Day 14 - Nordmenn er gode mennesker

We awoke to another clear day. The sky is grey at present but I think it will clear later. From our small cottage window we can see a blue-grey sea which, by rights one would think, would be covered with small fishing smacks scudding to a fro. These would be the boats, crewed by men (and perhaps women) of a typically dour Scottish character, which would bring back the fish for Cullen Skink.

After a visit yesterday to the Bowmore supermarket and observations relating to the girth of a number of these island citizens, I think that there is an opportunity for the introduction of a new diet. We have noticed a couple of things about diet in the UK (both England and Scotland).

They don’t eat many vegetables. At home we consume vast quantities – all that three servings of veggies and four of fruit stuff (or whatever the numbers are) – this seems to have passed the UK by. I enjoyed a succulent plate of venison sausages last evening. Not a vegetable in sight – unless you count the potato mash.

Secondly, they don’t seem to drink much water. Perhaps it is because Australia is warm to hot a lot of the time that the question of hydration is uppermost in our minds. But here there is never water unless you buy it in bottles. So no salads and no water. A healthfood diet made in heaven.

We avoided whisky for breakfast possibly because we had already ticked the decadent box but possibly also because the start to my day had been mundane. I had decided to operate the washing machine. I did this because Mr Canadian had succeeded in this last evening so I thought whatever a Canadian can do, I can do. Enough of washing.

The view from our bedroom window past the distillery and down to a sea that should be spotted with fishing vessels catching my dinner.

The view from the kitchen window is pretty similar to the view from the bedroom window!!

A Bowmore street scene

Yes - there is a Chinese restaurant in Bowmore. But oddly, it's run by an Indian.

These are clearly the fishing vessels that are missing from the earlier pictures!!

Today’s tale is one of three things: visits to some distilleries, beautiful scenery and a smattering of history. All these things were enhanced by weather which by any standards was remarkable. The sky was clear blue, there was no wind and the sun was warm. This cannot be a frequent occurrence on Islay!!

The G among the peaty heather

The heather - or at least some of it!!

Jamie turned up to pick us up and we drove off in the general direction of the Ardbeg (www.ardbeg.com) distillery. On the way we stopped to examine a peat bog. That’s not hard really because the island pretty much all peat bog. We stopped the bus and walked onto what looked like bush or moorland but which turned out to have a coefficient of elasticity approaching that of a trampoline.

The distilleries use the peat to produce smoke with which they smoke the barley. Laphroaig (www.laphroaig.com) apparently always gets it s peat from the same area. Peat regenerates itself and for the Laphroaig peat the peat cutters work away across the peat field and by the time they get to the end (after about 120 years) the first part has regenerated. So it’s a renewable raw material.

Believe it or not there is an International Peat Society (http://www.peatsociety.org). Their website tells me (and now you) that “peat is a heterogeneous mixture of more or less decomposed plant (humus) material that has accumulated in a water-saturated environment and in the absence of oxygen.

“The rate of accumulating plant material is greatest in areas where the temperature is high enough for plant growth but too low for the vigorous microbial activity that breaks down the plant material. Such conditions are found more frequently in the northern hemisphere.”

Jamie holding forth about the technicalities of peat-cutting

A peat "cliff" ... the cliff is about a metre high. Cutting it looks like very hard work!!

A welcoming sign!!

I was already a member - but you can join too. There are no benefits of membership that I can discern!!

We arrived at Ardbeg at about 1000. Ardbeg was the distillery I most wanted to go to because I liked their whisky. As it turned out I like pretty much all the whiskies. Our guide at Ardbeg was Steve and while he was not as decorative as Kilmochan’s Leone he was very informative. I think that with the benefit of yesterday’s tours I began to get this whisky-making process. I think I will set up a distillery in the shed when I return!!

All whisky, I have learned, has three ingredients: water, barley and yeast. That’s it folks. You may think you mix them together and leave them awhile and that’s it. Of course not – there is far more science than that. Our forbears did not know the science but still made the whisky. Now we have the science perhaps we make better whisky. Who knows?

I am now about to give you The Imperial Guide to Whisky-making. Do not attempt to do this at home.

An old picture from the Ardbeg distillery of men curating peat

You start with a pile of barley mixed with water which you spread across the floor of a Malting Room. This takes a couple of days and the objective is to get it to germinate – or at least to start germinating. Men need continually to turn the several tons of barley every four hours which they do with a thing called a plough.

It’s at this stage that the barley gets smoked. Basically they move it into another room and light a bloody great peat fire underneath. There’s a bit of skill here as what you need is smoke and not flames from the peat. So damp peat is better. There’s some fine measuring goes on here that I am not 100% clear in but you are trying get things called phenols. Whatever. What you measure is the presence of these phenols which you measure in parts per million (ppm). Ardbeg goes for 55ppm. What you’re really trying to do is to dry out the barley; the smoking is just something you do at the same time.

But Ardbeg don’t actually malt their own barley. They buy it from the Port Eden Malting Mills (www.diageo.com/en-sc) The malting mills used to be a distillery but the distilling operation closed in 1983). I gather that you specify exactly how you want your malt to be. Malt is what the barley becomes after this treatment.

The Ardbeg milling machine. This was built in 1913 in Bury St Edmunds. No parts are available and the brewery has done an interesting risk assessment on what they would do if it broke down. They are keeping it rather than replacing it because they are making a financial provision to mitigate the risk. Very clever because the probability is that it will go another 100 years!!

Once you got your malt you need to dry it (which takes a while) then it gets ground up. The result of the grinding is a mixture of about 70% husk, 20% grit and 10% flour. The whole combination is called grist (as in the saying “it’s all grist for the mill”).

The malt is milled into a coarse flour (grist) which is made of three substances: (1) Husks (70%); (2) Grits (20%); and Flour (10%)

You then take this grist and soak it is water three times; the first time at 67 degrees C, then at 80 degrees and finally at 85 degrees. This is all done in the Mash House. These temperatures seem to be fairly well established though they may vary slightly The objective is to get the sugars out because these will make the alcohol!! Most sugar is derived from the first wash. By the third wash there is very little sugar left so this does not go to the stills – rather it is used to wash the next lot of barley.

It’s the water that you want from this process. What’s left is what’s called “draff” and this is sent off as cattle feed. The cattle so fed need to be “finished” with a different feed because other wise they taste dreadful!!

The extraction is done in a large kettle (usually made of stainless steel) called a mash tun. In Ardbeg's case these old cast iron tuns can no longer be used due to health regulations so they're lined with stainless steel. They done good by keeping the old style on the outside

At this stage we need to get some action going – something somewhere needs to ferment so the water from the wash (which presumably has a peaty character) is sent to the wash back tanks. These are like massive barrels and at Ardbeg they are made of Oregon pine. The use of wood imparts (this makes sense if you think about it) flavour and there is also some microbial activity that aids the overall process. Stainless steel tanks just wouldn’t cut the mustard.

One thing that strikes me about whisky-making as it does about wine-making is the cooperage. There are no coopers on Islay and it seems to me to be an amazing skill: you cut and shave wood, bend it over steam and tie it into a barrel shape with iron hoops – and it’s watertight!!

The yeast gets added to the sugary liquid (which is called wort) in big tubs called wash back tanks. This produces lots of carbon dioxide and if you stick your head in and take a deep breath you will get a nasty surprise

The wash back tanks are pretty large and are made of Oregon pine. There is some serious cooperage going down here!

Once in the wash tanks you add yeast to get some fermentation going and some alcohol produced. Then the liquid gets sent off to the stills. The stills are beautiful: I described them in yesterday’s entry as “sensuous” and that’s what they are. They are made of copper. There are two stills – the wash still and the spirit still. After the wash still the alcohol by volume (abv) is about 20%. That liquid then passes to the spirit stills where it emerges at 67% abv. The shape of the stills is designed to encourage the distillation of the lighter alcohols which are apparently sweeter.

The final step is to put the stuff into barrels. It is the barrel that imparts flavour and more especially colour. Ardbeg use three types of barrels. Most are former bourbon casks which cost about £70 each. Sherry casks are about £800 – expensive partly because less people are drinking sherry. Finally there are French oak casks which impart a vanilla flavour (same as wine).

Then, basically, you leave it for a long time. It’s not necessarily the case that (as with wine) the older the better. We tried whiskies at 23 years old that were really good and some at 12 years old that were really good. What seems to characterise the Islay whiskies, of course, is the peat.

Then we are on to the stills - the wash still in the foreground and the spirit still behind. These vessels are beautiful to look at

A sea view from the back of the Ardbeg distillery

This looks like a photograph of a lot of sea and it is. But if you look carefully you can see the hills of Ireland hazily outlined

A barrel farm

A view of Ardbeg distillery outlined against a clear blue September sky. The design of the chimneys is  meant to maximise the amount of smoke that is retained during the peat smoking process

A glass of the good stuff (not 2008) highlighted by sone excellent cooperage

Our man Steve holding forth on the benefits of his products. He was a brilliant guide

The Viking girls looking lovely in the sunshine and with the benefit of some fine single malt

We had lunch at the winery, which was good, and – as with all these places – we were able to avail ourselves of the Ardbeg merchandise. I acquired a hat and a bottle of Ardbeg Supernova the most expensive whisky I have ever bought but, hell, I am on holiday!!

A strange letter that served as a table mat at lunchtime

Another odd table mat

We went outside. The weather – I keep saying this – was gorgeous, the sun sparkling off the waves on the sea. To our left we could see the Mull of Kintyre and to the right, only 25km away, we could see the hills of Northern Ireland.

Another sea view

I assume these are old distillery houses - or perhaps not so old. But I thought they looked good

A white wall with black letters

At the time they replaced the last still the price of copper was so low that its scrap value would not have covered the transport costs. So it's an ornament outside the distillery. Here The G provides additional ornamentation

We made our way from the distillery along what in Islay might count as a motorway but is at most 3 metres wide!! We were headed for Kildalton Cross. Kildalton Cross dates from 800AD (or CE as I think is the politically correct notation) and is often considered the finest surviving Celtic cross in Scotland. There is also an old and roofless church with many interesting and ancient slabs as well as a graveyard. 

Kildalton Cross ("Kil" like "kirk" means a church)

The old church wall - lovely stonework

A view through the trees from the churchyard

The end (nave) of the church from outside

Another view from the churchyard

And another view from the churchyard. I make no apology for these pictures; you can see how the clear and bright weather made the scenery just stunning

A lady up the road makes cakes and coffee in flasks and leaves them on this table with an honesty box. The G and I shared a succulent piece of lemon drizzle cake

The happy duo leaning on the front of the Rabbie's tour bus

Tombstone at Kildalton

Very old tombstone inside the old church

We headed for Laphroaig which makes a whisky that even my sister has been known to drink!! Jamie was particularly keen that we should get to Lagavulin for a “wee dram”. It seems that Lagavulin don’t answer their phone so while we were in Laphroaig Jamie nipped over to Lagavulin to ensure that we would be welcome.

We had a brief tour of Laphroaig, courtesy of the lovely Christianne. We joined the Friends of Laphroaig which entitles us to a square foot of the island for which the distillery gives us a 20cl bottle of whisky a year – provided we visit to collect it. You need to claim your square foot of land by going out and planting your national flag in the ground. We did this but we kind of selected a random spot rather than the one specified on our membership certificates.

The Malting Room at Laphraoig

A heap of Laphraoig peat

Christianne warning us of the dangers of fire ... or at least telling us that putting your head in a peat fire when it is going is mot a good plan

Show me a peat cliff and I will cut some immediately ...

Ah, more black letters on a white wall

Seaview from the back of the Laphraoig distillery

I cannot possibly make a comment about this picture. Any comment would fall short of the subject matter

The G planting our flags on our square feet of Islay

Before heading for Lagavulin we called in at a ruined castle called Dunyvaig Castle. What strikes you about this castle is its location in terms of how hard it must have been to build a castle on some rocky outcrop. I do not know what they did for foundations. This castle dates from the 12^th century and was at one time the naval base for the Lord of the Isles. Ownership passed back and forth until the 17^th century. It’s now well-ruined although the site apparently includes a thirteenth-century courtyard, and a fifteenth-century keep, these were not clearly discernible!!

Dunyvaig Castle

Yet more black letters on a white wall seen from Dunyvaig Castle

The G sitting on a mound

A ruined castle wall

By the time we got to Lagavulin (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagavulin_distillery) we were well whiskied- out and I never thought I would say that!! But we had our wee dram and then headed back.

By the time we got to Lagavulin we were well whisked out!!

We had – as a group – decided that we would dine at the Bowmore Hotel. The Bowmore Hotel cannot by any stretch of the imagination be said to offer haute cuisine. But they do make extraordinarily good chips and they serve a good pint of John Smith’s. There was a band and we listened to them before heading back to our lodgings.

Tomorrow we leave the island. After three days as part of a random group of 16 people you form relationships which is this case were based around whisky. The power of a drink as a mechanism for developing relationships is very great. Perhaps all tours are the same we have travelled with some interesting and pleasant people. Let us see if the next tour will be the same.