Ailsa Bay Launch

MICRO-MATURATION AILSA BAY STYLE

Conventional wisdom would suggest that when it comes to whisky, there is nothing quite new or ground-breaking in the foreseeable future. However, a recently established distillery, Ailsa Bay, built in 2007 in Ayrshire, would imply otherwise.

“WITH AILSA BAY, WE WANTED TO CREATE A VERY HEAVILY PEATED WHISKY WITH ALL OF THE SWEETNESS AND SMOKINESS WE COULD MUSTER, BUT ALSO DIAL DOWN ON SOME OF THE MEDICINAL NOTES THAT CHARACTERISE SOME PEATED WHISKIES,” SAYS PETER GORDON, DIRECTOR OF WILLIAM GRANT & SONS AND GREAT GREAT GRANDSON OF WILLIAM GRANT.

Ailsa Bay is on the same site as the Girvan grain distillery, which was also the site of the Ladyburn distillery, making the Girvan complex a multifunctional operation. A rare thing. Girvan, and Ailsa Bay, are both part of the William Grant & Sons family of independently owned and operated distilleries.

Ailsa Bay malts come from a run that lasts only two weeks, one week for lightly peated and one for heavily peated malts. The rest of the time is devoted to the contribution they make to other blends in the William Grant portfolio. The result is a peated Lowland single malt whisky, a spirit as beautiful, balanced and unique as the brand’s timeless muse, Ailsa Craig - a large rock in the ‘Firth of Clyde’ off the Ayrshire coast, West Scotland, which dominates the distillery’s horizon.

“With Ailsa Bay, we wanted to create a very heavily peated whisky with all of the sweetness and smokiness we could muster, but also dial down on some of the medicinal notes that characterise some peated whiskies,” says Peter Gordon, Director of William Grant & Sons and great great grandson of William Grant.

Part of Ailsa Bay’s single malt whisky production is a unique micro-maturation process. They also include a ‘stated phenol content’, which is 21 parts per million (PPM), but it is measured from the finished liquid, not the dried malted barley. Ailsa Bay’s method is believed to be more accurate. They also have the world’s first SPPM reading – ‘sweet parts per million’, designed by master blender Brian Kinsman, to give an indication to consumers of the level of sweetness they can expect – hopefully an innovation which catches on. Theirs is 11 SPPM, which they believe provides the ideal balance. The process of micro-maturation employed by Ailsa Bay is unique to the whisky industry, although it has been used in the production of Cognac. The spirit just off the still, is then cut to the desired ‘cask strength’ for the maturation (ageing) process. It then goes into ex Hudson Baby Bourbon petit casks, between 25 and 100 litres, for a period of six to nine months, which encourages an intense and quick maturation.

It will then be moved to virgin, first-fill/refill American oak casks for the next few years. Overall, four different types of oak are used for maturation – the Hudson Baby Bourbon casks, first fill Bourbon, refill American oak and new oak. The aged whisky maturates are then married and bottled, without chill filtration, at 48.9% abv.

All of this happens within their multi-functional distillery, something we are likely to see more of due to its success here. The Ailsa Bay distillery produces an approximate annual capacity of twelve million litres on site.

The various different aspects of production of Ailsa Bay will be of considerable interest to aficionados, but what is perhaps most fascinating is that this is a move to a style of whisky not solely or even dominantly determined by location.

“Ailsa Bay Distillery has allowed us to do something extremely special,” says Master Blender Brian Kinsman. “Using our precision distilling methods and a special process for cask maturation, I am able to carefully control the outcome of the whisky. With Ailsa Bay, I took exceptional peated malt and ex Baby Bourbon Hudson casks to create a whisky with a balance of smoke and sweetness, to occupy a new space on the flavour map.”