captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> stahl: they seem to want to destroy everything christian. >> michaeel: exactly, to delete our history. and even here, the statue of virgin mary, they destroyed it. >> stahl: the monastery, according to historians, had amassed a collection of manuscripts dating back to the 12th century. >> michaeel: in this kind of container. >> stahl: as isis was closing in, the resident monks hid the texts in these barrels, which they entombed behind a fake wall. and isis never found it? >> michaeel: no, because-- >> stahl: for two years? >> michaeel: exactly, because the monks more intelligent that isis. >> wertheim: the most captivating story in baseball this off-season involves a player who has yet to take his first swing-- or, for that

matter, his first pitch-- in a major league game. shohei ohtani, a prodigious hitter and fearsome pitcher in japan, announced his ambitions to take his dual talents to the majors. not since babe ruth has the sport seen anything like him. watch this: batting lead off, ohtani hits a homerun on the first pitch of the game. then he throws eight shutout innings, striking out ten opposing batters with a 100 mph fastball. >> that's a comic book character. that's not somebody you're thinking about in real life. you know, nobody does that. who does that? >> "60 minutes" is constantly on the lookout for places we've never been before. so when our late colleague bob simon heard about a magical place in the hebrides islands off the coast of scotland known for making some of the great whiskies in the world, well, the story spoke to him. >> ( laughs ) cheers. >> we get literally thousands upon thousands of single malt tourists coming here. they come fromom all over the world just to set foot on islay. >> to study it?

>> no, to drink it. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm scott pelley. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm bill whitaker. those stories, tonight on "60 minutes."

seltzer plus liquid gels. ka ♪ this holiday, the real gift isn't what's inside the box. it's what's inside the person who opens it. ♪ give ancestrydna, the only dna test that can trace your origins to over 150 ethnic regions... ♪ ...and open up a world of possibilities. ♪ save 20% for the holidays at ancestrydna.com. hmmm... ( ♪ ) ♪ give a little bit ♪ give a little bit hello. ♪ of your love to me

hee-hee! haha! ♪ there's so much that we need to share ♪ ♪ so send a smile all: whooo! ♪ and show that you care ♪ give a little bit of my love to you ♪ >> stahl: we have come across an unlikely band of brothers on the battlefield against terrorism. they are men of the cloth, a pair of padres who go into harm's way to find and protect ancient religious books and manuscripts. we joined them in a region of

iraq that was once mesopotamia where human culture and learning really began. it's believed to be the birthplace of mathematics, writing and agriculture. and recently, the scene of some of the fiercest battles in the u.s.-backed war against isis. >> father columba: i think it's the graffiti that's most horrifying to me. >> stahl: father columba, a benedictine monk from minnesota, in black; and father najeeb michaeel, a dominican friar from iraq, in white; decided to partner up... >> father najeeb michaeel: they destroy everything. >> stahl: ...to rescue what old documents they could from places like this monastery, mar behnam, in northern iraq that goes back to the 4th century. it was occupied and defaced by isis. they seem to want to destroy everything christian. >> michaeel: exactly, to delete our history. to say that there are no christians, nothing before islam.

and even here, the statue of virgin mary, they destroyed it. >> stahl: the monastery, according to historians, was sacred to both christians and muslims in medieval times. it had amassed a collection of manuscripts dating back to the 12th century. >> michaeel: in this kind of container. >> stahl: as isis was closing in, the resident monks hid the texts in these barrels, which they entombed behind a fake wall. and isis never found it? >> michaeel: no, because-- >> stahl: for two years? >> michaeel: exactly, because the monks more intelligent that isis. >> stahl: when this part of iraq was liberated last year, those intelligent monks returned, drilled through the two walls, found the barrels- and the precious, hand-written books. >> columba: so it's the one thing that they couldn't replace, because you could rebuild a building. you can put a new cross up. those could not be replaced, and those were saved. >> stahl: there were more than 500, now protected in a house in erbil, the capital of kurdistan.

>> michaeel: very good condition. >> columba: very good condition. early 5th century author. >> stahl: they include bibles, scientific works, and this grammar book filled with random doodles scribbled down centuries ago. fathers columba and najeeb have been cleaning, restoring and photographing the documents they have rescued from all over iraq. in going through them, they're unearthing finds like this copy of a 7th century contract believed to be a mandate by the prophet muhammed that says christians will be protected from their enemies and allowed to practice their religion. >> columba: the whole middle east at one time was characterized by pluralism, different peoples, different languages, different religions coexisting. >> stahl: you know, it's interesting that there are people who are risking their lives to preserve these documents. they're the very documents that

isis is risking their lives to destroy. you know, there's a war over these books. >> columba: there's a real war. >> stahl: in that war, isis swept across northern iraq in 2014, causing christians and yazidis to flee in desperate caravans. when the city of qaraqosh was attacked by isis, 50,000 christians were driven out in a matter of days-- many on foot, the ill on makeshift stretchers. before father najeeb left on the final night of the siege, he gathered up as many books as he could from his monastery there. >> michaeel: we have many, many children. and many families with us. and i ask them to carry something with me. so they help me. >> stahl: carry the manuscripts? >> michaeel: even the little girls and boys, ten to 12 years, they carry the heritage and manuscripts from 13th, 14th century. i don't save it alone.

>> stahl: they raced from qaraqosh to the safety of kurdistan as isis fighters chased after them. >> michaeel: i saw many hundreds of isis flags and cars. and they are ready to attack us and to cut our, our route. and kill us. >> stahl: frightening. totally frightening. >> michaeel: i feel at that moment is the end of my life. and the end of the life of everyone. >> stahl: then it got worse. when they got to the checkpoint, the kurdish army, the peshmerga, wouldn't let them in. >> michaeel: the peshmerga try to attack isis by gun, and by fighting like that, and we saw the fire became over our head. >> stahl: you're right in the middle. >> michaeel: we are in the middle between both of them. i start to pray in my heart, "our father who art in heaven, forgive us our sin."

i start to give the absolution to all the population. to everyone, christian or no christian. and at that moment, sure, we heard a voice, many voice, "the checkpoint is open." we are very happy and very quickly, we start to escape at that moment to be in the safe side in kurdistan. >> stahl: he said it was a miracle that all those lives were saved, but he wasn't able to save all his books. isis burned the ones left behind, as we saw when he took us back to his old house in qaraqosh. are you okay, father? >> michaeel: no. >> stahl: you're not okay. >> michaeel: i'm so sad from inside. >> stahl: he showed us what isis did to the 40,000 books that were in his library. that's books? >> michaeel: that's books. >> stahl: oh, you can see the pages? and they just torched it. >> michaeel: this part, yes. >> stahl: the books he did manage to save are here. >> michaeel: here's the holy of holies.

>> stahl: the holy of holies is a room in a secret location in the kurdish region of northern iraq. it's where father najeeb is protecting his most treasured possessions. >> michaeel: it's a gospel, the new testament. >> stahl: wow, look at that. >> michaeel: palm sunday. this one when jesus go to jerusalem and with a donkey. >> stahl: this is by hand, obviously. >> michaeel: all is handwritten. and this one-- >> stahl: look at those colors. >> michaeel: this with eggs, yellow. >> columba: the egg yolk? >> stahl: the yellow is made from egg yolks? >> michaeel: exactly. >> stahl: and what's the red, do you know? >> michaeel: pomegranate. >> columba: pomegranate. >> stahl: and it survived! >> michaeel: yeah. >> stahl: it's just one of the 3,500 texts he saved from isis, books like these from the 16th and 17th centuries that were used by missionaries dispatched by the church to spread roman catholicism in this region. >> michaeel: st. thomas aquinas.

>> stahl: some show the ravages of time and war, like this fragment of the new testament written in about the year 500. and: >> michaeel: so, this is a parchment from ten, 11 century. it's a parchment with a sheepskin. >> stahl: what lang-- is that hebrew? >> michaeel: this is in-- in aramaic. old aramaic. >> stahl: aramaic? that's the language of jesus? >> michaeel: it's the language of jesus christ and our mother tongue. >> columba: and the other thing to remember is that these aren't all religious manuscripts. so, some of them are purely history. so those are ones that tell us about political events, and kings, and battles, and famines, and all of these other things. so it's not simply history of religion, it's history of every aspect of life. >> stahl: home base for father columba is 6,000 miles from iraq, at st. john's abbey and university in collegeville, minnesota, where he spends his days with his fellow monks in

prayer and contemplation. he's also director of this library, the world's largest repository of ancient texts, more than 50 million pages from both christian and islamic works, all photographed and archived in an online database. the collection includes the sacred and the secular, like this 1771 account by a priest telling of a plague that killed 45,000. father columba found it in turkey. and this tax receipt from the roman empire in the year 222 for the purchase of military equipment. so how do these texts and these manuscripts, how do they relate to today? what's the best lesson you've read about? >> columba: we can learn about places in our past where people could live together reasonably peacefully for certain periods of time.

and then, very often what made it impossible was an external intervention. so the crusaders come, and that makes it very difficult for christians in the middle east. >> stahl: he learned that from this 12th century text that he found in aleppo, syria called "world chronicle" by michael the great about how the crusades triggered a backlash against the local christians. until now, scholars tell us, the history of christianity in the middle east has largely been told from a western perspective. these texts provide historical details that cannot be found anywhere else and, when taken together, will rewrite this history from the point of view of those who actually lived it. a lot of the places you've gone to are under threat by some radical islamic group. and you're kind of just following them around. >> columba: in a sense, where the hotspots are. >> stahl: on this trip to iraq, he went hunting for old

documents at the university of mosul, in a section of the city that had been liberated. >> columba: so one of our questions is: can anything possibly have survived? >> stahl: the library here, once among the finest in the middle east, was reduced to rubble in the battle to retake the city. it looks like the apocalypse. >> columba: it's unbelievable. it's totally devastated. >> stahl: so what do you think happened here? >> columba: it must've been an airstrike. the u.s.-backed coalition forces, as part of the liberation of mosul. >> stahl: a bomb? >> columba: that may have been what started the fire. it must've been a bomb. it came through the roof. and then, you can see it coming through two floors, and then presumably exploding below. >> stahl: but not isis? it was the u.s.-backed forces? >> columba: absolutely. so isis had been here, had done their damage, had burned their books, and this kind of destruction of the building that we're looking at would have happened right at the end. liberation brings a lot of destruction. >> stahl: the university library

used to hold about a million books and a collection of ancient maps and manuscripts. >> columba: it's a horrible loss. >> stahl: in this age of intolerance, there are very few christians left in iraq. many who fled qaraqosh with father najeeb have left the country. others are here, in a refugee camp in erbil where religion remains at the center of their lives. ( singing ) even as their presence in iraq continues to fade, what will always remain, thanks to the work of fathers columba and najeeb, is a written record of their history and heritage. ( singing ) (hard exhalation) honey? can we do this tomorrow? (grunts of effort) can we do this tomorrow? if you have heart failure symptoms, your risk of hospitalization could increase,

making tomorrow uncertain. but entresto is a medicine that was proven, in the largest heart failure study ever, to help more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading heart failure medicine. women who are pregnant must not take entresto. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. if you've had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, don't take entresto. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high potassium in your blood. ♪ tomorrow, tomorrow... ♪ when can we do this again, grandpa? well, how about tomorrow? ask your doctor about entresto and help make tomorrow possible. this new day looks nothing like yesterday. trails are covered. paths aren't what they used to be. roads nowhere to be found. ( ♪ )

and it's exactly what you're looking for. ( ♪ ) and it's exactly what you're looking for. money managers are pretty much the same. all but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management.

>> wertheim: the most captivating story in baseball this off-season involves a player who has yet to take his first swing-- or, for that matter, his first pitch-- in a major league game. shohei ohtani, a fearsome pitcher and prodigious hitter in japan, announced his ambitions to take his dual talents to the majors. after a fierce recruiting contest among all but a few teams, ohtani chose to sign with the los angeles angels. the team not only got a young, potentially transcendent, two-way star; they got him at a bargain price-- a $2.3 million bonus and a salary of barely $550,000-- thanks to baseball's international spending rules. as we first reported last april, ohtani vows to keep pitching and batting. should he have the durability to pull it off, he'll be the first major leaguer to moonlight since a guy named babe ruth. we traveled to japan early this

year to meet ohtani for what was his first interview with an american television network. but we first laid eyes on him in arizona, where his former team held spring training. ( bat cracks ) this sliver through the fence of a batting cage made for a fitting introduction. we found dozens of japanese outlets angling for a slice, any slice, of ohtani in action. cameras follow him to the exclusion of every other player on the field. and, so do the fans. we met supporters who traveled 5,000 miles to the desert southwest just to watch him train. having glimpsed the ohtani phenomenon on the road, we were eager to explore it on his turf. our search to find what all the fuss was about took us here, to hokkaido, japan's northernmost island. it's home to the national champion baseball team, the nippon ham fighters. it's also home to the sport's most intriguing prospect.

shohei ohtani looms large in the snowy hokkaido town of sapporo. if tokyo is a fastball, sapporo is a curveball. japan's fifth-largest city feels not unlike a laid-back ski village. but this is a baseball town. and this is the home stadium, the sapporo dome. it's here we sat down with ohtani. we broke the ice with a question about what we'd heard was his favorite local fast food. very important question. in'n'out burger or captain kangaroo burger? >> shohei ohtani ( translated ): captain kangaroo. >> wertheim: better? towering and affable, ohtani is working on his english, but felt more comfortable using a translator during our interview. i want to ask you about coming to the majors. but should we say, "if," or should we say, "when"? >> ohtani ( translated ): that's a tough one. i mean, nothing is for certain, so, i guess it's "if." >> wertheim: despite that cautious response, ohtani

eagerly revealed which major league players he looks most forward to facing-- no less than m.v.p. hitter bryce harper and star pitcher clayton kershaw. >> ohtani ( translated ): i watch bryce harper, clayton kershaw. >> wertheim: a pitcher and a hitter. >> ohtani ( translated ): yeah, unlike me, kershaw is a lefty. >> wertheim: you see a little of yourself in both kershaw and harper? >> ohtani ( translated ): i actually do see myself. and i actually try throwing lefty sometimes. >> wertheim: how do you think you'd do against kershaw? >> ohtani ( translated ): just thinking about facing him makes me really happy and excited. i could just tell he's such a great pitcher through the tv screen. >> wertheim: how would you pitch to harper? >> ohtani ( translated ): i would have to go with my best pitch, which is the fastball. i want to see how my best pitch fares against one of the best hitters. >> wertheim: likely quite well. throwing his dancing fastball, ohtani strikes out batters at a higher rate than kershaw.

unfurling his violent, yet somehow elegant swing, he hits homeruns at a higher rate than harper. there are days ohtani makes baseball look almost laughably easy. consider this performance last summer. on the very first pitch of the game, ohtani, batting lead off, hit a homerun. he then pitched eight shutout innings and struck out ten batters. >> ohtani! shohei! >> wertheim: at six-foot-four, the designated hitter turned pitcher reliably brings the crowd to its feet. when he threw the fastest pitch, breaking his own record, even opponents looked on in astonishment. last year, you threw a pitch, 165 kilometers an hour, more than 102 miles an hour. how much faster can you throw than 102.5? >> ohtani ( translated ): i don't have an exact answer for that. but i'm still young. i'm still 22. i think there's more room to grow.

>> wertheim: as seasons go, 2016 will be hard to top. the hokkaido nippon ham fighters took the japan series. ohtani was his league's m.v.p. about that name: the fighters are owned by nippon ham, makers of japan's best-selling sausages. and while, yes, the name resists serious treatment, the team itself is widely regarded as the most innovative in the league. manager hideki kuriyama leads the fighters, also the former team of yu darvish, now an ace for the texas rangers. can you compare this to anything you've seen? >> hideki kuriyama ( translated ): no. never seen anything like it. never. >> wertheim: what's it like having a player who's your best pitcher and also your best hitter? >> kuriyama ( translated ): he's so talented, it's really tough to use him the right way, with the right balance. >> wertheim: if you thought "moneyball"-- the practice of using baseball data over intuition-- contorted a

manager's conventional thinking, try overseeing a two-way player. kuriyama's formula? he pitches ohtani on sundays then bats him the rest of the week, with a day or two off before each start. distractions are to be kept to a minimum. ( cheers ) same goes for praise. shohei ohtani may be the star of the team, but kuriyama doesn't exactly coddle the guy. >> ohtani ( translated ): last year, when we won the championship, it was the first time he gave me a compliment. and he said, "that was great pitching." >> wertheim: never complimented you before that? >> ohtani ( translated ): not once. he always says, "you've got to get better." >> wertheim: and kuriyama has his reasons. >> kuriyama ( translated ): i truly believe he's a lot better than where he is at right now. >> wertheim: the crowd at the sapporo dome is less stingy with its praise. you don't get a lot of quiet time here. no peanuts and cracker jacks

either, but plenty of the local beer. a college football-style atmosphere pervades. the caliber of play is considered one level below the major leagues in america. top japanese players, names like ichiro and matsui, aspire to compete against the very best in the u.s. even amid such company, shohei ohtani sticks out. ex-pat john gibson has reported on japanese baseball for 20 years. what's it like, covering this guy? >> john gibson: you think about a guy who throws 101 and then a guy who hits homeruns, and that's a comic book character. that's not somebody you're thinking about in real life. you know, nobody does that. who does that? >> wertheim: we had hoped to leave the sapporo dome with ohtani, get to know the mortal behind the comic book character. >> ohtani ( translated ): thank you. >> wertheim: domo. but he politely declined our invitation. not even a quick captain kangaroo burger. so we invited a couple of his teammates instead. brandon laird and luis mendoza are two of the team's gaijin, or foreign players.

laird saw action as a yankee. mendoza once pitched for the rangers and the royals. sapporo is not a bad place to be a gaijin. >> luis mendoza: how you doing? good? good to see you. >> wertheim: over dinner at their favorite spot in town, laird told us that ohtani is the most talented teammate he's ever had. this, from a guy who played with derek jeter and alex rodriguez. >> brandon laird: some pitchers can hit but, i mean, he actually does it in a game. like, he's in our lineup, you know? and it's impressive. >> mendoza: watching him hit the ball-- i mean, it's like, miguel cabrera, you know, power- kind of power, you know. >> wertheim: he reminds you of cabrera? >> mendoza: yeah. definitely. >> wertheim: you guys been out with him? >> laird: no. i mean, he doesn't really do anything. he just, mellow kid, just goes back to the dorms. >> wertheim: yes, the biggest star in japanese baseball, with a reported salary of roughly $2 million, apart from not

owning a car, lives in these minimalist team dorms. ohtani confirmed to us that he seldom leaves the facility. not that it keeps fans from waiting for him outside. even from a distance, plenty of observations can be made about the pitching slugger, or the slugging pitcher. he is meticulous, stopping mid- pitch to adjust his form; open to advice from his batting coaches. even baseball tedium provides a source of enjoyment. this is someone who plays baseball, but has always worked at it, too. ohtani grew up in a small, industrial town on japan's mainland. his father, once an amateur player himself, coached his son's little league teams. shohei ohtani showed promise as a hitter, but drew more interest as a pitcher, occasioning stealth visits from american scouts while he was still in high school. at age 18, he held a press

conference to announce his major league intentions and went so far as to tell japanese teams not to draft him. but the nippon ham fighters, again, known for doing things their own way, drafted him nonetheless. >> ohtani ( translated ): every other team besides the fighters was looking at me as a pitcher. but the fighters were going to allow me to do both pitching and hitting. honestly, i wasn't even thinking about doing both on a professional level. but they approached me in that way and i wanted to take the chance. >> wertheim: that's your fastball grip? >> ohtani ( translated ): fastball. splitter. >> wertheim: so you have a splitter? true to their word, the fighters have cultivated ohtani as a hitter as well as a pitcher. we asked him about his forebear. people have compared you to babe ruth. what do you think about when you hear the name babe ruth? >> ohtani ( translated ): he's like a mythical character to me. because it's such a long time ago and he was god to baseball. i shouldn't be compared to him, at least not right now.

>> wertheim: but maybe someday soon. the fighters have said they'll permit ohtani to negotiate with major league teams after this season. hideki kuriyama says the time is right. >> kuriyama ( translated ): for our team, we're all for him going to the states. >> wertheim: best player on the team, this amazing two-way talent, and you're okay with him going to the major leagues? >> kuriyama ( translated ): yeah, as a manager, it's going to hurt. it's tough that way. but more than that, i want him to succeed. >> wertheim: back in the u.s., news of ohtani's imminent arrival was a hot topic at spring training- though, weary of tipping their hand, execs we approached would only talk off- camera. dave defreitas was a scout for the yankees and the indians. he watched ohtani come of age in japan. now independent, he produces scouting reports for the website 20-80 baseball. >> dave defreitas: everybody is interested. scouts are going over there all

year this year to watch him. i think if a team tells you they're not interested, they're probably lying to you. you're talking about a young kid that's one of the best talents in the game, on the planet. >> wertheim: ohtani told us he doesn't have an agent yet. but he's going to need one. his path to the majors won't exactly be straightforward. a new collective bargaining agreement caps at $6 million-- what teams can pay any foreign player under the age of 25-- even those who, ritually, send balls dinging into the outfield seats. by coming before he turns 25, ohtani could be leaving tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars on the table. the timing of when you come to the majors could make a big, big, difference in terms of salary. does that concern you? >> ohtani ( translated ): personally, i don't care how much i get paid or how much less i get paid because of this. >> wertheim: this may be the rare case where it's not about the money. rather, the deal with ohtani may

hinge on which team will let him keep pitching and hitting. you think he's in a position now where he can say to teams, "listen, if you're not going to play me both ways, i'm probably not your guy." >> gibson: i think he won't even talk to them if they don't. >> wertheim: really? >> gibson: i think he won't even have a meeting with them. >> wertheim: no matter where he ends up, it's hard to root against the great ohtani experiment. here in sapporo, where his departure will be bittersweet, they'll be cheering the loudest. >> the cbs sports up state brought to you by ford, i am james brown with the score from the nfl today, thousand west was won, la us rams clinched the entitle. the chargers beat the jets to keep their play-off hopes alive, seattle survived a must-win game to remain in the play-off hunt. new orleans got a playoff berth with its win over the atlanta.

for more sports news go to with its win over the atlanta. for more sports news go to cbssports.com. >> ♪ let's go! ♪ mom! slow down! for the ones who keep pushing. always unstoppable. ♪ ♪ i can do more to lower my a1c. because my body can still make its own insulin. and i take trulicity once a week to activate my body to release it, like it's supposed to. trulicity is not insulin. it comes in a once-weekly, truly easy-to-use pen. the pen where you don't have to see or handle a needle. and it works 24/7. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes

when used with diet and exercise. it should not be the first medicine to treat diabetes, or for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take trulicity if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, if you have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you're allergic to trulicity. stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or symptoms like itching, rash, or trouble breathing. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. taking trulicity with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases your risk for low blood sugar. common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, and indigestion. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. to help lower my a1c i choose trulicity to activate my within. ask your doctor if once-weekly trulicity is right for you. ♪ ♪

it's my decision ito make beauty last. roc® retinol, started visibly reducing my fine lines and wrinkles in one week. and the longer i use it, the better it works. retinol correxion® from roc. methods, not miracles.™ we're on a mission to show the new keurig k select brewer is the strong way to start your day. pop that in there. hit strong. press brew. that's it. strong. bold. rich. i feel like you're toying with me. show me how strong you are. (screams) lift me up! dan! lift me up!

>> kroft: "60 minutes" is constantly on the lookout for places we've never been before. so when our late colleague bob simon heard about a magical place in the hebrides islands off the coast of scotland known for making some of the great whiskies in the world, well, the story spoke to him. the place is called islay, and it's one of five whisky- producing regions in scotland that make an expensive type of scotch called single malt. islay's distilleries turn out relatively small amounts of their own handcrafted brands for a worldwide luxury market that's more than doubled in size in the last decade, and become the spirit equivalent of the fine wine business. bob liked good scotch and beautiful places, so he went off to scotland. he died before he could finish the piece, leaving behind a stack of video tapes and some random notes. back in 2015, we decided to finish it for him, and raise a glass in his memory.

islay is a small island 20 miles off the west coast of scotland. there are few trees, miles of windswept heather, and some of the most fertile agricultural land in scotland. there are sheep and cattle everywhere, and an abundance of wildlife. but, that's not why people come here. this is. eight small distilleries that produce some of the world's finest single malt whiskies. >> jim mcewan: this is the whole lifeblood of this island and everybody on it. this is all we know. >> kroft: jim mcewan has been working in islay's distilleries since he was 15 years old. he's now master of the works at bruichladdich. >> mcewan: i just thank god that he chose the scots and gave them whisky, because we appreciate the gift and we look after it. >> kroft: they've been making it here since the 15th century, when, supposedly, some monks taught the locals how to use barley, water, and yeast to make a spirit the scots now call "the water of life." they have been perfecting it for 600 years.

the distilleries are easy to find, but hard to pronounce: ardbeg, bowmore, bruichladdich, bunnahabain, caol ila, kilchoman, lagavulin and laphroaig. as bob simon noted, they get harder to pronounce the more you visit. >> mcewan: for us guys on the west coast of scotland, whisky is a religion, because it's a provider. and the great thing about whisky, it's not just a drink. it's much more than that. have you ever watched some old hollywood movies? >> simon: yes, i have. >> mcewan: scotch was always portrayed in hollywood as a whisky. when you were down or you were in trouble, the one thing that was going to get you back on your feet and out there was a scotch. >> kroft: today, if you are down on your luck, you probably can't afford an islay single malt. the good ones start at around $70 a bottle; the rare ones can go for hundreds of dollars a glass at chic whisky bars around the world, where they are known for their distinctive smoky taste. it comes from peat, the mossy earthen fuel that's cut from bogs on the island.

it was used to heat scottish homes for centuries, and is still used to toast the barley at islay distilleries. john campbell is the master distiller at laphroaig, one of the top-selling single malts in america. >> john campbell: peat is the thing that makes islay unique, and it really resonates with people and it just engenders a kind of love/hate relationship. and the people that love it absolutely love it with a passion. >> kroft: and there seems to be no shortage of them. islay is not easy get to, usually requiring multiple flights, a long drive, and a two-hour ferry ride, yet enthusiasts continue to make the pilgrimage, especially for the whisky festival. >> mcewan: we get literally thousands upon thousands of single malt tourists coming here. they come from all over the world, just to set foot on islay. >> simon: to study it? >> mcewan: no, to drink it. it's lovely. it's clean. it's fresh. it's vibrant. >> kroft: officially, whisky fest is a celebration of islay's culture, but mostly it's about

drinking. >> mcewan: it's absolutely beautiful. no off notes at all. >> kroft: as they listened to jim mcewan extol the virtues of bruichladdich, the novitiates, connoisseurs, and whisky snobs approached each glass with reverence bordering on the religious. >> mcewan: ah, wow, the fruit in that is incredible. >> kroft: as the glasses empty, the smiles got bigger. but the islanders will tell you that all of this warmth and good feeling comes not from the alcohol in the spirits, but from the spirit of the place. it is almost mystical-- beautiful, dramatic and quiet. there's no road rage, barely any traffic. if you do get hung up, it's probably because of a farm animal. they have the right of way. and if you do happen upon people, they'll almost always greet you with the islay wave. >> ailsa hayes: everybody just waves because it's just friendly. there's not so many of us, so you just wave to say hi. >> kroft: it's what ailsa hayes liked about the island when she moved her family here from london to take a manager's

position at one of islay's thriving distilleries. >> simon: it's strange, is it not, that such a small place with so few people, your products are known everywhere in the world? >> hayes: i know. well, it makes us all very proud, it does. there's such a boom, worldwide, for single malt. it's fantastic. and you can really feel that on the island, a lot of the distilleries have double production. and so, there's a lot of opportunities there, as well. >> simon: and there's no reason to believe that won't continue? >> hayes: well, times are good, people drink. times are bad, people drink. ( laughs ) >> simon: is it possible to be socially acceptable to be a teetotaler on this island? >> hayes: yes. >> simon: are there any? >> hayes: yes. no... i'm not one of them. ( laughter ) >> kroft: over the years, the island's people have learned how to entertain themselves, often at gatherings called ceilidhs, which feature traditional dance and sad songs, mostly about leaving islay and yearning to return.

♪ to sit with my love on the bridge ♪ above the rippling waterfall to go back home ♪ never more to roam is my dearest wish of all ♪ >> kroft: if this looks and feels a lot like ireland, that's no coincidence. it's only 25 miles away. they come from the same tribe, share the same celtic culture and gaelic language, not to mention a love of good whisky that gets them through stormy weather and the long winter nights. there are no movie theaters on islay, no dry cleaners, no supermarkets, no mcdonald's-- at least in the fast-food business. jim mcewan says there is a long list of things that islay doesn't have, and doesn't want. >> mcewan: we don't have any crime, we don't have mugging, car-jacking, house breaking,

rape, just... dope, drugs, we don't have that. you can keep that. you're very welcome to it. >> simon: how do you explain the fact that there's no crime here? there's crime everywhere else. >> mcewan: if you commit a crime in a small community, you'll be ostracized and have to leave. not only that, your family-- your children and your children's children will be remembered as the children of the man who committed the crime. >> kroft: most scots are forthright, practical people who are proud of their country and the fact that their most famous export has withstood the test of time. they see themselves as artisans, and making whisky is more about art and alchemy than manufacturing. every distiller has their own secrets and superstitions. we'll give you the unclassified, two-minute tour. sorry we can't offer you free samples. it begins with a bit of trickery on the malting floor, when barley that's been soaked in water is spread out and raked over and over to convince the

grain it is spring and time to germinate, releasing the starches that are locked inside. it's then dried with peat smoke to add flavor, and ground into flour, sometimes with 19th century machinery, and then mixed with hot water, transforming the starches into a sugary concoction called mash. >> mcewan: smell that, bob. isn't that... you can smell the goodness. >> kroft: yeast is then added, changing the sugar into alcohol, a primitive ale, which is then cooked a couple of times in copper stills, where the vapor is collected and condensed into this clear liquid. >> mcewan: and that's the stuff we want to go into the barrel. >> simon: but what i'm looking at, this looks like rubbing alcohol. this is, in fact, the whisky. >> mcewan: it's very good if you need a rub, there's no doubt about it. >> simon: i bet it would be good. but once this goes into the barrel, from then, it's just time? >> mcewan: it's just time. it's a great journey, you know. this is a child, but the cask is the mother, and that's what makes the journey.

if you get a good cask, you're bound to get a good child, it's that simple. >> kroft: it takes less than three weeks to make, but requires at least ten years of aging in these oak casks, which add flavor and color, to turn it into world-class single malt whisky. >> mcewan: you'll see some of the names. there's clermont springs, buffalo trace, jim beam. >> kroft: bob was surprised to learn that 97% of the casks used to make single malt whisky had been previously used to age american bourbon, and bought secondhand from u.s. distillers. it's testimony to the ingenuity and frugality of the scots, who have very few oak trees. >> mcewan: without the american barrels, there would be no whisky industry. it's as simple as that. >> kroft: a sophisticated palate will detect a hint of the oak and bourbon in islay's single malt, as well as the sweetness of sherry that comes from wine casks bought in europe. before the final product is sold, it will have done time in a number of different casks. master distiller jim mcewan is

the one who decides when to rotate them and when each barrel is ready to be bottled. he opened a young cask for bob to sample. >> mcewan: i would describe that as mellow yellow. absolutely pure. >> simon: and it's only seven years old? >> mcewan: that's right. young whiskies are like young people-- they're vibrant, they're full of life. but, this for me is like coming home from work at the end of the day. i worked really hard-- nobody appreciates me, my wife doesn't appreciate me, my kids don't appreciate me, life's a bitch. >> simon: couple glasses of that and it doesn't matter. >> mcewan: couple of shots of that and i am the king of the world. >> simon: absolutely. you know, frankly, i never liked this stuff, but the way... you're talking me into it. >> mcewan: but you've got to check every barrel. >> simon: i certainly hope so. cheers. >> kroft: mcewan is the man responsible for the taste and consistency of the whiskies at bruichladdich, which requires a very personal involvement with the product. >> simon: i have heard you described as the "cask whisperer." >> mcewan: i do talk to casks.

there's no doubt about it... >> simon: in what language? >> mcewan: mainly english. depends how many whiskeys i've had. if i've had a few whiskies, i tend to revert to the gaelic language when i'm talking to the casks. it's just one of these things-- you go into the warehouse and you pop the bung out. you draw your sample, yeah, and you look at it. and you think, "wow," you know, "beautiful, but you're not just ready yet. tell you what, i'm going to come back and see you in three months, okay." and other times, you find a cask which is so incredibly good, you can't not speak-- "oh, my god, you are the most beautiful thing i have ever tasted in my life." you know, and it's like, oh, geez, i just want to share this with somebody. but there's nobody around. there's just me and the casks. >> simon: we'll stay! ( laughter ) >> kroft: on most days, mcewan devotes several hours to quality control, checking up on several hundred casks. >> mcewan: but it's a fantastic job-- nosing and tasting whiskies. >> simon: and you can still walk out of here in the evening? >> mcewan: occasionally, i need some help. there's no doubt about that,

yeah. >> kroft: dying devotion to one's whisky is apparently not all that unusual. while we were on islay, the camera crew ran into a party of canadians, the friends and family of a deceased single malt lover named bill who wanted his ashes scattered in the waters opposite his favorite distillery. funds for the pilgrimage were set aside in his will. >> it's what he wanted. it's good. it's good. >> to bill! slainte mhath. >> to bill. slainte mhath. >> now, he's happy. now, he's happy. >> kroft: after that, the only thing left was for bob to say goodbye to jim mcewan. and now, it turned out to be last call for our old pal, bob simon. >> mcewan: cheers, bob. hope you've enjoyed this little visit here. >> simon: you're speaking in the past. it's not over. >> mcewan: yeah, i've got to get you out of here, man. ( laughter ) this is... you're costing me a fortune.

>> picking up the pieces-- how bob simon's unfinished whiskey island story finally made it on the air. go to 60minutesovertime.com.

this ♪s electricity. this is a power plant. this is tim barckholtz. that's me! this is something he is researching at exxonmobil: using fuel cells to capture carbon emissions at power plants. this is the potential. reducing co2 emissions by up to 90%... while also producing more power. this could be big. energy lives here. when you have a cold, stuff happens. ♪ { sneezing ] shut down cold symptoms fast [ coughing ] with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels.

>> whitaker: 50 seasons of "60 minutes." this week, from 2007, when andy rooney looked back at some of his christmas pieces past. >> andy rooney: someone asked what i was going to do for a christmas piece on television this year. well, i'm not going to do a christmas piece this year. you know how it is when you

can't think of anything to give someone that you haven't given them before. that's how i feel about christmas television pieces. over the years, i've done a lot of them. cut the piece of paper so you don't waste paper. clip it right across where you've measured it. you can save this for another present later. then fold it over the top like this. well, that does happen once in a while. one last thing about christmas music. no radio or television station would be permitted, under the threat of revocation of its license, to play "rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" more than five times during any one christmas season. that's once. wrapping christmas presents is nice, but it's a strange custom when you think of it. why is it that we get more pleasure from giving or getting a present that's temporarily concealed from our eyes, than from one that isn't? last year, i did gross

decorations. how'd you like to live next door to this? these people in new jersey must own stock in the power company. honey, don't forget to turn the lights out when you come to bed. that's my christmas piece this year. if you don't like it, return it in the original box within ten days and get your money back. and have a merry christmas, and i mean that. >> whitaker: i'm bill whitaker. merry christmas. we'll be back new year's eve with a special edition of "60 minutes" presents. we cut the price of trades to give investors even more value. and at $4.95, you can trade with a clear advantage. fidelity, where smarter investors will always be. what bad knee?u'll ask n trade with a clear advantage. what throbbing head? advil makes pain a distant memory nothing works faster stronger or longer what pain?

advil. another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works in just one week. with the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce wrinkles. neutrogena®. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ for those who know what they're really building. always unstoppable. we're on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, it's time to wake up to keurig. wakey! wakey! rise and shine! oh my gosh! how are you? well watch this. i pop that in there. press brew. that's it. so rich. i love it. that's why you should be a keurig man! full-bodied.

are you sure you're describing the coffee and not me? captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

announcer: lucille ball and desi arnaz... inthe new i love lucy christmas special. (theme song playing) with vivian vance and william frawley. featuring the fully colorized classic christmas episode and "the fashion show." and now, i love lucy. how's it here, honey? over to the left a little. no, no, the other way. no, i want it in the middle so the mantel won't look lopsided. santa claus doesn't care if the mantel looks lopsided. oh, well. there you are, partner. thank you, daddy. you're welcome. now, when you get up in the morning, honey, santa claus is gonna have that chock-full of goodies. yes, sir. off to bed, son. in a minute, daddy.