Scotch whisky blending is difficult to understand?

Blended whisky is a mixture of single malt whisky and single grain whisky. Compared with single malt whisky, blended whisky has milder flavor and smoother taste, which can cater to most people's preferences, so 90% of whiskies on the market are blended. Today's article is about blending scotch whisky, the uncrowned king of whisky.

1, A Brief History of Scotch Whisky

Scotch whisky originally appeared as a by-product because the transportation cost of wine is much lower than that of grain-1bushel (about 25.2 kg) grain can produce 3 gallons (10.8 kg) of wine. By the beginning of the19th century, this illegal alcohol production became very popular in rural areas, and almost all farmers in Scotland participated in it. /kloc-At the end of 0/9th century, they found a market in the city.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 0/9th century, the sales of scotch whisky in big cities were very small, because it was defined as moonlight-a wine filtered with tartan and aged in sheepskin bags, and only rude people liked to drink it. Gentlemen in big cities don't like this wine. They like exquisite and elegant European wines, such as sherry, port and cognac. This situation didn't change until 19 century.

2. A major event that changed the status of scotch whisky.

The invention of (1) continuous distiller

The continuous distiller was invented by Scots in 1826, which was specially used to brew grain whisky. Continuous distiller has a good distillation effect, and is now widely used in the brewing of whisky, gin, vodka and other spirits.

Compared with traditional kettle still, continuous still has higher distillation efficiency. The continuous distiller can distill the mash twice continuously, while the tank distiller should thoroughly clean the distiller before each distillation. Moreover, the liquor distilled by continuous distiller has higher alcohol content and more flavor and ester substances are removed. On the other hand, it also shows that the wine distilled by the continuous distiller loses the original flavor of wort more, so the continuous distiller will not be used to brew cognac and single malt whisky.

Continuous distiller is the fruit of the brewing industry during the industrial revolution, which improves the distillation efficiency of whisky, reduces the brewing cost, and makes the industrial large-scale production of whisky a reality.

(2) Grape disaster

From 65438 to 60' s, the grape phylloxera disaster hit the whole of Europe. The root nodule aphid is a pest parasitic on the roots of grapes. After eating grape roots, vines are easily infected and withered. The large-scale death of vines in Europe not only caused almost devastating damage to the wine brewing industry, but also affected the production of sherry, port wine, cognac and brandy. The output of these grape-based wines has plummeted, and wine lovers can only look for other types of wines.

(3) the role of businessmen

/kloc-in the 0/9th century, wine merchants bought wine and spirits in barrels, and then bottled them in stores for sale. Many famous modern Scotch whiskies are developed from liquor grocery stores, such as johnnie walker, Justrini and Brooks, J&; B) Chivas Regal, ballantine, etc.

Because the quality and flavor of malt whisky are different every year, wine merchants usually mix different single malt whiskies in pursuit of stable quality. In modern times, it is possible to maintain the stable quality of each batch of whisky by scientific means, but at that time, it was impossible. By the middle of19th century, another mixed grain whisky appeared. Grain whiskey distilled by continuous distiller has low cost and large output, which makes the market price of whiskey cheaper.