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Spirit Academy › Scotch

Scotch

Every scotch page in the Academy — written from primary sources, linked to bottles you can actually buy.

A distillery courtyard stacked with whisky casks, with Campbeltown houses and green hills behind.Level 3Campbeltown A small town on the Kintyre peninsula that was once a whisky capital, now home to three distilleries and a robust, sa... Malted barley spread across a traditional malting floor between coloured support columns.Level 3Single Malt vs Blended 'Single' means one distillery, not one barrel. 'Malt' means malted barley in pot stills. 'Blended' means mixed, not a... Blocks of peat burning in an open kiln furnace, with more peat stacked beside it.Level 3Peated Whisky The smoke in a smoky whisky comes from drying malted barley over a peat fire. It happens before distillation, and it ... A white-walled distillery with pagoda roofs below a cloud-capped Highland hillside, with heather in front.Level 3Highland Scotland's biggest whisky region, which legally takes in the islands too: from light heather-honey malts to salty coa... Rocks and clear seawater on an Islay shore, with a white distillery along the bay behind.Level 3Islay The Hebridean island whose single malts taste of peat smoke and sea air. Pronounced 'eye-luh', protected by law, and ... Rows of upright whiskey barrels in front of two tall stainless-steel blending tanks.Level 2Blended Whisky The word 'blended' means different things in Scotland, America and Canada. Here is how to read it, and why most of th... A large copper pot still displayed on a brick plinth against a white distillery wall.Level 3Lowland South of the Dundee–Greenock line: light, grassy, often triple-distilled malts, plus most of Scotland's big grain dis... Old port casks with chalked lot numbers and dates stacked against a stone wall.Level 3Cask Finishes A second, shorter stay in a cask that once held sherry, port, wine or rum, after the main maturation. What finishing ... The River Spey flowing past autumn woodland and a suspension footbridge at Aberlour.Level 3Speyside The river valley with more distilleries than anywhere else on earth: fruit, honey and sherry casks, light on the peat. A stone malt kiln with a pagoda-style vent beside green fields at a Speyside distillery.Level 2Scotch Whisky Made, matured and (for single malts) bottled in Scotland; three years in oak, five legal categories, five regions, no... Oak whisky casks resting on wooden racks in a dim timber-walled warehouse.Level 3Age Statements and NAS The number on the label is the youngest whisky in the bottle, never the oldest. When an age is required, when it is o...

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For adults 21+. Please enjoy responsibly.Tipxy Spirit Academy