„Islay. Wyspa Skarbów” – ROBERT MAKŁOWICZ SZKOCJA odc.250

„Islay. Wyspa Skarbów” – ROBERT MAKŁOWICZ SZKOCJA odc.250

Ladies and Gentlemen, at the very beginning of my story about Islay, I wanted to go back to the Middle Ages and tell you a little about the island’s history in those days. And to do that, I had to come here. This is the center of the island, and in that center, we have another island. A tiny one, because it’s Loch Finlaggan, and this island in this loch played an extremely important role for two centuries. Not only for the island itself, but also for all of western Scotland. We’ve all heard of Scottish families, or clans. We know that the woolen fabric and tartans can vary in both color and plaid pattern depending on the family, or clan, but this clan identity dates back to the Middle Ages, and it was here, on this islet, that the Lords of the Isles met. Lords of the Isles, who most often descended from the MacDonald clan. Islands, because we have many islands here. Scotland itself is also an island, but this generally applied to western Scotland, and, moreover, the Scottish crown’s authority over these lands was only hypothetical. This was the most important center of power. Great Britain is full of supposedly ancient ruins, which were actually built in Lord Byron’s time , during the Romantic era, but these are not ruins of that kind. These are truly remnants of the Middle Ages, from the 14th century. These are relics of the Middle Ages, from the 14th century. These are the Lords of the Isles who gathered here, because the assembly on this islet served as a kind of parliament and supreme court. Of course, these were already Christian times, so in this case we have the ruins of a chapel and tombs. From the 14th century. The 14th and 15th centuries saw the power of the MacDonald family. Then they lost their political influence, and their role was taken over by another distinguished Scottish family: the Campbell family. This, my dears, is no longer a dungeon. This is open ocean. A beautiful beach. Machir Bay. I’ll return for a moment to the previous historical narrative. Of course, the rise of the Campbell clan is one thing, and the decline of the MacDonald clan is another, but in reality, the MacDonalds and the Lords of the Isles fell as a result of conflict with the crown— the Scottish crown. This is crucial information. Remember, this was the 15th century, and Great Britain, as a single state, was only established in 1707. Now let’s return to this beach. This is a Mecca for local surfers, but surfing here requires extensive experience. Besides, ordinary civilian swimming is highly discouraged. Not because of the weather or the fact that it’s not very warm here. The point is that since we have open ocean, we have extremely strong currents. It’s a bit windy, but the waves are always huge here, regardless of the wind . They can only get bigger , or even bigger. And unfortunately, because of this, we have many shipwrecks here. Many maritime tragedies. The most famous of these occurred in October 1918, at the very end of World War I. American soldiers were sailing to Europe aboard the British vessel HMS Otranto, but it was here, not near the beach itself, but next to these rocks, that the Otranto collided with another vessel. It ran aground on the rocks. There was a storm, and many American boys perished in the depths of the Atlantic. Either way, the place is gorgeous and unique. Speaking of beaches, this is a beach postcard from Islay. This is Loch Finlaggan, the bay that juts deepest into the island. A place once incredibly important, as it was a natural harbor on three sides, at least partially sheltered from wind and waves, and we’re in the town of Bruichladdich. This is also the name of the distillery I’m standing in front of. Well, many distilleries here are named after the places where they stand and operate. Let’s go inside. Why here? Because I want to show you that whisky is, of course, an alcoholic beverage, but above all, it’s It’s an element of Scottish tradition and culture. It’s the essence of Scottish identity, to put it mildly. It’s Scottish pride, and here, they’ve begun to do something, returning to their roots. But more on that later. We’re starting our tour of the distillery. This is one of the last open mash tun in all of Scotland . This cast iron dates back to the time of Queen Victoria. The 19th century. And now, what’s going on here? Ground barley, ground barley malt to be precise, is poured over with hot water. Three times. The idea is to rinse out all the sugars from the previously germinated vats. And now the liquid is finally separated and continues its journey. We’ll be there shortly, and what’s left is dried. It’s made into pellets, which serve as excellent fodder for the local cattle. We’re in a place where we shouldn’t inhale too strongly, as we have fermentation vats here, some of them open for our photos. So, only malted barley, 72 hours of fermentation, and approximately 7.5 percent alcohol is obtained. And that’s precisely what malted barley means, meaning barley. In the past, when making whisky, you had to be self-sufficient, meaning you had to use products from almost the immediate vicinity, but that began to change. Globalization, and in the 1980s, barley imported from France and the Netherlands began to be used throughout Scotland . But it’s a different barley because the climate is different there, so more sugar, a longer growing season—all of that matters. This distillery decided to use only Scottish barley, and as much of it as possible from the island. About 50% of the barley used here comes from Islay, and this has revived barley cultivation , which was almost extinct here. We have a difficult climate here, making it difficult to grow barley. But this has changed the situation, as it has found imitators, and now we have a product that contains, more than one, most of the ingredients from Islay, and if not from Islay, then from other parts of Scotland. A magnificent, old copper pot still is the perfect place to explain once again, because I’ve already mentioned this in another country where whisky is made, what the term single malt means on the bottle label. Single, meaning all the whisky in the bottle must be from the same distillery. Malt means it’s made exclusively from barley malt. Malt is malt. After all, here in Scotland, single malt whisky must be distilled at least twice. The first distillation is taking place right now, in this huge still, and the second distillation is in the one I was standing next to. Now let’s see what goes into the barrel. There’s another necessary condition for whisky to be single malt: it must mature for at least three years in the barrel. And that’s the heart. The unwanted fractions are called heads or tails. They go here, and what’s most important goes here. The heart of whisky. The cellar, thousands of barrels, all full, because if they were empty, they would dry out. Barrels that previously matured various wines. Sweet ones like port or sherry, but dry ones like those from France or Italy. Finally, cognac barrels, rum barrels. And in all of them, right now, lies local whisky. I have a bottle of The Classic Laddie in front of me, which is unusual by local standards because it’s a single malt, but it’s completely smokeless because it’s not made with peat- smoked barley malt. There’s only one of its kind made on the island, but I want to show you how complex the process is, depending solely on the individual’s palate. The creation of such a bottle, and what will soon be in it, is a challenge. In a glass, you have to mix seven different whiskies. That’s where it comes from. These are all single malts, only they were matured in different barrels. Look, they can have radically different colors. Of course, only barley malt, since they’re single malts, but barley from different origins, so they differ enormously, and now it takes the human palate so that when one batch runs out, you can make another, combining it all again. You combine whiskies straight from the barrel. So, they’re about 60% ABV straight from the barrel. You have to add spring water to it. Of course, not from a bottle like this. I have some of that water here to add a few drops to bring the total to about 50%. And that’s how it happens. Therefore, a very important question. Is this a blended whisky, or a mixed whisky? Because theoretically, we have different types of whisky mixed here. No, because they’re not different types of whisky. It’s all single malt. It’s all from the same distillery. It’s all distilled in pot stills. Blended whisky, then. Most often, they still contain a small amount of barley, especially malt. Various other grains. Yes, whisky is incredibly complex, and the final result is decided by the master distiller, a man. A man. That sounds proud. Also in terms of whisky. And now this. We’ve reached the settlement of Portnahaven. First, we need something to eat. There’s one very traditional, old, and distinguished place here. It’s a pub that also serves food. Many pubs these days not only serve drinks but also food. The name, in Gaelic, “An Tigh Seinnse,” seems to be pronounced that way, and it must be a place with a really good reputation, because a car from Wales is parked directly in front of it, and perhaps Welsh customers are inside. I hope there’s enough room for me too. Before me lies an almost iron trinity of local pub food. Almost, because the Cullen Skink, or smoked haddock soup, is gone, and instead I have a cold dish, but quite good. It’s a salad with crabmeat. Made with local crab, of course. Sweet as a youthful kiss. These are scallops. Scallops fried in garlic butter. We’ll soon see how much garlic there is and whether they’re overcooked. I can already tell by the texture that they aren’t. Divine. I’ll have to deal with scallops today. And fries. Cut in that characteristic local way. Same here. This is fish and chips, or fried haddock. And of course, I’m talking about fries, and we have vinegar for drizzling. We have touching peas and tartar sauce. An old, very traditional place. And here, I think of a joke, a perfect one, in my opinion. About how the Germans trained a perfect agent during World War II . He spoke King’s English, and after being dropped into Great Britain, he walks into a pub like this, dressed in a Harris Tweed jacket and Church of London shoes, and in his impeccable accent says, ” Two martinis , please.” What does the bartender say? A dry martini? What does the agent say? ” Nein scheisse, zwei martini.” But you know, that’s not far from the truth. I read accounts in Schellenberg’s of excellent German agents who spoke excellently. They were dropped because, for example, those dropped into Great Britain went to the pub and demanded a beer before noon. And someone immediately said, “Hello?” John, we have guys like that here, or they coughed terribly while puffing on Player’s Navy Cut cigarettes, and they weren’t used to Virginias, only their Junos. So you know how to train a good agent. You have to consider everything. I’ve considered everything, so now I’m focusing on my beloved haddock. Crispy, very crispy. Now it’s time for a few words about the town itself. Portnahaven has been a fishing settlement for centuries, and once upon a time, local seafarers were mainly engaged in herring fishing, but back then, it all looked a bit different. I’m talking about the houses and the layout of the town, but back in the 18th century, one of the Campbell clan members gave it that very characteristic form. White facades, street layout. But regardless of what happened to the buildings in the local cove, seals still bask on the rocks here. If the sun is shining, and if it’s not, they just rest, and since 1825, the place has boasted a distinctive lighthouse. Importantly, its designer was a certain Robert Stevenson, and Robert Stevenson was the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson. The one behind Treasure Island, or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And so life goes on here. One pub, seals, a lighthouse. Visually, little has changed since the 18th century. What ingredients do you need to make malt whisky? Well, as the name suggests, you need malt. Barley grew and still grows here on the island. So, in this case, it’s barley malt, but to make malt, you have to soak the grains. They have to germinate, and then they have to dry them. Normally, elsewhere, the heat of burning wood is often used to dry malt, but as you can see, there are almost no trees here. So they coped, and still do, in a different way. What is there in abundance? Well, what I’m standing by. I’m standing by a beautiful heather bush, which still has its magnificent colors here and there. Yes, it’s heathland, but if it is heathland, it means there’s peat underneath, and it’s this peat that was first extracted here and used to dry the malt. This gives the local whisky an incredibly distinctive, incomparable, smoky, or more technically, tarry aroma. This is one of the secrets of Islay whisky, although of course there are exceptions to this tarry aroma . The local whisky is also unique because of the water used to produce it. We’re on a farm called Octomore, and here we have a stream of the same name. Octomore, but it’s not this stream that’s crucial to the whisky. The most important thing is what this cottage hides. There, in fact, flows a deep spring. What a surprise. Also called Octomore, and it’s the water from this spring that is one of the most important components of whisky. One of the local whiskies, but every distillery must have such a source to make good whisky. Of course, there are different sources. Deep water is plentiful here. Well, this particular spring not only springs from deep within the earth, but no one really knows where this water comes from. Probably somewhere on the Scottish mainland. In any case, this water is unique because it has an extremely low mineral content, and the presence of minerals in the water affects its taste. The fewer minerals in the water, the more neutral the taste. And that’s ideal. And not just for whisky production. If we brew tea, we have separate tea blends for Scotland . I saw it myself in a store. It said “perfect, perfect tea bags for brewing tea in Scottish water.” Why? Well, because the taps here also have low mineral content, and in such conditions, the tea leaves develop perfectly and reveal their full richness of flavor. The idea is for the water to be just a background, not a dominant feature. It’s the same thing you can observe with Making spritzers. If you take regular soda water and add it to wine , you get the taste of that wine. Only slightly diluted, but if you take mineral water, very strong, salty, sweetish, and mineralized, a completely different flavor is created. A flavor that clashes with the natural flavor of the wine. And the same is true in whisky production. If it were highly mineralized water, its flavor would be present in the final product, in the drink, but in this case , it’s just a necessary element that doesn’t disrupt the overall composition. This is the town of Port Charlotte. How typical and beautiful. Typical of the local landscapes. So here, in this beautiful place, I wanted to show you something also typical of the local whisky. It’s really about the style that is widely known and associated with Islay. We’ve already seen the peat bogs, and although you also know that there are whiskies on the island made without smoking the malt with peat smoke, this method is the hallmark of Islay, and I have two whiskies here that fall into this category. Two, but so different from each other. This one is named after the town I’m in, Port Charlotte, and this one after the source you already know, Octomore. Now, what’s the difference? We need to understand what happens during the smoking process. Phenols are created in this malt, and the amount of these phenols in the smoked malt, in the smoked material, is measured using a special scale called PPM . And you can choose between two things. And here’s an example of those two things. You can want to make a whisky that’s consistently consistent. You make whisky every year, and the goal is for it to taste the same year after year. So how do you do that with whisky, where the malt is smoked, when one smoking can differ from another, and the phenols can be higher or lower? You have to standardize, and then you add unsmoked malt to the peat-smoked malt. How much? As much as necessary to achieve the same flavor, the same aroma, the same bouquet. And if we’re standardizing, we want a specific alcohol content. So, this product in barrels, once it’s bottled , water is added to achieve the exact voltage needed. And that’s the style. Port Charlotte. The same whisky every year. And that nose already tells us perfectly where we are. It tells us we’re right here on Islay. Yes, there’s the aroma of smoke, the smell of black tobacco, Kentucky, for example, and, speaking of stimulants, a hint of railway sleepers. That’s the smell of the tracks. I remember it from my childhood, walking along the now-closed railway tracks, and those tarred wooden sleepers gave off a similar aroma. It’s something I adore. And in the mouth, we have roundness and smoothness, but we also have a second version with the least human interference. This is Octomore. Octomore is different every year. Every year, because in this case, humans interfere as little as possible with what nature gives it, meaning the amount of phenols in a given harvest, at a given chill, that’s how much is left. Furthermore, there’s no standardization in terms of alcohol content, so it’s 60-something proof, that’s how much there is. This whisky is different every year. And that’s a real mystery. How wonderful it is to be able to open the same bottle from different vintages and enjoy a certain difference in taste. Surprise. Nature. What nature gives us. And honestly, in this case, the nose is a bit less smoky than with the first one I tried. But the mouth is stronger. It’s such a savage place, but look at this landscape. Vikings used to come here. Well, whisky didn’t exist back then, but it arrived not long after from Ireland. Aqua vitae. Wonderful stuff. Wild and unpredictable. How fitting it is to the surroundings. It turns out we have quite a grand kitchen here in our island home, so it’s the perfect place to show you how to use three incredibly important Scottish ingredients in the kitchen, not only here but anywhere else . I have them all, and now you’ll see them too. Firstly, black pudding. Secondly, scallops. Beautiful from this morning’s catch. Without the shells, of course, but with those pearls that have a very intense marine flavor. And thirdly, what’s in the glass: whisky. Peaty, very peaty, because in the style characteristic of the islands. And now, my dears, a very simple and yet very sophisticated dish. We start by heating one of the pans to the maximum. Now, add a little olive oil to this pan. A little butter. And now, you see, thanks to the induction’s inertia, it’s starting to heat up. Now what do you need to do? You need to sear the black pudding slices on both sides over high heat. The seared black pudding has a crispy crust on both sides, and I’ll put it in the oven in a moment, but I need to start working on the other pan. This pan will only need a little olive oil and more butter this time, because what’s in it will also be part of the sauce. And now you can… No, this is the burner. You can turn the heat up to full. By “fire,” I mean the induction power, and now that’s where the scallops will be fried. What’s the point of frying scallops, or “scallops”? The point is to fry them over the highest possible heat, for the shortest possible time. And that’s about to happen. The butter has melted, it’s already hot. So I put it in. It sizzles. Beautiful. 30 seconds on one side, 30 seconds on the other. And that’s about enough time for me to put the pan in the oven. 100 degrees Celsius. The point is to keep the black pudding warm. Now I think it’s time to flip the scallops over. A little salt, a little pepper, and something to give them some flavor. Since it’s not gas, I’ll have to resort to a lighter. Namely, whiskey. And now, I quickly go to the stove, take out a very warm plate. Quickly, I place the scallops on the warm plate. They won’t cool down. Now the action is going to be very, very quick. There are a lot of beautiful things left in the pan. I’m talking about flavor, so now for a little lemon juice. Now let it boil for a while and let those beautiful things pull away from the bottom. And now for the double cream, which is thick, sweet cream and a little whiskey, a reduction. Of course, season the sauce with salt and pepper at the end. If I were at a restaurant, I’d have to strain the sauce, because there were some bits of the bits that stuck to the pan. This has a lot of flavor, but I’m not at a restaurant, so you can do it as I’m about to, so now add salt and pepper, and in a moment the dish will be served. We have everything. Lightning fast. Now, first, we take a little of this sauce. And what a wonderful reduction it is. Thick. And then we make this artistic smear on the plate, but not all of it, because now, stand here, we place slices of black pudding on this. Let’s say three. And now we take a little of that and put another little bit of that aromatic sauce on each slice. It’s really incredibly simple. A little smoky whiskey, a lot of double cream, a little butter, a little lemon juice, salt, pepper, and you have a sauce that’s delicious. And now, stand here, and now On each slice of black pudding, oh please don’t move, please don’t move, we place one scallop, one for example. And look, that’s basically it. If you order it in a pub or restaurant setting, here as a second course, it sometimes comes with a mashed potato, or a turnip mashed potato, or a celeriac mashed potato, but we have everything you need here. And now the inside. Let it reveal its inner core. See? It’s not overdone. And a little bit of black pudding, a little bit of that highly concentrated sauce. My hands are shaking with excitement. Oh yes. Good. We were supposed to stay on the island another day, but today, around midday, news came that an orange weather alert will be in effect starting tomorrow and a hurricane will blow. It’s probably a clash of two fronts. Look at how we have a battle of good and evil in the sky here . We have dark clouds, but the sun is also shining through. These two fronts, incidentally, are at the meeting point of various ocean currents that destabilize the weather. After all, we have the Gulf Stream, which warms the climate and means that even in the middle of winter, temperatures rarely drop below freezing, but also cold currents, and they meet nearby. These cold Atlantic currents and the Gulf Stream cause it to rain very often here. It’s never extremely cold, but it’s chilly almost constantly. And sometimes there are hurricanes. Which is exactly what’s supposed to happen tomorrow. And if a hurricane blows, the plane won’t take off, the ferry won’t leave, so we won’t get out of Scotland on time at all . That’s why we’re returning today. We’re cutting our stay short. So, it’s time to summarize our stay in Scotland, but above all, on Islay. This, my dears, is a beautiful place, and I’m incredibly glad I could be here, because I truly dreamed of it. A place unspoiled by man. A place full of magnificent wildlife. A place where people make the most of what nature has to offer. Wonderful water, barley, and therefore whisky. Evergreen pastures, and therefore sheep, and therefore local cattle, and the small number of people here live in constant contact with this beauty. They are simply a part of it. It is humanity here that has adapted to nature, rather than altered it, and that is the most wonderful thing about this place.

W tym odcinku pokażemy, jak wygląda szkocka wyspa Islay. Zobaczymy jej miasteczka, plaże i zatoki, pastwiska oraz torfowiska, przyjrzymy się też z bliska najsłynniejszej rzeczy na wyspie wytwarzanej, whisky. Wejdziemy do jednej z destylarni, by przyjrzeć się procesowi produkcji, podejrzymy, jak whisky dojrzewa, wyjaśnimy, co oznacza termin “single malt”, opowiemy w końcu, co jest niezbędne, aby tamtejsza whisky powstała. Dla gotujących przepis na przegrzebki z kaszanką w sosie z dodatkiem whisky.

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