The history of whiskey: the emergence and origin of the spirit

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

A strong alcoholic drink called "whiskey" has firmly entered our lives. He took a worthy place in popular culture. The unbending and charming agent James Bond always appears before us, hugging the beauty with one hand, and warming a glass of whiskey in the other. It is said that the "iron lady" Margaret Thatcher was very fond of this masculine drink, in which she drew inspiration more than once when pursuing her policy.

Have you often wondered how whiskey appeared? Is it ancient or modern? Who came up with the idea of making distillate from grain? In this article, we will tell a fascinating and slightly mystical story of the emergence of whiskey. The appearance of the drink is shrouded in legends. There are several of them, and here's why: the palm in the invention of whiskey is contested by Scotland and Ireland. And each country has its own vision of the origin of the drink.

Distillate technology

Toto understand the history of whiskey, you need to at least briefly know the basics of the production process of strong alcoholic beverages. Anything can serve as a raw material for them: berries, fruits, potatoes, cereals, milk, sugar or molasses, beets, cacti, and even wood, if it is properly pre-treated. The main thing is that the original product contains carbohydrates. But in order to extract alcohols from raw materials, a distillation process is needed.

The first alembic was invented by the Arabs. It was a copper kettle into which wine must was poured. The dishes were hung over the fire, the liquid boiled and the steam went through the tube into another tank, where it condensed again to a liquid state. The Arabs called such drops of distillate "raki", which means "sweat". Hence the name of the first strong drink - rakia. Distillates were not known in the ancient world. Europeans first met them during the Crusades, at the same time peeping from the Arabs and the technology of their preparation.

Whiskey specifics

For a long time, all distillates in Europe were made from wine must. They were given the Latin name aqua vitae, which means "water of life". The inhabitants of the northern countries were forced to buy distillates, import them from the southern lands, where grapes grew and, accordingly, must was produced. Of course, not everyone liked it. Attempts were made to replace grapes with other fruits and berries. But the history of whiskey begins when cereals were taken as raw materials. The very name of the drink has Celtic roots and means … all the same "water of life".

Whisky: a story of double spelling

Whoever invented this drink, the Scots or the Irish, they did not invent a new name, but simply translated the Latin expression aqua vitae into their languages. This is how the two names came about. In Ireland it is uisce beatha and in Scotland it is uisge beatha. It was pronounced as "ishke byaha" in the first version and as "ishke byaha" in the second. The British, who tried the drink, did not understand the linguistic intricacies and took only the first part of the name to designate the distillate.

So it happened that scotch from Scotland is referred to as whiskey, and from Ireland (and also from the USA) - whiskey. Both of these spellings are considered grammatically correct. The word is translated into Russian as "whiskey". But among philologists, there is still debate about what kind of this drink is - male or average.

Scottish version of the origin of the distillate

It's time to read the two whiskey stories in turn. Let's start with Scottish. In this country, they claim that it was they who had a wonderful, if not brilliant, idea to replace grape must with barley beer. As already mentioned, the Crusaders borrowed the method of distillation in the East during the Crusades. The "Water of Life" was produced mainly by monks. In the Middle Ages, missionaries reached Scotland. The first historical document on the production of whiskey in this country dates back to 1494. It reads: "… to give m alt to the monk John Core to make the "water of life."

But, most likely, - and the very everyday nature of the entry in the business book confirmsthis assumption - whiskey began to be produced long before the end of the 15th century. But throughout the Middle Ages, this drink was used exclusively for medicinal purposes. This is evidenced by the fact that in 1505 the Edinburgh barbers and surgeons' guild received a monopoly on the production of whiskey in Scotland.

Irish whiskey history

The first documentary evidence of the drink appeared on the Emerald Isle a little earlier. It dates from 1405. And of course, the mention also comes from church chronicles. But the Irish believe that whiskey was invented by none other than Saint Patrick. The missionary arrived on the island with three great goals in mind. The first and most important thing is to create a wonderful whiskey drink. The second goal was to expel all snakes from Ireland. And finally, convert the local people to Christianity.

Saint Patrick successfully completed all three tasks. But this, scientists say, is just a beautiful legend. Saint Patrick lived before the Crusades and could not have known anything about the alembic and the method of distilling the "water of life". Most likely, the idea to replace wine with barley beer came to representatives of both peoples independently of each other. And it happened around the 10th century.

Further history of the development of the drink

Whiskey has long been sold in pharmacies in Scotland as a medicine. But many residents appreciated not only the healing, but also the amusing effect of the “water of life”. Many farms began to produce distillate at home, using not only barley as a raw material,but also rye and wheat. And in Brittany (northern France) they began to drive a similar drink from buckwheat. All this amateur activity, as well as an imperfect production method, led to a deterioration in the taste of whiskey.

The history of Scotland provides several examples of how the state tried to fight small distilleries. But this always only led to the fact that such farms went underground. A breakthrough in the technological process was made at the beginning of the 19th century by a Scottish-born Robert Stein. He improved the distillation cube, as a result of which the drink got rid of the fusel smell. But Stein's apparatus was designed only for raw barley. In the 30s of the 19th century, the Irishman Aeneas Coffey, using the achievements of his Scottish predecessor, improved the process of continuous sublimation. As a result, the machine was able to work with any grain.

Scottish branch. Advent of Scotch

Since the 16th century, the state has tried to eliminate small distilleries, referring to the fact that they make low-quality whiskey. History teaches that such bans only lead to the fact that most enterprises go "into the shadows." Laws that only the nobility could make whiskey have led to small underground distilleries springing up away from the big cities (and the watchful eye of the fiscal authorities).

The pure spring water that was used to make the drink, the smells of the sea breeze absorbed by the distillate, led to the fact that such a product of the underground began to be valued above the official alcohol allowed by the authorities. Moreover, in smallfarms used small vats. To speed up the production of whiskey, manufacturers began to dry barley on peat smoke. This gave alcohol the flavor of "smoked meats". But the main achievement of Scottish whiskey was the aging of spirits in oak barrels. Such a drink, fragrant, characteristic and strong, was called scotch.

Irish Development Branch

On the Emerald Isle, the production of whiskey also did not stand still, but improved in every possible way. The Irish producers of this drink did not have such problems with public services as the Scots. But another misfortune befell them, and she bore the name of the Reverend Father Theobald Matthew. In just a couple of years of fiery sermons, a Capuchin monk managed to convince five of the eight million people who lived in Ireland at that time to give up alcohol completely.

But then people remembered that the history of the appearance of whiskey on the island is connected with Patrick, who is considered a saint, which cannot be said about his Reverend Matthew. So the drink survived the hard times and became part of the national culture. Irish whiskey is not at all like Scotch, not only in spelling, but also in the method of production, as well as in taste. Barley is not smoked with peat smoke for a drink, and the m alt vats are simply huge. Irish whiskey is velvety, soft, with a deep and multifaceted bouquet.

Promotion of the drink

For a long time, whiskey and whiskey did not go beyond the countries that produce them. But at the very beginning of the 19th century, Europe was struck byphylloxera invasion. This aphid destroyed almost all vineyards. Of course, new vines were planted. But in order for them to give the first harvest, at least five years had to pass. During this time, the British, having lost their favorite brandy, were forced to pay attention to those drinks that were produced by their northern and western neighbors. Whiskey "McGregor" became popular. The founder of this brand took the name of the drink from the Scottish clan, known for its steadfastness and the struggle for the independence of the region from the English kings. This family survived thanks to strong family ties. The producers of the drink were also famous for this.

The history of McGregor, Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker, White Horse and other well-known Scottish brands demonstrates that these distilleries emerged or became popular during those difficult years. The mass emigration of the poor from the Emerald Isle to North America led to the fact that the Irish way of producing the drink took root in the USA and Canada. But in the new lands, he received his own characteristics.

Other branches of the drink development

The history of the origin of whiskey in the United States begins at the end of the 18th century. Pastor Elijah Craig of Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, decided to replace barley, which grows poorly in warm climates, with corn. Another innovation that the reverend applied was that he aged his whiskey in oak barrels previously charred from the inside. The drink was not made by distillation, like scotch, but by continuous distillation. As a result, whiskeynamed after Bourbon County, was strong but clean.

Americans also began to make similar distillates from wheat and rye. The last cereal was adopted mainly by Canadians. Hiram Walker was able to make a clean, light, non-aggressive and aristocratic drink from rye, which not only men but also women drank with pleasure. When whiskey received worldwide recognition, it also began to be produced in Japan. The main raw material there, as you might guess, is rice. And Japan imports a small part of barley m alt from Scotland.