Why Whisky stands the test of time as a discerning drink and a sturdy financial asset?
With the rise and downfall of the Greek and Roman Empires, the knowledge of distillation was lost. The dominating alcoholic beverage of that time was Wine, which almost produced itself. It matured well under the Mediterranean sun, and the fermentation also needed little attention.
The ancient knowledge fell into obscurity in the middle Ages, and only in the monasteries were the achievements of the Egyptians, Greek and Romans preserved. The Roman expansion led to the displacement of the Celts. Originally also native to Bavaria, they had to yield to the superpower and retreat more and more to the northwest. Thus it’s hardly surprising that it was Celtic monks who brought the art of distillation on their long way to Ireland in the 11th century.
Lindores Abbey
The ruins of Lindores Abbey lie on the outskirts of the small town called Newburgh and very close to the river Tay. It is about an hour drive north of the city of Edinburgh. It’s known as the birthplace of Whisky and it can be traced back to 1494. It is the oldest noted evidence of distilling.
Back in 1494 distilling was mostly used to produce perfume or alchemist substances. As the distilling business was not established in Scotland you didn’t need a license or have to pay taxes on the alcohol produced. For the documented history this was a bad thing as every farmer could just produce Whisky without documenting it. There are many documents about Lindores Abbey.
First of all they needed to buy malt and had to pay duty on it. Secondly and this is the official recorded fact is that King James IV ordered aqua vitae from the abbey in a royal commission. The original wording was “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King, VIII bolls of Malt, wherewith to make aqua vitae”. The boll is an old Scottish unit and varied a lot during the time. Also it could be used to count bushels of wheat barley and measure volumes. So it is very unclear how large the order by the King was but we can assume that the distillery was very, very small compared to the distilleries we have today.
But after a few hundred years of cultivation the barley yielded well, and in 1494 Whisky was first mentioned in a document in Scotland. Bush Mills was the first documented distillery in Ireland in 1608. On the continent, however, wine was distilled, the leading producers being the French in the Cognac region. All royal houses, also in Scotland and Ireland, bought cognac from France
The vine pest was introduced to France at the end of the 18th century. The pest multiplied endlessly in a few years and destroyed more than 50% of the wine harvest in the Cognac region. As is well-known, blood is thicker than water, and thus the Scots were cut off the cognac supply in the following years. But one imaginative Scotsman had a brilliant idea. Why not store Whisky in used sherry casks, as is done with cognac? After the sherry casks had been emptied, they were available anyway. In the best case, the sherry aroma in the Whisky would lead to a taste similar to cognac.
The success was overwhelming, and with the progressing industrialization and the mechanical production of the glass bottle, Whisky could start its global success story. We owe the Whisky bottle in our living room to the ancient Egyptians, Celtic monks and an unknown resourceful Scotsman –
People swim the tides for Whisky
in February 1941 The S.S. Politician a cargo ship was wrecked off the coast of Eriskay in the outer Hebrides North of Scotland carrying over a quarter of a million bottles of whisky, bound for the USA. The local community swam out and salvaged much of the cargo, against the wishes of the authorities, and really was pursued unnecessarily vigorously by the government, H.M. Customs and the police. They really did believe they were doing no wrong in “liberating” the cargo, and thought it pure madness to blow it up, as was the authorities’ intention.’
As an Investment
According to The Wealth Report from Knight Frank, rare whisky was the best performing collectable of the past decade, experiencing a meteoric rise in value of 58.6% per year over the past 10 years
Today the Scotch whisky market is enormous. To the UK economy it is worth approximately £5 billion and accounts for around 25% of UK food and drinks exports with more than 90% of Scotch production sold abroad. Broadly speaking, the luxury whisky investment market is booming- genuinely rare and unrepeatable whiskies are what the market desires and as a result the potential for long-term growth is enormous as demand is increasingly high and supply finite.
VINTAGE ACQUISITIONS ARE A TEAM OF PASSIONATE WHISKY EXPERTS WITH OVER 10 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN VALUING, MANAGING AND TRADING CASK WHISKY.
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+44 7887 444 001
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