General knowledge · Food & drink

Whisky regions

Regions given force of law by the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009

Food and drink — the five protected areas of Scotland, and the world's spelling divide

Scotland's malt distilleries are grouped into five areas that have had legal force since the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009: three protected regions — Highland, Lowland and Speyside — and two protected localities, Campbeltown and Islay. The regulations also fix what may be sold under the name at all: distilled in Scotland from malted barley with other cereals, matured at least three years in oak casks of no more than 700 litres in Scotland, and bottled at no less than forty per cent alcohol. The word itself comes from the Gaelic uisge beatha, "water of life", and how it is spelled tells you where it was made.

How to spot them

▸Three protected regions and two protected localities, fixed in law in 2009
▸Three years in oak, in Scotland, at 40 per cent minimum
▸One island locality whose distilleries are famous for peat smoke
▸One locality reduced from thirty distilleries to three
▸The 'e' in the spelling marks Ireland and the United States

Key facts

Two protected localities and three protected regions defined by statutory instrument in 2009 (2009)

Campbeltown and Islay are localities; Highland, Lowland and Speyside are regions. 'Islands' has no legal status.

A small island in Argyll with the greatest concentration of peat-smoked malts anywhere

Islay — Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila and Kilchoman.

A Kintyre burgh that once called itself the capital of the trade and now has three working distilleries

Campbeltown — Springbank, Glen Scotia and Glengyle, which bottles as Kilkerran.

A single river valley in Moray holding roughly half of Scotland's malt distilleries

Speyside — Glenfiddich, The Macallan, The Glenlivet, Glenfarclas, Aberlour.

Gaelic uisge beatha — the same idea as aqua vitae, eau-de-vie and akvavit

'Water of life'. The English word is a clipping of uisge.

Maturation of at least three years in oak casks of not more than 700 litres, within Scotland

The legal minimum. The portion that evaporates each year is the angels' share.

Masataka Taketsuru studied chemistry at Glasgow, apprenticed at Longmorn and Hazelburn, and took the method home in 1920 (1920)

He founded Nikka; Shinjiro Torii's Yamazaki distillery of 1923, where Taketsuru was first master distiller, was Japan's first.

American law requires at least 51 per cent maize and new charred oak containers

Bourbon. Tennessee whiskey adds the Lincoln County Process, filtering through sugar-maple charcoal.

Key ideas

The regions are administrative boundaries, not flavour guarantees: Speyside is defined by council wards, and a peated Speysider or an unpeated Islay malt breaks the stereotype without breaking the law.

Quick-fire facts

•The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 recognise five geographical indications: the localities of Campbeltown and Islay and the regions of Highland, Lowland and Speyside
•The 'Islands' — Orkney, Skye, Mull, Jura, Arran and Lewis — are not a separate legal region and count as Highland
•Scotch must mature at least three years in oak casks of no more than 700 litres, in Scotland, and be bottled at 40 per cent alcohol or more
•Speyside contains roughly half of all Scotch malt distilleries, the largest concentration in the country
•Only three distilleries operate in Campbeltown: Springbank, Glen Scotia and Glengyle
•Lowland malts are traditionally triple distilled and unpeated; Auchentoshan and Glenkinchie are the best-known
•The word derives from Gaelic uisge beatha, 'water of life'; Scotland and Canada spell it whisky, Ireland and the United States usually whiskey
•Bourbon must be made in the United States from a mash of at least 51 per cent maize and aged in new charred oak containers
•Masataka Taketsuru learned the craft in Scotland from 1918 and became the first master distiller at Yamazaki, founded by Shinjiro Torii in 1923
•The proportion lost to evaporation during maturation is called the angels' share, typically around two per cent a year in Scotland

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Sources

UK Statutory Instruments — The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, regulation 10
Whisky Advocate — Whisky Advocate — the Scotch whisky regions