‘Malt whisky is blossoming as never before: new distilleries, new styles, new stars’. Thus wrote the late Michael Jackson, a prolific whisky writer who contributed hugely to our understanding of whisky and a vocabulary often used to describe it so arcane that it can make the language of wine look child’s play. From the time he was first introduced to malt whisky in his late teens in Edinburgh, Michael Jackson made it his life’s work to pursue the influences on whisky’s aromas and flavours: ‘the spirit of earth, wind and fire’ reaching the glass. Since he wrote his first book on the subject just over 20 years ago, the appreciation of whisky has rocketed as publications like the Malt Advocate and Whisky Magazine and groups like the Scotch Malt Whisky Society have brought whisky to an appreciative global audience. A culmination of this progress has seen a welcome recent introduction to the high street of flavour-based categories and taste descriptors. All we have to do now is work out how to pronounce Auchentoshan, Bruichladdich and Bunnahabhain.

Since the moment in 1494 when Friar John Cor of Lindores Abbey turned eight bolls of barley malt into spirit for King James IV, few other drinks outside wine, with the possible exception of Japanese sake, can lay claim to malt whisky’s historic background and individual personality. Pure mountain spring water, the mineral contribution of rock, the vegetation of heather, island seaweed and earthy peat, combined with barley’s malted product, are all factors with an influence over the aromas, flavours and textures of Scotch malt whisky, and that’s before taking into account considerations of the size, shape and type of still that distils the essence of these ingredients into a product of lingering power and concentration. Latterly, pioneered by Glenmorangie with sherry casks, wood finishes have become one of the most intriguing factors in the development of malt whisky flavours. Sherry, Madeira, Port, rum, ale, even Nuits-St-Georges Burgundy casks have all been deployed to provide the finishing touch to malt whisky, dividing whisky lovers into traditionalists who see it as a little more than a gimmick and modernists who appreciate the resulting diversity of flavours and styles.

Cask strength is another development that has the traditionalists of the whisky world tossing their cabers out of their prams. Whisky is generally distilled at upwards of 68 per cent pure alcohol (and generally watered back to 63.5 per cent), and while commercial whiskies are diluted to 40 per cent, the legal minimum, a trend towards fuller strength or ‘cask strength’ whiskies has seen a proliferation of unreduced malt whiskies which, after allowing for natural evaporation of the ‘angel’s share’ in cask, can weigh in at anything up to 60 per cent or even more. A glimpse at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s latest offering of limited edition Christmas parcels shows its 41-year-old Speyside One to Cherish and Love weighs in at 48.1 per cent, the 16 year-old Speysider, Oodles of Aromatics, at 55.9 per cent, while the 11-year-old Campbeltown Hospital Wards and Treacle Toffee stands at a cockle-warming 59.4 per cent pure alcohol.

If you think wine descriptions are imaginative or fanciful, then welcome to a whole new world of flavours in malt whiskies. Given the limitations for doing much more than huddle round a fireside on Egg, Muck or the Hebrides and ruminating over a dram, perhaps it’s not surprising that Scotch whisky’s capacity for embroidery gives it one of the most imaginative and evocative languages of any beverage in the world. Just take this one for instance from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society for Oodles of Aromatics: ‘opened up beautifully revealing a complex nose with lots of fruit (baked apple, peardrops, cherries, peach flan, orange zest and bananas) plentiful sweetness (crème brulée, butterscotch, caramel and kola cubes) and oodles of aromatics (peppermint and vanilla with lots of peppery chilli heat). The reduced nose had lemon sherbet, nectarines, blossom and grass against a background of treacle, maple syrup and marshmallows’…. Food for thought for whoever thinks that wine descriptions are over the top.

The growing global popularity of malt whisky has seen not just a proliferation of new styles and strengths but the mushrooming of whisky distilleries around the world. Irish single malts are comparatively rare with only three distilleries, Bushmills, Midleton and Cooley, whose Connemara is rare by virtue of being made with peated malt, the best-known. The United States is most famous for its Tennessee and Kentucky whiskey (note the extra e, also used in Irish whiskey), with Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Woodford Reserve and Elijah Craig among the most popular, but there’s a burgeoning microdistillery movement in both the USA and Canada, which has extended its tentacles to countries such as Sweden and Finland. Japan is another of the great whisky nations with a growing number of whisky producers such as Suntory and Nikka producing finely crafted malts on its main island of Honshu and Nikka,Yoichi in Japan’s very own Scotland, the chilly northern skiing and salmon island of Hokkaido.

But it’s to the unique comfort of malt whisky’s spiritual and physical heartland of the dram that the whisky drinker always returns. In no other country is there such a wealth of distilleries (around 100) and depth of whisky styles. Lowland whiskies (Auchentoshan, Glenkinchie and Bladnoch) provide relatively small beer compared to the Highlands, and in particular Speyside, which contributes over half of all Scotland’s distilleries and most of the best-known, including Aberlour, Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet and Macallan, and, further north, Glenmorangie, Dalmore and Old Pulteney. The islands provide some of the most evocative statements of Scotch malt, most notably Islay with its Ardbeg, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Kilchoman, Lagavulin and the extreme TCP medicinal, iodiney character of Laphroaig, not forgetting the islands of Orkney with their smoky peaty Highland Park, Skye’s Talisker, Jura’s Jura and Mull’s Tobermory. These are what Michael Jackson was referring to when he called malts ‘the fine wines of the whisky world’, whiskies in other words to be sipped, savoured and enjoyed for what they are: one of the world’s most enduring contributions to civilisation.

Whisky Terms

Angel’s Share. In the maturation process in cask, the microclimate ensures that each barrel will lose roughly two per cent of its volume a year through evaporation, so a 10 Year Old loses around 20 per cent of its contents. Not many 50 Year Olds then.

Blended Scotch whisky. A mixture of grain whisky and malt whiskies often from different distilleries added. Can be very good with age. ‘Grain is the canvas, malt is the paint’, says Andrew Jefford.

Bourbon. The heart of American whiskey is from Bourbon County, Kentucky, named after the French royals for their support for American independence. Local corn is used to make bourbon, plus rye or wheat.

Cask strength. A full strength whisky in which the alcohol has not been reduced other than by natural evaporation in cask.

Grain whisky. Whisky that can be produced from corn, wheat or unmalted barley.

Foreshots and feints. Or heads and tails, the impure beginning and end of the second distillation as distinct from the heart, the clear new spirit.

Malting. Barley is steeped in water and germinated. Enzymes convert its starch into fermentable sugars.

Peating. Peat smoke used to varying degrees in Scotch malt whisky aimed at producing characters that contribute to the medicinal, smoky aromas present in many malts.

Pot still. Large copper kettle with narrow neck acting as a catalyst for ester production and improving the clarity of the new spirit.

Scotch Whisky. Only applies to whisky made in Scotland and matured for a minimum of three years in an oak cask in Scotland.

Sherry ageing. Use of sherry butts deemed by a number of malt whisky producers to have a special affinity with Scotch whisky.

Single cask. A bottling from a single cask, as in the case of many cask strength and vintage editions. A cask can be a bourbon barrel (200 litres), barrique (225 litres), a hogshead (250 litres) or a butt or pipe (500 litres).

Single malt. A malt whisky from a single distillery, but not necessarily a single cask.

Still. The vessel in which whisky is distilled, varying in shape and size.

Vatted malt. A blend of malt whiskies from different distilleries.

Vintage Edition. Whisky from an identified year.

Water. It’s ok, normal other than for purists, to dilute malt with a little water to taste, and to release aromas. Use bottled water if your tap water is chloriney.

Wood Finish. The type of cask, be it Sherry, Port, Madeira, Bourbon, wine or ale, in which the whisky finishes its maturation, usually for six months or longer.

The Independent Whisky Top 10

Christmas Barbecues Malt, £54, Scotch Malt Whisky Society (www.smws.co.uk). 55.6 per cent. £135 as part of a trio with Oodles of Aromatics and Hospital Wards and Treacle Toffee.

Of all the malt whiskies with sherry wood finishes, this dark marmalade-coloured Speysider, with 18 years of age, is a connoisseur’s dream, or dram at least, a malt with sweetly beguiling sherry-like aromas of mulled spices and Christmas puddings, ditto on the palate which is dry but contains that palate-stroking streak of smoky sherrywood sweetness. If that’s not good first enough for you, the SMWS has its own descriptors of ‘rich fruitcake, burnt sugar, puff-candy, clove-studded oranges, spiced mulled wine, old leather briefcases and brown sauce on barbecued sausages’. And that’s just the nose.

Highland Park 40 Years Old. 48.3% per cent. £795 - 899, independent specialist whisky merchants.

‘The older the better’, as they say, and this certainly applies to this exceptional Orcadian malt whisky from Highland Park, whose price I must admit I thought must be missing a decimal point. From Kirkwall on Orkney, it’s a clean, focused pale amber golden malt showing no sign of its age, but with a faint sweet medicinal touch and a sea-breezey whiff of iodine and seaweed underlined by background notes of heather, smoke and honey. The palate is indelibly smooth and mellow yet complex, with the power and concentration you’d expect from its decades of evaporation and lingering notes of citrus, nuttiness and spice. An admirable distillation of the Highland Park character, even if like Romanée-Conti, it is one for the investor or oligarch.

The Tyrconnell Single Malt Irish Whiskey, Single Cask. Aged 14 Years. 46 per cent. Around £46 – £50, independent specialist whisky merchants.

Irish single malts are comparatively rare beasts, with Cooley, Ireland’s only independent distilling operation, responsible for Locke’s and The Tyrconnell in addition to Connemara. A pale sandy gold in colour, this complex Irish malt is delicately scented, with undertones of ginger ale, spice and sweet honey while the palate, also comparatively light, is smooth-textured with a citrus fresh oak quality, with an equally delicate finish and a far cry from the peaty smokiness more traditionally associated with Scottish malt whiskies.

Nikka, Yoichi Single Malt Whisky. 10 years Old. 45 per cent. Around £47.95 - £50, independent specialist whisky merchants.

The Sea of Japan air and cold of the coastal village of Yoichi on Japan’s far northern island of Hokkaido makes this classic Japanese malt a ringer for smooth highland malt, a pale golden, clean and concise on the nose, with the sweet wood aromas of autumn bonfires and undertones of liquorice spice and salted caramel combine with a beguiling, lightly peaty earthiness giving way to a smooth, mellow toffee-like sweetness. Clean and approachable, especially considering its relatively high strength.

Woodford Reserve Bourbon. 43.2 per cent. Around £25.99, Waitrose, selected Asda, Wine Rack, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges

Most of the few single malts made in the USA aren’t readily availably in UK but Woodford Reserve is one of the better bourbons, and particularly good at its price point. Labrot & Graham’s Woodford Reserve Distillery in Versailles deep in the heart of Kentucky’s Bluegrass, is home to this bronze-tawny bourbon, an American whiskey with seductive trademark notes of sweet-charred wood, caramel toffee and rum’n raisin following through on the palate with a mellow, coconutty, pruney sweet fruitiness that’s not a million miles from an armagnac. Yee-haw!

Glenmorangie Lasanta, around £28.99, Sainsbury’s Oddbins, Thresher, Morrisons. 46 per cent.

From the wild beauty of the Burgh of Tain in the northern highlands, Glenmorangie (pronounced as in orangey, not Angie), just named Industry Leader of the Year at the Malt Advocate Awards 2008, has done more than any other distillery to try out malts in a variety of wood finishes, with madeira, port, sherry wood finishes and limited edition Nuits-St-Georges. The bronze gold Lasanta , transferred from its bourbon cask into an oloroso sherry cask, has a whiff of sweet wood and lightly smoky peat with an orange zesty undertone, tasting smooth, rich, almost sweet, and carrying a nip of the rancio nuttiness of dry oloroso sherry, meeting cognac somewhere along the way.

Glenfiddich 18 Years Old. 40 per cent. Around £35.99, widely available.

The world’s biggest-selling single malt whisky thanks to its drinkability and Glenfiddich’s policy of expanding its single malt business in the 1960s, Glenfiddich also comes in longer matured malts like this complex and richer 18 Years Old, matured in oloroso and bourbon casks. It’s certainly smooth and mellow, as advertised, with a hint of smokiness and cinnamon and clove-spiced apple, a sweet, rich and mellow palate that’s approachable thanks to it comparatively low strength and a clean dry aftertaste; a very civilized, crowd-pleasing malt.

Strathisla 30 Year Old. 43 per cent. Around £70, independent specialist whisky merchants.

Home to Chivas Regal, one of Scotland’s best blended whiskies, Strathisla’s Speyside malt from Keith is a burnished spun sugar golden colour, with an intriguingly sweet, almost honeyed, beeswaxy nose, demerara sugar character and fruity undertones, an intense beguiling smokiness and fruitcake richness on the palate with plenty of caramel, molasses character and lingering traces of burnt sugar and vanilla and cinnamon spice that takes this smooth Speyside malt at least quarter of the way to a dark rum. One for the swashbuckling, seafaring malt drinker.

Lagavulin 16 Years Old. 43 per cent. Around £38.99, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Oddbins

Based at Port Ellen on Islay, Lagavulin is one of the driest and most robust whiskies with the typically pungently, peat-smoky, sea-salty character of the Scottish islands. Reddish amber gold in colour, this is the smelling salts of malt, a great woodsmoky, peaty beastie whose heady mixture of damp earth, burnt sugar, tar and creosote all rolled into one giant fisherman’s friend liquid lozenge smells and tastes like you’re out at sea, lying in the bottom of a freshly caulked fishing trawler, duly anaesthetized against the squall.

Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 Years Old. 40 per cent. Around £21.99, widely available, reduced to £18.99 at Tesco and Waitrose.

‘A good, aged blend is at least the equal of most malts’, according to Gavin D Smith, contributing editor to www.whisky-pages.com and this is just such a classic, aged, blended whisky. Bronze gold in colour, the Scotch in the iconic square bottle is a cut and a half above the Johnnie Walker Red Label, and considered exceptional value compared to the ultra-premium Blue Label by those in the know. A blend of up to 40 aged single malts and grain whiskies, it has a nice depth of smoky aroma with an earthy touch of peatiness, a smooth, rich, almost sweet palate and fine character for a blended whisky, or ‘complete orchestral tonality’, as Andrew Jefford, author of Peat, Smoke and Spirit, puts it.

All these whiskies, apart from the SMWS, are available at Milroy’s of Soho, London, other independent whisky specialists and wine merchants.