RESEARCH WHICH will revolutionise appreciation of single malt whisky through the identification of 12 “cardinal flavours” has just been released by an academic at St Andrews University.

These flavours can be attributed to any malt in Scotland, and the man behind the work, Dr David Wishart, had the task of comprehensively surveying 94 Scottish distilleries and their principal malt whiskies.

Dr Wishart is a research fellow of the university’s school of management, and he conducted a series of tastings, distillery visits and reviews of existing whisky literature.

Now the sensory flavours —body, sweetness, smoky, medicinal, tobacco, honey, spicy, winey, nutty, malty, fruity, floral—have been defined by Dr Wishart for use as an easily applicable guide to the taste and styles of single malt whiskies.

The research will result in the release of a new edition of Dr Wishart’s 2002 book Whisky Classified: Choosing Single Malts By Flavour, which is to be made available in seven languages next month.

In addition to flavour profiles of the principal malt whiskies from all of Scotland’s working distilleries using his innovative classification system, the book will include a short history and description of each distillery, notes on production methods, and the history of the whisky industry.

Dr Wishart became interested in malt whiskies when, as a mathematics undergraduate at St Andrews, he was first introduced to cask-strength Laphroaig by his father.

A qualified chartered statistician, Dr Wishart’s recent work includes conducting surveys in the whisky industry to validate his classification, and extending it to aged malts, special finishes and single cask editions using a computer system called Whisky Analyst, which he developed.

He said yesterday, “Today, with variable levels of peating, cask preparation, and special finishes, the flavours of single malts are more diverse than ever.

“My unique classification system of distinguishing malt whiskies by flavour has the full support of the Scotch whisky industry and is especially demonstrated in whiskies such as Macallan, Glenfiddich and Glenmorangie.”