CHAPTER 7 WHISKIES

 CHAPTER 7: AN INDEPENDENT BOTTLER OF SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY

Swiss independent bottling brand Chapter 7 was created in 2014 by Selim Evin, who was inspired by his Scottish grandfather’s passion for whisky. The brand started its journey bottling lesser-known single malt Scotch whiskies, though has now branched out and included Irish whiskeys and grain whiskies from Scotland. Their first releases under the Monologue, Anecdote and Chronicle ranges came in May 2020 and they opened their bottling facility in Glasgow in August 2022. 

Chapter 7 was inspired by Shakespeare's vision which recounts the seven ages of man. Chapter 7 paralleled these seven ages of man with the way in which whisky changes its personality through the influence of wood over the years.

A measure of whisky is a story. It speaks of the distillery that produced it, the cask that matured it and the experience of the people who selected it. A whisky can be youthfully exuberant, resonant in and of itself and a finish that can be surprising. Chapter 7 is using whisky to write an anthology, and every edition is a new chapter.

Chapter 7 Whisky is an Independent Bottler. They don’t make whisky, they discover it. We go hunting through various vaults and cellars of distilleries and brokers across Scotland to find unique, one-off whiskies. They find exceptional casks that mature extraordinary whiskies. That’s because a cask of whisky is a living and breathing thing. Air moves in and out of the cask. The whisky’s flavour evolves and changes as it matures in the oak. Ageing adds character. And they find the best characters to bottle.

They buy single casks that cannot and will not be reproduced, meaning what goes into a Chapter 7 bottle is always special. They also hunt for casks on behalf of clients who would like their own unique whisky chapter. They find a suitable cask, bottle it and have it sent anywhere in the world.

Literature inspired their brand. As an independent bottler, they compile the best casks of whisky in their Whisky Anthology. Each new cask and edition adds a unique chapter to this Anthology. Street signs inspired their typography. They use Transport font, which is the official typography used on road signs in the UK. Cask end prints and distillery names painted on the outer walls of Scotland's iconic distilleries inspired their label design.

Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man monologue from ‘As You Like It’ inspired their name. In the speech, A man goes plays seven parts over his life. A man is a dependent infant, a learning schoolboy, an emotional lover, a devoted soldier, a wise judge and a clueful pensioner before finally returning to the earth. Like a man, whisky ages and changes as it matures.

MONOLOGUE: SINGLE-CASK WHISKIES

No two casks are the same. Even whiskies distilled from the same distillery on the same day, are unique. They have their own stories to tell.

A single cask takes the stage in The Monologue Series from Chapter 7 Whisky. A Monologue whisky is a unique expression. It tells the story of the distillery that produced the whisky and the cask where it matured. There will never be a repeat performance; when all the bottles are sold there will never be any more. They usually bottle their Monologue whiskies at cask strength. But sometimes they discover a younger malt that reveals itself at a lower strength.

HIGHLAND PARK  8 Year Old | 70cl | 52.8% ABV

Whitlaw is Highland Park's specially distilled spirit for blenders and independent bottlers. With its vibrant colour and striking notes, this single red wine cask dram is a pleaser for Orkney malt lovers – think pepper, peach syrup and cherries.

DISTILLERY	HIGHLAND PARK	£89.95
Series / Description	Whitlaw Chapter 7 Single Cask
Cask No	#177
Vintage	2006
Year Bottled	2022
Age	8 year old
Alcohol ABV	52.8 %
Cask Strength	Yes
Cask Wood Type	Wine
Cask Number	177
Single Cask	Yes
Number Bottled	314
Packaging	Original Box
Bottler	Chapter 7
Country of Origin	Scotland
Stopper	Cork
Bottle Type	Dumpy
Bottle Size	70cl
Neck Level	Full Level

 FETTERCAIRN:  11 Year Old | 70cl | 51.6% ABV

This traditional Highland distillery set in the foothills of the wild Cairngorm Mountains was once owned by the father of British Prime Minister Gladstone.

Fettercairn has a traditional distillery set-up with an open-topped mash tun (producing cloudy wort), wooden washbacks and small stills. There are even soap grinders on the sides of the wash stills. These would have been used to add non-perfumed soap as a surfactant to stop the stills from boiling over.

Everything points to a firm, quite heavy, nutty style. This was accentuated between 1995 and 2009 when the condensers were made of stainless steel. This added a slightly burnt, pot ale character to the new make. However, a quirky cooling ring attached to the top of the swan neck, which sprays cold water down the sides of the still, aids reflux and helps the spirit lean toward a lighter style.

Owned by Whyte & Mackay, it was mainly a contributor to the firm’s blends; It has long been bottled as a single malt. A more concerted effort started in 2009 when a range of aged variants and a pair of no-age bottlings, Fior and Fasque (the name of the Fettercairn estate), was released. In 2018 Fettercairn was relaunched by Whyte & Mackay with a new range of single malts aged between 12 and 50 years old.

The single malt is aged mostly in first-fill American oak – some new wood is also in the mix – to add a balancing sweetness, with some older expressions finished in fortified wine casks.

DISTILLERY	FETTERCAIRN	£89.95
Series / Description	Chapter 7 - Single Cask
Vintage	2011
Year Bottled	2022
Age	11 year old
Alcohol ABV	51.6 %
Cask Strength	Yes
Cask Wood Type	Bourbon
Cask Number	1409
Single Cask	Yes
Number Bottled	349
Packaging	Original Box
Bottler	Chapter 7
Country of Origin	Scotland
Stopper	Cork
Bottle Type	Dumpy
Bottle Size	70cl
Neck Level	Full Level

Product Description

Nose: Jaffa cakes, muesli, bananas and Earl Grey tea.
Palate: Gingerbread, biscuits, pepper, cinnamon mints, leather and chartreuse.
Finish: Seville oranges, green walnuts in a leathery aftertaste.

GLENROTHES 14 Year Old | 70cl | 52% ABV

Glenrothes whisky, from the Glenrothes distillery- a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky distillery- is renowned for its quality, structure and flavour, the result of over 140 years of whisky-making tradition. Since its opening, the whisky from the distillery has been one of the most sought-after on Speyside. In 2018, The Glenrothes 25-Year-Old was awarded the Ultimate Spirits Challenge top honour, the Chairman's Trophy for Best Speyside Single Malt.

In a word, Glenrothes is complex. It is a slow whisky that takes time to mature because of its weight. It also needs longer than most to open up in the glass. This notion of time and speed is central to its production.

Mashing is speedy, while fermentation in a mix of steel and wood is on the shorter side. A ratio of two wood to one steel balances any differences in character, while the length of the fermentation introduces a cereal note beneath the fruit. Distillation, however, is long in very tall stills with boil bulbs which help to maximise reflux and allow the full range of Glenrothes’ complexities to be teased out.

The bulk is then aged in ex-Sherry casks (European and American) which again necessitates lengthy maturation. Ex-Bourbon is also used. The result is a multifaceted single malt which combines nuts and fruits with a distinctly sweet spiciness.

When it was amalgamated with Bunnahabhain in 1887, it brought Highland Distillers into existence. Glenrothes was immediately marked out as top-class blending material, its most notable destinations being Cutty Sark and The Famous Grouse.

In 1987, its long relationship with Cutty Sark brought Glenrothes into the portfolio of London wine merchants Berry Brothers & Rudd (which owned 50% of the Cutty brand). Soon, Berrys repackaged the single malt and began releasing expressions as vintages rather than standard age statements. The Vintage 2004 is considered the last known vintage to be bottled by the distillery.

In 2018, The Glenrothes replaced its vintage range with a series of age-statement single malts that included a 10, 12, 18 and 25 Year Old. These smaller single-year batches allowed Berrys to express different aspects of the whisky’s evolution during maturation (rather than differences between flavours from year to year).

DISTILLERY	GLENROTHES	£99.95
Series / Description	Chapter 7 - Single Sherry Cask
Vintage	2008
Year Bottled	2022
Age	14 year old
Alcohol ABV	52 %
Cask Strength	Yes
Cask Wood Type	Sherry
Cask Number	6839
Single Cask	Yes
Number Bottled	647
Packaging	Original Box
Bottler	Chapter 7
Country of Origin	Scotland
Stopper	Cork
Bottle Type	Dumpy
RRP	99.95
Neck Level	Full Level

 Product Description

This is the first Glenrothes cask for Chapter 7. Distilled in 2008, the whisky enjoyed a 14 year maturation in a single sherry butt.

Nose: Walnuts, marmalade, quince jelly, almonds, toasted dark bread, chocolate.
Palate: Tangerines, walnut honey, pears, expresso with milk, candied cherries.
Finish: Sweet, café au lait, malt.

KNOCKDHU: 16 Year Old | 70cl | 51.5% ABV

This is the first time Chapter 7 released a Knockdhu as a single cask. A great example of how a cask influences whisky; a peated malt has been tempered to evolve into a rustic dram with earthy notes of orange marmalade and smoky resins.

This Speyside single malt Scotch whisky is a mix of the old and new. The mash tun has a lauter system, but the washbacks are wooden, while the distillate is condensed in worm tubs. The new make is heavily sulphury as little reflux is encouraged in the stills, but when that cooked vegetable element both flies off and is absorbed into palate weight, the dominant character is citric and intense. Fresh and vibrant when young, its weight allows it to mature well. In recent years, a heavily peated variant has been made.

1877 saw the founding of Distillers Company Limited [DCL], Diageo today. In 1893, it made its first move out with its Lowland grain heartland and built a distillery next to the village of Knock, just outside Keith. Mothballed up to 1983, its ownership passed to Inver House in 1988, who soon had a single malt on the market. This was called anCnoc, rather than the distillery name, which Inver House felt was too similar to the already established Knockando.

An anCnoc range has been established, with 12, 16 and 21-year-old expressions at its core, supported by annual vintage releases.

DISTILLERY	KNOCKDHU	£ 164.95
Series / Description	Heavily Peated Chapter 7
Vintage	2006
Year Bottled	2022
Age	16 year old
Alcohol ABV	51.5 %
Cask Strength	Yes
Cask Wood Type	Bourbon
Cask Number	#6
Single Cask	Yes
Number Bottled	647
Packaging	Original Box
Bottler	Chapter 7
Country of Origin	Scotland
Stopper	Cork
Bottle Type	Dumpy
Bottle Size	70cl
Neck Level	Full Level

Product Description

This is the first Knockdhu cask for Chapter 7. Distilled in 2006, the whisky enjoyed a 16 year maturation in a single bourbon butt.

Knockdhu distillery malts are released under AnCnoc brand and the first time they are releasing a Knockdhu single cask edition. Peat is prominent in the first 10-12 years of a malt's life. It evolves into rustic notes as it ages older and retires to the background. This cask is a great example of peat evolution.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Minerals, ashy, roasted almond, coffee beans, hint of caramel.
Palate: Dark roasted Arabica, earthy, orange marmalade, smoky resins.
Finish: Black tea with lemon, roasted, caramelised cane sugar and citrus.

JURA  Chapter 7 Single Cask 21 Year Old | 70cl | 55.1% ABV

This is a lovely coastal expression from Jura. Aged for 21 years in a single ex-bourbon hogshead, this bottling brings out the distillery's character. Oily in texture and with a gentle smokiness, there are notes of green apples, quinces and salted caramel.

Starting 1810, this Islands distillery went through a number of names: Craighouse, Small Isles, Caol nan Eilean and Jura without garnering any great fame until 1901 when it was among many to close in whisky’s first great sales slump.

It might be reasonably assumed that Jura would make a peaty whisky. After all, the island is smothered in the stuff. It was, however, built in the 1960s with backing from a major blender, Mackinlay, and at that time light whisky was what was needed. Jura, therefore, conformed to the requirements of the market.

In 1963, two of the island’s landowners, Robin Fletcher and Tony Riley-Smith, decided to start whisky-making once more, with financial backing from Leith-based blender Charles Mackinlay & Co. A large, modern distillery was built which was further expanded in 1978 to its current size. In 1985, Invergordon Distillers bought Mackinlay and from there the firms were folded into Whyte & Mackay.

Inside, Jura is a classic 1960s distillery – large rooms, a clear flow from a semi-lauter tun, stainless steel washbacks, and a capacious stillhouse with very tall (7.7m) stills with a capacity of more than 20,000 litres. Clearly, it was not built solely to satisfy the thirst of the local populace. Relatively short ferments give Jura background rigidity – meaning that this whisky needs time (or active casks) to open fully. 

It began being sold as a single malt in 1974, and the range has grown steadily since. The start of peating saw some smoky whisky being included in the no-age Superstition brand, launched in 2002, while a 100% smoked Prophecy was released in 2009.

In 2018, Jura underwent a radical revamp, introducing a completely new range of whiskies with a lightly smoky character, from the entry-level NAS expression Jura Journey through 10-, 12- and 18-year-old malts, plus Jura Seven Wood. Further expressions, including Jura Time and Jura Tide, have been launched into travel retail.

DISTILLERY	JURA	£179.95
Series / Description	Chapter 7 Single Cask #2144
Vintage	1998
Year Bottled	2020
Age	21 year old
Alcohol ABV	55.1 %
Cask Strength	Yes
Cask Wood Type	Bourbon
Cask Number	2144
Single Cask	Yes
Number Bottled	284
Packaging	Original Box
Bottler	Chapter 7
Country of Origin	Scotland
Stopper	Cork
Bottle Type	Standard
Bottle Size	70cl
Neck Level	Full Level

Product Description

Oily in texture and with a gentle smoky and maritime character, this grassy and fruity Jura bottling really brings out the distillery's character.

Official Tasting Notes

Nose - Grassy fruitiness, fresh herbs, green tea, warm brioche and bread.
Palate - Wonderfully fruity with big notes of oranges, green apples and quinces, salted caramel.
Finish - Long grassy with liquorice in the aftertaste.

Tobermory - Chapter 7 Single Cask 1994 28-Year-Old Scotch Whisky

Tobermory distillery was established as Ledaig in 1798 by John Sinclair but like many small sites, it became an on-and-off entity, with various owners. Its owner, Burn Stewart (now part of South African giant Distell), purchased it in 1993 to open the distillery. In January 2017 Distell announced a major refurbishment plan for the distillery, which would force its closure for two years from 31 March. It is regularly pushing out its products as of today.

The Tobermory Single Malt is distilled from unpeated malted barley and matured in oak casks for at least ten years. The water for the distillery comes from a private loch near to the Mishnish lochs. The branding had needed to be clarified under previous owners, with the Tobermory brand being used for both a single malt and a blended whisky.

Mull's only Scotch whisky distillery produces both peated and unpeated whisky for use in the Black Bottle and Scottish Leader blends and for Ledaig and Tobermory single malts. Ledaig is a purely peated single malt, and a heavily-peated one at that. Their portfolio consists of two permanent expressions, a 10-year-old and an 18-year-old, both of which are non-chill-filtered and bottled at 46.3% ABV in the same fashion as their Tobermory siblings. Tobermory has 21, 23 and 25 YO expressions as well.

The fermentation time is relatively short, but it is the unusually shaped stills which lie at the heart of the Tobermory style. They have both boil bulbs and a strange S-shaped kink in their lyne arms, all of which increase reflux.

DISTILLERY	TOBERMORY	£369.95
Description	Chapter 7 Single Cask
Vintage	1994
Year Bottled	2022
Age	28 year old
Alcohol ABV	52 %
Cask Strength	Yes
Cask Wood Type	Bourbon
Cask Number	381005
Single Cask	Yes
Number Bottled	253
Packaging	Unboxed
Bottler	Chapter 7
Country of Origin	Scotland
Stopper	Cork
Bottle Type	Dumpy
Bottle Size	70cl
Neck Level	Full Level

 Product Description

Tobermory is a diverse distillery with peated Ledaig and unpeated Tobermory spirit flowing out of its stills. In the last couple of years, Chapter 7 has been bottling both and experimenting with Ledaig in their blended malts.

Tasting Notes:

Nose: Fresh half-cooked baguette, ale, muesli, wet rocks, flower honey
Palate: Natural barley sweetness, apple juice, honey, Turkish Delight and sweet caramelised condensed milk.
Finish: Peppery, waxy, citrus rinds and dried herbs.

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