THE MYSTIQUE OF WHISKY

Press, 29 December 1979, Page 13

THE MYSTIQUE OF WHISKY

Scotch Whisky. As tasted by Bill Simpson. Hugh McDiarmid, Theodora Fitz Gibbon, Jack House, Donald Mackinlay, and Anthony Troon. Macmillan, 1979. Illustrated. 120 pp. Index. $11.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Stuart Perry) Scotch whisky has generated an enormous literature, some of it popular, some recondite. The story of Uisgebaugh reaches forward from its beginnings in the mists of time, allowing us glimpses of its history, its folklore and its mystique. Today the history' still develops, there are occasional additions to the folklore, while as for the mystique surrounding the making of whisky, the more one e examine it. the more one realises that whisky manufacture defies scientific analysis. One is in the presence of one of the ancient arts. A 120-page book full of illustrations, many of them coloured photographs, might well have been a catchpenny non-book, better on the coffee table than propped up 29.5cms tall and 20.5cms wide for perusal. But the publisher is Macmillan the writers are considerable figures either in modern Scots writing or in the trade. The synthesis has been a labour of love: the book's one real flaw is that we are not told who conceived and edited this book, a fine paperback edition of a work copyrighted in 1974.

Bill Simpson contributes the first chapter. Uisgebaugh. the necessary introduction to every good whisky book, with the classic names familiar to anv devotee of this subject: Friar John Cox with his eight bolls of malt, Duncan Forbes with his Ferintosh and the attendant Burns epitaph, the Exciseman and the Smuggler, the Duke of Gordon and his 1823 Excise Act, and so forward into modern times. The second chapter. To Live for Ever, is Bill Simpson's too. Here are

recited the contributions to the literature of whisky of Aytoun and Bums. James Hogg and Aeneas Macdonald and those of more modern writers, R. H. Bruce Lockhard. G. M. Thomson. Maurice Walsh, Neil Gunn, Robert Fergusson and Marian McNeill — not forgetting on the way Dr Johnson, Tobias Smollett and the famous Highland Lady and prophetess of the Glenlivet, Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus. To illustrate the universality of the science, almost the last word from this section is from an Antipodean writer, Will Ogilvie: "When the last big bottles empty and the dawn creeps grey and cold. And the last clan-tartan's folded and the last damned lie is told; When they totter down the footpath in a braw, unbroken line, To the terror of the passers and the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne'. You can tell the folk at breakfast as you watch the fearsome sight. They've only been assisting at a braw Scots Night.” The illustrations so far have included ancient deeds and woodcuts, early photographs, a Bernard Partridge cartoon and two Heath Robinsons, a Landseer and a lot more beside: coloured photographs of the manufacturing processes are still to come. With Chapter 3 the mood changes. Anthony Troon tells of the stills and their localities, a well illustrated geography of the subject, told with the tongue of the poet. Next is the production director of the famous Glenlivet Distillers, Ltd, the process. Mr S. Russell Grant conjures up engravings from the Renaissance and from 1729, and photographs ancient and modern to illustrate as full and lucid an exposition of the grain and malt processes as one could wish for.

Next Hugh McDiarmid. who changed his name to be more Scots, well qualified at 82 to pronounce on the great Malts. Like a Linnaeus of the retort he categorises them as well as giving some of their history, and opens the way for the sixth stage to shift to The Blender’s Art, the delicate occupation of nosing. This brief story on what is really the heart of the matter is by Donald Mackinlay, production director of Charles Mackinlay and Co, Ltd. It leads easily on to Jack House's historical chapter, really the last in the book proper: In Praise of Famous Names: Lowrie, Buchanan, Andrew Usher who blended pot still malts with newfangled patent .still grain whisky, William Sanderson who first bottled the product, John Begg, first distiller, from 1848, to the Queen. These lead on to the great distillers, blenders and distributors of today.

The last chapter, by Theodora Fitzgibbon, is almost an appendix. The pictures one cannot appropriate for review, but some of the titles in her section, Scotch for the Hostess, are Lobster a la Cleikum, Potted Trout, Trout with Almonds and Whisky, Tweed Kettle (a salmon dish), Scotch Collops, Scotch Rarebit, Chicken stuffed with Skirlie, Pancakes with Whisky Sauce. Kidneys Flambe, Peaches in Whisky. Heading the drinks is a magnificent Atholl Brose, the cream kept separate and used only if and when one wishes to serve Atholl Brose Syllabub as a dessert or sweet. One ' hundred and twenty-nine distilleries are listed in an appendix: these are numbered and the numbers relate to a full page map. Only 14 of the distilleries are south of Glasgow. This enormous export industry, always with some 1000 million gallons in process of maturing, is here distilled out into a compendium which can claim io be witty, informative and elegant.