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The sugar-rich wort is fermented in a vessel called a washback to produce the wash. The fermentation process can also add flavor, since a shorter fermentation will produce a wash with more malt character, and a longer fermentation will produce a yeastier result, since the yeast will eventually begin to break down, yielding an autolytic note.
The wash is usually distilled twice, although sometimes a third distillation is performed. The first distillation is carried out in the “wash still”, and the result of this distillation is referred to as low-wines, with about 30% ABV. The quantity of low wines obtained is about two-thirds of the initial charge.
These low-wines are redistilled in the “spirit still” to produce what is called British Plain Spirits or “new make”, which is only 17 – 20% of the distillate. New make cannot be described as Scotch whisky until the spirits have been aged for three years. As with Cognac, the heads and tails, here called the foreshots and feints, are either discarded or added back into the low wines. The part retained in called “the middle cut” or “the heart of the run”, and comes off the still between 75% – 60% ABV.
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Wine Regions of the World
