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:17,720
And then when you go on to clear
spirits, the first 45 minutes

548
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:21,000
is bad, as you call it,
that's all your bad spirit.

549
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,000
We don't take that.
Will you recycle that?

550
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,040
Yeah, that goes back
in to the pipes.

551
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:27,440
As we're Scottish,
we don't waste anything.

552
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:30,280
Everything gets reused
right down to 1%.

553
00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:34,360
It's very simple, it had to be
simple for our great-grandfathers,

554
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:38,400
being distillers etc, or being
involved in distilling.

555
00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:43,080
My family, they were farmers, and
the distilling was the other bit.

556
00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:46,920
It was simple - they brewed a beer,
they distilled it.

557
00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,200
Quality was simple.

558
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:50,480
Does it smell OK?

559
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:51,920
Does it taste OK?

560
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:53,200
Do we shake the bubbles?

561
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:54,680
Is the bubbles OK?

562
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,320
That was their early
quality control.

563
00:31:57,320 --> 00:31:59,720
We're getting near the end
of the process, Gavin.

564
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:05,440
The cask will sit here, you lift
this up, it's like a petrol pump.

565
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,840
When the spirit hits the bottom
of the nozzle, it cuts out,

566
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:11,200
and it records on the meter there

567
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:13,800
how many litres
is going in the cask.

568
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,720
And then from here it is
taken to the warehouse

569
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:18,160
and stored for maturation.

570
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:24,520
We had a man who always was
responsible, in the filling store,

571
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:29,040
of emptying down all the pipes
once we'd filled all the casks.

572
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:30,560
There was always a remnant,

573
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:34,760
and he had to take this remnant
and put it into a remnant cask.

574
00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:40,360
And he had to take it into a bucket
and then fill it in a funnel,

575
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:42,520
into the cask.

576
00:32:42,520 --> 00:32:47,040
And one day, the customs
and excise officer,

577
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,720
who was permanently present,

578
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:54,560
came in to the filling store to
check that everything was OK

579
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:58,560
and this man,
I won't mention his name,

580
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,400
was taking a sip from a bucket...

581
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:05,560
..of the new spirit.

582
00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:08,400
And the handle of the bucket
went over his head,

583
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:11,400
and when the customs man came in,
he was like this,

584
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:13,440
trying to shake it off, you know.

585
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:15,680
So these stories happened.

586
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:20,920
Yeah, we had excisemen who knew
where the good whisky was,

587
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:23,600
and helped themselves
from time to time.

588
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:26,840
It was all very...

589
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:31,440
It was just accepted
as part and parcel of the job.

590
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:34,800
Once the new make has
been filtered into oak casks,

591
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:38,040
it is left to mature
for three years and a day,

592
00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:42,800
only after which can it
legally be called whisky.

593
00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:44,840
Single malts like Springbank though,

594
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,240
are usually matured
for at least a decade

595
00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:48,800
and often much longer.

596
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:01,200
I never knew it was that easy
to break open a cask of whisky.

597
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:17,400
Slainte.

598
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,680
A lovely drop to sample.

599
00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:24,440
But drinking in any distillery's
working area is now a rarity.

600
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:29,800
For many years though, distillery
workers regularly drank on the job.

601
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:31,960
It felt like they needed to.

602
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:35,920
They might well be on shift, if they
were working in the maltings,

603
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,400
at four or five in the morning.

604
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:43,320
And the brewer, the number two
manager in the distillery,

605
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:49,360
would pour new make, or white,
or cleric, as it's known,

606
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,560
and the boys would take off
a good measure of that

607
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:54,320
and then they'd have some
later in the day.

608
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:59,320
But you've got to remember,
this was very hard, physical work.

609
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:02,360
Changing a malting floor,
rolling a barrel,

610
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,160
moving casks of whisky
into a warehouse

611
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:07,760
is hard, dirty, physical work.

612
00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:09,760
I wouldn't care to do it.

613
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,680
If I had to do it,
I'm sure a dram or three

614
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:14,760
would definitely be called for.

615
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:17,440
I think the alcoholism
was almost deliberate,

616
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:21,640
because it kept people
from asking for proper wages

617
00:35:21,640 --> 00:35:24,480
and it kept people tied to a place.

618
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:28,000
I think they're very strict about
people drinking now,

619
00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,560
in the distillery, but I think
also they pay them better.

620
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:32,000
If you look at a lot of these jobs,

621
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,920
they were not necessarily jobs that
required highly educated workers.

622
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:39,160
Although they needed a good skill,
they weren't necessarily highly
educated,

623
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,440
so if you didn't have to
pay them very much,

624
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,040
if you paid them in alcohol...
Because in the '50s and '60s

625
00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:46,440
alcohol was very expensive -
people couldn't afford...

626
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:49,120
Normal people couldn't afford
whisky every couple of weeks

627
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:51,880
or every month, so it was
a way of keeping them.

628
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,520
So although I'm sure the stories
are, "It was really fun,"

629
00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:57,040
I do think it was really fun

630
00:35:57,040 --> 00:35:59,440
cos that was how you got
through those circumstances.

631
00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:03,920
Whereas now it's a job
that you get paid a good wage for.

632
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:08,880
If you can't afford to buy the
single malt that you're making,

633
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:11,560
then you're going to
help yourself to it a wee bit,

634
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:13,320
you know.

635
00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,680
They were doing it for sport,

636
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:20,000
for a bit of fun, but also because
it is that natural, innate rebellion

637
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:21,360
that we all have.

638
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:25,240
A distillery worker that I knew
who's since retired,

639
00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:28,680
he told me that when he started
in the distillery in question

640
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:34,120
he had gone to listen to the radio,
and the radio wasn't working

641
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,400
so he got another radio
and it wasn't working.

642
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,440
And he went around the entire site
and he couldn't get any

643
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,760
radios working, and he realised
that none of them had an aerial.

644
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,360
And he found out the reason none of
them have an aerial was cos

645
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:47,720
they'd all been broken off cos
they were getting used as straws

646
00:36:47,720 --> 00:36:49,400
for dramming from the casks.

647
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:52,440
These days, on-site drinking
is usually confined

648
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:54,360
to visits and open days,

649
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:58,000
a core part of many a
distillery's business model.

650
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,760
Springbank's open day
takes place once a year,

651
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:03,680
and is attended by people
from across the world.

652
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:06,760
I am attending Springbank
whisky school, which is great.

653
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:09,360
And have you learned much from it?

654
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:13,720
Yes, I thought there was not too
much they could tell me, but, yes,

655
00:37:13,720 --> 00:37:15,240
I've learned a lot from it.

656
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:20,680
Coming to Scotland in 1992,
I was just over the age

657
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:24,920
where I was allowed to drink, and I
didn't have much money so I visited

658
00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:28,440
four distilleries, because
at this time it was free.

659
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:32,440
Today, it's a big business, but at
this time it was free, it was
marketing.

660
00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:36,600
So I visited four distilleries,
got four great drams,

661
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:39,880
so every time was saying,
"Why are these drams different?"

662
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:44,200
And that got me into wanting
to know more about whisky.

663
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:46,240
It's my 18th time
coming to Scotland now.

664
00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:49,080
18th? Yes.

665
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:51,960
I'm also coming for other reasons,
for the people, for the landscape,

666
00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:56,600
for everything, but whisky is still
the main reason for me to come here.

667
00:37:56,600 --> 00:38:01,880
The distillery's family-owned, and
has been since it opened in 1828.

668
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:05,600
The present chairman
is of the impression

669
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,600
he now should be putting that
back to Campbeltown,

670
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,960
because his family have had
this distillery for so long.

671
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,720
And it's the people of Campbeltown
that did the work, made the whisky,

672
00:38:14,720 --> 00:38:16,480
which made the place famous.

673
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,000
So he now decides,

674
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:24,480
or wants to have a company which
puts money back to the community,
provides jobs.

675
00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:29,440
It would be so much easier
to bring barley in ready-malted,

676
00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:32,880
but then that would lose people
jobs, so we still do all that

677
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:35,840
by hand, by ourselves.
We bottle the stuff here -

678
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:39,680
if we did it by sending it out to
Glasgow, that's another 17 jobs.

679
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:44,520
It's very labour-intensive, but then
it's also what makes us Springbank.

680
00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:47,600
And I think that's why there's a
feeling of pride in what we do,

681
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:51,680
cos everybody employed is a
custodian for the next generation

682
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:55,440
that is going to come along.
And if we expand, it's more jobs.

683
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:59,120
We're certainly not going to
modernise and mechanise things.

684
00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:01,000
Springbank is special -

685
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:05,520
it is as close as Scottish
distilleries get to the original
model.

686
00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:08,160
The place is rooted
in the local community,

687
00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:11,760
something that shows in the merry
band of workers who get the whisky

688
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:14,440
into bottles and finally to market.

689
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:20,080
That's you, you've bottled
four Springbank bottles.

690
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:25,000
Even if you hold it up that way,
even if there was a blemish

691
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,720
on the back,
you can see it right through.

692
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:33,920
Did I put two labels on?

693
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:36,120
Did anyone notice?

694
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:40,600
Don't tell anybody, will you?

695
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:45,560
My secret's safe with you.

696
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:58,000
Thank you.

697
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,280
That's the best birthday present
I've ever had, honest.

698
00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:14,880
The Highland malt whiskies used in
any Scotch blend of real consequence

699
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,760
must each be aged in oak.

700
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:20,320
Scotch in the bottle
will never improve.

701
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:24,720
There is another magic secret
in the creation

702
00:40:24,720 --> 00:40:27,640
of an outstanding Scotch blend,
and that is that there must be

703
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:31,640
a combination of many individual
distillates if there is to be

704
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:36,640
a well-rounded, tasteful,
distinctive Scotch of best quality.

705
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:39,520
While Springbank thrives
on its single malts alone,

706
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,280
the strength of the whiskies
industry has, in fact,

707
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:45,960
long been built on the back
of blended whiskies.

708
00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:49,960
A blended whisky contains many
single malts and, just as crucially,

709
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:51,280
grain whisky.

710
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,320
It was a technological development
in the distilling of grain

711
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:58,400
that changed Scotch whisky for ever.

712
00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:02,120
Though makers had long
blended their wares,

713
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:06,320
mass production of blends
became possible after 1830.

714
00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:09,160
That year an Irishman,
Aeneas Coffey,

715
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:13,200
refined a Scottish invention,
the continuous still.

716
00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,720
His development, creating what is
now known as the Coffey still,

717
00:41:16,720 --> 00:41:22,200
meant grain whisky could be made on
an enormous scale, and at low cost.

718
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:27,000
From the 1850s it was mixed with
single malts to create blends

719
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,920
and trailblazing Scots
peddled them across the world.

720
00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:35,600
So you had a generation of Scots
entrepreneurs who grabbed these

721
00:41:35,600 --> 00:41:39,600
technological changes, who looked at
the evolution in the marketplace,

722
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,360
who looked at the legislative
changes and said,

723
00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:47,320
"We can come up with a product that
fits better in the marketplace."

724
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:52,800
And so the DNA of the great blends
goes back to those days.

725
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:55,720
So there was a Mr Buchanan,
there was a Mr Hague,

726
00:41:55,720 --> 00:42:00,000
there was a Mr Walker,
there was a Mr Dewar.

727
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:04,960
And so a Dewar's blend today,
a Walker's blend today,

728
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:09,840
has its roots in what Mr Dewar
or Mr Walker did, historically,

729
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:11,920
in the mid and late 19th century.

730
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:17,680
So Walker, for example, always had
at its heart west coast whiskies.

731
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:21,680
Dewar's blend always had
Perthshire whiskies at its heart.

732
00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:25,640
Going from the background of having
licensed grocers that blended tea,

733
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:27,800
so had this ability to take
different flavours

734
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:29,600
and characteristics
and blend them together

735
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:31,160
and then started blending whisky,

736
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:35,720
and then you begin getting these
individuals that start, really,

737
00:42:35,720 --> 00:42:39,400
travelling the world extensively
and selling our wares

738
00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:41,240
and going out there as pioneers.

739
00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:44,680
You know, there's a number
of well-known brands, nowadays,

740
00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:47,320
which are blends that
all carry people's names.

741
00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:50,200
And to be able to tell to
international visitors when they
come in,

742
00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:53,840
"This is not a name that we made
up," that some marketing agency

743
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:57,800
10 or 20 years ago thought, "That
sounds like a great Scottish name.

744
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:00,240
"That sounds like a nice picture,
let's put that."

745
00:43:00,240 --> 00:43:03,320
It's true. It's genuine,
authentic heritage,

746
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:06,240
and these are the people
that made the blends,

747
00:43:06,240 --> 00:43:09,880
these and their families and their
ancestors were the people that took

748
00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:12,680
them to market, that were these
pioneers that in some cases

749
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,760
where these eccentric characters.

750
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,960
That, I think, is one of the
cornerstones of Scotch whisky

751
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,240
which makes it so successful
in terms of its competition,

752
00:43:22,240 --> 00:43:25,200
is that it has this real
authenticity behind it

753
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:27,560
in these huge international brands.

754
00:43:27,560 --> 00:43:30,880
The ingenuity of these blend
pioneers met with a vital piece

755
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:34,640
of good fortune for
Scottish whisky when, in 1871,

756
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,320
the phylloxera virus
destroyed French vineyards.

757
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:42,720
With the vineyards destroyed, little
or no brandy could be produced,

758
00:43:42,720 --> 00:43:44,600
and so whisky, which up until then

759
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:47,600
had been the drink very much
more of the working man,

760
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:51,600
was allowed to move into that space
in the market that had hitherto

761
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:53,560
been taken by brandy

762
00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:55,840
which was the drink of the middle
and upper classes,

763
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:58,000
who would not have touched whisky.

764
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:01,320
But along came branding
to make it more acceptable,

765
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:03,840
blending to make the product
more palatable,

766
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:07,360
patriotism to make it
an acceptable thing to drink,

767
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:10,400
and a shortage of supply of brandy.

768
00:44:10,400 --> 00:44:14,040
The most popular middle-class drink
in London at the time

769
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:15,800
is brandy and soda.

770
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,880
All of a sudden you've got Scots
and the Irish going,

771
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:21,960
"Hello, we can actually
do that as well, you know."

772
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,920
And they reformulate the blends to
make sure it does go

773
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:27,040
with soda or ginger ale or whatever.

774
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:29,200
All of a sudden
you've got popularity,

775
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:31,360
you've got middle-class
respectability.

776
00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:33,200
That's the way any drink is built -

777
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:36,360
as long as you've got a middle-class
behind you, you're going to be fine.

778
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:39,400
With the vineyards barren
for another 25 years,

779
00:44:39,400 --> 00:44:44,520
Scotch whisky now only had
one rival competitor - Ireland.

780
00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:48,920
Prohibition in the USA
became a victory for Scotland.

781
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:53,240
Various bootleggers head across to
Ireland and knock on the door

782
00:44:53,240 --> 00:44:56,320
of Mr Jamieson, Mr Roe,
Mr Power and they go,

783
00:44:56,320 --> 00:45:01,040
"Listen guys, ship the stuff to
Canada or to Bermuda or wherever.

784
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:03,960
"My friend Mr Capone here,
you can trust him,

785
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:05,640
"he will ship it in for you.

786
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:07,680
"You will have done nothing illegal.

787
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:11,160
"All you'll have done is shipping
to somewhere where booze is legal."

788
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:15,320
The Irish distillers, to a man,
said, "Be gone with you."

789
00:45:15,320 --> 00:45:20,680
They then moved from Ireland across
to London, and up to Glasgow,

790
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:25,160
to all the blending houses
and said exactly the same spiel.

791
00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:27,360
"So how much exactly do you want?"

792
00:45:28,720 --> 00:45:32,800
Increasingly, Scottish blends
were made for American tastes,

793
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,600
lighter and suited
to being drunk with a mixer.

794
00:45:36,600 --> 00:45:38,880
One such blend was Cutty Sark,

795
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:44,040
created in 1923 and now made
alongside Famous Grouse

796
00:45:44,040 --> 00:45:46,640
by Edrington
in Glasgow's Drumchapel.

797
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:53,680
This is Drumchapel, where I spent
ten years growing up as a boy,

798
00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:56,480
and in contrast to the tenements
of the East End of Glasgow,

799
00:45:56,480 --> 00:46:01,320
it was a paradise, but now it is
home to Famous Grouse whisky,

800
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:03,600
and it's changed a lot
in those years.

801
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:08,520
Now, I often think that the magic
and the mystery of whisky is in

802
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,960
the soil, in the barley and in the
water and in the hands that make it,

803
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:15,120
but actually there is a very
profound science behind

804
00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:17,360
the making of the drams
we know and love,

805
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:21,440
and when I tell you that 90% of the
whiskies we export around the world

806
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:25,240
are blended whiskies, then you'll
understand the need for that
science.

807
00:46:25,240 --> 00:46:27,800
And I'm about to look into it.

808
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:32,480
Kirsteen Campbell is master blender
for Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark.

809
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,280
Kirsteen, you're a noser
and a spitter -

810
00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:36,880
what a hell of a way
to make a living.

811
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:38,960
Well, yeah, I guess it is.

812
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:41,600
We are referred to
as nosers within the industry,

813
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:43,640
and the majority of my work
is done by nosing.

814
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:46,360
But you're quite right, we do on
occasion have to taste the whiskies,

815
00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:49,560
but when you're looking at
up to 600 samples a day,

816
00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:52,040
you couldn't possibly
taste them all, so that's where

817
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:53,640
the elegant spitting comes in.

818
00:46:53,640 --> 00:46:56,080
600 a day!
So you spit into a bucket?

819
00:46:56,080 --> 00:46:59,360
Yes, we do, we do, but it's really
just at the final stage

820
00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:02,920
where I tend to taste the whiskies,
or if I'm developing new ones.

821
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:05,080
Otherwise it's all done by nose.

822
00:47:05,080 --> 00:47:06,640
So the nose is really important?

823
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:08,800
Absolutely, yes, yes.

824
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:12,680
So tell me the process you go
through, because I'm a single malt
man,

825
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:14,640
I live and die by single malts,

826
00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:18,280
and I think blended whisky's
for boiling your tatties in.

827
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:20,760
I know, you see,
that's sacrilege to you.

828
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:23,960
So convince me
of the beauty of blends.

829
00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:26,960
You know, you need to be open about
blending, rejoice in blending.

830
00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:28,640
It's a creative process,

831
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:31,680
it's not just a matter of taking
this distillery and that distillery

832
00:47:31,680 --> 00:47:34,720
and some grain whisky, bunging it
together and you're going to get

833
00:47:34,720 --> 00:47:37,440
the same end result,
because distilleries open,

834
00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:41,920
distilleries close, and companies
fall out and stock supplies are...

835
00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:45,080
You might have a surplus,
you might have a scarcity.

836
00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:47,320
And each cask is
going to be different,

837
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:50,840
so what a master blender does
is actually look at all

838
00:47:50,840 --> 00:47:54,080
of the possibilities that they have
in front of them,

839
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:56,000
and tweak that recipe.

840
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:58,520
So they might have a recipe, but it
will be tweaked every single time

841
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:00,120
a vatting is going to be made.

842
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:03,920
There might be a little bit more
grain, there might be a little less
of that first fill sherry,

843
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:06,720
there might be a different
distillery coming in or combinations

844
00:48:06,720 --> 00:48:10,760
of different distilleries, to
produce the same overall effect.

845
00:48:10,760 --> 00:48:14,200
And when you go into a blending lab
and you get that explained to you

846
00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:17,400
by a blender, you kind of...
Your head kind of explodes.

847
00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:19,760
How do you keep all
this information,

848
00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:21,640
you know, within your brain?

849
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:23,160
How do you learn all of that?

850
00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:27,240
How do you know that this whisky
and this whisky and this whisky,

851
00:48:27,240 --> 00:48:29,360
when combined,
will give that result?

852
00:48:29,360 --> 00:48:31,120
I mean, that's just mental.

853
00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:34,400
I hesitate to compare it with
a box of Kellogg's Cornflakes,

854
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:36,520
but when you buy a box of
Kellogg's Cornflakes,

855
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:39,640
you want it to be exactly like the
last box of Kellogg's Cornflakes

856
00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:42,440
you bought, and you want the one
after that to be the same again.

857
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:46,080
So you want your bottle of
Bells or Dewars or Walker,

858
00:48:46,080 --> 00:48:50,560
or whatever it may be, to be
consistent to what you as a drinker
have come to expect.

859
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:54,760
What I've got for you, David,
is really the process

860
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:58,760
from new make spirit, because my job
begins right back at the distillery
stage

861
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:03,080
where we look at the quality of the
spirit before it goes into cask.

862
00:49:03,080 --> 00:49:06,000
Then we move on to the cask types
and the importance of the flavour

863
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:09,520
that develops during that important
time period during the whisky,

864
00:49:09,520 --> 00:49:12,840
and then how we bring all these
complex flavours together

865
00:49:12,840 --> 00:49:16,120
to produce the same flavour
of blend time in, time out.

866
00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:21,600
Had you not have had blenders,
you would have had a fairly rustic,

867
00:49:21,600 --> 00:49:24,800
cottage industry which would
probably have never got

868
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:28,120
to the stage it was, because a lot
of the products that were being made

869
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:29,920
in the 19th and early 20th century

870
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:31,960
were very difficult
for people to drink.

871
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:35,040
Blenders sort of democratised whisky
by making it more accessible

872
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:37,920
from a flavour point of view.

873
00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:40,640
How many whiskies
would be involved in each blend?

874
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:42,080
Well, it can vary, actually,

875
00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:45,960
because for our blends
we have core whiskies that we use

876
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:48,800
each and every time
we put the blend together.

877
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:52,120
Then there are other whiskies
we put into flavour categories,

878
00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:54,600
and we can pick within
those flavour categories,

879
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:56,920
perhaps one or several within those.

880
00:49:56,920 --> 00:50:01,000
That's why it can vary from
blend to blend, but ultimately,

881
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:05,560
the flavour of the whisky must be
the same, every bottle we put out.

882
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:08,320
That must be really
difficult to sustain.

883
00:50:08,320 --> 00:50:10,200
That's part of the training
and the experience.

884
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:12,080
That's the challenge. Yes.

885
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:19,840
I am astounded by the fact that 90%
of all Scotch exports are blends.

886
00:50:19,840 --> 00:50:21,120
Absolutely. I seriously am.

887
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:23,720
I mean, 90%, all over,
at home and abroad.

888
00:50:23,720 --> 00:50:27,520
The numbers are huge,
and personally speaking, for me,

889
00:50:27,520 --> 00:50:32,680
within Edrington and our blends,
I'm responsible for over

890
00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:36,000
50 million bottles, so yeah, it's
huge numbers we're talking. Wow.

891
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:39,160
I'm a massive
blended whisky fan.

892
00:50:39,160 --> 00:50:41,600
I just think that, going forward,

893
00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:45,720
blended whisky is going to have to
keep up with the expectations

894
00:50:45,720 --> 00:50:48,800
that consumers have, that are
being set by other products.

895
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:50,760
It hasn't quite caught up yet,

896
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:55,040
but from a production perspective
it's so enormously creative

897
00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:58,520
that it absolutely will do,
it's just waiting for people

898
00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:01,000
to sort of do it.

899
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:04,160
'While Kirsteen guided me through
some of the whiskies which go into

900
00:51:04,160 --> 00:51:09,440
'her blends, the full list remained
tantalisingly confidential.'

901
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:14,200
So that's us covered
five new make spirits,

902
00:51:14,200 --> 00:51:18,160
everything from a light grain
through to heavily peated malt.

903
00:51:18,160 --> 00:51:20,000
Those are your basic ingredients.

904
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:22,640
These are some of the basic
ingredients. Some of them?

905
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:24,520
There are much more?
Yes, top secret.

906
00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:26,560
These are the ones I'm
going to share with you today.

907
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:28,480
You're not going to show me
the ultimate secret?

908
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:31,120
Not all of them, I can't possibly.
Oh, away you go, come on.

909
00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:33,640
Your secret is safe with me,
Kirsteen, honest.

910
00:51:33,640 --> 00:51:37,240
I'm an incurable romantic and I
like to think that the production

911
00:51:37,240 --> 00:51:41,120
of whisky is an organic, creative,
mystical kind of process,

912
00:51:41,120 --> 00:51:44,200
but it's got a sound base
in science, hasn't it?

913
00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:48,560
Especially if you're trying to
achieve the consistency of quality
and flavour in a blend.

914
00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:50,360
You have to have both.

915
00:51:50,360 --> 00:51:55,280
We do a lot of research, and there
is a lot of background science

916
00:51:55,280 --> 00:51:59,400
into how maturation performs
and that type of thing.

917
00:51:59,400 --> 00:52:01,440
But ultimately,
at the end of the day,

918
00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:04,600
there isn't an instrument that's
as sensitive as the human nose,

919
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:09,640
so it requires us as blenders to be
there at that critical point

920
00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:12,840
of blending the product,
to know how the flavour...

921
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:15,240
And it's a lot about how
flavours combine, as well -

922
00:52:15,240 --> 00:52:16,880
a machine can't tell us that.

923
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:21,720
A master blender is the person
who sort of

924
00:52:21,720 --> 00:52:26,200
marries these two positions
together, and creates the whisky.

925
00:52:26,200 --> 00:52:29,200
So I think master blenders
are essential,

926
00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:33,440
because they're sort of this meeting
point, they gather up everybody,

927
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:36,800
they gather up these opposing,
sometimes opposing ideas,

928
00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:39,800
that are actually part of the same
process that tend to get a bit lost,

929
00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:41,960
and bring them together.

930
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:47,600
I have always been
a snob in terms of whisky,

931
00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:50,280
and I've always
dismissed blended whisky.

932
00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:53,640
You're the first person in my life
that's convinced me otherwise.

933
00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:57,840
Stop, Hayman, being a goddamn snob
in terms of the whisky you drink.

934
00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:00,520
Thank you.
I'm delighted you've said that.

935
00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:03,400
Across the world,

936
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:06,880
millions of us hold dear the romance
that surrounds Scotch whisky,

937
00:53:06,880 --> 00:53:09,080
but as Kirsteen's work demonstrates,

938
00:53:09,080 --> 00:53:12,200
this drink has long been
underpinned by science.

939
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:14,600
The making of alcohol
was first studied

940
00:53:14,600 --> 00:53:18,600
at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt
University during the early 1900s.

941
00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:20,320
OK, so now for the second stage...

942
00:53:20,320 --> 00:53:23,120
'I'm joining today's students
in what is now known

943
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:28,080
'as the International Centre For
Brewing And Distilling, or ICBD.'

944
00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:30,200
Welcome, first year
brewers and distillers.

945
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:34,160
This is your
first kind of congregual meeting
together in one room,

946
00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:36,800
and to have you make
your first whisky.

947
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:38,640
We're going to do
two distillations today -

948
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:41,040
we're going to be doing
a stripping run,

949
00:53:41,040 --> 00:53:43,880
and all we're doing in the stripping
run is stripping all the alcohol
out.

950
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:48,120
So we're going to take our
raw material, our 8% ABV wash

951
00:53:48,120 --> 00:53:50,280
and we're going to take
all the alcohol out

952
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:52,760
and turn it into yet
another raw material.

953
00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:54,600
Have a smell and pass it around.

954
00:53:57,760 --> 00:54:00,520
It's an interesting blend of
science, as well as craft,

955
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:04,160
because there are still many
mysteries in the whisky industry
we don't know about.

956
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:06,800
So there's things going on
in the still, chemical reactions,

957
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:09,720
interactions between different
chemicals inside the still,

958
00:54:09,720 --> 00:54:13,040
as well as in the maturation
process in the cask.

959
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:16,920
So, I've always been a bit of a
science kind of geek, if you will.

960
00:54:16,920 --> 00:54:19,240
Basically it's an interesting
combination of science,

961
00:54:19,240 --> 00:54:22,520
then combined with that slight
element of mystery and craft,

962
00:54:22,520 --> 00:54:25,400
that the whisky brings those two
elements, or many elements,
together.

963
00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:28,840
So what's the end product of all
your work and your research?

964
00:54:28,840 --> 00:54:32,960
It's to increase
the consistency of the product

965
00:54:32,960 --> 00:54:34,800
without losing any of the romance.

966
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:38,320
We recently had a meeting of minds
at Holyrood, of all places,

967
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:41,840
at the Scottish Parliament, and the
SWA, the Scotch Whisky Association,

968
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:45,360
the people who look after
what is Scotch whisky.

969
00:54:45,360 --> 00:54:48,320
And one of the key takeaway points
that struck a chord with me

970
00:54:48,320 --> 00:54:50,680
was the fact that
there is an ageing demographic

971
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:52,640
in the distilling industry.

972
00:54:52,640 --> 00:54:56,480
Here at the ICBD we specialise in
providing the young blood
for the industry.

973
00:54:56,480 --> 00:54:59,840
Note that in my notebook,
fill out all the relevant,

974
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:01,440
truly exciting paperwork.

975
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:03,040
It's time to make your mind up time.

976
00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:06,040
I'm going to offer you...
You've got four different options.

977
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:09,280
You've got European oak,

978
00:55:09,280 --> 00:55:12,680
which is going to be
your sherry cask-alike...

979
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:16,360
'Just as a distiller must choose
which type of oak barrel to use

980
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:20,680
'for maturation,
the students are offered a selection
of wood samples.'

981
00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:23,840
..all the exciting things
that help to add the other notes

982
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:27,400
around the distillate...into the
distillate we're making today.

983
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:31,080
So of all of the tools in
the distiller's armoury,

984
00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:34,120
it's the distiller's nose that is
one of the most powerful tools

985
00:55:34,120 --> 00:55:35,920
at their disposal.

986
00:55:35,920 --> 00:55:37,840
Think about what you're
actually smelling.

987
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:41,680
'Putting the new spirit into a
makeshift glass and oak barrel

988
00:55:41,680 --> 00:55:44,400
'was left to a refined,
more senior student.'

989
00:55:50,360 --> 00:55:54,120
Well, a historic moment has been
had. Thank you very much for doing
the honours.

990
00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:56,840
All we need to do
is put this on here,

991
00:55:56,840 --> 00:56:00,080
and then commence some very fiddly,

992
00:56:00,080 --> 00:56:02,640
fiddlesome screwing-on techniques,

993
00:56:02,640 --> 00:56:07,640
and we have our first-ever
freshers' whisky,

994
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:11,920
ready to be opened
in three years and one day.

995
00:56:11,920 --> 00:56:15,920
So thank you very much for coming
and spending the time with me,

996
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:19,200
and it's taken a little bit of work
to get everything together

997
00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:20,480
all at the same time.

998
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:23,920
Thank you for sharing the
experience and I hope to be around

999
00:56:23,920 --> 00:56:27,920
when you guys crack her open
and we can toast the dram together.

1000
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:46,360
I'm probably too young to remember
my first whiskies,

1001
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:49,440
because I think it was used for
my first teeth.

1002
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:52,480
The honest answer is no, I can't.

1003
00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:55,440
It's lost in the mysteries of time.

1004
00:56:55,440 --> 00:56:57,680
The whisky was Ballantine's.

1005
00:56:57,680 --> 00:57:01,600
I was quite young, because my dad
used to make me hot toddies,

1006
00:57:01,600 --> 00:57:04,160
but he used make me hot toddies
with Macallan whisky

1007
00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:06,200
cos that was his favourite drink.

1008
00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:10,200
It's one of those weird things, to
me that was what whisky tasted like,

1009
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:13,040
and I remember being at a friend's
house when I must have been

1010
00:57:13,040 --> 00:57:17,120
about 11 or 12, and her grandfather
deciding that I could play

1011
00:57:17,120 --> 00:57:19,680
with his grandchild because
my father drank good whisky.

1012
00:57:19,680 --> 00:57:25,320
My first taste of whisky was with
my grandmother in Inverurie,

1013
00:57:25,320 --> 00:57:30,480
when she gave me a little thimbleful
of Glengarry, eight years old.

1014
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:33,720
This would have been in 1977

1015
00:57:33,720 --> 00:57:36,600
and I was only eight years old.

1016
00:57:36,600 --> 00:57:40,080
I think it must have been
at New Year,

1017
00:57:40,080 --> 00:57:43,720
because that's the only time
we ever had whisky in the house,

1018
00:57:43,720 --> 00:57:49,840
and I think probably my grandfather
insisted when I was 15 or 16

1019
00:57:49,840 --> 00:57:55,440
that I should have a wee dram
and not be put off with a sherry.

1020
00:58:02,400 --> 00:58:04,000
'When my journey continues,

1021
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:08,480
'I'll be visiting Islay to find out
how landscape affects Scotch,

1022
00:58:08,480 --> 00:58:10,720
'taking the water of life
on Speyside,

1023
00:58:10,720 --> 00:58:12,800
'Scotland's whisky republic,

1024
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:16,720
'examining the booming markets of
investment and collection,

1025
00:58:16,720 --> 00:58:20,080
'learning inside tales
of wealthy connoisseurs

1026
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:24,920
'and revealing the marketing magic
which sells Scotch, and Scotland,

1027
00:58:24,920 --> 00:58:26,280
'to the world.'