​To Chill Filtrate Or Not Chill Filtrate: A Rather Clumsy Paraphrasing

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If you'll excuse my choice of title; when wondering what to call this post I recalled the dream sequence from the movie 'The Last Action Hero' where the kid dreams up Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet with the punchy line "Too beeee or not to beeee; not to beeee" As he throws a grenade into the castle. Relevance to this post? Well of course you don't chill filtrate whisky; what kind of idiot would do that?! Unfortunately, plenty.

So what is chill filtration and if it's so stupid then why is it done? Well what chill filtration is, is a process of chilling the whisky to the point whether natural oils separate from the liquid, which can then be filtered of and bottled without the oils. You maybe already thinking "Why do that? Does it improve the product?" Well in flavour terms absolutely not! How could a removal of these oils be a good thing for flavour?! Single Cask whisky is often just 'barrier filtered' which is basically a large piece of muslin to make sure that not bits of wood are floating around in your bottle.

"Why is it done then?" Is probably your next question. Well at below 46% ABV adding water or ice to whisky can cause the whisky to separate and become a cloudy liquid. This wasn't really a problem in Britain, but in the early days of exporting, whisky drinkers in the US didn't like how in warm climates when they added ice to their newly bought Scotch, the oils separated and made for a cloudy drink. The result of which were large shipments of whisky returned to Scotland.

On the back of this serious blow for the whisky industry it was legislated that whisky under 46% must be chillfiltered and the practice of chillfiltering was ubiquitous up until extremely recently. Now you will see a large range of non chillfiltered whisky's available, allowing us to experience the whisky in its natural state.

Your third question is probably "So why doesn't everyone stop chillfiltering?". That is a very good question. I find that many of the reasons are fairly unconvincing. "It's not as easy as just upping the alcohol" content is one. "Why not?" Is the part that they fail to explain. Diageo are particularly culprits in this area; Lagavulin 16 is 43%, Caol Ila is 43%, Craggenmore is 43%, Talisker is oddly 45.8%. Even their more expensive Cask finished Distillers Editions are chillfiltered. This maybe to maximise profits by being able to add more water to a bottle (yes, whisky typical comes out of the cask at approximately 55% ABV and so at 43% you are basically spending 22% of your money on water), it maybe to keep consistency of taste for the consumer, as people will repeatedly rebuy the same brand as that's what they like (and removing chill filtration would almost certainly change that profile; or it could just be because they are lazy and have got their heads up their ass?!

Regardless stopping chill filtration is something that is happening in all corners of the Scottish whisky industry; even traditional brands like The Balvenie have eventually seen the light with their 12 and 15 yr Old batch whisky (not the Double Wood) and the quality of those products is significantly higher. They are even bottling their 21 yr old Port Wood at 47% for the travel market; but unfortunately us Brits will have to make do with 40% for the time being.

There really is no excuse for stopping chill filtration frankly. Bunnahabhain has become one of the more recent converts with their 12 and 18 yr Old's being bottled at 46.3%. Mull of Kintyre distillery Tobermory bottles its Tobermory and Ledaig also at 46.3% and this sent the quality of Ledaig through the roof! Progressive Ddstillers like Glenmorangie and it's Islay distillery Ardbeg, BenRiach and it's sister distillery Glendronach as well as Bruichladdich & Port Charlotte to name just a few are very much into natural colour and no chill filtration too produce a natural and great quality product. I tend to buy very little whisky which is chill filtered these days and if we all stopped buying these whisky's then the distillers and more specifically the global monoliths that own them will get the message.

Disclaimer: I love Lagavulin and to some extent Diageo. I buy their products frequently; but they are the products that they treat right. I bought the Lagavulin 8 yr Old at 48% ABV, I always buy the Lagavulin 12 yr Old Cask Strength edition (natural strength, natural colour, and no chill filtration), likewise I buy the Caol Ila Unpeated Limited Edition (the 14 yr Old version of which is one of my favourite ever whisky's), I buy Talisker 57 Degree's North (a tremendously powerful whisky). I don't buy the standard bottlings or the Distillers Editions, and won't until they start upping the ABV And abandoning chill filtration.

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