Character Counts: Distilling Processes

The Character (of a person, or of a whisky) is the combination of strong and good potential, and the strong and good implementation of this potential.

Whisky character therefore depends on high quality ingredients, high quality implementation of whisky-making methodology, high quality equipment (including malting, kilning, milling, distillation and condensation), and high quality casks. In other words, great whisky requires great ingredients and great skill!

For this Scotch tasting, we will focus on some character-creating influences on the whisky, including: temperature and speed of distillation, direction of the lyne arm, number of times it’s distilled, height and shape of the stills, the type of condenser, condensation temperature, fill level in the still, use of a purifier, and ‘cut’ (the portion of the still run where they keep the spirit). All of these factors influence the amount of copper contact, which determines the character of the spirit.

In other words, we will totally geek out on whisky subtleties that will make your head spin! But the results of this geeking out are some truly great whiskies, which we will taste!

Auchentoshan 12-yr (40% ABV)

Glenmorangie 18-yr (43% ABV)

Glen Grant 15-yr (50% ABV)

Mortlach 16-yr (43.4%)

Benrinnes 15-yr (54.2%)

Ardbeg Corryvreckan (57.1% ABV)

$33 for Members - $48 for Non-members, plus $2 fee per ticket for online ordering

Monday, April 8th, 2024

At the Wisconsin Club - 8:00 p.m. Following the members’ meeting.

900 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee (enter the parking lot from 10th Street)