Bottling Plants

[Whisky Mon]

Hi everyone

I am a newby to this forum and whisky in general so its a steep learning curve for me, but one I am enjoying immensely.

Something I have come across that is confusing me is the fact that very few distilleries have their own bottling plants on site and send them off to companies like Gordon & MacPhail, who then decide when to bottle it.

As I understand it when the casks get sent to Gordon and Macphail, for instance, they are sent out at around 90% proof and then are watered down to the correct percentage for consumption.

If this is the case then Gordon and Macphail would use water that is available to them in Elgin, so how can individual distilleries claim that the whisky has taken on the individual characteristics from the local area through their water source etc when its being watered down with water from another area unless they send a load of water with the casks?

Would really like to know..
Thanks


(Sorry if this has been answered in a previous post or in the wrong section)

[William]

Welcome to the forum Whisky Mon.

You will find that few Scotch malt whisky distilleries have their own bottling plants on site for a number of reasons.

The majority of Scotch whisky 90 - 95% i believe is bottled as blended whisky. Blended whisky is normaly made up of 60% grain whisky and 40% malt whisky and this 40% malt whisky can contain up to 40 or 50 different malts. Therefore it doesnt make sense to have the bottling plant at the malt whisky distillery as most distilleries only bottle a small percentage, often around 5 to 10% as single malt.

Another reason is many distilleries do not have the warehousing space to store the amount of whisky they produce so the whisky is not always matured onsite.

The proof system is no longer used, it was replaced in 1980 by Alcohol by Volume (%ABV) . The use of proof as a measure of alcohol content is now mostly historical.

Typically whisky is put into the cask around 63.5% ABV, this depreciates over time. What strength the whisky is when taken out the cask depends on the individual cask, storage location and how long the whisky is in the cask. Most whisky is bottled at a more drinkable strength of 40% - 46% this is done by adding water. The water source used to reduce the alcohol strength is important as is the water used to produce the whisky, it will be pure water with no influence on the flavour profile of the whisky.

Smaller whisky distilleries will contract the bottling of their whisky out to bottling plants as it makes financial sense as they may only bottle a small amount of their whisky as single malt and the rest will go into blends.
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[Quaich1]

[Bookie]

A good water source is essential for the production of whisky hence the remote locations of malt whisky distilleries but it is simply a quality free continuous supply of water.

Some would argue that it contains minerals and flavours from the area it is sourced and this contributes to the final flavour of the whisky but it is debatable whether any influence from the water makes it through the distillation process. Many of the distilleries like to say that it does and use it in their marketing.

[Whisky Mon]

Wow thank you William for explaining that to me, I never thought of using pure water...doh!

I actually was surprised how much whisky is sent into blended whisky...
I was always under the impression that blended whisky is somewhat inferior.

Sorry I suppose I sound like some kind of Philistine now.

Thanks also to Bookie You may have a point, I recently went on a tour at Talisker ( One of my favourite Whisky) and they made a big point about water, hence my interest.

Thanks for replying all.

[bodger]

Not so much now but when the bottling of whisky was more Labour intensive Speyside where much of your whisky is produced couldnot have supplied a workforce to man the bottling halls from a sparce population. I have been told that massive Grants were given in the mining areas for bottling halls to support an ailing mining industry

[bifter]

I've heard that about Talisker anecdotally. Some distilleries do seem to set much store by the water. For example, until they opened their own local bottling plant, Bruichladdich shipped tankers of spring water from James Brown's farm at Octomore to the mainland to dilute the whisky from the casks to 46%.
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"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
[George Bernard Shaw]

[Whisky Mon]

[Whisky Mon]