Dave Broom, Sense Of Place: Whisky Tasting, Book Launch & Signing

I ask Dave Broom whether his new book, Sense of Place, started before, after, or during the making of the film Amberlight [now on Netflicks btw]. This isn’t the book of the film though there are overlaps, he replies. Dave describes how Sense of Place, a journey around Scotland’s whisky, focuses on how distilleries themselves are having profound effects on the people and communities around them.

Dave reminds us, for many, of the beginnings of a personal whisky journey – typically a JD & coke phase followed by the discovery of Lagavulin 16 or Laph 10, for example. A whisky journey, he continues, may typically evolve towards an appreciation of process [outputs, still sizes, cut points, etc,…]. Before long, however, we begin to see the bigger picture: historical context, geography, and the people = whisky’s terroir. 

Sense of Place begins its journey in Orkney where the oldest neolithic settlement was recently discovered, a settlement where there is evidence of the planting of [bere] barley. The roots of whisky, says Dave, come from early agriculturists.

As barley thrives in Scotland and agave in Mexico, the early evolution of whisky comes down to conditions, says Dave. Alcohol sits at the heart of almost all cultures, used for ceremonies, celebrations, and securing/cementing business deals. Alcohol is a social glue which allows barriers to be broken down and alliances formed.

In the 1870s, bere barley –  a native adaptive grain – was used predominantly in whisky making. Now it’s used occasionally by a small number of distilleries as special edition releases. Dave sees the whisky industry as being at a new cusp point in its history, making for fascinating times in whisky.

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[With a minor change to the advertised lineup] we begin our tasting, unsurprisingly, at Highland Park.

Highland Park 15yo [2023] Ob. Viking Heart, white ceramic bottle 44% WB84.85[208] WF86

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• N: A less contemporary/less syrup-ed sherry-centric nose with subtle smoke/soot, {Crunchy Nut Cornflakes] sweetness, saltiness, zestiness,…
• T: Soft start yet slowly growing/evolving with more of that older style sherry profile [still seen in the wild about 15 years ago] with integrated phenols.
• F: A short and soft [blend-like] finish, a little lacking in form/travel if not in flavour and not as millimetric as previous contemporary official incarnations around the same sort of age. 
• C: “Return to form”, says Dave. We muse as a group the last time we enjoyed/engaged with HP. Perhaps it’s time to return my custom, though £80 for a 15yo continues to raise eyebrows/further discussion and pause for thought.

Scores 85 points

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In the 1800s, most Scots were drinking brandy and rum, says Dave. He sees whisky as being perceived as a primitive/weird drink, generally consumed by a small number of Highlanders resisting the [appalling] land clearances. The forced shift of families & communities from the countryside to towns & cities changed the way whisky was produced, packaged, and perceived as a result.

Moving down the road toward Inverness, Dave describes the Thompson Brothers at Dornoch as one example of a distillery making whisky using an “adaptive approach”, adhering to old ways of production whilst applying new science around the subject, typically through Herriot Watt-gained knowledge.

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Thompson Bros SRV5 2014/2022 08yo Ob. cask #V5 48.5% WB0

This is the ‘Extra Special’ 2022 Glass Shortage Blended Malt Edition.

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• N: Not sure what’s in this. The first blend contained Clynelish, Caol Ila & Glen Ord [amongst others?]. This one offers an ideal subtle if complex fructose sweetness around melon, pears,….. A giving all-rounder.
• T: Youthful yet thoroughly composed, this is an extremely well-put-together savoury-sweet blended malt with fruitiness and saltiness and an enjoyable textural chew.
• F: Grainy~drying, heather honey, and with a malty [not exactly lactic] texture, one that retains its drinkability.
• C: I’ve rather missed out on these releases before now. Time to rectify that. Great stuff at a superb price-point [£35].

Scores 86 points

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Halfway through our brief journey around Scotland, we find ourselves in Speyside.

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The land clearances saw small farms disappear or amalgamate into larger enterprises. People’s identity or sense of place changed, away from small-holding agriculture to a large urban industrial model. With the formation & marriage of the Gordon’s and the Grants, “Speyside as the whisky heartland of Scotland was borne”.

Mortlach 12yo [2023] Ob. The Wee Witchie 43.4% WB82.81[471] WF85

“Think about weight & texture”, says Dave.

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• N: Sweet and vegetal, a light copperiness, little ‘funk’, Mortlach got smartened up.
• T: An involved/complex chew though with less of that idiosyncratic Mortlach funk of yesteryear. Indeed, here we’ve Mortlach with a dinner jacket & bowtie, the Wee Witchie tamed!
• F: All-round, a good egg with a sweetish finish.
• C: Like with Highland Park, perhaps it’s time to return to Mortlach as a consumer now quality and price-point have been refrequented, away from the sorry state of Diageo’s premiumised 50cl debacle. This one is currently around £50 in today’s money for a full bottle.

Scores 85 points

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A New Engagement With Whisky

Historically, explains Dave [in short for the purposes of this tasting]:

• Prohibition wipes out American whisky development for a good 13 years.
• Irish whiskey dies a death
• Canadian whisky is plagued by regulation or lack of it.

The result? Whisky remains a Scottish affair. At the time and until fairly recently, world whisky IS Scotch. Scotch becomes industrialised, mechanised, and consolidated. What is lost through consolidation, asks Dave, comparing one-man-operated for-blend work-horse operations to Springbank? One speaks of business whilst the other speaks of sense of place, people, and community.

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Whilst the Speyside whisky-making region was expanding in the 1800s into the 1900s, at the same time, there were huge gaps appearing on the Scottish map with Lowland distilleries closing, the almost disappearance of whisky-making in Campbeltown, and nothing in Harris or Lewis, for example. Speyside is the exception to the evolution of pushing everyone out of the countryside and into the towns & cities. Slowly but surely, we are now seeing people returning to remote areas and islands of Scotland as a direct result of new distilleries appearing with urgency in the last 15 years. And we are seeing plenty of distilleries introducing old barley and yeast strains, long fermentations, and even Scottish oak for example [Greg Glass’s Whisky Works, for example].

Raasay Lightly Peated [2022] Ob. Batch R-02.1 46.4% WB85[3] WF83

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• N: Initially tasted blind, the wine influence stands out like a sore thumb. With plenty to pick apart/discover, young peated spirit brings a mezcal-like note aswell as pepper, [hint of old man],… Thankfully, there’s no obvious/blatant STR character which most distilleries seem to have moved away from/adapted in recent years.
• T: It all works – the combo of maturing peated and non-peated spirit in [red] wine, chinquapin, and [Ex-Woodford] rye casks. Add water and it sings some. Peppery and waxy, the grape component drives the profile somewhat, but there’s plenty to admire on a textural front.
• F: Perhaps a little too much grape influence for my taste in this scenario though the recipe generally works throughout.
• C: I admire Raasay’s whisky every time I revisit it, my re-evaluation always a highly positive one.

Scores 85 points

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Moving further down the West coast, we reach Ardnamurchan – a distillery very much focused on a sense of place. Indeed, the size of Ardnamurchan’s pot stills was dictated by the size of the winding roads of the Ardnamurchan peninsula. The emergence of the distillery has meant the local primary school and doctor’s surgery remain open. These are the palpable effects of new distilleries popping up for the community by the community. These new distilleries provide far more for the locale than simply the whiskies they are producing.

Ardnamurchan AD/ [2022/23] Ob. [25200 bts] 46.8% WB87[1]

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• N: Initially dense, farmy/funky/pleasing filth, I find this consolidated malt with its sweaty botanical and perfectly perfumed phenols more assured [less contrived] than the [also commendable] Rassay.
• T: Glides through, balanced and assured whilst maintaining a home-made-like style. Alex, the master distiller wanted to make a ‘West Coast’ whisky style – part Ben Nevis, part Springbank/Glen Scotia,… and he’s nailing it.
• F: Seemless transition with offering after offering of detail. 
• C: If you were to keep just one distillery that was borne in the 21st century, Ardnaumurchan would be right up there for consideration, and, their whisky is only getting better and better.

Scores 87 points

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Dave spells out three historical tiers of whisky making:

• Small local, idiosyncratic, [often illicit]
• Big/industrial, regulated
• Science

We are now seeing a fourth tier, says Dave – Creativity. Sense of place is now being reflected in packaging, labels, glass,… [Rassay, Wire Works, for example].

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There’s a sixth bonus dram, and a world premiere of sorts as this next distillery hasn’t officially released single malt as yet.

Inchdairnie RyeLaw 2017/2022 Un-Ob. Sample Ref #9015 46.3%

This is made from 100% rye so will be deemed under SWA rules as a Single Grain.

• N: Almost anything you can think seems to be here – potpourri, botanicals, foam bananas, chalk, putty, bubblegum, burnt popcorn,… It’s a contemporary-styled malt reminiscent of Oxford and NcNean, for example, but without being too ‘gin-sky’.
• T&F: Amchoor powder, wax, dry papaya ice cream, we’ve a continuation of the nose. Not Scotch as we’ve known it, but times they are a changin’.
• C: Talk about utilising heritage with science and creativity. These guys are making seven different types of new make, distilling beer from oats, making sour mash, you name it,… No idea how to score this cask sample but it’s a fine drop, one that could even please the gin drinkers.

[Not scored]

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