Things I Didn’t Know About Scotch

From a story in the Philly Inquirer:



As is the case with American bourbon, Scotch whisky is an outgrowth of unlicensed distillers fighting with the government over taxation of their homemade products.

The first recorded mention of whisky in Scotland was in 1494. For the most part, it remained a homemade product for centuries, used on an everyday basis.

By the 18th century, unregulated whisky-making had boomed in numerous glens where pure spring waters needed for top-level distilling were abundant. A continual tussle went on between the British crown, which wanted to license all distillers so they could be taxed, and the distillers, who didn’t care for the crown and hated its taxing policies.

One by one, most of the illicit distillers’ operations were shut down. Those that remained reached an accommodation with the government and then began to do battle with each other for what today we call market share. The folks in Glenlivet, where more than 100 distillers plied their trade by the early 1800s, were the most market-savvy.

In the wine business, appellation – the name of the area where the wine is produced, such as Burgundy, Napa and Finger Lakes – helps identify and sell a product.

In the early days of legal Scotch whisky-making, the same held true. Distillers made a point of telling merchants not just what they made, but where they made it. Thus, Glenlivet was the first producing district most whisky consumers knew by name.

Demanding “The Glenlivet Scotch” became the discriminating thing to do. Even King George IV, a noted drunk, womanizer and gambler, got into the act by making it his favorite court drink, with a particular fondness for the product made by one George Gow Smith.

In 1880, according to historians at the University of Edinburgh, the exclusive designation “The Glenlivet” was granted to Smith in a test case to distinguish it from the 18 or so other distilleries that at one time or another appended the name to their own.