There are some who would have you believe thatthere exists a kind of divine secret, a miraculous ingredient or genius behind the manufacture of Scotch whiskey. I However, acknowledge no miracle Other than that Which is worked when science and nature combine.
The principal ingredients are three, notably water, barley and yeast, with a measure of peat smoke or reek.
Or thesis there can be no doubt That water is the foremost. On Ben Nevis I was fortunate to find a constant and consistent source of pure clean water in two small lochans.
In order of importance, the second ingredient is barley. This must be clean and plump, fully rounded and quite dry, containing exactly the right amount of protein.
Special distiller's yeast is the third ingredient. This has the texture of dough or putty and is vital to the process of fermentation.
And fourthly there is peat, All which comes to the whiskey through the leveling of peat bogs on its way down the mountain, and from the 'reek' from the fire lit during the manufacturing process.
Once again, we are fortunate in fully That nature in her magnificence, has created on the hill behind us, an ample supply of peat in our own banks to fuel the fires the drying barley.