Whisky is such an old, established drink that establishing when it was originally made is difficult, if not outright impossible, which is part of the reason why heritage is such a big part of the appeal of whisky cask ownership.

Brewing has existed for 17,000 years and distillation might have been undertaken 4,000 years ago, but the first evidence of whisky being made in Scotland was an Exchequer Rolls entry from 1494 for the supply of malt to a Friar John Cor to “make aquavitae”.

Whilst the spirit was initially used for health purposes more akin to a medicinal alcohol, King James IV changed that through his personal love of whisky even in the raw, rough, unaged state that it was sold in at the time.

Whisky took a long time to become the drink we recognise, and even longer for it to become accepted as the Scottish institution it is today. If it was not for an extremely prolific moonshine industry in the 18th century, whisky might never have reached the heights it did.

However, despite technological advances, legalisation and a greater range of distilleries popping up all over Scotland, the biggest catalyst for the popularity of Scotch as a global drink was at the expense of another popular spirit commonly made in another country.

The Great Brandy Blight

Up until the 1880s, the most popular spirit in the world might possibly have been brandy, with rum and gin both strong candidates for the crown.

Created from wine that was aged in various containers, brandy was initially created as a way to get around taxes on wine since the distilled spirit would weigh significantly less, but ultimately it became very popular in its own right, being made in most countries with a strong wine tradition.

As both the wine and brandy industry in France became extremely popular in the late 18th and early 19th century, vintners imported vines from the United States, where attempts had been made to create a viticulture that would not bear fruit until the Judgement Of Paris in 1976.

However, the vines themselves were readily brought back to help support the French wine industry and as part of a botany craze that had swept Europe thanks to the invention of the terrarium and the greenhouse.

Unfortunately, it would turn out that the unregulated importation would spread several extremely devastating diseases, including powdery mildew and chestnut blight, and one of these would start what became known as the Great French Wine Blight.

In the mid-1960s, French vintners noticed to their horror that some vines would suddenly turn yellow and die, followed by neighbouring vines until the entire vineyard collapsed.

Facing a national economic disaster, pharmacist Jules-Emile Planchon investigated the issue and found the root cause to be an infestation of phylloxera, something American vines had become resistant to but European ones were extremely vulnerable to.

Whilst the blight was eventually controlled by the 1890s, wine production and by extension brandy production had been cut to just a quarter of what it was, leaving a gap in the market for 

Scotch whisky to become the spirit of choice around the world, forging new distilling traditions in the process.