(Photo above) 45 Parallel Spirits.

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Roll out the barrels by WILL LYONS

AT A TIME of day when most of us are just about managing to negotiate a bowl of cornflakes, Mike Ross, the stillman at Benromach distillery, is already at his post, pouring two tonnes of malted barley into a mash tun full of warm water.
"We have to be very careful not to get this wrong," he says, staring straight ahead at a small temperature gauge on the opposite wall.
Handing the controls over to me, he adds, "A slight miscalculation at this stage and we could end up with either not enough sugar or too much sugar." A strong smell of Horlicks fills the room as I tentatively spin the lever, careful to keep the temperature at 64.5ūC.
Beyond the industrial sound of rushing water, the distillery manager Keith Cruickshank paces down the floor. "How we doing?" he asks. "Make a mess of this and you'll throw the whole operation out."
Welcome to Speyside - the engine room of the Scotch malt whisky industry. As the three of us peer nervously into a churning mash tun, around us the region hums with the noise of hundreds of distilleries, many of them working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, sweating it out to meet the growing demand for Scotland's golden spirit. These are good times for Scotch whisky.
Last year exports of Scotch generated a record £2.5 billion, with nearly 90 million cases exported worldwide. To put that into context, for every second in the day the equivalent of 33 bottles are shipped overseas, earning the industry £78 - or £6,739,200 a day. Laid end to end, those bottles would stretch from Perth, Scotland, to Perth, Australia.
Industry analysts say this could be the beginning of something even greater. On the horizon lie India and China, two of the biggest spirits markets in the world. In just ten years, growth in China has risen from 0.7 million litres to 5.7 million litres, fuelled by a burgeoning middle class which has acquired a taste for whisky. In India the potential is even greater. While the Chinese still predominantly drink beer, India is largely a brown-spirit-drinking culture. Attend a dinner party in Mumbai and you are more likely to be served a glass of whisky than wine or beer. The prize is massive.
To China and India can be added renewed demand from South America, eastern Europe, Russia and, of course, the United States. Suddenly, owning a distillery doesn't look such a bad investment.
Benromach was mothballed in the early 1980s. Back then whisky production stagnated under the twin pressures of the oil crisis and a baby-boomer generation that didn't touch the stuff. On top of this, single malt was seen very much as an old man's pipe-and-slippers drink.
It was saved in 1994 when Elgin-based bottler Gordon & Macphail bought it. At the time the distillery was virtually derelict. All the fixtures and fittings had been ripped out and sold by its previous owners.
Over a three-year period Gordon & Macphail overhauled the operation, putting in a new mill, mash tun, three wooden washbacks and two brand new copper stills. The result is a boutique distillery inside an ancient shell. It's a bit like a fully refurbished classic car. And, like a classic car, there are no computers, electronic charts or detailed spread sheets. The multinationals may run their hi-tech distilleries with banks of computers and remote controls; in Benromach, there's just Keith, Mike, me and a clock.
It strikes 9am - time to empty the mash tuns. Keith and I slowly drain the mashed liquid into the worts receiver. Here, the water is left to cool. (The grain in the mash tun is later removed and sold to a local farmer for cattle feed.)
"Can you drink this?" I ask, sticking my head over the top.
"At this stage the liquid is very high in sugar," says Keith. "You could drink it, but you would soon feel the effects around your waistline."
"It's a bit like an old-fashioned energy drink," adds Mike.
The three wooden washbacks loom in the distillery like oversized barrels. Inside these larch containers there's a lot going on as the fermentation takes place. Keith slings me a plastic sack full of a damp, clay-like substance (the distiller's yeast) that I drop into the wort. On top of this I add some brewer's yeast, a dry, finer grain not unlike demerara sugar. Below, the liquid starts to fizz, the start of a centuries-old process that turns the sugar into alcohol.
Keith tells me fermentation is a useful tool in determining the flavour and style of the whisky. A long fermentation (100 hours) gives it a rich, fruity, complex character, whereas a shorter fermentation (48 hours) gives it a spicy, nutty flavour.
"The flavour of whisky is like a big jigsaw," he says. "Some pieces are larger than others. On top of the fermentation we have copper contact, for example. How much copper you add to your vapour will affect the eventual outcome."
In short, the more copper you add, such as the long stills at Glenmorangie, the lighter and more delicate the whisky. The less copper, such as the small, dumpy stills at Macallan, the meatier and heavier the spirit.
Fortunately, Keith has a fermentation he prepared earlier which we begin to pump into the two pre-heated pot stills. At about 78ūC the alcohol starts to boil, the vapour is collected, cooled and converted back into spirit known as low wines. Today, most malts are produced by double distillation. So the low wines are pumped into the second pot still for another go. The end result is a clear liquid referred to as new make spirit. Keith hands me a glass.
With an alcohol content of between 60% and 70%, I refrain from tasting, opting instead to nose the glass. Despite its disappointingly bland appearance, I pick up a toffee aroma with notes of nail polish, smoked bacon and a hint of peat. Mike grabs it off me and says he can detect bananas, while Keith adds his own notes of bubblegum.
This is where whisky appreciation differs from wine. While wine descriptions grew out of the ultra-conservative tasting notes of writers such as Michael Broadbent and Hugh Johnson, whisky has always been more adventurous - and malt whisky even more so. The night before, I enjoyed a malt tasting with the Urquhart family, owners of Gordon & Macphail for more than 110 years. Putting his nose into a glass of Linkwood, Michael Urquhart came up with "fudge, gooseberry, green apples, violets and Deep Heat".
It is this type of appreciation that has electrified the industry over the last decade. "When my father was buying Islay malts to bottle back in the 1960s, you couldn't sell them for love nor money," said Michael. "Nobody wanted them. Now we can't get enough of them."
He believes the growing popularity of malts is linked to our increased love of spicy, more exotic food.
"Everyone is so much more adventurous these days. The proliferation of cooking programmes, celebrity chefs and restaurants from all over the world has really helped. More than ever people are asking, 'Does this whisky offer a challenge? Is it going to make my palate go through the Olympics?'"
By far the biggest influence on a whisky's flavour is wood. This is where Gordon & Macphail is a past master. It has been buying malt whisky from other producers and ageing it in its own barrels, bought from Jerez in Spain and Kentucky in the USA, for decades. But this model is under pressure. With sales of malt whisky booming, distillers may be more reluctant than previously to sell their prized stock to bottlers such as G&M - hence the company's decision to purchase Benromach.
Back at the distillery, Keith hands me an empty bottle. After a visit to the warehouse we select a cask and I get to fill my very own bottle, which is then signed and dated. Behind, the distillery machinery chugs on; there is the milling for tomorrow's mash to be completed and the washbacks to be filled, ready for another production run. The visitor centre fills up with tourists while the roads outside rumble with the sound of lorries transporting whisky to the port, from where it will be dispatched to the four corners of the world.
"The last time we did this - let someone fill their own bottle - it was for two Germans," says Keith. "They were intent on getting a little bit of the charred wood from the cask into the bottle to take back home."
With so much of Scotland's manufacturing industry having fallen silent, it's nice to experience a sector booming. It may be our national drink, but it has a truly global appeal.

The appliance of science
ACCORDING to the Scotch Whisky Association, there are more than 100 stillmen working in Scotland. Many, like Benromach's Keith Cruickshank, worked their way up through the industry, learning the principles of distillation and maturation from their forefathers.
In many of today's hi-tech distilleries, most stillmen spend as much time monitoring a computer as they do a mash tun.
Heriot-Watt University offers an MSc and diploma in brewing and distilling, the only courses of this type in the UK. Graduates are introduced to the theory and practice of malting, brewing and distilling, and the courses attract students from as far afield as China.

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Washington, DC-Bourbon lovers around the country are raising a glass to the U.S. Senate today for passing a resolution, just before it adjourned, officially declaring September 2007 "National Bourbon Heritage Month," according to the Distilled Spirits Council.
"At a time when consumer preferences have led to a renaissance for premium bourbons, it's great news that the Senate has recognized America's distilling heritage by designating September as Bourbon Heritage Month," said Distilled Spirits Council Senior Vice President Frank Coleman.
"America's distilling heritage is intertwined with the history of the nation," Coleman noted. "This legislation will help bring that history back into focus for many Americans, and help us celebrate our bourbon heritage-responsibly!"
Senate Resolution 294, sponsored by Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), and passed unanimously, calls on consumers who enjoy bourbon to do so responsibly and in moderation.
"The bourbon industry is a source of pride for Kentucky and its heritage and has served as a major part of the commonwealth's economy for over 200 years," Senator Bunning said in a statement.
Bourbon business is booming in the United States. Since 2003, high-end bourbons have seen revenue grow from $450 million to over $500 million, some 2.2 million cases, in the United States. High-end bourbon sales accounted for eight percent of total spirits growth in 2006.
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ALBANY, N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer has signed a new law establishing a farm distillery license for small liquor producers that primarily use New York farm products.
The distilleries making no more than 35,000 gallons of liquor annually can also conduct tastings on licensed premises.
The legislation said the law is meant to expand sales outlets for New York micro-distilleries, treating them like farm wineries that can sell their product at retail for off-premises consumption.
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PROPOSED TTB REGULATIONS COULD SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGE BEER LABELING
Marc Sorini, Marc Sorini is a partner with McDermott Will & Emery LLP and heads the firm's Alcohol Beverages & Products Group. He concentrates his practice on regulatory and litigation issues faced by the alcohol beverage industry. Copyright Marc E. Sorini 2007; this article may be reprinted provided that attribution is given. Nothing in this article should be construed as legal advice.

August 2007
On July 31, 2007, the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau "TTB" for short, published a proposal that, if adopted, would represent the most significant change in the way beer is labeled since Government Warning Statements legislation passed in 1988. New regulations would require labels to list the beer's alcohol by volume, calorie, carbohydrate, fat and protein content per serving, and would authorize producers to put information on the quantity of pure alcohol per serving. These rules come on the heels of proposed new regulations on allergen labeling.

Background

The idea of requiring some sort of "nutritional" labeling on alcohol beverages has been around for a long time. Proposals to require labeling roughly similar to the nutrition panels found on food labels have surfaced periodically since at least the 1970s. The immediate impetus for last month's TTB proposal, however, arose in December 2003, when the Center for Science in the Public Interest ("CSPI") and the National Consumers League ("NCL"), joined by other organizations and individuals, formally requested that TTB begin rulemaking on a host of labeling subjects, including alcohol content labeling (already required for spirits, but not for most beer and wine), standard serving information, ingredients, calorie information, and the number of "standard" drinks per container. Alcohol content labeling for beer has a particularly odd history. Although Congress required distilled spirits and strong wine labels to show alcohol content when it enacted the Federal Alcohol Administration Act ("FAA Act"), it prohibited such labeling for beer. In the 1990s, Coors Brewing Company successfully had that prohibition declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, alcohol content labeling on beer has remained optional, although in 2005 TTB required products that derive alcohol from added flavors (FMBs and flavored beers) to show alcohol content on their labels.
Administrative agencies like TTB derive their power to issue regulations from Congress. In the case of TTB, the FAA Act empowered the Treasury Department (the Cabinet-level agency that contains TTB, as well as the IRS and a host of other governmental bodies) to promulgate regulations to carry out the FAA Act's intent. More specifically, TTB's recent proposal cites to the FAA Act's authorization of regulations "as will provide the consumer with adequate information as to the identity and quality of the products"
Adopting a regulation that has the force of law usually requires agencies to follow certain procedural steps in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act ("APA"). In most circumstances, the APA requires that an agency first publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or "NPRM" to alert the public to the agency's plans. The NPRM gives interested parties time to submit public comments on the rule. After the agency has collected and analyzed the comments, it then must publish a "Final Rule" that sets forth what actual regulations have been adopted and explains the agency's reasoning, often requiring a lengthy discussion of the comments received. In certain cases, an agency can precede an NPRM with an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or "ANPRM," which solicits generalized comments on a particular issue that may become the subject of later rulemaking. In 2005, TTB published an ANPRM on the subjects raised in the CSPI/NCL petition of 2003, as well as allergen labeling - an issue prompted by Congress when it required FDA-regulated foods to bear allergen warnings. TTB received approximately 20,000 comments in response to the ANPRM and those comments helped shape its current proposal, an NPRM officially designated TTB Notice 73. Allergen labeling already has been the subject of an earlier NPRM.

The Proposed New Regulations

Notice 73 contains three major components:

1. Mandatory alcohol content labeling for all alcohol beverages, listing the alcohol content by volume ("alc./vol."). This marks the first time that alcohol content labeling will be required for most wines (those between 7 and 14% alcohol by volume) and almost all beers (except for flavored malt beverages). The alcohol content statement could appear anyplace on the label (front, back, neck, etc.).

2. Mandatory "serving facts" information for all alcohol beverages. The serving facts information would list the amount of calories, carbohydrates, fat and proteins in a "serving" of the beverage. For all containers larger than 50 ml, TTB proposes to require this information to appear in a "panel" similar to the familiar nutritional labeling panels found on most food labels. For small containers (50 ml or less), TTB proposes to allow the listing to appear in a "linear" fashion - as in a text statement. For beer, a "serving" would be standardized at: (a) 12 ounces for beer containing not more than 10% alc./vol.; and (b) 5 ounces for beer containing more than 10% alc./vol. Containers that contain less than the "standard" size must provide serving information for the entire container. The serving facts information could appear anywhere on the label.

3. Optional "absolute alcohol" labeling, permitting a label to show number of fluid ounces of pure alcohol per serving. If this information is included, it must be within the serving facts panel and in direct conjunction with the mandatory alcohol content statement. Notice 73 is also notable for some things it would not mandate. Most significantly, TTB is not proposing ingredient labeling for alcohol beverages. The CSPI/NCL petition also asked that TTB include a statement from the U.S. Dietary Guidelines about the maximum recommended daily intake of alcohol. Notice 73 rejects this proposal and, indeed, takes pains to explain that in establishing serving sizes to facilitate the listing of calorie, carbohydrate, fat and protein information, TTB is not attempting to establish recommended drink levels. Similarly, although some distilled spirits companies had asked to include a graphic on their labels that would show a shot glass, wine glass, and beer mug (allegedly implying the equivalence of such drinks), Notice 73 proposes to prohibit such graphic representations as confusing and potentially misleading.
TTB Notice 73 proposes to give the industry three years after the publication of a final rule before its requirements would become mandatory. Thus, although the APA permits agencies to make their rules mandatory in as little as thirty days, Notice 73 would give the industry a long lead time to redesign labels to meet the new requirements. Because of this long lead time and the Notice's proposal to allow producers to put the required information on any part of a container (front label, back label, neck label, etc.), TTB also rejected arguments made by small brewers and wineries that any regulations should exempt small entities to avoid placing an economic hardship on small businesses.

What's Next

Notice 73 gives interested parties until October 29, 2007 to comment on its proposed regulations. If the past is any guide, industry will request and obtain an extension, likely pushing the comment period toward the end of 2007. During that time, industry trade associations, consumer advocacy groups and others will comment on various aspects of the proposal. After the comment period closes, TTB likely will need many months, and perhaps more than a year, to review those comments, make adjustments to its rulemaking proposal, and publish a Final Rule. That Final Rule may or may not contain the same elements as the recent NPRM. Nevertheless, the odds are that TTB will likely not depart substantially from its current proposal, although significant changes remain possible. TTB almost certainly will, however, make some adjustments to the Final Rule that reflect the comments it receives. Finally, it is worth noting that even a Final Rule might not definitively end the process. Regulations are subject to legal challenges under the APA and a variety of other grounds. Although legal doctrines generally give agencies the upper hand in such legal proceedings, the outcome of such cases is not guaranteed. Similarly, as agencies work for the executive branch (and thus, ultimately the President) and must count on Congress for funding, political pressure or subsequent legislation can affect the outcome of rulemaking at every stage of the process. Given the relatively significant changes proposed in Notice 73, one thing seems certain: The industry and its critics will make this rulemaking process and its outcome a priority for the foreseeable future.

Sincerely,
Marc E. Sorini
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
202.756.8284
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Grappling with Grappa
Honing in on an Italian family tradition
By Jason Tesauro and Phineas Mollod

You can't just have a grappa tasting. Unlike wine or beer, where food makes for lovely pairings, grub with grappa is a fugue-preventing necessity given the 35-40 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). Grappa's natural habitat is the after-dinner slot when a digestivo is just the thing to settle a bellyful of barbaresco and osso buco.
Table Manners
Thus, the pentola di fortuna, or Italian potluck, was on: just-picked garden tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, a batch of bucatini carbonara bursting with pancetta. Tesauro whipped up orechiette al adrano, but his vessel of ear pasta with corn and saffron was half-full long after the platter of porchetta e tonnata (pork with tuna sauce) was licked clean. The hostess' southwest Virginia pepperoni rolls were a huge hit, and the cornmeal tiramisu closed the feasting portion.
Drink Up

Then, i grappe were presented: 11 grappas from Poli, the premier Italian producer. Since 1898, the Poli family has owned and operated an artisan distillery in Italy's northeast in Schiavon, the heart of Veneto, near Bassano Del Grappa, grappa's classic home base. Grappa is unique among brandies because it is not made from liquids, but solids. The other brandies-Cognac, whiskey and Calvados-are made from wine, barley malt and apple cider, respectively. The raw material for grappa, however, is grape pomace, or vinaccia, which includes the many leftovers after grapes are crushed for wine: grape skins, seeds and a small quantity of pulp, must and wine (when those skins were left in contact with the juice to make red wine).
The Poli style-less aggressive, more refined and aromatic-means a balance of character and elegance. This is due to modern use of an ancient copper pot among very few left in Italy. The steam cauldrons working at discontinuous cycles are why Poli and the other master grappaioli produce elixirs so vastly different from these industrial grappas that turn people off after one sip of that bottled gasoline. Small producers distill slowly, tweaking the process one batch at a time, whereas large commercial concerns crank out vat after vat of unchanging firewater.
Tesauro met Jacopo Poli at Veni Vidi Vici a number of years ago. Poli recalled it via e-mail: "I am happy to read that you enjoyed the grappa tasting we had in January 2001, in Atlanta. It was six years ago, but I still remember that day and your beautiful city." Fourth-generation grappaioli, Poli and his siblings proclaim, "The secret to distilling a great grappa is simple: You just need fresh pomace and a hundred years of experience!"
GioBatta, Jacopo's great-grandfather, made straw hats before switching to grappa. We might have lost the next Borsalino, but what we got in return is more satisfying after dinner. Salute! SP

Phineas and Jason are the authors of "The Modern Gentleman" and "The Modern Lover." E-mail them at booze@sundaypaper.com.

Taste-tested Grappas

Po' Pinot di Poli
Made from Pinot Noir grapes-fascinating aromas of eucalyptus, licorice, white pepper, juniper and lemon candy. Mouthfeel is soft and fine; the finish evokes pistachio skins and a pleasant grapeseed bitterness. The ABV is a stout 40 percent, but the grappa doesn't overpower.

Po' Traminer di Poli
From the pomace of Traminer Aromatico (Gewurztraminer), this grappa screams with gorgeous florals: rose petals, resin, cactus, cooked sugar and agave. Again, despite the 40 percent ABV, the alcohol is well integrated.
UvaViva Italiana di Poli
60 percent Malvasia di Candia, 40 percent white Muscat from the Euganei Hills of Veneto. Smells like a perfumed paramour: white flowers, candied smoke and chocolate. Subtle and elegant with a long and strong finish.

Poli Torcolato
Made from Vespaiolo and Tocai grapes subjected to the passito process; air dried to naturally concentrate the sugars. During the drying, botrytis cinerea, or noble rot, attacked the grapes, imparting Sauterne-like fig and raisin qualities. Great complexity, with caramel, ricotta and darker fruit notes.

Poli Mirtillo
A grappa-based liqueur made from bilberries, Acacia honey and balsamic herbs. This bottle gets honorable mention for raising the most eyebrows. Its deep purple color was backed by a medicinal nose that would make David Coverdale hush. The amaro notes of pine tar, rosemary and sage are calmed with the honeyed balsamic aromas. Not for everyone, but isn't that part of grappa's charm? Related is the Poli Miele, with peppery pine and oaky honey, with a warm clover finish.
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Want to learn how a thumper works?
The most used reference book on the subject was published by Seagram is:
Fundamentals of Distillery Practice, 1943, by Herman Wilkie and Joseph Prochaska.
Note, this reference book is out of print and difficult to find

To read back issues of DISTILLER newsletter?
Go to:
http://distilling.com/backissues.html
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--To obtain a distilled spirits permit go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/index.shtml

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--To obtain TTB list of DSPs go to: http://www.ttb.gov/foia//err.shtml

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--To obtain TTB statistics on distilling go to: www.ttb.gov then scroll down to "spirits" and then the "year".
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--To obtain Distilled Spirits Laws and Regulations go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/spirits_regs.shtml

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--To obtain label regulations go to: http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/bam.shtml distilled spirits manual circular.
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