West Coast Whisky Trail
The Scotch whisky we enjoy today has endured and developed for centuries. It has survived prohibition, wars and revolutions, economic depressions and recessions and is the spirit of choice in over 200 countries around the world.
The name 'whisky' originated with the Gaelic 'Uisge Beatha', or 'water of life'. This was shortened to 'usky' and became 'whisky' in English.
For a whisky to be labelled Scotch it has to be produced in Scotland. If it is to be called Scotch, it cannot be produced elsewhere in the UK or anywhere else in the world.
Excellent whiskies are made by similar methods in other countries but they cannot be called Scotch. They are most often referred to as 'whiskey' and undoubtedly they are high quality whiskies, but unlike Scotch they do not capture the tastes of Scotland.
It is believed that the secrets of the distilling process were introduced to Scotland some 1500 years ago when settlers from Ireland began to populate the west coast of Scotland which they named Dalriada - which is now Argyll.
Historically, this spirit - what we now know as malt whisky - was produced in monasteries. Folklore suggests that St Patrick had introduced distilling to Ireland in the fifth century AD after he acquired knowledge of the technique in Spain and France, countries that may have known the art of distilling at that time.
Strange as it may seem, the distilling process was originally applied to perfume. This same technique was applied to wine in grape growing countries, and finally adapted to fermented mashes of cereals when grapes were not so readily available.
Known as aqua vitae, or 'water of life', this spirit was prescribed for the treatment of a wide variety if ailments from colic to palsy and even smallpox. It was also taken as a general cure-all and boost to the health.
The pleasant taste, comforting effects and increasing availability of aqua vitae were attractive to commoner and king alike. The spirit’s perceived medicinal benefits were formally endorsed when, in Edinburgh in 1505, the Guild of Surgeon Barbers was granted a monopoly over the manufacture of aqua vitae – reflecting the practice of barbers undertaking minor medical procedures.
King James IV was quoted as being fond of what he referred to as 'ardent spirits'. It is catalogued that when the king visited Dundee in 1506 he ordered a supply of aqua vitae from a local barber.
However, the lack of scientific expertise and the primitive equipment used at that time meant that the spirit produced was probably extremely potent and occasionally even harmful.
The dissolution of the monasteries during the 15th century inadvertently led to an improvement in the design of stills and a more widespread knowledge of the distilling process. Many monks, driven from their sanctuaries, put their distilling skills to use in the outside world and the knowledge of distilling then quickly spread to others, who embraced the technique while working on better still designs.
The increasing popularity of distilling of aqua vitae soon attracted the attention of the Scottish parliament, which introduced the first taxes on the malt in the late 17th century. That, combined with increasing rates of taxation which were applied following The Act of Union with England in 1707, drove the distillers underground.
Excisemen - tax collectors - were employed to apply the new laws and collect taxes from distillers. These gaugers as they were called were unpopular and a battle ensued with the illicit distillers who wanted to conceal their industry. Smuggling became standard practice for some 150 years and there was no moral stigma attached to it, with everyone participating in the struggle to avoid taxation. Some church ministers made storage space available under the pulpit, and containers of the illicit spirit were, on occasion, transported by coffin.
Illicit stills were hidden in nooks and crannies of the heather-clad hills, and smugglers organised signalling systems from one hilltop to another whenever excise officers were seen to arrive in the vicinity.
By the 1820s despite the fact that as many as 14,000 illicit stills were being confiscated every year, more than half the whisky consumed in Scotland was being swallowed agreeably without contributing a penny in duty.
This flouting of the law eventually prompted the Duke of Gordon, on whose extensive acres some of the finest illicit whisky in Scotland was being produced, to propose in the House of Lords that the Government should make it profitable to produce whisky legally.
In 1823 the Excise Act was passed, which sanctioned the distilling of whisky in return for a license fee of £10, and a set payment per gallon of proof spirit. As a result, smuggling died out almost completely over the next ten years and, in fact, a great many of the present day distilleries stand on sites used by smugglers of old.
The Excise Act laid the foundations for the Scotch whisky industry as we know it today but an enterprising inventor and an industrious beetle combined to put Scotch whisky firmly on the world map.
Aqua vitae was what we now know as malt whisky. But, in 1831 Aeneas Coffey invented a method of distilling which led to the introduction of blended whisky. The Patent Still enabled a continuous process of distillation to take place and this led to the production of grain whisky. This lighter flavoured whisky, when blended with the more fiery malts, extended the appeal of Scotch whisky to a much wider market.
The second major helping hand came when the phylloxera beetle devastated the vineyards of France in the 1880s where the production of wine and brandy was in full swing. Within ten years, because of this pest, supplies of wine and brandy had literally dried up. The Scots stepped in to take advantage of the calamity, and by the time the French industry recovered, Scotch whisky had replaced brandy as the preferred spirit of choice.
Since then Scotch Whisky has gone from strength to strength.