What are the
principal by-products of Scotch Whisky?
The liquids and solids remaining after distillation are not wasted, nor are they allowed to pollute rivers or coastlines. In recent years the Scotch Whisky industry has invested heavily in developing methods of treating the residue of distillation so that it now makes an important contribution to the animal foodstuffs industry.
Most distilleries now possess by-products plants or, in the case of smaller distilleries in remote areas, send their waste material to the area plants which process it into dark grains. These are extremely rich in protein and are sold in palletised form to farmers who use them to enrich cattle food.
The liquids and solids remaining after distillation are not wasted, nor are they allowed to pollute rivers or coastlines. In recent years the Scotch Whisky industry has invested heavily in developing methods of treating the residue of distillation so that it now makes an important contribution to the animal foodstuffs industry.
Most distilleries now possess by-products plants or, in the case of smaller distilleries in remote areas, send their waste material to the area plants which process it into dark grains. These are extremely rich in protein and are sold in palletised form to farmers who use them to enrich cattle food.
Grain Whisky distilleries usually recover the carbon
dioxide produced during the fermentation stage. This has several applications
in industry and in the production of soft drinks.
What is meant
by Under Bond and Duty Paid sales, respectively?
(a) Sales Under Bond are sales on which the Excise Duty has not been paid. The goods are consigned to a bonded duty-free warehouse.
(b) Sales Duty Paid are sales on which the Excise Duty has already been paid.
(a) Sales Under Bond are sales on which the Excise Duty has not been paid. The goods are consigned to a bonded duty-free warehouse.
(b) Sales Duty Paid are sales on which the Excise Duty has already been paid.
What is the
origin of the name 'whisky'?
The term ‘whisky’ derives originally from the Gaelic
‘uisge beatha’, or ‘usquebaugh’, meaning ‘water of life’. Gaelic is that branch
of Celtic spoken in the Highlands of Scotland.
When was
Scotch Whisky first distilled?
Whisky has been distilled in Scotland for hundreds of years. There is some evidence to show that the art of distilling could have been brought to the country by Christian missionary monks, but it has never been proved that Highland farmers did not themselves discover how to distil spirits from their surplus barley.
The earliest historical reference to whisky comes much later, Mr J Marshall Robb, in his book ‘Scotch Whisky’, says: ‘The oldest reference to whisky occurs in the Scottish Exchequer Rolls for 1494, where there is an entry of ‘eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aquavitae’. A boll was an old Scottish measure of not more than six bushels. (One bushel is equivalent to 25.4 kiIograms)
Whisky has been distilled in Scotland for hundreds of years. There is some evidence to show that the art of distilling could have been brought to the country by Christian missionary monks, but it has never been proved that Highland farmers did not themselves discover how to distil spirits from their surplus barley.
The earliest historical reference to whisky comes much later, Mr J Marshall Robb, in his book ‘Scotch Whisky’, says: ‘The oldest reference to whisky occurs in the Scottish Exchequer Rolls for 1494, where there is an entry of ‘eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aquavitae’. A boll was an old Scottish measure of not more than six bushels. (One bushel is equivalent to 25.4 kiIograms)
When King James IV was in Inverness during September
1506, his Treasurer’s Accounts had
entries for the 15th and 17th of the month respectively: ‘For aqua vite to the
King. . .’ and ‘For ane flacat of aqua vite to the King. . .’. lt is probable
that the aquavitae in this case was spirit for drinking.
The earliest reference to a distillery in the Acts
of the Scottish Parliament appears to be in 1690, when mention is made of the famous Ferintosh distillery owned
by Duncan Forbes of Culloden.
There is also a reference to distilling in a private
house in the parish of Gamrie in Banffshire in 1614. This occurs in the Register of the Privy Council, where a man
accused of the crime of breaking into a private house, combined with assault,
was said to have knocked over some ‘aquavitie’.
One of the earliest references to ‘uiskie’ occurs in
the funeral account of a Highland laird about 1618.
An unpublished letter of February 1622, written by Sir Duncan Campbell of
Glenorchy to the Earl of Mar, reported that certain officers sent to Glenorchy
by the King had been given the best entertainment that the season and the
country allowed. It stated: ‘For they wantit not wine nor aquavite.’ This
‘aquavite’ was no doubt locally distilled whisky.
Another writer affirms that aquavitae occasionally
formed part of the rent paid for Highland farms, at any rate in Perthshire, but
no actual date is given for this practice.
What is the history of charging duty on Scotch Whisky?
The Scots Parliament in 1644 passed an Excise Act fixing the duty at 2/8d (13p) per pint of aquavitae or other strong liquor - the Scots pint being approximately one third of a gallon. For the remainder of the 17th century various alterations were made to the types and amounts of duty collected.
After the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, English revenue staff crossed the
border to begin their lengthy attempts to bring whisky production under
control. Ninety years later the excise laws were in such a hopeless state of
confusion that no two distilleries were taxed at the same rate. Illicit
distilling flourished, the smugglers seeing no good reason for paying for the
privilege of making their native drink.
After a lengthy Royal Commission, the Act of 1823 sanctioned legal distilling at a
duty of 2/3d (12p) per gallon for stills with a capacity of more than 40
gallons. There was a licence fee of £10 annually and no stills under the legal
limit were allowed. The first distillery came into ‘official’ existence in the
following year and thereafter many of the more far-sighted distillers came over
on to the side of the law.
In 1840,
the duty was 5d (2.5p) per bottle and by the beginning of the First World War
it had risen to 1/81/2d (9p). In 1939, a typical bottle of Scotch Whisky cost
14/3d (72p) of which 9/71/2d (48p) was duty. By 1992, after a succession of
duty increases, the same bottle was costing around £10.80. The duty on it was
£5.55, equivalent to £19.81 per litre of pure alcohol.
In 1995,
for the first time in one hundred years, the tax on Scotch Whisky was reduced.
Duty fell from £5.77 to £5.54 a bottle (70cl). In 1996, the tax on Scotch
Whisky was again reduced.
Since 1973
the price of a bottle of whisky, including the Excise Duty, has been subject to
a Value Added Tax.
Scotch
Whisky" The Water of Life
