WHISKY
Going with the grain The launch of David Beckham’s Haig Club shines a light on single grain whisky Y
ou may have heard that David Beckham is launching his own whisky. But it’s not a blend, nor a single malt – it’s a single
grain whisky called Haig Club. For a long time, single grain whisky has
been seen as the inferior cousin to single malt. It is much cheaper to produce and is generally regarded as much lighter and less complex in fl avours and aromas. Because of this, single grain whisky is the foundation of every blended whisky, with single malts added to give more fl avour and balance to the blend. Until quite recently you would seldom see
a bottle of single grain whisky as it would all go to make up blends. Even now, selling single grain whisky divides opinion, with many afi cionados refusing to even try it because they think it’s mass produced and bland. However, if aged well, you can end up with some abso- lutely stunning single grain whiskies. There are three main differences between
single grain and single malt whiskies. Firstly, while single grain is made mostly from corn or wheat – sometimes with a bit of barley – single malt can only be made with malted barley. Secondly, single grain whisky is distilled in a column still, sometimes called a continu- ous or Coffey still after the man who perfected the process, Aeneas Coffey. They are very effi - cient and create an incredibly pure spirit that comes off the still at over 90 per cent alcohol by volume (abv). Single malt whisky, on the other hand, is distilled using a copper pot still at about 70 per cent abv. Lastly,
continu-
ous stills can be 90 feet tall, making grain distilleries look like huge
factories, producing often 50-100
million litres per year. In contrast, a single malt distillery might produce anything from 500,000 to ten million- plus litres per year and look quite picturesque.
The tallest copper pot stills are at Glenmor- angie and are 16ft 10¼ inches tall. Many independent bottlers sell single grain
whiskies, while the Scotch Malt Whisky Society has also been bottling single cask grain whis- kies. Normally these bottlings are quite old, perhaps 20 years-plus, as grain whisky tends to need longer in wood to become less spirituous. A few years ago Edrington launched a
blended grain whisky called Snow Grouse that was made to be drunk straight from the freezer. I would defi nitely recommend this. Get a large glass of ice and pour over a single grain whisky from the freezer – it’s refreshing and fruity. There are only seven grain distilleries in
Scotland but together they produce six times the amount of whisky made by well over 100 malt distilleries. Last year William Grant & Sons launched its 25-year-old Girvan Patent Still Single Grain Whisky, which sells for £250. Now, with the launch of Haig Club by Diageo, there is a new wave of single grain whisky emerging. Haig Club (expected to cost £35-40 per bottle), is a non-age-statement single grain and is presum- ably the fi rst in a series of bottlings under the brand. Just be careful you don’t confuse the Haig Club bottle for your aftershave or vice-versa. William Grant & Sons is hopeful that the launch of its Girvan Patent Still Single Grain will trigger the emergence of a ‘third leg to the Scotch whisky category’. However, it will take a lot education to get single malt enthu- siasts to look past the predominant opinion of single grain being infe- rior and cheaper.
Now that Diageo is also pushing the cate- gory, I can only see this as a good thing. Single grain whisky has had a tough past but is now shaking off its old image and hopefully people will soon realise it can stand up on its own.
WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 171 WORDS BLAIR BOWMAN
‘Just be careful you don’t confuse the Haig Club bottle for your aftershave’
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