Every time you order a drink at the bar, it's a challenge, especially the whisky, looking at a bunch of whiskies called "Glenxxxx", it really feels like you can't start, the sky is spinning... Why do you distilleries have such similar names? What exactly is the obsession with Glen?
Once you understand the origins of Scotch whisky, the problem is solved.
Everyone pay attention, move the small bench! Today we don't talk about dry goods, let's tell a story, why are these wineries "surnamed" Gran? What's the story behind this?
What does Glen mean?
Let's publish the answer first and say what Glen means.
Many whisky distilleries in Scotland are named after the Gaelic language of the winery's location. Gaelic has historically been the official language of much of Scotland.
In Gaelic, Glen means valley.
Many distilleries are built in the valley. Like what:
Glen Garioch = vast and fertile land in the valley
Glenmorangie = A secluded valley in the Morangie Forest
Glengoyne = Canyon where wild geese congregate
Glen Moray = Valley of the Lakeside Village
Glenfarclas = Valley of the Green Prairie
Glenfidich = Valley of elk
And so on and so forth.
So, here's the problem —
Why are so many wineries built in the valley?
This starts from the relationship between man and nature... Ah no, it was the origin of Scotch whisky that began.
What started out was a government crackdown on something new
Beginning in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, distillation technology in Europe was widely advanced, and more and more people drank whiskey (which was only called the water of life at that time), and even many people sinned under the pretext of "because I drank too much water of life".
Finally, the popularity of whisky caught the attention of the authorities. In 1644, the "Three Kingdoms War" broke out in Scotland, England and Ireland, and the Scottish government officially imposed a heavy tax on spirits because of the financing of the war, which was the first spirits tax ever imposed in Western Europe.
The inhabitants of the Scottish Highlands are mainly farmers and animal husbandry, and they have always distilled overproduced crops into spirits, on the one hand, to solve the problem that cereals are not easy to store, on the other hand, to solve the problem that grain is difficult to transport to other places due to its large size. Whisky is not only economically valuable (about 4 times the value of raw malt), but also much smaller than grain and easy to transport. In addition, the by-product of distillation can be used to feed cattle and sheep, which can be said to be a lot of work. Farmers, of course, are reluctant to give up this code of wealth.
Whether the tax was stopped with the war is unknown, but after England unified Scotland and enacted the Act of Union to officially become the "Kingdom of Great Britain", the British tax code was amended in 1925 to extend the "malt tax" to Scotland. Although the tax was half that of England, the Scots certainly did not appreciate the fact that malt was an important raw material for brewing beer and whiskey, and even broke out the "malt riot", and more and more distillers went underground and engaged in a battle of wits with the tax collectors appointed by the imperial court for more than 100 years.
Can't stand it, can only transfer the underground battle!
This tax does not mean that you have to pay a tax when you sell whiskey, but that you have to pay if you brew whiskey with malt. What can I stand?
So many distillers are gradually moving underground to continue secret brewing. And they developed a variety of ways to evade inspections, such as hiding on the edge of towns, caves, islands in lakes, etc., making the investigators exhausted.
Therefore, when naming names, they often come according to the geographical location, there are moved to the mountains, plateaus, rivers, these affixes representing geographical features often appear in the name of the distillery, such as:
Ben = mountain peaks, such as Ben Nevis = peaks straight into the clouds;
Ard = height, e.g. Ardmore = Great Plateau;
More = Big, Tormore = Tall Mountain;
Dhu = black, Cardhu = black rock;
Aber = confluence of rivers, Aberlour = stream source.
Most of them moved to the valley and river valley, so when naming the name, it was prefixed with "Glen".
Scotland's Speyside region has many mountains and river valleys, which are easy to hide and can evade detection, so more than half of Scotland's distilleries are gathered, and the name with Gran is also the most in Speys.
Private brewing and the government's century-old battle of wits and courage
Early commercial distilleries were rare, limited by shipping conditions – such as Islay, which had to be shipped by ship – and whisky sales were concentrated in small areas.
In this case, the so-called "distillery" is nothing more than a small bootleg, just a small distiller set up on the farm. The distillation equipment is also very simple, mainly an iron pot-type still, the top is covered with a wooden lid, a hole is dug in the middle, the copper pipe is extended, and then soaked in the water and turned around a few times (which is what we later called the worm barrel). The new wine that has been condensed is stored directly in the barrel.
Probably this kind of foot rush, but it was iron at that time, and copper stills appeared later
The advantage of this simple device is that it is easy to move (pao) (lu), and the private brewer will not stay in a place for more than three or four days, and run when he hears the wind.
On how whisky led to the "birth of a nation"
For more than 100 years from the 18th to the 19th century, British whisky-related policies were called a mess, a miserable one. The government's heavy taxation amounted to depriving farmers of their livelihoods, causing many Scots and Irish to take risks and cross the sea to the unknown New World of North America to fight for freedom. Many people returned to the old business of distillation, and even played an important role against the British army in the American Revolutionary War...
Hulai's policy, Hulai's production, Hulai's quality
Immigrants have gone in search of freedom, but what about those who remain in Scotland?
The tax code at the time was not only expensive, but also had a mess of provisions, such as the demarcation of a "highland line" dividing Scotland into highlands and lowlands. Highlands had lower taxes, but the whisky produced could not be sold.
The lowlands have higher taxes, and the tax amount is based on the size of the still rather than the amount of alcohol distilled, which has led to the use of small stills by distillers, and they are constantly trying to distill, it is said that there are 47 batches that can be distilled in 12 hours! Of course, this kind of ghost animal distilled wine can not be drunk at all, and the quality is too poor.
As a result, consumers are more fond of smuggled Highland whisky. And in the early 19th century, there were several grain harvest failures, and the government simply banned distillation, which left consumers dependent on smuggling, and completely cracked down on legal distillers.
Finally legal...
At the beginning of the 19th century, there were only a few dozen legal distilleries, and as many as 14,000 private breweries! It is rumored that there are stills in the highlands and even every household.
Finally, the British government began to feel that it was not a matter of mutual effort, and for the purpose of mutual interest, in 1823 the government issued the Excise Act, which not only greatly reduced the wine tax, but also changed the tax at the time of production to the collection when the wine was sold.
Bootleggers were probably tired of more than a century of cat-and-mouse games, and as soon as the law was introduced, legal licenses doubled in a year, and private brewers fell from 14,000 in 1823 to 692 in 1834.
A gran and cottage out of many gran
The first legally licensed distillery to be appreciated by the British royal family was Glenlivet. The owner of the Granliwick distillery, George Smith, who was also a bootlegger, was even threatened by his neighbors to burn down his distillery after deciding to trust the government, so he carried 2 pistols with him for self-defense.
Next, the well-known Highland distilleries of later generations were born, such as Macallan, Mortlach and so on.
At that time, Granliwei was the most famous distillery, so many other distilleries stole its name, so that Granliwei deliberately added The before the name, becoming The Glenlivet to emphasize his identity.
However, this did not stop other distilleries from rubbing the heat, in order to increase their popularity, they all added Glen in front of their own distilleries, which is why the whisky distilleries called "Gran XX" are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Drinker topic
"Surname" Gran's whisky, which is your favorite?