(gentle instrumental music)
- This is the story of whisky
and I start it right here in the heart of Tokyo.
Around these streets are bars crammed with people
imbibing the amber liquid.
It will be a fascinating journey,
so come with me as I tell the story
of Scotland's gift to the world.
I'm going on a pilgrimage to find out
why such a simple drink has come to mean so much.
- Hi, my name's Jim.
- I'm from Scotland.
- From the makers, to the marketeers,
and the chemists to the cocktail makers,
and from the Highlands, to Hobart in Tasmania,
I'll be meeting the people and travelling to the places
immersed in Scottish whisky's world story.
This is the tale of an ancient craft
that became a global colossus.
It is the tale of Scotch.
Today, we treat Scotch whisky with reverence.
Yet, as recently as the late 1970s,
it was viewed altogether differently.
When people thought of Scotch,
they thought of old-fashioned, untrendy, blended whiskies.
It was something of a safe, boring choice.
Here, what your grandad drank at Hogmanay,
and abroad, ignored in favor of domestic spirits.
By the early 1980s,
too much was being made for not enough drinkers,
creating a whisky log of untouched liquid.
Many distilleries closed.
Then the industry recovered on the back
of an unlikely source, single malts.
Marketing was once more at the forefront
via a bottle label vision of Scotland sold to the world.
Now malts are booming, desirable and collectable,
and provoke global interest in Scotland.
On Edinburgh's Royal Mile
stands the building symbolic of this intrigue.
The Scotch Whisky Experience
is funded by a cluster of drinks companies.
Among its greatest attractions
is a breathtaking hoard of bottles.
This marble and glass shrine to whisky
contains 3,348 bottles,
and it is a magnificent collection.
It was collected by one man,
Claive Vidiz, a Brazilian from Sao Paulo.
It took him 35 years to collect,
and then he came to a financial arrangement with Diageo,
and Diageo brought the collection here to Scotland.
And as Mr. Vidiz himself says,
we have an expression in Brazil,
a good son returns home, and, in my view,
the collection is back with its family now.
And here is Mr Vidiz.
(lively instrumental music)
- This is where it all began.
He was well-known as being a real lover of Scotch whisky.
And business associates would always
pick up a bottle in duty-free for him.
But finally a business associate went to visit him
from Scotland, and said, this is the real stuff.
This is the stuff you'll never have heard of.
It's called single malt Scotch whisky.
And this is the stuff to keep and enjoy
with only your very best friends.
- What date was this?
- So this was in the 1970s.
And really only blended Scotch whisky
was exported at the time.
It was very, very hard to find anything else.
So these six bottles here were given to Claive then,
and, rather than sharing them with his very best friends,
he was so overwhelmed and so passionate about them
that he never opened them.
And this began the Scotch Whisky collection.
- Now, people come from all over the world
to view this, don't they? - That's right.
About 80% of the visitors that come here are from overseas.
So it just reflects the huge pull that Scotch whisky has,
and the kudos that it has
from an international point of view.
- So they come because they love whisky in the first place?
They don't just pop in on a rainy day and think,
where are we going to go in Edinburgh?
- Well, you know, they don't come
because they already know and love Scotch whisky.
Most of our visitors are from overseas,
have heard of Scotch whisky, know what it is,
but aren't already Scotch whisky drinkers.
So a small proportion of them love it, are enthusiasts,
and know about this collection
and have made a bit of a pilgrimage,
but the majority of them have come to Scotland,
and there is no way that they could visit Scotland
without finding out more about Scotch whisky
because the two are so intrinsically linked.
- [David] You've got a Black Bowmore from 1964.
What on earth is that worth?
- You've focused in on one of those bottles
that is completely unique, really rare.
Only sold at auction.
But, equally, we have the opposite end of the spectrum.
We even have whisky and cola in a can.
So there's nothing too precious about this.
It's a snapshot of every single bottle of whisky
that was different, that was individual, that was unique,
and that was collected over that period.
- So, if you were to put a figure on the Black Bowmore,
what would it be? - Tens of thousands now.
- Seriously? - Yeah, yeah.
One of those ones that goes very well at auction.
- Over the last few years, there's been a quiet revolution
happening in the whisky industry in Scotland.
And that is the fact that we currently have
about 20 small craft distilleries,
with another 10 waiting to be operational.
They make whisky in the old style,
when whisky was made in a small room,
or a little but and ben, a croft,
or a barn somewhere in a Highland glen.
And it's a bit like the craft beer revolution
that's really exploded over the United Kingdom
in the last few years,
and it's really going to make a radical difference
to whisky and our choices.
I'm standing in front of what is probably
the smallest craft distillery in Scotland.
- Welcome, David, to the smallest distillery in Scotland.
- This is a dinky little thing, Tony.
- [Tony] It's a miniature whisky distillery.
It's also a bit like an adult's Meccano kit.
- This is a prime example
of a small craft distillery, isn't it?
- There's currently 16 producing.
We were the first.
We had a meeting here
because so many people were asking me questions,
and I said, well, let's get together.
And we had 50 people turn up.
And it's not just whisky.
There's whisky, there's gin, there's vodka,
there is a rum distillery in the heart of Speyside.
- I love it!
- Just because a distillery is small,
it doesn't necessarily make it well crafted.
But some of the small distillers
are producing products of astonishing interest,
astonishing versatility.
Not all will survive.
There will be a shake-out of that sector.
But craft is certainly adding a lot of interest,
it's adding a lot of vivacity,
and it's adding a lot of choice for the consumer,
so, on balance, it can only be good.
- Tony, are you a threat to the big boys?
- Not at all.
- You're creating very, very special whisky.
- Probably the best way to sum up this distillery is
if you drive up the A9,
and you overtake a single whisky tanker,
that's our year's production.
In one tanker.
What we do supply to the big industry
is a comparable quality product,
and quality is the link between both of us.
So the big distilleries produce millions of liters a year,
but you couldn't lean against the stills like this
and have a conversation. - No, you couldn't.
- You couldn't turn the steam up slightly
while we're doing it.
People can come here
and spend a week making their own whisky.
They can come in on the Monday morning,
and put the grist into the grist hopper,
and, on the Friday, after two distillations,
they can make their own whisky.
- There is clearly excitement about the craft movement,
and it bristles with possibility.
Whether, in the long term,
each new distillery is financially viable, though,
remains open to debate.
Craft distilleries are just one thread among many
to the traditional and dominant Scotch whisky industry.
Whisky is now made in almost 30 countries.
Old Scottish methods are making for a vibrant scene
biting at the heels of Scotch whisky.
Everywhere whisky's enjoyed, it seems, it is now being made.
Despite the refined nature of this exquisite drink,
Scotch is in a fierce global competition
for hearts and drams.
There are pretenders to Scotland's throne across the world.
Even here.
Cheeky bastards.
Andrew Nelstrop comes from a Norfolk farming dynasty
who have put their abundant barley to good use.
- Farming sets you up well for having a distillery.
They are both long-term businesses.
Everything you do on the land, if you like,
is designed for generations in the future.
The same goes for whisky.
- Do you know what the Greek definition of wisdom is?
- Go on.
- Wisdom is old men planting trees
under whose shade they will never sit.
- That's the same with whisky. - Beautiful.
- [Andrew] You're making whisky
that you'll probably never taste.
- You don't have the hills,
you don't have the glens,
you don't have the peat,
you don't have the wonderful soft rain
that comes off the Atlantic and falls on Scotland,
and yet here we are, in the heart of England,
and you're making bloody whisky!
Now that's a damn cheek. - But we do have--
- Where do you get your? - We have all the barley.
We have the largest peat digs in the whole of the UK,
which is the Norfolk Broads.
We've got the water.
We've got the cleanest, largest, freshest source of water
underneath your feet.
You don't really need anything else, do we?
Apart from rain.
We don't need rain.
- You can have some of ours if you want.
- Yeah. - We've got plenty of it!
- My father had always wanted to make whisky,
purely because of one conversation he had
back when he was a lad.
My grandfather, the story goes, said,
it's such a shame.
We've got all this barley and it has to go to Scotland
to be turned into something useful.
And it just stuck.
You know, my father, he farmed in Russia, Australia,
he went all over the place doing different things.
But, every year, he went,
I need to build a distillery.
- So it was his dream? - Absolutely.
A lifelong dream.
So, when he turned 60, and he was going,
oh, we need to build a distillery,
I think the rest of the family just went,
ugh, do what you like.
- Upstarts like yourself,
do you think you're any serious threat
to the Scotch whisky industry?
Are you nibbling away?
- I think it's going to be a while
before we buy Diageo, but--
(laughing)
Another generation, maybe. - There's ambition for you.
- I think, in terms of quality, we can equal them.
I don't think that's an issue.
And I don't think that's me going, our whisky can.
I think any nation's whisky can equal anybody else's,
because each distillery is unique.
So, if the owners want to do it properly,
they can make blooming good whisky.
In terms of volume, we are never going to compete.
- Andrew, every distillery I go to,
and certainly this is much more true now
than it was maybe 10, 15 years ago.
Every distillery has a visitor center,
and it seems to be an important point of revenue for them.
- Yes, yeah, it is.
- It's not just spreading the word.
It's about bringing in hard-earned cash.
- It is.
It's incredibly useful in terms of spreading the word,
getting a loyal following.
Come and see it.
See the distillery.
Meet the people.
It's a great story.
For new distilleries opening up, like ourselves,
the gin boys and vodka boys have got it easy.
You can make the stuff yesterday, sell it today.
There's no cash flow issues there.
Whereas, the world of whisky,
make it today, sell it in three, five, ten years' time.
There is a slight need for another source of income,
which brings you down to having a shop
and selling everything from bottles of your own whisky,
to tea, coffee and cake.
And, yeah, it's a good source of income
and I think it's a nice day out for people.
- Scotland's biggest whisky rival, however,
is much further east.
Over the last few years, the world of whisky
has been rocked by a number of Japanese whiskies
winning critical acclaim and awards worldwide.
Whisky's story has taken us halfway around the world.
I'm now in the far north of Japan.
If you fly that way, you hit Russia.
We're probably on the same latitude as Vladivostok.
Now, it's been a lovely, sunny day,
but, from November till March,
this place is blanketed in snow and well below freezing.
And, in the distance,
you can see the scarlet chimneys
that cap the Yoichi distillery,
the home of Nikka Whisky.
And it seems very remote from a Highland glen,
but this place, the story of this place
is firmly rooted in a true Scottish romance.
(gentle instrumental music)
In 1918, 24-year-old Masataka Taketsuru
left Japan for Scotland.
He was to study the chemistry
and production of Scotch whisky
with the aim of replicating it in Japan.
Masataka served apprenticeships
at a number of Scottish distilleries,
learning every craft of the trade.
He fell in love with whisky,
but also with a Scottish girl,
Rita Cowan from Kirkintilloch.
Rita and Masataka toured Scotland
picking up more secrets of the Scotch trade.
When they arrived here in Japan in 1920,
it was to set up home as man and wife.
Together, in 1934,
they put their expertise into practice
and founded this place, Yoichi distillery,
choosing these surroundings
for their echoes of the Scottish Highlands.
They were married for 41 years
until Rita's death in 1961.
Masataka was to become known
as the father of Japanese whisky.
Author Dave Broom is here at Yoichi
researching a book on Japanese whisky.
Dave, how does Japanese whisky differ from Scotch?
- Well, it's made in exactly the same way.
So, if you go round the distillery,
you'll see essentially the same kit.
But there's a whole number of different factors
that make it Japanese.
One of them is to do with the production.
They run very clear wort, rather than cloudy wort,
so they don't get any cereal characters coming through.
So it's not as dry as Scotch whisky.
And there's more of a, kind of, delicate intensity,
which seems paradoxical.
I describe it as a transparency of character.
If you think of a Scotch single malt,
it's like a bit of a Scottish burn.
You know, all the flavors are kind of moving around.
It's hard to work out exactly what's going on.
It's complex.
Whereas, with Japanese whisky,
it's like a clear pool.
You can see all the flavors.
Everything's just laid out
in a very stately and ordered way.
So it's got this--
- That's very symptomatic of Japanese culture.
- I think that's the point.
From the word go,
Japanese whisky was made to go with Japanese food.
If you think of the way the Japanese approach food,
it's all about texture, and it's also delicacy.
If you're making a whisky to go with that food,
you're almost automatically going to be in that world.
And there's a real cultural resonance
to Japanese whisky that ties in
with the approach to ceramics,
or to artwork, or to papermaking.
I think it's all part of this Japanese culture.
It's a very powerful and very, very deep whisky.
And it's significantly different to Scotch, you know?
If I gave you two glasses blind,
and gave you one of Scotch, one of Japanese, you would say,
well, that's different.
So they make the best Japanese whisky in the world.
- Sakunasan, you are the chief blender here.
How important is the influence of Scotch whisky
and how it's made to how you make whisky here?
(speaks in foreign language)
(gentle instrumental music)
- Before leaving Sapporo,
I'm joining Dave Broom on a pilgrimage to the shared grave
of Masataka Taketsuru and Rita Cowan,
and leaving a traditional liquid offering.
800 miles south in Tokyo,
there is another little corner of Scotland,
a wee backstreet bar called the Helmsdale.
- Masaki. - Yes.
- We are sitting here in the most beautiful bar
I've ever been in in my life.
I think it is now my favorite bar.
And we're in the heart of Tokyo.
A Scotch whisky bar.
How did this happen?
(speaks in foreign language)
- [David] But how did you meet Scottish people?
How did you first drink whisky?
(speaks in foreign language)
- Now, your bar is called the Helmsdale.
How did that happen?
Why?
- What are the most popular whiskies?
Talisker? - Yes.
Very popular.
- Do you think Scottish whisky, Scotch whisky,
is under threat from Japanese whisky,
Indian whisky, Tasmanian whisky?
(speaks in foreign language)
- We will never beat you, but we have the same heart.
We will try our best, but, you know...
we will keep trying. - A very poetic answer.
I love it.
Leaving Japan behind,
I'm heading south to another whisky hotbed.
Australia, and specifically, Tasmania.
With sprawling hills, thick clouds and crashing sea,
this could easily be Scotland.
Across the bay from me is the charming city of Hobart,
nestling at the foot of Mount Wellington.
And on this captivating island, it cradles 14 distilleries,
with more on the way.
In fact, it's the heartbeat
of the Australian whisky industry.
A growing power to behold.
This is Lark Distillery,
the cherished creation of Bill Lark,
godfather of Australian whisky.
- When Bill Lark wanted to start a whisky distillery,
there'd been no commercial whisky distillery in Australia
for 153 years.
Federal law had made it impossible
for small distilleries to operate.
So before he could even start,
he had to change government federal law to get his license
and so we are actually
the first licensed commercial distillery in Australia.
- Lark operates on a far smaller scale
than most distilleries in Scotland.
(lively instrumental music)
It's so titchy in size.
If you compare this to something like The Macallan.
I love the size, it's whisky in miniature.
And they're taking over the world, the bastards.
Craig, a Scotsman, and Chris, a native, are distillers here.
- I'll be honest, I got here 18 months ago
and I walked into the place and I thought,
where's the rest of the distillery?
It's tiny.
The scale is crazy.
I mean, we talk about hand-crafted back in Scotland,
and you're talking 250, 300,000 liters.
Here, we make 120 liters a day,
so we can actually handcraft everything at the distillery.
We ferment different to back in Scotland,
we make all of our cuts here by how the spirit tastes.
We've got a longer fermentation than you have
in most places back home.
We've got seven days.
But really, the big one for us is
coming to the end of the fermentation.
Based on how it tastes,
we'll actually open the lid and let the natural bacteria
from the vineyard up the road into the ferments
and that sours up the--
- Of course, you have the bacteria in the air already.
Because this is vineyard country, isn't it?
- Absolutely.
So Frogmore, our pals up the road,
make some of the best wine here.
Some of the best pinots in Tasmania.
And we get all the benefit from that culture,
from those yeasts and bacteria.
- [David] So the whisky that you guys have created,
when will it be ready for sale?
- We are looking at about six to seven year maturation
in quarter cask.
So something Tasmania has,
we have this really unique climate
where we have a huge temperature variation
from two to three degrees to about 40 degrees.
What happens, that fluctuates every day
and the pressure fluctuates every day.
That really drives the spirit in and out of the wood
and drives that angel's share
so we've got a really quite high angel's share here,
seven degrees.
Our strength usually goes up,
so we might get a spirit coming--
- So what percentage will you lose every year?
- About 7%? - 7% a year?
- 7% every year.
- Guys, I've said that Tasmanian whisky.,
you're winning the awards,
the whisky awards around the world,
you're the cheeky young upstarts.
How much debt do you owe to the Scotch whisky industry?
- So much, so much.
I don't think the industry here would be
in any strength without the year on year,
on year, on year help from the Scottish industry.
We've been so lucky with their generosity.
We talked before about that sense of community.
It is not a community, in Tasmania,
or Hobart, or Australia, or Scotland,
or Japan, it truly is this global,
global community and really you feel that.
Like, you go to Scotland and you ask a question
and you get a genuine, passionate answer.
Yeah, we are indebted to the Scottish industry.
This place wouldn't be what it is without Scotland.
- We are essentially living in the Australian version
of what Glenlivet was in 1850.
And I think if you said to any distiller back in Scotland,
you know, if you could go back to 1850
and work in Glenlivet and see how things started,
would you take that choice?
Every single one of them would.
We are still mashing by hand with a paddle here.
We've essentially brought whisky forward
into the 1800s at Lark.
So to be in this position,
but also then to be able to call on the history
and the mistakes that have been made by the Japanese
and the Scots and the Americans
in their whisky-making process,
puts us in a unique position.
We've got hundreds of years of experience to call upon
and then we can create our own story from that.
- There are stories that people expect to see when they buy
into a whisky.
So in Scotland, we can sometimes be a little bit trapped
by that and that's how people get to love this stuff.
On the other, you've got countries
in the rest of the world that are now making whiskies
and can almost sometimes be a bit more creative
in how they come about that
and the sort of offering they can present.
- The competition element I think is brilliant,
because any good athlete or performer is going to say,
your best performances come
when you're under the most pressure.
So, you know, we are kept on our toes
by the growth around the world,
but I think that's a pretty good thing.
- We've talked for a long time about what is whisky.
It's an experience.
It only becomes whisky once someone puts it
in their glass and they drink it,
they experience it with their mates.
It's on the most important days of your life
that you drink whisky.
Some people, it really is on the most important days
and they choose to share that with you as distillers.
It's people that get to be the caretaker of a distillery
or process, and that's what it's about.
It's about understanding that if you're not spot
on your game every day, then you're not doing justice
to that person that got that bottle for their wedding,
for their bucks or maybe for their divorce
or to commiserate over a loved one's death.
That's what drives.
That's what drives that get better, get better, get better.
And that's what whisky's about, you're right.
It's about people.
It's always been about people.
It's about community and people
and you can't help but love the spirit,
because the people are wonderful.
- Wow, Chris!
That's the most beautiful, poetic description
I've ever heard.
(lively instrumental music)
Sullivans Cove is another
of Tasmania's flourishing distilleries.
Its architecture and design is somewhat more functional
than that of a Scottish distillery.
- The idea of making whisky came along.
At first, I thought it was a bit of a crazy idea,
to make whisky here in Tasmania.
- Where did it come from? - Well, Bill Lark.
Bill and Lyn Lark, actually.
But I can remember him trying to sell the idea to us
up at the pub one night.
And how him and his father had been up
in the lakes here fishing
and they were drinking a bottle of whisky
and wondering why we don't make whisky in Tasmania,
we've got the climate, we've got the water,
we've got the barley.
Everything's here.
- You've got the peat. - Got the peat.
We've got everything we need.
Why don't we do it?
And so he came, and one night up at the pub he told us
this idea and what a marvellous idea it was
and I can remember thinking,
no, Bill, this is not a good idea.
This is not one of your better ideas.
But I was wrong.
It's one of these things where, to be honest,
we didn't know we'd ever survive
or even get our product out of Tasmania.
It was a struggle for a long time
to get anybody here to even try it.
In the early days, you know, people thought,
oh, look, isn't that a nice idea?
They're having a go.
They're trying to make a bit of whisky.
But you've got to earn your stripes.
It's not a matter of just making a product
and everybody will buy it just because you make it.
You have to prove that it's worth buying in the first place,
or in our case, worth drinking.
And it took us a while to get it right
and some of the earlier whiskies that were made,
I have to say, weren't the best.
But once we got the theory right, we got the practice right,
we started making good whisky.
We found that we could sell it.
But mostly overseas.
So it was France that first took us on.
Once we'd won the world's best single malt whisky
out at the UK,
the World Whiskies Awards, everything changed.
From that morning on, it hasn't stopped.
I mean, I can remember standing in our bond store
a few years ago and we had over 1,000 barrels,
thinking, what have we done?
We've made too much whisky, we'll never sell this.
What are we going to do?
And now, I look at our whisky and I think,
God, I wish we had 10 times more.
- The extent of the Tasmanian whisky revolution
is startling.
It is a surprise.
Yet, when you're here, it makes perfect sense.
In some ways, this place is a mirror image of Scotland.
Closer to home and yet aesthetically different to Scotland,
there is another surprisingly vibrant
whisky country, Sweden.
Ingvar Ronde from Malmo compiles the Malt Whisky Yearbook,
seen by many as the bible of Scotch.
Ingvar is leading the way to the small island of Hven,
visiting its distillery and spirit laboratory.
- I think the interest in whisky started probably in the,
I would say '60s and '70s,
when we started to watch all these fantastic TV series
from England, where every two minutes,
they were drinking whisky.
Coming home after work, they were sipping a whisky.
And we always, in Scandinavia, and in Sweden in particular,
have been influenced by British culture.
So that's when I think we started to embrace whisky.
Then it took off fantastically in the '90s
where it wasn't just about drinking whisky,
it was about going to the distillery
to see how it's produced, about learning about whisky.
I know that some Scotch whisky brand ambassadors
who come to whisky shows in Sweden,
they are absolutely amazed about the knowledge
that Swedish whisky drinkers have.
- Hven distillery was founded in 2007
and is one of eight in Sweden.
As well as making whisky,
it houses a state-of-the-art laboratory,
providing services for drinks companies across the world.
- What we do here is, it is our Swedish whisky,
it's our whisky, not definitely just Swedish or Scottish.
Still, most of the Scottish people are just Vikings
not travelling back,
so you have the heritage from us anyway.
But at the end of the day,
there is so many different whiskies
and one doesn't kill off the others.
There's a whisky for all.
What we're doing here is,
we're very particular about our oak maturation,
but also how we create the cut.
Obviously, being small,
we need to have our unique selling points
and we need to make something
that really tastes, really scents.
Because volume can't be our sale thing.
So we go into special varieties of fermentation,
special yeast strains,
special varieties of wood, for example.
But also, with the laboratory,
where we have the unique possibility
of actually seeing what's happening during maturation,
we do analyses for a wide variety
of distillers around the world.
- Well, a lot of people say that now,
the Scotch whisky industry is in big trouble,
because they are being chased by so many producers
around the world.
Yes, there is more competition now, but, at the same time,
we have at least 100 distilleries in Scotland.
We have 400 or 500 years of tradition in Scotland.
You can't just wipe that away
just because our new distilleries
that started 10, 15, 20 years ago
producing in Tasmania or Sweden.
They make beautiful whisky, but for the next 20 or 30 years,
I don't see them as a huge competitor to Scotch whisky.
(gentle instrumental music)
- Back on the mainland in Malmo is The Bishops Arms,
a cozy British themed pub specializing in single malts
and run by Croatian whisky fanatic, Maja Kozul.
- I'm very curious about everything, to be honest,
and I think whisky is very good to have, enjoy.
It's very much about people.
There is a difference driving a Ferrari
and there is difference riding a bicycle.
And obviously if you compare a whisky with something else.
- Every Bishops Arms staff member is trained
to become a whisky specialist and advocate.
(gentle instrumental music)
- Service is very important.
There's still people come in our bar
and they look on the shelves and say, what is all that?
And you start there.
And you start there and, can I have a double whisky?
And we start off often saying,
well, would you mind to have three smaller ones,
same amount, same money, and just discover something new?
So you kind of have to educate your guests
as you are educating your staff at the same time.
- [David] The Bishops Arms has won two prestigious awards.
Maja is spending the prize money
on a celebratory staff trip.
- We are going to spend that money
with a trip to Scotland, of course!
We're visiting Glenkinchie Distillery
and we're just going to have an inspiration trip
with my staff so we can keep it alive.
- [David] Glenkinchie is a Lowland distillery
outside of Edinburgh, founded in 1837.
- [Maja] That's a pleasant smell.
Yes. - Yes.
- And you finish with the distilling?
(cheering)
(lively instrumental music)
- By the old port of Leith,
it's time for a trip to Teuchters Landing,
a pub whose assets include a high-stakes game of hoopla.
(cheering)
- We're just checking if they have any whisky we don't.
So we'll try that one.
It's very good to see how other people work with the whisky,
not just us.
- It's a living product,
not just something you pour into a bottle
and pour color into.
It's a living product that goes into casks
and is made of barley.
It makes it a lot more real to see a distillery
and see why you should appreciate whisky.
- Our guide, Clive, was very good.
I thought he was really good.
He showed us a picture up from about 100 years ago
with about 50 people who used to work there
and it was really interesting just seeing that
that must have been the whole village worked
at the distillery.
And now, he told us that it's two people work 12 hours
and two people do the late shift
and the whole thing runs off that
and how the whisky making has changed over 100 years,
but they can still get the same product.
- Oh.
I get a bucket of ice!
- Shall we have a hoop?
- We should? - We should have a hoop.
We'll have to hide away all the single cask Ardbeg though.
- I'm not sure how that's going to work out
with the Swedish alcohol law,
because selling alcohol in Sweden's not allowed to be fun.
It has to be quite straight and direct.
There's no such thing as happy hour in Sweden.
- This is the great city of London.
A city that has quaffed whisky for hundreds of years.
It's also a city that has begun
to distill its own whisky yet again.
And it's also the city that has stoked a debate
about how exactly this drink should best be devoured,
and that includes, and this is heretical,
a mutiny against tradition for some, including myself,
drinking whisky in cocktails.
Now, I'm about to go into this hotel to talk
to the 2015 World Barman of the Year
and if he mixes me a cocktail,
he's going straight to the Tower.
Ryan, on a daily basis, you commit sacrilege in this bar.
Because you take some really, really decent whiskies
that take years and years to mature
into all the richness of flavors,
and then you throw in all sorts of other liquids
and you throw in strawberry crushes and botanicals
and you make dreadful cocktails out of them.
- I'm guilty of that. - Why?
- To me, it's been the beauty of whisky.
It does have big, bold flavors,
it's got all of these interesting characteristics and to me,
a cocktail is just a new way of experiencing that.
To me, it's not about masking any of the flavors
and just hiding it away as a bland alcohol,
the beauty of using Scotch in these things
is it has all these characteristics.
- Whisky should be drunk any way you want it to be.
I am a big fan of not being prescriptive
about drinking whisky
and I think we are seeing that more and more nowadays.
I love whisky cocktails, whisky highballs, whisky neat,
whisky on the rocks,
in a nosing glass, being more professional,
or literally out of a flask when I'm walking up a big hill
and it's freezing cold.
- I think the industry
need to find a way of keeping their older consumer happy,
by doing what they love
and what they're going to keep buying,
but also not being scared to innovate
and not being scared to talk about putting in mixers
and talk about putting in ice and water
and getting more people just to experiment with it
and find out what they like,
rather than using the old method,
where it was preached
and you were told you must drink it neat,
you mustn't do this, you mustn't do that,
and I think that image has turned a lot of people off.
- So, however you want to drink your Scotch,
you drink your Scotch however you like it.
And don't let anybody tell you you can't.
But there are limits.
So, I got my father for one Christmas
a really expensive bottle of Highland Park.
Highland Park is a beautiful Scotch,
and I took it around and we were celebrating Christmas
and the first thing he did was he opened it,
and there was a bottle of dry ginger at one side
and this really amazing bottle of Highland Park
at the other.
And they both went in the same glass.
So that is where you draw the limit.
- If you want to get somebody to experience a new spirit,
something different, a new flavor,
it can be a bit much just giving them a neat dram,
especially when you've got something cask strength
or smoky and all of a sudden they are put off by it.
Everybody's got that story of drinking whisky,
stealing it from their dad's cabinet and going,
no, I don't like the stuff, and they stick with that idea.
Whereas, whisky runs this amazing gauntlet of flavor
and you've got light, delicate, Lowland drams,
through to big, smoky, rich Islays.
And you want people to go, right, actually,
there's a new way of experiencing this.
And using a cocktail, if you do it delicately,
is a way of introducing new flavors to them.
Actually, this drink's been on our menu since the beginning.
And I've always tried to involve whisky cocktails.
It's my favorite spirit.
It's one I have loved.
I lived in Scotland for a long time.
It's very close to my heart.
So, this is essentially a twist on a whisky sour.
But it is a bit of an unusual one.
So, I'm going to warn you of that before I get started.
- If people want to enjoy their whisky
with a lot of nosing and sniffing and looking at the color,
well, good for them.
It's their whisky, they've bought it.
If they want to slam a glass full of ice
and stick a branded cola on top of it, well, I might wince.
It might not be for me, but it's their whisky.
It's a free world.
On they should go as long as they enjoy it.
- This idea that, thou shalt not touch,
really only is about 30 years old.
And I think it's done irreparable damage
to the Scotch whisky industry because it's a strong drink.
And people take a sip of it
because you're not allowed to add water to it
and it's, come on.
It's about pleasure, guys.
It's not about pain.
So I would add anything you want to Scotch whisky.
Just enjoy it because it might be a great, complex drink,
but it's just a drink.
- Ryan, the more I explore whisky,
the more I realize it is a form of alchemy.
- Mhm.
- And you're taking it a stage further, aren't you?
- Well, to me, your whisky blenders, be that blended whisky,
be that single malts, they are essentially making cocktails.
They're bringing all these different elements together,
creating a harmony
that tastes greater than the sum of its parts.
Hopefully, this is going to be a new side
of this whisky that you won't have tried.
- This will be a first time for me.
- Okay, I'm hoping this works.
(gentle instrumental music)
- Slainte.
That's surprisingly refreshing.
Dare I admit it.
(laughing)
I'll probably lose half my friends.
(gentle instrumental music)
So, what does the future hold in store for Scotch?
Not only is there an explosion
of small-scale craft distilleries,
some of the older, established producers
are investing big money, too.
This is Strathspey in the northeast of Scotland.
It's an area that contains the greatest density
of whisky distilleries anywhere in the world.
It is also home to The Macallan,
one of the best loved and most revered whiskies
in the world.
Macallan have been here for over 200 years.
But currently, the demand for Macallan
is outstripping supply.
So, the company are investing the small sum
of 100 million pounds in creating a cathedral of whisky,
due to open in 2017.
This beautiful new distillery on the Island of Harris
is proof, too, that there is confidence
in the future of Scotch.
- It's a very exciting time, I think, for distilling.
Especially here in Scotland,
we've got a lot of new distilleries appearing.
There's a lot of gin distilleries
which are going to be leading into making whisky.
But the same thing's happening all across mainland Europe,
all throughout Asia.
And there's a lot of new distilleries appearing.
But I think it's very important
that Scotland doesn't lose focus,
so that they keep creating very high quality spirit.
But I think that we're lucky in a way
because we have the heritage
that all of these mainland European distilleries
and Asian distilleries
will never have the same heritage as Scotland has.
- The big challenge in whisky is trying
to balance innovation and tradition.
I think it's very possible to do that
and to produce something amazing.
- I don't know if it's going to turn out
just as fine as everyone
in the industry thinks and hopes and believes.
And there are going to be some casualties along the way.
Maybe some of those small craft distilleries
are going to fall by the wayside
in a kind of creative destruction of the marketplace.
But overall, I think we probably will take the right turn.
I think we will go on to the sunlit uplands
and I think there is a bonnie future for Scotch.
- We've made Scotch whisky for hundreds of years.
It has proved the test of time.
It is revered as the pinnacle
of the distiller's art worldwide
because of its character, its quality, its soul.
And it will continue to do well.
- I see it actually as a moment of opportunity
for Scotch whisky
because the more the Scotch whisky industry
is looking over its shoulder, sort of going,
oh, well, bourbon's becoming popular.
Maybe we should be like bourbon.
Or Japanese is becoming popular.
Can we be like Japanese?
Then you've lost it.
You've lost the battle completely.
(gentle instrumental music)
- But not everyone is as confident about the future.
- I actually think that if you look at whisky,
the historic whisky graph, it goes up and down.
If you remember in the '80s with the whisky lake
and shut half of Scotland's distilleries.
It's coming.
What have Scotland done?
Doubled production in the last four years.
The moment that whisky is live and ready for sale,
we haven't suddenly got twice as many whisky drinkers
in the world.
Therefore, this is just going to,
there has to be a mountain of whisky building.
And at some point, it will all go down
and we'll all have a bit of a downturn.
And then we'll, yeah.
- So, what do you, what's your opinion on,
say, the Macallan spending 100 million on this new facility?
- Brilliant, really cool.
But you know, they've doubled production.
Do they think they can sell twice as much whisky?
If they can, brilliant.
But that means somebody else isn't selling any.
We haven't suddenly got everybody buying twice
as many bottles.
So, the industry has to do a bit of a dip.
And those that have got their houses in order will be fine
and those that have borrowed to the hilt
and are expecting it to continue willy-nilly
probably will wake up with a headache.
But we'll see.
That's the joy of whisky.
I mean, you design a business to work over generations,
not over a decade cycle.
(gentle instrumental music)
- As I have seen, Scotch whisky sprung
from Caledonian terrain and bewitched the world.
Its ascendancy has been driven by pioneers,
from early innovators and the entrepreneurs
who first exported our wares, to today's scientists,
blenders and craft distillers.
Yet what strikes me most is, despite all that,
the drink itself remains a charming enigma.
The causes of its sumptuous taste,
impossible to agree upon and even opaque and mysterious.
There will be peaks and troughs
and pretenders to the throne.
But because of that sorcery,
Scotland's tipple of genius will always prevail.
The future's bright.
The future's amber.
We're getting very near last orders, folks.
And the end of my journey.
A wonderful journey through the magical world of whisky.
I hope you've enjoyed it.
From Highland crofter to Hobart visionary,
there's an amber thread that embroiders the globe.
When a cunning alchemist distills a spirit,
a liquid drops forth into a cask and there something truly,
truly colossal happens.
Scotch whisky affects history and defines identity.
It embraces science and big business and the land.
And yet, at its heart, this mixture of water,
barley and yeast is just a simple,
beautiful taste of heaven in a glass.
Slainte.
(gentle instrumental music)
[END CREDITS]