this is about Scots whisky


Leave Us Our Glens
       (George Donald / Buff Hardie)
       I love Scotland's glens, and whatever else we lose
       Please leave us our glens, our glorious glens
       Our mountains as grand, Ben Nevis, Ben Lomond too
       You can have all those bens, but leave us our glens
       Glenfiddich, Glendronach, Glenlivet, Glen Grant
       Can you do without them? If you must know, I can't
       Put a drop in the glass of Glen Spey or Glen Drotter
       It's a perfectly bearable way to drink water
       I'd willingly lose our culture, or most of it
       Including that mess they call 'full Highland dress'
       With the whole ethnic bit of haggis and Hogmanay
       I'd gladly dispense, but leave us our glens
       Glenfiddich, Glendronach, Glenlivet, Glen Fall
       I once knew a man who had sampled them all
       Glenisla, Glenugie, Glenkinchie, that's plenty
       He looked sixty-five, but in fact he was twenty
       Take our Highlands scottische, take our marches, strathspeys and reels
       Take our old Scottish waltz, but leave us our malts
       You can take, if you wish, our ladies' conveniences
       And our gentlemen's - but leave us our glens
       Glenfiddich, Glendronach, Glenlivet, Glenfyne
       Was great at communion when we ran out of wine
       Glenisla, Glenugie, Glenkinchie, Glenmorangie
       I prefer them to Quantro which I find too orangey
       Oh breathe there a Scot whose aims and priorities
       When laid on the line, are different from mine
       Take our homes, take our jobs, take anything else you will
       Wife, family and friends, but leave us our glens
       (as sung by Iain MacKintosh)

      Susanne´s Folksong-Notizen
       [1987:] Buff Hardie (lyrics), George Donald (music). Written in 1975.
       (Hardie / Robertson / Donald, Scotland the What? Collected sketches and
       songs, Gordon Wright Publ., Edinburgh)
       [1995:] Glenmorangie [...] has a special kind of floweriness, a delicate
       yet unmistakeable fragrance, that I find extremely attractive. It is
       bottled at 70°, ten years old, and [...] is what I would call an all-
       purpose whisky. It is equally good as a pre- prandial and as a post-
       prandial drink, and I confess I have drunk it at many other times as
       well. There is a Glenmorangie which I have drunk at the distillery which
       is older and more full- bodied than that which is available bottled,
       possessing more richness and less delicacy than the latter. It goes for
       blending, of course [...].
       At its best, Smith's Glenlivet combines a teasing subtlety of flavour
       with a distinctive 'nose' and fullness. These are not always
       sufficiently in evidence when bottled too young, but the firm's own
       bottling, twelve years old at 80°, gives one everything that could be
       desired in this noble whisky. I have tasted a Glenlivet put in cask in
       1941 and bottled (by Berry Brothers & Rudd) in 1958, and the only note
       on it which I entered in my whisky scrap- book after the first glass was
       simply 'a superb whisky'. But later experience of comparing different
       ages and proofs leads me to believe that additional age over twelve
       years does not add all that much in quality and (within limits, of
       course) a twelve- year- old at a higher proof tastes better than an
       older whisky at a lower proof. But the twelve- year- old is decidedly
       better than anything younger. [...]
       How does Glenlivet compare with Glen Grant? In general character they
       are not dissimilar: each has that smooth integration of peatiness,
       softness and full sweetness (or almost sweetness) that needs age to
       bring it out. Like Glenlivet, Glen Grant is conspicuously better at ten
       or, better still, twelve years old than at, say, five (and it is
       available at five years old). There is a sharpness about a young Glen
       Grant that belies its true potential. [...] A well- matured Glen Grant
       has a splendid smoothness: it is not, perhaps, such a complexly
       patterned whisky in the combination of 'nose', taste and after- taste
       that is found in Glenlivet at its best, being a more single- minded
       whisky, as it were. [...]
       Glenfiddich [...] has a pleasing dry fragrance [...]. Glenkinchie, which
       so far as I know is not available as a single whisky but of which I have
       a sample bottle from an Edinburgh blending firm [...] is a very
       agreeable whisky, slightly sweeter and perhaps just a trifle sharper
       than Rosebank. (Daiches, Scotch Whisky. Its Past and Present 170ff)
       [1998:] Written for 'Scotland the What?' 'Glen Drotter' is probably a
       made up name in order to get the rhyme. (Pr. comm., ICM)

Quelle: Scotland
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