Peated Single Grain (Post #300)

Everyone has probably heard of Single Grain whisky - Bain's, Strathclyde, Loch Lomond, Port Dundas, Cameronbridge, Teeling et al, but have you ever heard of a Peated Single Grain?

A recent conversation with Michael Henry, Loch Lomond's Master Blender, pointed me in the direction of a unique bottling....

The bottle is question comes from Tweeddale, and to be honest I'd never heard of them before, a little research reveals that they are part of R&B Distillers - still none the wiser?

R&B stands for Raasay and Borders, owned by Alasdair Day and Bill Dobbie, they have plans for two new distilleries, Raasay which I have heard of, and you probably have too, they filled their first cask in September 2017 so their first legal whisky should be coming out later this year. The Borders distillery part of the name is still in the planning stages (and not to be confused with another distillery with that name). Just to put another spanner in the works Raasay is a malt distillery - so whilst we wait in eager anticipation for that we still need to work out where the grain is coming from?

  

R&B's history goes back to 1895 when Alasdair's great, great-grandfather Richard Day walked into licenced grocers J&A Davidson on Duke Street in the Borders town of Coldstream to begin his first day as an office boy. Richard must have been very good at his job as in 1923 he took over his employer’s business. As was common in grocers at this time Richard would have learnt the art of blending whisky! He recorded all of his notes in a Cellar Book which the company still has.

The Tweeddale Blend was created, using the original recipe from the book, from eight sourced single malts and a sourced single grain, mixed 50% malt and 50% grain; it went on sale in May 2010. Since then a number of batches and other bottlings, such as Grain of Truth, have been released.

Last year they released a Peated Single Grain, the first of its kind - I'm not aware of any other peated single grain whisky - please let me know if you do?

The bottle notes say:

Highland Single Grain Scotch Whisky

We believe our Peated Edition of Grain of Truth is the world’s first ever release of a peated Single Grain Scotch Whisky. An uncommon composition of 50% peated malted barley and 50% wheat matured in bourbon barrels creating a rich and complex peated grain whisky.

For me this obviously points to sourced whisky, the word 'Single' points to one distillery and they say it's in the Highlands. Loch Lomond is the only distillery in the Highlands, capable of distilling malt and grain whisky at the same location (the only other one in Scotland would be Ailsa Bay in the Lowlands); they have malt and grain distillation running side by side.

Continuous still on the malt side of the distillery

Control room looking through the window to the continuous stills on the grain side

I was told that the whisky is a 50/50 combination of 100% peated malted barley spirit distilled in the continuous still on the malt side of the distillery (so technically a grain - although covered in stainless steel they are copper underneath) and wheat based grain spirit distilled in the larger continuous stills on the grain side. The wheat based grain is 90% wheat and 10% high enzyme malted barley which is standard for Loch Lomond "blending" type grain spirit. The spirits were distilled and matured separately and only when mature were they combined together.

Bottler's info:

The Tweeddale Grain of Truth challenges current Scotch Whisky convention. Our aspiration is to prove the truth is out : single grain can be every bit as good as a single malt.

The Tweeddale Grain of Truth – Peated Edition, a Highland Single Grain Scotch Whisky, 50% abv, natural colour, non-chill filtered.

Nose : Apple and grassy notes, mixed in with a light smoky, earthy note. Hints of lemon and lime with a sweet smoke. With a second nose, sweet and creamy icing sugar and a spicy oaky note.

Palate : Sweet and smoke. barbeque, fruitiness, chocolate and caramel. More berries and chocolate. A lovely smoke and chocolate on the mid palate. 

Finish : A drying, slightly charred finish.

So enough geeky stuff, let's find out what it's like:

Appearance: Very pale gold - white wine even. Swirls cling as a thin line, beads form slowly and fall as slow thick legs.

Nose: Huge orchard notes - fruit as well as trees and grass. Apples, pears, apricots, oak, fresh cut grass. There is also a faint smoky bacon crisp note - it's not overly strong but it's there. A little time in the glass offers citrus notes.

Palate: Thick sweet syrupy arrival with huge smoke notes - much more than the nose suggested. The fruit has turned all tropical now - pineapple, mango, banana - barbequed maybe? The liquid is quite drying and leave a spicy citrus fizz on the tongue - you just want to sip more of it. Further sips offer more citrus - a mixture of sweet and sour - lovely.

Finish: Long lingering sweetness, drying and always with that smoky note. 

Overall: A really interesting dram - not an awful lot of smoke on the nose or finish but it's there in bucket loads on the palate. Orchard fruit turning to tropical notes with a citrus zing all the way through. 

Dangerously drinkable and doesn't seem anywhere near 50% ABV. As to Tweeddale's claim that "single grain can be every bit as good as a single malt" I think most of us would readily agree with them and this bottling helps prove the point!

An interesting bit of whisky history - the first peated single grain. Congratulations to Tweeddale but I don't understand why Loch Lomond 'gave away' a first - very strange - but I do know they will be bringing out their own bottling later in the year!