A Long Stride

Оглавление

Nicholas Morgan. A Long Stride

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IMAGE PERMISSION CREDITS

PLATE SECTION IMAGES

NOTES

INDEX

Отрывок из книги

Prologue

Chapter 1: Tea and Whisky: A Grocery Shop in Kilmarnock

.....

Further up the road, James Hardie’s Genuine Tea, Wine, Foreign and British Spirit Warehouse advertised ‘Fine Grain Whisky’ at 6s. to 7s. per gallon, and ‘Fine Strong Grain Whisky’ at 7s. 6d. to 8s. per gallon.39 There was certainly no shortage of pot-still grain whisky on the market, albeit much of it was still being shipped to England for rectification into gin. Both the techniques and economics of production of whisky from ‘raw grain’ were fully understood, as were in particular the economies of scale that resulted from producing raw grain spirit in larger distilleries as opposed to the typical Highland small stills, highly prized for the production of full-flavoured single malt whisky.40

The blending of grain and malt whisky was also a common and well-understood, if unspoken, practice which it is impossible to think was not influenced by the skills of the tea blender, given shared practitioners and a common approach of blending light and heavy, the expensive with the less expensive, the good with the less good. Giving evidence to the Royal Commission on Whisky in 1908, James Mackinlay of Leith recalled a handbook in the firm’s office that showed that ‘blending or mixing was a very old affair’.41 Alexander Peddie’s The Hotel Inn Keeper Vintner and Spirit Dealer’s Assistant, published in Glasgow in 1825, was intended for the young publican and innkeeper so that:

.....