DISTILLED 2.81 TIMES?

 DISTILLED 2.81 TIMES? MORTLACH SHOWS HOW

Mortlach’s main claim to fame, production wise, is as the home of the most fiendishly complex distillation regime in Scotland. Usually when you say triple distilled, you think of a lighter spirit with a delicate profile. The 2.81 actually stands for the precision in the way that it has been distilled.                                                                                                   Noel Moitra

 After founding a monastery on the Isle of Lismore in the 7th century, one St. Moluag went on to found two other prominent monasterial centres and schools of teaching in the land of the Picts at Rosemarkie and Mortlach. The village which sprang up around the latter was named after it, Mortlach. With the building of Dufftown in 1817, the old name fell in abeyance – apart from the distillery, not licenced or registered and hence, illicit.

The Diageo-owned Mortlach distillery, identified today in the format specified by the Scotch Whisky Association as a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky distillery in Dufftown, Moray, Scotland, was founded in 1823 by James Findlater in the wake of the Excise Act. Actually, it was a major upgrade of the older and near-decrepit illicit distillery. Mortlach holds the distinction of being the first legal distillery in Dufftown. After a rocky start with ownership and status changing every few years, it commenced regular whisky production in the 1850s under the management of the future founder of Glenfiddich, William Grant, who left in 1867. Owners George Cowie and John Gordon steered Mortlach to a pre-eminent position as a blending malt, with the former becoming sole owner that very year. It was the only distillery in Dufftown until Glenfiddich was established in 1887.

Although no-one is sure where the unique disparate distillation regime originated other than in the time of George Cowie's son, Dr Alexander Cowie, its adherence to richness and weight singles Mortlach out as one of the distilleries with a robust belief in the older ways of making whisky. Soon, it became known as the Beast of Dufftown.

For the 2.81 distillation, every part of the production process is tailored and calibrated to create Mortlach’s robust, savoury and muscular style. From the short fermentation (53 to 58 hours) through to the still house and the condensers, Mortlach uses worm tub condensers which are only found in fourteen distilleries across Scotland.

Mortlach distillery has 6 stills—3 wash stills and 3 spirit stills. What sets them apart is that all of the stills are different in shape and size and they all work pretty much independently from one another. They don’t work in perfect pairs but create three different spirit characters from the three spirit stills which are then blended to create the house style.

The first of these is the pairing of wash still #3 and spirit still #3 to create a malty distillate. Wash stills 1 and 2 work as a pair, which is unusual. All the runs are split into halves, the heads and the tails. The first half from wash stills 1 and 2 are the low wines and the lighter half. These are run through spirit still #2 which creates a lighter floral distillate.

The heavier half of wash stills #1 and #2 is run through spirit still #2 once but no cuts are taken. Everything that has been through the stills is run through a second time but with the tails from wash stills #1 and #2. The richer half and the heavier half get even richer and more viscous.

If spirit still #1, aka The Wee Witchie, is small and it’s filled high, then it’s a bit of a copper contact. Taking it around twice is not really cleaning it to that same effect, so no cuts are taken. Everything that has gone around that second time is run through a third time with the set of heads from wash stills #1 and #2 because by this point, it has become way too thick and way too viscous. A spirit cut is taken from that.

A spirit cut is then taken from spirit still #1 from every third run. Mortlach use worm tub condensers and the water is cold at 10 degrees, which means as soon as that vapour hits the copper, it turns back into liquid. So when the spirit is in liquid form, the copper cannot do its work, so every part of the production process is calibrated to create this character, and this has been calculated to be 2.81. While the distillation is closer to three than to two, the 2.81 actually stands for the precision in the way that it has been distilled.

In addition to this, all the stills are run relatively speedily with no air rests to rejuvenate the copper and all lyne arms running into cold worm tubs. The result of this complex regime in a copper-starved environment is a building up of sulphur and ‘meatiness’ in the new make spirit, with the ‘dud runs’ on the Wee Witchie providing an extra meaty boost. Although it is aged in a mix of casks, Mortlach’s weight makes it an ideal partner with ex-Sherry casks. This process has formally been accepted as the brainchild of Dr Alexander Cowie in 1896 and is still in use at the distillery to this day.

The distillery itself only really gets interesting once you reach the pot stills, but there are other differences. Whereas the usual grist ratio in most distilleries is 70% grist, 20% husk, and 10% percent flour, Mortlach uses a ratio of 72/20/8. The reason for this, is that they tend to go for a clear wort, which is why they don’t want to add too much flour to the mash tun.

Most distilleries in Scotland produce a cloudy wort. It’s known to result in a spirit with more malty, nutty and spicy notes. With a clear wort though, one is more likely to end up with something fresh and citric-like. Maybe a bit of a lighter style in actuality, which is interesting, since that’s not at all what Mortlach is known for.

Their six wooden wash backs holding 54,000 litres of wort. The low fermentation time is just long enough to reach that secondary fermentation stage, but not quite as long as it takes to get a very fruity, ester-y wash. The Mortlach still house is truly something to behold. All stills have their unique shapes and sizes as stated earlier, complete with the variety of worm tubs that sit outside the still room.

                   

While other meaty spirits exist, like Benrinnes and Dailuaine, none have Mortlach’s weight, meaning that this is a highly-prized base note for blends. As a result, there has been little stock available for single malt bottlings bar the occasional independent bottlings (most notably with Gordon & MacPhail) and small batches of a 16 year-old in Diageo’s Flora & Fauna range, a much-loved whisky with a very loyal following. Mortlach seemed destined to remain a cult malt. Fortunately, a decision to start a core range did come from the owners in 2014 and a Rare Old, Special Strength, (both no-age-statement), 18 year-old, and 25 year-old range was bottled, to be sold out almost immediately. Today, a wide range in this family is available, from 12 to 40 year-old, with the odd NAS bottling. The 16 year-old in Diageo’s Flora & Fauna range from Mortlach seemed destined to remain a cult malt.