Malice in the mix
A book on the great Glasgow whisky scandal of 1872 is set to be republished.According to Ian Buxton,it makes essential reading
Ah, the good old days. Whisky just a few pennies a glass; hundreds of independent companies competing for our business; distilleries now lost in the mists of time sending forth their wonderful drams. On every street corner a Dickensian pub stands ready for our business, the ruddy-faced landlord dispensing wisdom and whisky in equal measure.
How wonderful it seems. Surely, the Victorians lived in a golden age. And, today, those distillers who survived the challenges of war, recession and competition from trendier spirits are anxious to remind us of their heritage.
Half the visitor centres in Scotland are full of faded sepia pictures of a whiskered workforce dating from the 1800s, their curiously fixed stares offered up as evidence of the enduring values of the proprietors. A good number of the bottles we buy are proudly adorned with the legend âestablished 1817â or some such, the longevity of the firm a guarantee of quality, a reassuring bastion in troubled times.
It seems that heritage is big business.
Great efforts go into convincing us that nothing has changed in the whisky we drink. Iâve lost count of the number of shiny big distilleries Iâve visited, controlled by one man and a computer, where Iâve been assured that âof course, we still make it the same wayâ.
Thatâs the same way, allowing for new varieties of barley; wholly mechanised malting; precisely controlled fermentation; distillation in stills with the rummagers removed and heated by steam pipe.....
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By Ian Buxton
Section : Whisky History
Page number : 52
