#weaselwords

I'm a lawyer to training.  That was a painful admission, thank you for your support.  More specifically, I'm a litigator.  That means I'm trained to see the weasel potential in wording of legislation, like the Scotch Whisky Regulations of 2009 that set out exactly what you can do to scotch whisky and still call it both scotch and whisky.  This is NOT going to be a step by step trawl through the Regs (even I would find that ... difficult) but a look at exactly what distillers might try to innovate around while avoiding a visit from Judge Dredd, a sort-of-Scottish creation so the obvious choice to send. I think.  Look, this is a MaltNERD blog so just go with it, ok?

Yeast: the Regs just say you have to use yeast to produce the alcohol - as opposed to what?  Since there are many thousands of strains of yeast suitable for producing alcohol, it's only a matter of time before a distillery starts flogging special editions using different yeasts for different flavour profiles (if they haven't already).  Most distilleries have arrived at their specific yeast requirements after extensive experimentation, so I think the production side would need some persuasion (possibly at gunpoint) to start messing around, but the quest for variety is never-ending!  Frankly, yeast is one of those areas that's so scientifically mind-boggling, even to the specialists, that the scope for experimentation and refinement is near endless.  A gratifying concept for an industry presently exploring the weirder corners of the cask-finish!

Cereal: the Regs say you can use malted barley and any other cereal you like, unless you're making single malt (clue's in the name).  We're talking raw agricultural product here, not Coco Pops.  The mashbill, or cereal mix, is already a selling point for a lot of bourbons and it's surely only a matter of time before Scottish grains and blends recognise the snob geek value of disclosing this information, especially as the cache of single grain continues to rise.  And quinoa whisky would shift by the case in the hipster parts of London!

Maturation: you have to use oak casks and those have to be in Scotland and you have to leave it for at least 3 years.  On those points, there is no wiggle room.  Here's the twist - Scotland's small but varied!  Diageo have partially centralised their warehouses so they've already gone in one direction and removed the whiskies from the distilleries to age them all in one place.  We'll see how that impacts over time, in particular watch out for reviews of Lagavulin 16 over the next few years, since those stocks won't have been aged on Islay.  Here's the experimentation opportunity - distillers could choose to mature their whiskies in any part of Scotland they feel like.  Muckle Flugga, a blended malt, already boasts that it's "over wintered" on Shetland.  The cynic in me dismisses that as marketing fluff but there may well be something in it, as it's hard to so arrogantly dismiss the impact environment must have on the casks as they quietly perform miracles.  Alright, I managed in Muckle's case, but I'm dedicated.  Premium blends matured exclusively in the Hebrides?  Lowland whiskies given a blast of Highland sea air?  I'd be interested!

I won't go into the weird and wonderful world of whisky liqueurs here, since they are emphatically not my idea of a good time.