Scotch Whisky has been produced in Scotland for hundreds of years. At one time, every household in Scotland made enough “Scotch” whisky for their own needs. Whatever happened to that?
It is generally accepted that it was St Patrick of Ireland coming to Scotland to spread the Christian faith who brought the secrets of distilling whisky and other spirits. However he is thought to have learn the magic art of distilling spirits from abbeys and monastery in France. Other sources say that ancient Celts even further back were producing a liquid called uisge beatha (“water of life”) and that over the centuries it evolved into Scotch whisky.
Today Scotch whisky is one of the world’s top selling alcoholic spirits. For example in 1999 Scotland paid alcohol duty of over £2,515,200 or 39% of the total £6,400,000 paid in the UK. Today there is approximately 150 million litres of Scotch whisky produced for sale in Scotland spread across 100 active legal distilleries. Enjoyed responsibly, whisky is a treat whether you are 25 or 75. If you are a SouthBeachDiet.com follower you might even find some lower calorie or sugar-free whiskies to suit your tastes too. Scotch whisky encompasses many brands and types to suit everybody.
In order to keep up the standard and protect the reputation of scotch whisky it is illegal to refer to any drink as a Scotch whisky if it has not been kept for aging (maturing) in Scotland in oak casks for at least three years. Based on our estimates of how much whisky is produced each year for sale we can say that there is a minimum of 450,000 litres of drink becoming whisky stored in Scotland at any one time. When we take into account that some whisky is matured in the oak casks for 10 years (sometimes even 30 years) before being bottled. The amount of whisky aging or maturing in Scotland? is going to be over 1.5 million litres. Enough to give anyone a hangover!
Each region of Scotland produces its own distinct tastes. I will describe these regional variations in more detail in later posts but for example there are now seven distilleries on the Isle of Islay all distilling a whisky with a strong peaty taste as the barley has been malted using peat smoke and the water used comes from springs and wells that are rich in peat.
The distillery on the Isle of Jura less than a mile north of Islay produces a whisky which has virtually no peaty flavor except for that produced in about 3 weeks during early January when they produce a whisky known as Superstition using Barley from a different source.
Today most countries have accepted the concept that Scotch whisky can only be made in Scotland (most recent at time of writing is China). However many other countries produce a drink which is related to Scotch whisky for example Ireland where is generally spelt whiskey, both USA and Canada have a relatively large whisky industry although that is often made with a rye rather than malt as does Japan.
Japan is one of the world largest consumers of Scotch whisky and actually owns the parent companies of many of the Scottish Distilleries.
In other articles we will be going into more depth about the production methods and interesting facts about our Scotch whisky including how whisky should be drunk.
Do you drink it with water or ice or neat? Clue never with Coke!
