Scotch Whisky vs Irish Whiskey
In the nineteenth century, the Great Wine Blight was a severe blight of grapes that nearly destroyed the wine and brandy industry on the continent. One man’s loss is another man’s gain as they say, and whisky was definitely the “another man” in this one. Whisky sales skyrocketed as a result.
At this point, Irish whiskey, not Scotch, was considered the world’s best, with Dublin whiskey seen as the ‘cream of the crop’. At that point, Irish whiskey was a large-scale industry, exporting all over the world. On the other hand, Scotch was made by small distilleries and boasted very little exports. Yet, those tables would soon turn.
In 1832, Aeneas Coffey, an Irishman and former excise man ironically, patented the Coffey Still, a continuous still that greatly sped up production. In a further twist of irony, the Irish whiskey industry rejected it completely, particularly in Dublin, but it found a home in the industry of Scotch. To differentiate their products from Scotland’s produce, the Irish began to spell whisky as whiskey, with an ‘e’, and America followed suit.
The Scots used Coffey’s new still to make very affordable blended whiskies. This saw the rise of Scotch whisky entrepreneurialism, with brands like Johnnie Walker, Dewars and Chivas Regal seizing the market. These blends were not only more affordable but more consistent, as single malts were more susceptible to changes in flavour. Blenders could work out these changes.
This price war with the blenders in Scotland would pave the way for the fall of Irish whiskey. Famine, politics, a revolution, a civil war and trade wars would also contribute to the fall, but ultimately, Ireland’s insistence on the old-fashioned pot-still was probably the largest contributor. Another contributor was Prohibition.
