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, embracing the beauty with one hand and warming a glass of whiskey in the palm of his hand with the other. They say that the “iron lady” Margaret Thatcher was very fond of this man’s drink, in which she took inspiration more than once from pursuing her policy.
Have you often wondered how whiskey appeared? Is it ancient or modern? Who came up with distillate from grain? In this article we will tell a fascinating and slightly mystical story of the appearance of whiskey. The appearance of the drink is shrouded in legends. There are several of them, and here's why: Scotland and Ireland challenge each other in the invention of whiskey. And each country has its own vision of the origin of the drink.
Distillate manufacturing technology
To understand the history of whiskey, you need to at least briefly know the basics of the production process of strong alcoholic drinks. They can serve as raw materials for anything: berries, fruits, potatoes, cereals, milk, sugar or molasses, beets, cacti, and even wood, if it is pre-processed accordingly. The main thing is that there should be carbohydrates in the initial product. But in order to extract alcohols from the raw materials, a distillation process is needed.
The first distillation cube came up with the Arabs. It was a copper kettle in which wine wort was poured. The dishes were hung over the fire, the liquid boiled and the steam went through the tube to another tank, where it condensed again to a liquid state. The Arabs called such drops of distillate “cancer,” which means “sweat.” From here came the name of the first strong drink - raki. In the ancient world did not know the distillates. Europeans first met them during the Crusades, at the same time watching the Arabs and their cooking technology.
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, wort was produced. Of course, not everyone liked it. Attempts were made to replace the grapes with other fruit berries. But the history of whiskey begins when cereals were taken as raw material. The name of the drink itself has Celtic roots and means ... all the same "water of life."
Whiskey: The Story of Dual Writing
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. So there were two names. In Ireland it is uisce beatha, and in Scotland it is uisge beatha. It was pronounced as “little bakha” in the first version and as “little bakha” in the second. The British, who tried the drink, did not understand linguistic wisdom and took only the first part of the name to indicate the distillate.
It just so happened that Scotch tape is called whiskey from Scotland, and whiskey from Ireland (and also from the USA). Both of these spellings are considered grammatically correct. The word is translated into Russian as “whiskey”. But there is still a debate among philologists about whether this drink is male or middle-sized.
Scottish version of the origin of the distillate
It's time to take a look at the two whiskey stories one at a time. Let's start with the Scottish. In this country, they say that it was they who had the wonderful, if not brilliant, idea to replace the grape must with barley beer. As already mentioned, the crusaders borrowed the distillation method in the East during the Crusades. “Water of life” was made mainly by monks. In the Middle Ages, missionaries reached Scotland. The first historical document on the manufacture of whiskey in this country dates from 1494. It reads: "... to give the monk John Kor malt for the manufacture of" water of life. "
But, most likely, - and the everyday nature of the entry in the business book confirms this assumption - whiskey began to be produced long before the end of the 15th century. But throughout the Middle Ages this drink was consumed exclusively for medicinal purposes. This is evidenced by the fact that in 1505 the edinburgh barbershop and surgeons received a monopoly on whiskey production in Scotland.
Irish whiskey story
The first documentary evidence of the drink appeared on the Emerald Island a little earlier. It dates from 1405. And of course, the mention also comes from church chronicles. But the Irish believe that he came up with whiskey is none other than St. Patrick. The missionary arrived on the island with three great goals. The first and most important is to create a wonderful whiskey drink. The second goal was to expel all snakes from Ireland. And finally, convert local people to Christianity.
St. Patrick successfully completed all three tasks. But this, scientists say, is only a beautiful legend. Saint Patrick lived before the Crusades and could not know anything about the distillation cube 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 about the 10th century.
Further history 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, using not only barley, but also rye and wheat as raw materials. And in Brittany (northern France), a similar drink began to be driven from buckwheat. All this initiative, as well as an imperfect production method led to a deterioration in the taste of whiskey.
The history of Scotland gives several examples of how the state tried to fight small distilleries. But this always led only 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 shower. But Stein’s apparatus was designed only for barley raw materials. In the 30s of the 19th century, Irishman Aeneas Coffey, using the achievements of his Scottish predecessor, improved the process of continuous sublimation. As a result, the device was able to work with any grain.
Scottish branch. The appearance of adhesive tape
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 prohibitions only lead to the fact that most enterprises go “into the shadows”. The laws that only noble nobles can produce whiskey have led to the fact that small clandestine factories began to arise far from large cities (and the vigilant eye of the fiscal authorities).
Pure spring water, which was used to make the drink, the smells of the sea breeze absorbed by the distillate, led to the fact that such an underground product was valued higher than official alcohol allowed by the authorities. In addition, small farms used small vats. To speed up the production of whiskey, manufacturers began to dry barley on peat smoke. This gave alcohol the smell of "smoked meats." But the main achievement of Scottish distillery was the aging of alcohols in oak barrels. Such a drink, aromatic, characteristic and strong, was called adhesive tape.
Irish Branch
On the Emerald Isle, the production of whiskey also did not stand still, but in every way improved. 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 Rev. Father Theobald Matthew. In just a couple of years of fiery sermons, the Capuchin monk managed to convince five of the eight million people living in Ireland at that time to completely bind with alcohol.
But then people remembered that the story of the appearance of whiskey on the island is connected with Patrick, who is considered a saint, which cannot be said about his Rev. Matthew. So the drink survived the hard times and became part of the national culture. Irish whiskey does not at all resemble Scotch whiskey, not only in writing, but also in the way of production, as well as in taste. For a drink, barley is not smoked on peat smoke, and the malt tanks are simply huge. Irish whiskey is velvet, soft, with a deep and multifaceted bouquet.
Drink promotion
For a long time, whiskey and whiskey did not go beyond the countries producing them. But at the very beginning of the 19th century, Europe was struck by the invasion of phylloxera. This aphid destroyed almost all the vineyards. Of course, new vines were planted. But in order for them to give the first crop, at least five years had to pass. During this time, the British, having lost their beloved brandy, were forced to pay attention to those drinks that were produced by northern and western neighbors. McGregor whiskey 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. Beverage manufacturers were also famous for this.
The history of McGregor whiskey, Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker, White Horse and other famous Scottish brands demonstrates that these distilleries arose or became popular precisely in those difficult years. The mass emigration of the poor from the Emerald Island to North America has led to the fact that the Irish way of producing the drink has taken root in the USA and Canada. But on new lands, he got his own characteristics.
Other branches of the development of the drink
The history of the origin of whiskey in the United States begins in the late 18th century. Pastor Elijah Craig from the town of Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, decided to replace corn, poorly growing in a warm climate, with corn. Another innovation that the reverend applied was that he kept his whiskey in oak barrels previously burnt from the inside. The drink was made not by distillation, like tape, but by continuous distillation. As a result, the whiskey, named after Bourbon County, was strong but clean.
The 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 rye a clean, light, non-aggressive and aristocratic drink that was enjoyed with pleasure not only by men, but also by women. When whiskey received worldwide recognition, it also began to be produced in Japan. The main raw material there, as you might guess, is rice. A small part of barley malt, Japan imports from Scotland.