Blended Scotch Gamay Sake Scotland Lowland 750ml

The French wines of Beaujolais are widely regarded as some of the finest table wines in the world. This is due in part to the qualities of the Gamay grape, from which they are made. Gamay produces beautifully, juicy, rounded and gulpable red wines, usually drank young and full of their natural fruit character. However, it would be a mistake to say that Gamay is limited to easy-drinking, soft wines - it’s a highly flexible and versatile grape, capable of producing aged wines of serious complexity and structure, full of expression and fascinating characteristics.


The majority of Gamay wines from France are labeled under Beaujolais Villages or Beaujolais, and these are the standard table wines we’re used to seeing in French restaurants, at bistros, and at our local wine store. Usually great value for money, these are the light, slightly acidic examples of what the grape can do. Far more interesting are those Gamay wines from the 10 cru villages, just north of Beaujolais, where generations of expertise and a unique soil type made up of granitic schist result in far more unique, complicated wines. The best examples of Gamay feature intense aromatics, all black fruit and forest fare, and are worth cellaring for a few years.

As you move south through Scotland, towards the English border where wars have been fought over territory and sovereignty for hundreds of years, you begin to notice some dramatic differences not only in lifestyle, attitude and landscape, but also in the production of scotch whisky. The Lowland region of Scotland is the second most industrious whisky region, due to the enormous number of distilleries which can be found here. In the past, the Lowlands were synonymous with high quality, single malt whiskies, but while a couple of excellent single malt producers still remain in the area, today the majority of whiskies of this region are very different.

The Lowland region is now primarily associated with blended whiskies, and grain whiskies which appeal to a wide international audience. While in the past, the Lowlands were thought of as a poor-quality whisky region, with a negative reputation in the 18th and 19th centuries, today, quality is back up to where it should be thanks to stringent new laws and regulations overseeing the production of the distinctive drinks which are distilled here.

Of the surviving single malt distilleries in the Lowlands, quality is exceptionally high. This is a region with a lot to prove, and it has significant competition with its northern neighbour in the Highlands. As such, Lowland single malt whisky is ferociously traditional, and uses every trick in the book to achieve exceptionally smoothness, typified by grassy, creamy whisky which is packed full of complex flavors of toffee and honeysuckle.