A Brief* History of Whisk(e)y

There's no denying that the British Isles produce most of the very best (and most expensive) whiskeys in the world.  Just head to your local liquor store and compare the prices of Scotch, Irish whiskey, and Bourbon, then go online and read some reviews if you doubt it.  But why is this?  Why is this particular spirit made in so many places around the world, and why is the Scottish variety so much more prestigious than the others?  The answers to these questions, like many things, start with some monks who lived more than a thousand years ago.

*Obviously, I'm a terrible liar.

Irish Origins

Skellig Michael, off Kerry.  It's a UNESCO
world heritage site, and impossible to tour in
anything but perfect weather due to safety
concerns, which is saying something in
Ireland.  The monastery is at the very top...

First, a little background.  In the centuries after the arrival of St Patrick and Christianity, monastic communitites sprang up all over Ireland.  Some were remote and inacessable, like Skellig Michael, on a tiny island off the coast of Kerry, which can only be toured in good weather due to safety concerns.  Others became population centers and centers of learning, like Kildare, which has been a medium-sized city since the middle ages.  These early monastic communities were designed to be self-sufficient, often producing their own food, clothing, and, naturally, beer.

While many of the brothers (and sisters- many of the early Irish monastaries were mixed) of these settlements merely lived quiet, contemplative lives, one of the major goals of the early Celtic church was evangelization, the spreading of the Christian faith through missionary activity.  Thus early medeval monks from Ireland set out to spread their faith across Scotland, England, Scandinavia, and much of continental Europe.  Some may have even made it as far as Iceland or even North America, though there is not much evidence to back this up yet.  We know with certainty that by about 1000 A.D., some 500 years after St Patrick, Irish missionaries had made it as far as the eastern Mediteranean, where they encountered the technique of distilling perfumes.  They brought stills back to Ireland, and, being Irish, set about finding a way to use them to make alcohol.

Obviously, they succeeded.  The first mention of "whiskey" as a social drink in Ireland is from 1405, but there are earlier mentions of Uisce Beatha, a beverage distilled from barley beer and used as a sort of cure-all, to treat everything from colds and flu to smallpox.  The technique of triple distilling barley beer to make whiskey seems to have spread quite quickly to Scotland, where it's first documented in 1494.

Distillation seems to have mainly been done in monastaries throughout the medeval period, both in Ireland and Scotland.  This began to change, however, with the Protestant Reformation.  In 1541, Henry VIII ordered the closure of all monastaries in his kingdom, which included Ireland.  As the monastaries began to close, distilling moved into the home and a few liscensed distilleries (like Bushmills, est. 1608 with a liscense from King James I), where it remained until the late 18th century.

Whisk(e)y Spreads Around the World

As mentioned above, whisky is first documented in Scotland in the Exchequer Rolls (tax records) from 1494.  The document shows a purchase of barley by a monk "to make aqua vitae"- aqua vitae being the Latin translation of Uisce Beatha, meaning "water of life."  The modern English word whisk(e)y (with the "e" in Ireland, without in Scotland) is believed to be derived from the Gaelic name from the beverage.

Like many alcoholic beverages,
including beer and champagne,
whiskey was mostly produced by
monks in the middle ages.

In Scotland as in Ireland, closure of monastic commuinities by religious reformers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries resulted in many monks setting up distilling operations in private homes and in more people learning how to make whisky.  The crown took advantage of this new state of affairs by imposing heavy taxes on stills.  Naturally, the Scots responded by setting up smuggling operations in order to avoid the taxes, so much so that by 1780, there were 8 licensed distilleries operating in Scotland, and about 400 illegal ones.

Eventually, the government took action.  The Duke of Gordon, on whose land much of the best illegal whisky was being made, suggested a bill that eased restrictions on legal distilleries while also making operation of illegal stills more difficult.  This passed as the Excise Act of 1823 and ushered in a new, more commercial era in the history of whisky.  (Not that that really stopped production of moonshine.  It's still common in Ireland today.)

While all this was going on in the old world, of course, Europeans were largely preoccupied with exploring and colonizing the new world.  The English started settling the lands that would eventually become the eastern seaboard of the US and Canada in the seventeenth century, and it wasn't long before Scottish and Irish settlers began to join them.  Mass emigration from Scotland began after the defeat at Culloden in 1746, and from Ireland durring the Great Famine in the 1830s.  And aside from the willing immigrants seeking a new life in the colonies or fleeing persecution at home, it was common practice for criminals, including whiskey smugglers and illegal distillers, to be deported to the colonies.

And of course these settlers brought whiskey-making with them.  Illegal stills became just as common on the frontiers of the British colonies in North America as they were back in Scotland and Ireland in the eighteenth century, and their products had evolved into the Canadian (rye) whiskey and Bourbon we know today by the middle of the nineteenth century.  During this time, imported Irish whiskey was growing rapidly in popularity in the US, especially in places like New York and Boston with large immigrant populations.  Indeed, by the beginning of Prohibition in the US in 1920, Irish whiskey was the second most popular spirit in America, after rum.

Meanwhile in Scotland…

Coffey stills, also called
column stills.

Traditionally, whisky was made by distilling barley beer three times in a pot still.  Irish whiskey is still made this way today.  But in nineteenth century Scotland, a new innovation was introduced that would eventually allow the Scots to dominate the international whisky market.

Funnily enough, the column still, or Coffey still, was invented in Ireland, by an Irishman.  The Irish distillers shunned this newfangled still and the less intense whiskey it produced, however, so Mr. Coffey took his invention to Scotland in 1831.  Realizing that the continuous distillation process of the column still was much quicker and cheaper than triple distilling in pot stills and resulted in a smoother product, the Scottish distillers took to it very quickly.

The Coffey still, as it turned out, really was a godsend for the previously underrated Scottish whisky industry.  Its smoother product increased the appeal of Scotch to a much wider audience than before, for one thing.  For another, because Irish whiskey had been wildly popular in America prior to prohibiton, when importing to the US became illegal, the market for Irish whiskey crashed, and many distilleries closed.  This, as well as the much quicker production time allowed by the Coffey still, meant that when Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Scottish distillers were better able to meet the new demand form the American market.  Add to the equation the fact that many GIs aquired the taste for Scotch while stationed in Britian during World War II, and we begin to see why Scottish distillers were able to market their whisky so effectively in the last sixty years.  (Yes, of course it's all a marketing ploy.  As with any other food or drink, the best whisk(e)y is really just a matter of personal taste.)

Back on This Side of the Pond:

Oddly enough, Prohibition and World War II also provided a boost to the US market for American-made Bourbon.  Obviously, the commercial distilleries had to close down during Prohibition, but making liquor illegal to buy or sell didn't do much to curb demand.  When the law prevented importers   from selling spirits in the US, American distillers with little regard for the law, many descended from those who had first brought the technique of whiskey-making to North America, saw an opportunity.

Prohibition in the 1920s
ushered in a new era of
organized crime, mostly
devoted to selling black
market alcohol, often to
congressmen and
Senators.  

The price of a drink in the US doubled between 1920 and 1930, since so much of the supply was cut off without much of a decrease in demand, which meant a small distiller could make a good profit selling contraband whiskey on the black market.  The result was that illegal distilling and smuggling became as common in 1920's America as they had been in late 18th century Scotland.

As we saw above, when Prohibition came to an end in 1933, the Scottish distillers were the first to be able to meet the demand of the American market, since the closure of all the large American distilleries in the 1920's had set back Bourbon production by several years.  Just as they got to producing again, many had to shut down or start making industrial alcohol for the war effort after the US entered World War II in December 1941.  Fortunately, they could still sell whatever stock they had on-hand, and simple geography gave them an advantage over Scottish distillers, who were still importing whisky to the US during the war: supply may have been limited, but American distillers didn't run the risk of losing shipments to U-boats on the way to cities like New York and Chicago.  While Bourbon has never developed the same snob appeal as Scotch, this small edge during wartime allowed Bourbon to establish a small foothold in a market that would be dominated by imported whisky for the next several decades.

Current Trends

The Japanese hoped to
get a piece of the huge
Asian market for
luxury goods, like Scotch,
and promptly found
themselves in a legal
battle over labeling.  

As discussed above, a little innovation, a little good luck, and a natural affinity for marketing have made Scotch the most sought-after and expensive whiskey in the world.  So much so that Japanese distillers have tried to mimic Scottish single malts in order to get in on the profits (they are prevented by law from labeling their products as "Scotch," since they're not made in Scotland).  However, this has begun to change in the last decade or so.  

In recent  years, Irish whiskey and Bourbon have experienced an upswing in popularity in the US.  The willingness of younger drinkers to experiment has been wonderful for small distillers, just like it has for craft brewers, and in the economy of the past decade, their lower price-point appeals to many Americans.  Of course, Scotland continues to compete.  While Ireland and the US also have their premium products, none of these really have the snob appeal of the top-of-the-line Scotches yet, and many of the young Americans buying Irish whiskey and Bourbon also buy Scotch, and will likely continue to do so, especially as their incomes increase.  

Regardless, it's nice to see that one of the world's oldest spirits still has a strong following in spite of the popularity of flavored vodka and jello shots.  One can only hope that the recent trend towards the traditional in food and beer bleeds over into the liquor market; there's a certain degree of class in old-fashioned whiskey cocktails and quality liquors sipped neat that fruity drinks lack, and it would be a pity to lose such a large piece of our history to beverages with names like "sex on the beach."

So get out there and start experimenting!  If you're new to whiskey, I'd recommend starting with a mid-range aged Irish whiskey, like Jameson's 12-year-old, mixed with a little water.  Those are generally quite smooth, and won't cost you too much if you don't like them.  If you want to taste a lot without spending too much, though, your liquor store probably has mini "sample" bottles, for only a few dollars each, which are a much less risky way of trying something new.  I plan to (eventually) post whisk(e)y guides here, but in the meantime, knowledgable liquor store staff and bartenders are probably your best resources if you need a recommendation.  (Which isn't to say that I wouldn't be happy to answer any questions posted in the comments.  It's just that a lot of people know more about tasting notes of specific whiskeys than I do!  Still, I'm always happy to share the results of my experimentations.)