There has never been a point in the lifetimes of anyone reading this article where whisky has been more popular, more desirable and the benefits of whisky cask ownership have been any more obvious.

Whisky collectors are spoilt for choice, with not only beautifully decadent single malts available from a wide range of current distilleries but the revival of many older distilleries that have laid dormant as silent ghosts which has led to a diversity of options not seen in generations.

And yet, just four decades ago, it was so very different, with the entire whisky industry facing an existential crisis and surplus so grand it was known as the Whisky Loch.

But what was the Whisky Loch, what caused it and is there a risk of it happening again if the Scotch industry is not protected and backed as much as possible?

Single Malt Rivers

It must be noted that there was no literal lake of whisky, where all the manufacturers with surplus supplies of liquid gold dumped it into a reservoir, but instead, the Whisky Loch was a huge surplus of seemingly unwanted whisky that threatened the entire industry.

It was essentially the gigantic, overarching consequences of one single, catastrophic miscalculation.

After a hugely successful period in the 1960s which saw not only huge growth in the Scotch whisky market but the rise of many international markets, particularly the Japanese market, the 1970s was filled with issues.

Outside of the industry itself, it was the era of the four-day week, a consequence of two major oil crises which particularly hurt the energy-hungry distilleries. Much like how coal rationing stopped the distilleries during the World Wars, oil shortages risked closing distilleries again.

Whisky is an inherently slow-moving business; at a bare minimum it takes three years of maturation and it often takes far longer to get the complex, delicate, delicious single malts enjoyed the world over today.

At the time, given that whisky was typically distilled with blending in mind, it was often relatively low quality but high quantity, with the expectation that it would be mixed in a way that would make this barely noticeable.

However, this decision meant a long-term gamble that the industry would grow, or at least stay at the same rate as it did in the 1960s.

Instead, the market crashed; the increased production costs led to unappealing prices on store shelves and blended whiskies dropped in popularity as a result of a general shift towards lighter spirits such as vodka and white rum, as well as a move towards cocktails.

These spirits were cheaper and whisky was, at the time at least, seen as a relic without the character that comes from single malt.

The result was a huge volume of whisky being made that ultimately could not be sold. Dozens of distilleries were closed in 1986 alone and much of the surplus blended whisky was sold to wholesalers for pennies on the pound, leading to huge amounts of low-value whisky.

Thankfully, nothing is set in stone, and as the whisky industry returned to its roots, the popularity of whisky rebounded with a focus on quality.