A wild alchemy: Monks, Greek cults and the fiery birth of whisky
The Invention of Whisky (Part One)
Whisky is gold. Whisky is fire. Whisky is joy. Whisky is people, craft, heritage and whisky is the Sun King of Spirits.
Whisky is Whiskey. Whisky is Scotch, Bourbon, Irish, Japanese, Canadian, English, Welsh, Taiwanese and flows out across the world.
Whisky is more than just liquid in a bottle, but it is that, too: a type of liquor made from water and fermented grain mash.
We’ll get to grappling with this wild and mind-bending wizardry soon enough…
For now, let’s unravel whisky’s hazy and intoxicating origins. This is the condensed story of how whisky came into the world. Part One, you can read here, Part Two, I’ll post early next week. Off we go!
The sweet smell of early success
Getting to grips with the genesis of whisky is a bit like trying to capture a drunken genie in a bottle. The stories from history are compelling, if initially a little sketchy on the hard facts. Lots of sources point to the process of distillation being discovered in Asia around 800BC. The word ‘distillation’ comes from the Latin 'destillare' for 'drip or trickle down in minute drops’, which makes sense when you consider that the process is based on the theory that different substances turn to vapour at varying temperatures. The technique of distillation was used by the Babylonians in Mesopotamia (the modern day equivalent to parts of Iraq and Syria) to make not hard liquor but perfumes and aromatics. In China they distilled liquor from rice.
The picture becomes a little clearer in the 1st century AD, when we learn that chemical distillations were carried out by Greeks in Alexandria, but they weren’t making alcohol either - more likely they were trying to turn sea-water into something drinkable for the locals. At the same time they were also deep into sorcery. Dionysian cults mingled distilled substances into religious rituals and many believed that magical powers were responsible for some of their earliest experiments with distilling. This often did not end well for the perpetrators. A practicing magus (magician) Anaxiliaus of Thessaly, was expelled from Rome in 28BC for engaging in alchemy which included setting fire to what appeared to be water but ended up being distilled wine.
The Greeks and Egyptians were messing around with mercury, arsenic and sulphur (definitely not for drinking). The medieval Arabs adopted the distillation technique of the Alexandrian Greeks. This baton of rudimentary technology was passed from the Moors to the medieval Latins…
Champions cup - the race to make the first still
Whatever they were fixing up, this spirit needed a distillation vessel, and sometime in the Middle Ages, some very clever people concocted a prototype that did the job. There’s a fascinating piece I read on this, which is well worth checking out if you’re interested in a deep dive on the early history of stills. The most persuasive facts point to the invention of the Alembic still, and its use for purifying alcohol, to Muslim alchemists in the 9th century, most likely a man named Jabir ibn Hayyan, widely considered one of the fathers of modern chemistry.
‘Alembic’ is derived from the Arabic al-anbiq, meaning still or ‘that which refines’ - a rather lovely poetic elaboration - and from the Greek ambix, which means cup or pot. These early Alembic stills were made from clay pots and glass tubes (have a look at that link for a great early picture of one) but share the same basic components of any modern-day copper-pot Alembic still, with a pot, a swan neck lid, and a condensing unit. We won’t dwell on the science of stills here as I’ll be writing about all this in a bit more detail another time.
The Greeks were deep into sorcery, believing that magical powers were responsible for some of their earliest experiments with distilling
An intriguing and telling footnote I found casts doubt on the genius behind this revolutionary still. Journalist Fred Minnick, in his book: ‘Whiskey Women: The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch, and Irish Whiskey’, claims that an Egyptian woman named Theosebia was the true inventor of the Alembic still – although her work was, rather predictably, attributed to the nearest man, in this case, her brother Zosimo of Panoplies.
A final word on stills before we press on. In China, archaeological evidence indicates that the distillation of alcohol began during the 12th century Jin or Southern Song dynasties. A still has been found at an archaeological site in Qinglong, Hebei, dating to this time. An Alembic-style still was also found in Scotland, dating from the 9th century. So there it is. The jury is out. Endeavour was everywhere. From Babylon to Beijing to the Borders, brilliant beakers were being made that could bring this spirit to life.
A Saint came marching in (or did he…?)
We should briefly mention St Patrick. The patron Saint of Ireland, back then just a humble Irish monk, is rumoured to have brought his distillation skills to the Emerald Isle when he arrived as a Christian Missionary in 432AD, following a trip to Egypt. A seasoned wanderer, he may have acquired the knowledge in Spain and France, countries who could well have known the art of distilling at that time. It’s a good yarn, but probably a myth. The Normans, who invaded Ireland in the late 12th century, are the more plausible originators, along with some masterful monks...
Wine into whisky - a remedy for all!
With or without the power of St Paddy, earliest records of the distillation of actual alcohol are in Italy, not Ireland, in the late 12th century, where it was distilled from wine. The first documented evidence comes from Salerno around 1150, whilst the earliest recipe - for distilling ‘thick, strong and old black wine’ into aqua ardens - what we would know today as the punchy digestif grappa - was written by Albert Magnus of Cologne in the late 13th century. Its use spread through Europe’s medieval monasteries, largely for medicinal purposes, such as the treatment of colic or smallpox. A cure for all ills indeed….
Setting up their religious houses on these shores, monks quickly discovered there were neither the vineyards nor the grapes of the verdant continent to make their favoured wine
Mixologist, missionary-zealous monks were probably the prime movers and shakers in bringing distillation to Ireland and Scotland too, as they shuffled piously between the two countries and mainland Europe. Setting up their religious houses on these shores, they quickly discovered there were neither the vineyards nor the grapes of the verdant continent to make their favoured wine. Instead, these plucky pilgrims turned to fermenting what they had in abundance, grain mash, mainly barley, to get their fix and - bingo! - the first whisky…
This is a big moment. From the furnace of innovation and artistry came the spirit alcohol that was given the name ‘aqua vitae’ - Latin for The Water of Life - known as Uisge Beathe (pronounced ‘oosh-ka bay-ah’) in Gaelic, the mother tongue of the Celts. Over time ‘Uisge’ was anglicised to ‘whisky’. Say it out loud in your best Scottish brogue and you can just about get there.
Drunken chiefs and cockeyed Kings
The earliest mention of whiskey in Ireland comes from the Annals of Clonmacnoise, which attributes the death of a chieftain in 1405 to ‘taking a surfeit of aqua vitae’ at Christmas. He might have been the first, but he wouldn’t be the last.
Not to be outdone by their fellow Celts, Scotland was muscling its way onto the spirit scene too. The first evidence of whisky production there comes from an entry in the Exchequer Rolls for 1495 where malt is sent ‘To Friar John Cor, by order of the king, to make aquavitae’, enough for about 1500 bottles in fact. Must have been some party.
Over time ‘Uisge’ was anglicised to ‘whisky’. Say it out loud in your best Scottish brogue and you can just about get there
Another bon vivant, James IV of Scotland, was thought to have a serious nose for Scotch whisky. When he was gallivanting in Inverness during September 1506, his Treasurer’s Accounts had entries for the 15th and 17th of the month respectively: ‘For aqua vite to the King. . .’ and ‘For ane flacat of aqua vite to the King. . .’. James was a well-loved monarch - the Renaissance King, a visionary who heavily patronised the arts and sciences and made his homeland flourish. Sadly we don’t know if his popularity in Scotland was in any way down to a fondness for regularly dispensing flaggings of rocket fuel to his loyal subjects.
Two decades on, across the border, King Henry VIII of England played a walk-on role in the progress of whisky-making, albeit unwittingly. When he dissolved the monasteries between 1536-1541 during England’s separation from the Catholic Church in Rome, a swell of livid monks were dispersed out into the general population. Once settled anew with the huddled masses, the monks deployed their considerable skills to help others make whisky in much larger quantities. They also passed on their understanding of its potency as a great remedy for many maladies — as well as being a warming and pleasurable way of passing the time in colder climes. In other words, they knew then what we know now: one should never attempt to get through a Scottish winter without a good supply of whisky.
Scottish farmers in particular took a great interest in this new brew. They were quickly producing tonnes of the stuff, having quickly cottoned on to the fact they had the principal raw material for whisky - barley - literally sprouting away in vast quantities outside their doors.
Warning: Do not operate heavy machinery…
A note on quality. There wasn’t any. At this stage, up to the 17th century, when the distillation process was still in its infancy, and procedures were frankly elementary, we’re talking about an extraordinarily rough and unrefined drink. Whisky was not allowed to age. It was not diluted. It tasted potent and fiery beyond words compared to today's versions. It was often lethal. More a water of strife, than the life-giving water of life. There were no functional distilleries as we know them today. The earliest legal distillery in Scotland, as mentioned in the Acts of Scottish Parliament in 1690, was the Ferintosh Distillery of Culloden—owned by one Duncan Forbes.
Early whisky was not diluted. It tasted fiery beyond words compared to today's versions. It was often lethal. More a water of strife, than the live-going water of life.
In Ireland, the Old Bushmills Distillery in the north was granted its license in 1608, and today rather creatively claims the title of oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world (the current distillery building has only been in continuous operation since 1885, so it’s a wee bit of a stretch).
Pilgrims progress: America gets the bug
In the late 17th century America finally got a sniff of the action, as European colonists poured off the boats onto the eastern seaboard, bringing with them the secret of this wondrous elixir. Many Scottish and Irish immigrants settled in the new territories, eventually beginning to distill the new variations of grains and mash they found there.
Whisky’s secret was well and truly out in the world. Soon enough, however, thanks to the first government-levied taxes on the production of Scotch, it would be driven underground again, and the wild, romantic age of the illicit hooch distiller would be unleashed.
1Sources & further reading
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