STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
Most whisky lovers’ favourite single malts were distilled from a mash of Concerto or Optic, the barley varieties that dominated the fields of Scotland for much of the 2000s. They’ve since been supplanted by Laureate, a variety that outperforms its predecessors both on the farm and in the distillery; the first whiskies distilled from this have already hit the market, with more to follow in years to come. Despite being so vital to the whisky-making process, casual drinkers are unlikely to have heard of any of these ‘super barleys’ – even though the majority of single malt Scotch whisky is made from at least one of them.
Enter Stairway to Heaven: the imaginatively named evaluation programme run by the Malting Barley Committee (MBC) of the Maltsters’ Association of Great Britain. There is an entire consortium of breeders, farmers, maltsters, brewers and distillers working together on this cross-industry initiative, which evaluates and approves barley varieties that are suited for the malting, distilling and brewing industries in England and Scotland.
It’s a laborious process. The barley variety at the heart of a 10-year-old single malt
