The Whiskey's origin remains questionable: the Irish and their Scottish cousins appropriate it for the disputed sons. The first samples were produced in Egypt 3000 years before JC. Some say that whiskey is in some way derived from "arak", produced in India, obtained by distilling molasses, sugar cane and / or fruit. In reality, nothing at the time was really close to today's Whiskey. Indeed, it was more like a liqueur made from herbs and honey serving as a kind of antibiotic, sometimes used against food poisoning.
Here, we are going to focus specifically on Single Malt Whiskey.
The single malt comes from a single distillery. It is produced exclusively from the fermentation of malted cereals, usually barley.
France is the world's largest consumer.
The best known is Scotch Whiskey Single Malt. It is obtained from malted barley, distilled at least twice in copper stills and must age in barrels for a minimum of 3 years (it is exclusively produced in Scotland, hence its name "Scotch").
Also, if the bottling is made from a single barrel, it can be called "Single Cask".
A single may seem stronger than some other Whiskeys since it is "raw", made only from malted cereals and is not mixed with other ingredients. Unlike the Blended which comes from several distilleries and thus created with different malted or non-malted cereals and which consequently may seem less powerful.
The point not to forget!
The essence of Single Malt is the know-how of ITS distillery! Each distillery has a personality that it expresses in its own way:
-to brew (choice of cereals, mill, tank, filter, yeast)
-to distill (type of still, number of passes)
-to age (choice of wood and heating of the barrels, a geographical location), which together signify a style. By tasting a Single Malt, you enter a producer house, a Whiskey maker who tells his story.