Edinburgh’s Whisky History by Iain Russell Part 2: Blenders, Brokers, Brands and Bars
Edinburgh has been a centre of the Scotch whisky trade for more than 200 years, but its citizens were originally known more for their love of imported wines and spirits. ‘Claret’ from Bordeaux was consumed in prodigious quantities; the city’s lawyers and academics were renowned for their love of port wine and there was a keen thirst for all the other foreign wines and spirits landed at Leith, the city’s bustling port. Edinburgh’s leading wine and spirits merchants stocked their warehouses and shops accordingly.
The Vaults in Leith, a building erected in the 18th century above cellars used since the middle ages to store wines and spirits.
The whisky made and drunk in the city in the 18th century was often an immature and fiery spirit, if contemporary observers are to be believed. However, there was a growing taste for the more flavoursome but illicit malt whisky smuggled into the city from the Highlands: Lochrin Distillery’s owner, John Stein, complained in 1797 of ‘the daily use and consumption of Highland spirits in most of the private families in Edinburgh.’ And its popularity was boosted in 1822 when the city hosted one of the most significant events in Scotch whisky history.
George IV’s visit to Edinburgh that year was a highly symbolic occasion: the first visit to Scotland by a reigning British monarch since the Jacobite rebellion in 1745. It provided an opportunity for Scotland’s political establishment to demonstrate their support for the Hanoverian monarchy. The spectacular ceremonies and processions were stage-managed by Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish author and Highland whisky aficionado, who made sure that copious quantities of what was known generically as ‘Glenlivet’ were available for loyal toasts and celebrations. The national press duly reported the prominent role given to whisky in the celebrations, attended by the tartan-clad King. Almost overnight, the spirit gained recognition and respectability as a drink fit for royalty.
Edinburgh’s wine and spirits merchants were quick to exploit the new business opportunity and began buying and shipping large quantities of Highland whiskies to their warehouses in Leith. These merchants included JG Thomson & Co (believed to have been founded in the 1780s); Hill Thomson & Co (1793); Cockburn & Co (1796); John Crabbie & Co (1801); D&J McCallum (1807); Andrew Usher & Co (1813) and Charles Mackinlay & Co (1815). They distributed whisky around the United Kingdom – by the 1840s, for example, Andrew Usher had become an agent for George Smith’s ‘Glenlivat’ and had opened a warehouse in London to stock this and other Scotch whiskies for sale in the capital.
Morning Advertiser, 20 December 1845.
Edinburgh merchants had ready access to the produce of the great patent still grain distilleries which opened in Scotland from the 1830s. They were among the pioneers who mixed this grain spirit with malt whiskies to create the blended Scotches which became so popular in England and ultimately around the globe by the end of the 19th century. The world-famous brand names to come out of the blending vats in Leith included Usher’s Old Vatted Glenlivet; VAT 69; McCallum’s Perfection; The Original Mackinlay; Queen Anne; Highland Queen and many more. Drambuie, Glayva and Crabbie’s Green Ginger are among other famous whisky-related brands which originated in the city.
Edinburgh Evening News, 13 May 1925.
The influence of the whisky trade on Leith was enormous. At its peak, there were scores of bonded warehouses filled with maturing whisky stocks located there. Thousands of local men and women were employed in the storing, bottling and transportation of whisky. The port is no longer the industrial and commercial leviathan of former times, but some of those imposing warehouses survive, converted to offices and apartment buildings, and offering a reminder of the sheer scale of its whisky-making past.
Usher's Bottling Warehouse, Leith, 1890.
While Edinburgh’s great whisky companies played a leading role in the rapid growth of the Scotch whisky trade in the 19th century, they were also occasionally guilty of reckless speculation and fraudulent trading. The failure of Leith-based merchants Kidd, Eunson & Co, along with several of their trading partners, created shock waves in the industry in 1887. The ensuing scandal damaged confidence in the trade and large stocks of whisky were suddenly offloaded onto the market amid panic selling. The failure of Pattisons Ltd in 1898 proved even more damaging, resulting in ‘the ruin of so many [companies] and disaster for the whole Scotch whisky trade’: confidence in the entire Scotch whisky industry was damaged for decades.
Penny Illustrated Paper, 24 December 1898.
Despite such setbacks, the Edinburgh whisky trade endured and prospered. Even in relatively recent times, after many Leith businesses were acquired by international firms and their offices and premises closed or transferred elsewhere, the city maintained a role in shaping the Scotch whisky trade. Not least, it became the birthplace of arguably the most significant development in the whisky industry in the late 20th century – the rebirth of the single malt Scotch category.
For much of the twentieth century, only a tiny proportion of Scotch whisky was bottled as single malt, mostly for drinkers in the North of Scotland and a few specialist retailers. In the late 1950s, however, there was a renewed enthusiasm among the Edinburgh ‘literati’, many of whom would meet and socialise in pubs including Milne’s Bar, The Abbotsford and The Oxford Bar in Edinburgh’s New Town. These influential authors and poets talked of single malt as Scotland’s authentic ‘national drink’ and a few brands available in the city’s pubs, such as Glenmorangie and Glen Grant, gained a cult following. Company sales teams sat up and took notice. By the late 1980s, even the proprietors of the great blended whisky brands such as Distillers Company and Hiram Walker were actively promoting single malts as premium products within their portfolios of Scotch whiskies. These whiskies have become some of the world’s most sought-after spirits brands.
Macdonald & Muir advertisement, 1960.
The reputation of Edinburgh as a launchpad of the single malt revival was enhanced in 1983 with the founding of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Pip Hills and a group of friends began purchasing individual casks from distilleries, to bottle for themselves and other enthusiasts at the original cask strength, uncoloured and un-chill filtered. The publicity and praise they received for their bottlings helped create a popular – and profitable – market for single cask malts, as a ‘new’ sub-category of Scotch whisky. For good measure, the SMWS popularised the idea of whisky clubs and specialist whisky bars, with the success of their celebrated bar and members’ rooms at The Vaults in Leith and, from 2004, an additional venue in Queen Street. As well as detailed and irreverent tasting notes! Edinburgh, it seemed, had become the home of whisky trend-setting.
The success and fame of the SMWS heralded the beginning of a new chapter in the role of Edinburgh in the Scotch whisky trade. In 1988, the opening of the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile provided a showcase for the industry in a popular tourist area. The busy street is also home to two of the world’s most famous specialist whisky shops, Cadenhead’s and Royal Mile Whiskies.
Cadenhead's Whisky Shop on the Royal Mile, one of Edinburgh's popular whisky landmarks.
The Edinburgh Whisky Academy was founded in 2015, providing the first SQA- accredited courses in Scotch whisky and other spirits to students from around the world, and the more recent opening of the award-winning Johnnie Walker Princes Street have confirmed the city’s importance as a destination for those seeking a deeper knowledge and appreciation of the national drink.
Johnnie Walker Princes Street, Edinburgh.
These exciting new developments have been accompanied by a renewed interest in whisky blending in Leith. Companies such as Woodrow’s of Edinburgh (founded 2011), Gleann Mor Spirits Company (2013) and Woven (2020) have started up with an emphasis on producing limited editions and other bespoke bottlings and blends for connoisseurs.
Edinburgh may have a great whisky heritage, but it is also leading the way in developing new products, services and attractions which will equip the trade to meet the challenges and opportunities of the rapidly-evolving marketplace of the future.
