The Schweppes Guide To Scotch
From The Bookshelf
Hopefully the first in what will be a regular look at some of the books on my bookshelf!
Last night due to the cancellation of the Calmac Ferry to Islay Kate and I had the pleasure of an unexpected evening with Ollie Chilton, one of the most knowledgeable people I know - as I commented to Zack (Our 11yo son) he has Billy Abbot level of booze knowledge and I had a proud dad moment that Zack got the reference.
After a few well behaved drams and much whiskey chat Ollie mentioned some facts about Tormore that is on page 130 of The Schweppes guide to Scotch, it reminded me of how much I really love this book and has meant that most of today I have been re-reading this awesome book rather than reconciling my bank account on Xero.
The book written by Philip Morrice is a real snap shot of the whisky industry in the early 1980s having been published in 1983. It takes you through How whisky is made, the history of whisky from the early romantic times to Scotch Whisky taking over the world. Even if France did ban Scotch whisky advertising in 1957.
It then gives an insight into some of the facts and figures for some of the bigger brands of the time.The whisky world was much different back then with Malt whisky sales being just 1% of sales of Scotch whisky back in 1982 as opposed to allegedly around 15% today, so much of the book focuses on the big blended brands as well as a spot light on Glenfiddich. Morrice had suggested that although malt whisky figures would grow it would never exceed 5%.
It finishes with an encyclopaedic look at the A to Z of Scotch whisky companies and the brands that they own - some of the old brand names are belters such as Wham’s Dram, Greatness and Wonmore to name but a few.
Ochtomore!
An interesting one from the section on Morrison’s Bowmore Distillery Limited is that they have a whisky brand registered as Ochtomore! As if some one is just remembering remembering the name of the distillery with the curling pond - “Ooh..Tormore’ as well as being similar to some highly peated Bruichladdich.
If you can think of a whisky company that has done any bottlings that was in existence in the 1960, 70s and easy 80’s you will find loads of info on them in here.
The book has some interesting insights from the time but obviously being sponsored by Schweppes the part on how to drink whisky it is very much an advert for Schweppes products - with an insight into only Malvern water should be used for malt whisky because of the the famous 18th century rhyme:
“The Malvern Water, says Dr John Wall, is famed for containing just nothing at all.”
Interestingly as Schweppes (Now owned by Coca-cola) did not have a cola brand in 1985 it is slightly dismissive of Whisky and cola drinks as being “largely confined to certain countries in Latin America’.
I also think it must be one of the only books certainly of the time that suggest that “a surprisingly good drink on a hot day is Blended Scotch and orange juice with plenty of Ice cubes”. Which is quite funny as although she doesn’t admit it often these days - when Kate was a student she would often drink whisky and orange - maybe Morrice was right after all!.
An absolute classic book for lovers of whisky history and company info, and one that used to be quite hard to find but seems to be now more readily available.
Cheers Mark
Also if you want to know what is on page 130 - I am sure Kate and Ollie will be using it in there tastings very soon - either that you can buy the book or come and browse our copy in the shop!
