Royal Salute - MorningCalm January 2018

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COMING OF AGE

Taking cues from polo’s rich heritage, the complex medley of flavors in the new Royal Salute 21 Year Old Polo Edition shows that elegance and glory can be bottled and enjoyed in liquid form.

Royal Salute’s master blender Sandy Hyslop never wears aftershave when he’s in the sampling room. For him, a stuffy nose would be a catastrophe. The fruity notes of Royal Salute 21 Year Old Polo Edition form a lighter
and brighter expression of blended Scotch whisky than previous Royal Salutes. It’s the kind of drink sipped slowly at a midsummer polo game. But beneath the aroma of honeydew melon lies an undercurrent of powerful richness that’s a hallmark of Royal Salute.

The oft-quoted bit of pop science that says putting 10,000 hours of practice into any discipline makes one an expert must sound cute to Royal Salute. Almost 200,000 hours go into one Polo Edition bottle.

Whisky has long been extolled as the “water of life.” A short story by English novelist Charles Edward Montague grandiosely describes the drink as “the stuff that made the old gods of the Greeks and Romans feel sure they were gods.” Today, Scotch is a designation reserved for Scotland-produced whisky that’s matured at least three years. The first bottle of Royal Salute was unveiled in 1953, but its latest expression celebrates its connection to a sport with a history as rich as its own, and Hyslop has worked hard to capture the true spirit of polo.

This long-revered ambrosia starts as a down-to-earth grain wash that’s not very different from beer. What separates it into a different category — a spirit — is the process of distillation. And what elevates the spirit to a different category — Royal Salute whisky — is everything that comes after it. The oak barrels its whiskies mature in are charred on the inside. The heat converts the wood’s complex carbohydrates into simple sugars and, over time, those wood sugars ingrain notes of toffee and vanilla into the whisky. “There’s a length of finish on the Polo Edition,” says Hyslop. “Its flavor takes a long time to dissipate on the palate, and a lot of that comes from using high-quality American oak barrels.” The barrel is what gives whisky its color, both literally and figuratively.

Making a new Royal Salute blend is a kind of modern- day alchemy. There are countless possibilities depending on distillation and storage methods. Whiskies from Strathisla and Longmorn distilleries that go into the Polo Edition are particularly important to its delicate flavor, with its soft hints of pear. Strathisla whiskies are largely responsible for bringing full-bodied orchard fruit flavors to the blend, and whiskies aged in old sherry casks are livened with the spice of licorice and notes of raisin.

There’s room for experimentation in creating a new expression, but when it comes to quality, nothing is left to chance. With just one quick sniff, Hyslop knows whether a cask is good enough for Royal Salute. “I can easily test more than 200 casks in around 30 minutes,” he says. This isn’t a boast; it’s an illustration of the skill that goes into Royal Salute. Hyslop used the solera process for the Polo Edition, making sure a portion of each batch was preserved so it could be incorporated into the next one.

The continuity is essential. Memory plays a surprisingly important role in allowing blenders like Hyslop to be masters in the art of whisky. It not only guarantees consistency of identity, but also allows Hyslop to imbue the right notes into a blend with precision and creativity. He can still recall the ingredients of standout blends he sampled at the beginning of his 34-year-long career, but he’s inspired by more personal recollections too. “The sweet red toffee apple notes of the Polo Edition remind me of when my mother used to make me toffee apples
at Halloween,” he says. Hyslop’s sharp memory allows him to conjure aromas and images through the whisky he creates as though he were a magician.

Open a bottle of Royal Salute 21 Year Old Polo Edition and you’ll notice fresh citrus. Suddenly, you find yourself on a gorgeous green field on a sunny day, surrounded by an elegant crowd. Taking a sip, the notes deepen richly and give off just a hint of smoke. Your blood is up as the horses charge down the 275m field with astounding finesse — and for a moment, maybe, you’ll agree that this must be the nectar of the gods.