History of whisky

The origins of whisky are a little obscure but it’s highly likely that they are based in medicine or science. Distillation was used my alchemists and healers in ancient times for a variety of applications, including in the 17th century for making gun power more lively, a process called ‘corning’ – if that can be perceived as a good idea!

Arab scientists trying to convert base metals to gold accidentally discovered the principle of distillation. Al-cool an Arabic word is the root of the word alcohol. Some researchers claim that Chinese employed a similar process to distil 3000 years ago, but so far, there is no conclusive evidence to prove this theory.

It is generally thought that christian monks and missionaries brought the process to Scotland from Ireland as a preparation for all kinds of potions and at some point somebody thought –“I think I’ll drink that !”. How these things actually happen we will never know, suffice to say that whisky happened and the Monks where the distillers.

Monks in the Middle Ages were the brewers and distillers until the reformation when the monasteries were destroyed and the monks dispersed. Some enterprising individuals at that time obviously thought that it would be wrong to let all this expertise go to waste, so they started brewing and distilling under the free enterprise mantle.

The earliest written record of distillation was in 1494 in King James IV of Scotland’s Roll of the Exchequer, when Friar John Cor purchased 8 bolls of malt to make 1500 bottles of Aqua Vitae (Water of life) otherwise known as whisky.

This record is also significant from the perspective that this was also the start of serious and increasing taxation, which has hardly abated since!. In 1707 “The Act of Union”, joining the monarchy of Scotland and England increased taxation even further.

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