Cu Bocan is a whisky that really helps to open up the world of lightly peated Scotch.— Photos: Handout
Do you like peated Scotch whisky? Then Cù Bòcan is for you. Have you yet to acquire a taste for peated whiskies? Then Cù Bòcan is also for you.
Produced in just one week every year at the Tomatin Distillery, Cù Bòcan is an experimental, lightly-peated Highland single malt Scotch whisky that celebrates the subtleties of smoke and perfectly balanced sweetness, while exploring innovative finishes to create whiskies full of intrigue and surprise.
But first things first. how do you pronounce Cù Bòcan?
"It's pronounced 'Coo Bawch-can'," explains Scott Adamson, whisky blender and global ambassador for the brand, during a recent interview in Kuala Lumpur.
Cu Bocan is distilled only once a year, during the last week of production at the Tomatin Distillery.
"It means 'Ghost Dog' in Scottish Gaelic ('Cù' is dog, and 'Bòcan' is ghost), and it's named after a mythical creature that supposedly haunts the village of Tomatin, where the whisky is made."
According to Adamson, Cù Bòcan is a lightly peated whisky that is made at Tomatin Distillery only one week of every year in winter time, which makes it one of the distillery’s most unique whiskies. And though it is very different from the light, fruity style of Tomatin itself, Cù Bòcan’s DNA actually goes way back to the early days of the distillery itself.
“Whisky at Tomatin up to the 1960s was lightly peated, because it was the only fuel source available at the time,” Adamson explains. “But it was different from what you normally expect from peated whisky today, because at the time, using peat wasn’t about the smoky flavor, but rather, it was a necessity.”
Then in the early 2000s, the distillery manager at the time, Douglas Campbell, noticed that the price of peated whisky was increasing.
“So, in the last week of the year 2005, he took a batch of lightly peated barley and produced his own peated whisky. The intention was that it would be used for blending,” Adamson explained.
Pronounced 'Coo Bawch-can', the name Cu Bocan means 'Ghost Dog' in Scottish Gaelic.
Campbell, however, had been working at Tomatin for over 50 years at that point, and the peated spirit he made at the time would have been very similar to the style of whisky that he had worked on in his earlier days at the distillery.
“So, for whatever reason, he decided to lay it down in really good casks. Not the refill casks that we would have typically used for blending at the time, but bourbon, virgin oak, and sherry casks,” Adamson said.
“And then in 2013, we launched Cù Bòcan. The original product, which is now Cù Bòcan Signature, made use of those bourbon, virgin oak and sherry casks, so in many ways, that's our original creation.”
Since then, every year, during the last one or two weeks of production before the distillery shuts down for the Christmas holidays, they take one batch of lightly peated barley and distill it.
“We distill it in the dead of winter, when the water is colder, so through the condensers, that helps make an oilier whisky. And the result of that is this spirit that is surprisingly sweet, but also has this subtle smoke throughout it,” Adamson explains.
The Cu Bocan Signature is the core expression of the brand, mature in Oloroso sherry, virgin North American oak, and bourbon casks.
But making Cù Bòcan isn’t just about using peated barley in place of unpeated ones. Adamson explains that when they make Cù Bòcan, they try to do something different with every step of the process.
“It’s not just a case of using peated barley, which of course is the first step. We also have a shorter fermentation, so you're getting more flavour from the barley rather than the esters,” he explains, adding that they also use a wider distillation cut, which captures more of the spirit, allowing some of the more phenolic characteristics to come through.
They've also experimented with different barley strains, and yeast as well, including Japanese sake yeast and Australian wine yeast, among others.
“At Cù Bòcan, we're looking at doing things differently. The way I like to think of it is that for one week a year, we have a new distillery. It's the same staff and the same machinery, but the way they're using the machinery is different for that one week, every year," Adamson says.
"When you walk into the distillery during that last week before Christmas, you can smell it in the air – there's this undeniable, smoky element in there.”
Cu Bocan is a lightly peated whisky that is perfectly suited as an introduction to peated whiskies.
Last but not least, Cù Bòcan also applies a very modern approach to maturation to its spirit.
“Cù Bòcan is our experimental range. Tomatin is our traditional Highland single malt whisky, but Cù Bòcan allows us to have a little bit more of an innovative approach,” Adamson says.
“We have one core product at the moment, which is the Cù Bòcan Signature, and it’s available all the time. Last year, we launched a 15 Year Old, which will be an annual release of just 3000 bottles each year, and is fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks.”
"But beyond that, we have the Creations. Every year, we fill the spirit into a different type of wood, and we’re now at the point where we have about 50 different types of casks holding Cù Bòcan. And that allows us to create whiskies in styles which people have never seen before," he says.
The Cu Bocan Signature is currently the only expression available in Malaysia, with more to come in the future.
Sometimes that could be using a cask type that has never been used before. For instance, Creation #1 married spirit matured in ex-Moscatel wine casks with spirit from imperial stout beer casks; Creation #2 used Japanese shochu casks; and the latest Creation #5 is the first single malt scotch whisky to be matured in virgin Colombian oak casks made from trees that grew in the Andes Mountains, along a chain of volcanoes in Colombia.
“Cù Bòcan allows us to approach flavour differently from Tomatin. Even our core Signature bottling is fantastic single malt in its own right. You get the light smoke intertwined with citrus and spice, a subtle smokiness that is also surprisingly sweet,” Adamson says.
Ultimately, he says that Cù Bòcan is a whisky that really helps to open up the world of lightly peated Scotch.
“What I love about Cù Bòcan is that it is a whisky for people who say they don't like peated whisky. I’ll ask them, ‘Are you sure? Have you tried this?’” he says. “You might not like heavily peated whiskies, but you might love Cù Bòcan!”
Follow @DrinksConnexion on Facebook and Instagram for details about Cù Bòcan whisky in Malaysia. For further inquiries on future releases, contact Foo Ken Vin (fookv@drinksconnnexion.com.my) or Terence Tan (terence.tan@drinksconnexion.com.my).
