A brief history of Scotch
The Gaelic ‘usquebaugh’, meaning ‘Water of Life’, phonetically became ‘usky’
and then ‘whisky’ in English. Scotland has internationally protected the term
‘Scotch’. For a whisky to be labelled Scotch it has to be produced in Scotland.
‘Eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae’. The
entry above appeared in the Exchequer Rolls as long ago as 1494 and
appears to be the earliest documented record of distilling in Scotland. This
was sufficient to produce almost 1500 bottles.
Legend would have it that St Patrick introduced distilling to Ireland in the
fifth century AD and that the secrets traveled with the Dalriadic Scots when
they arrived in Kintyre around AD500.
The spirit was universally termed aqua vitae (‘water of life’) and was
commonly made in monasteries, and chiefly used for medicinal purposes,
being prescribed for the preservation of health, the prolongation of life, and
for the relief of colic, palsy and even smallpox.
Scotland’s great Renaissance king, James IV (1488-1513) was fond of ‘ardent
spirits’. When the king visited Dundee in 1506, the treasury accounts record
a payment to the local barber for a supply of aqua vitae for the king’s
pleasure. The reference to the barber is not surprising. In 1505, the
Guild of Surgeon Barbers in Edinburgh was granted a monopoly over the
manufacture of aqua vitae – a fact that reflects the spirits perceived medicinal
properties as well as the medicinal talents of the barbers.
The Scottish parliament introduced the first taxes on malt in the latter part
of the 17th century, and consequently smuggling became standard practice
for some 150 years. There was no moral stigma attached to it: Ministers of
the Kirk often made storage space available under the pulpit, and the illicit
spirit was, on occasion, transported by coffin – any effective means was used
to escape the watchful eyes of the Excise men.
We have been talking about what we now know as Malt Whisky. But, in 1831
Aeneas Coffey invented the Coffey or Patent Still, which enabled a
continuous process of distillation to take place. This led to the production of
Grain Whisky, a different, less intense spirit than the Malt Whisky produced
in the distinctive copper pot stills. The lighter flavored Grain Whisky, when
blended with the more fiery malts, extended the appeal of Scotch Whisky to a
considerably wider market.
For a full version of our Whisky Bible click here.