CHAPTER 8: New Whisky Countries and the ‘Craft’ Distilling Phenomenon

As we have seen, all distilling was originally conducted on a small scale in monasteries, farms and in private homes before a combination of legislation, consolidation of ownership and mechanization of the process itself concentrated most production into large-scale units. The basic science of the distilling process is understood and it is not intrinsically difficult to make spirit, albeit of varying and inconsistent quality. But, until very recently, the trend had been for the production of whisky to be consolidated into fewer and fewer hands and the received wisdom was that whisky could only be satisfactorily made in a few countries. Charles MacLean has shown how the range of Scotch single malt whisky exploded from a mere nine listed by George Saintsbury in 1920 to over 200 identified in the 1989. Armed with the necessary education and a growing confidence, international visitors began to ask whether whisky could be distilled in their home country and, if not, why not? A few pioneers began experiments and so the phenomenon of artisanal ‘world’ whisky as we presently understand it was born, with production both on an industrial scale and by small-scale ‘craft’ distilleries.