\"I'm very fluid with how I take my whisky,\" admits Scott Sneddon, the Managing Director of InchDairnie Distillery in Fife in this episode of Cask to Glass. So neat; a little bit of water; some ice; or even as a cocktail.
But, Scott also continues, \"I'm very very old fashioned. I like a hauf an' a hauf. So I always like to have a beer and whisky at the same time. So it really depends on what beer I've got in my other hand in how I take my whisky.\"
A beer and a whisky. A half and a half. Or in Scott's Scots venacular, a hauf an' a hauf. It's a traditional way of drinking whisky in many parts of Scotland: a wee dram and half a pint of beer; but perhaps out of fashion now.
Yet, Scott says, InchDairnie isn't an entirely traditional Scotch whisky distillery. Yes they malt the grain. Yes they double distill And yes they mature their spirit in oak barrels.
But they deviate too.
\"We don't have a traditional mash tun that all the industry have.,\" Scott explains. \"We're one of only two in Scotland that has a mash filter. And that's important becaus a mash filter enables you to process grains that would otherwise be quite difficult to process in a traditional distillery.\"
Grain like rye for example; malted of course; matured for five years in virgin American oak barrels sourced from forests in Orzak or the Appalachians. \"But,\" Scott adds, \"for the second distillation, we used a Lomond still. And a Lomond still is a pot still with a column still in the neck. And what that gave is a very very light spirit, very flavourful as well.\"
This is InchDairnie's Ryelaw.
\"To look forward, sometimes you have to look backwards,\" Scott explains. \"So there's records from the 1908 Royal Commission and within those records it details what grains were being used in distilling at the the time, and one of them was rye. But there is no definition of rye whisky in Scotland. The regs don't allow it.\"
Perhaps Ryelaw epitomises InchDairnie's vision. As Scott explains: \"The company is basically built on tradition but it's been powered by innovation.\"
Join John as he chats to Scott about the synergy between the old and the new; InchDairnie's other labels (including KinGlassie Raw and KinGlassie Double Matured); the company's 3Ms philosophy (material, method and maturation); and how Fife's five modern distilleries are putting a the region on the whisky map.
Slàinte!
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Creator & producer: David Holmes
Art work & design: Jess Robertson
Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)
Vocals: Andrea Cunningham
Guitars: John Beattie
Bass: Alasdair Vann
Drums: Alan Hamilton
Bagpipes: Calum McColl
Accordion: Gary Innes
Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie
Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland
Special thanks: The Piper Whisky Bar, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, Scotland
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