WHISKY.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Minutes of Evidence Taken by the Royal Commission on Whiskey and Other Potable Spirits with Appendices. First edition of the minutes taken at the 37 sittings of the Royal Commission of Whiskey, which laid the foundation for the definition of Irish and Scottish single malts. Over 100 expert witnesses took the stand to debate if blended whisky could legitimately be called "Scotch Whisky" and if there should be a minimum maturation period, among other topics. The year 1904 saw the prosecution of a publican and a spirit merchant accused of selling inferior whisky as 'genuine' Scottish and Irish malts, which led to the creation of the Royal Commission on Whiskey and Other Potable Spirits. During the proceedings laid out in these volumes, many familiar names took the stand, including A. J. Tedder of Glengoyne, Andrew Jameson of Dublin, and Monsieur J. Hennessy. The most important conclusion, found here in the third volume report, is a definition of whisky, by the commission, as "a spirit obtained by distillation from a mash of cereal grains saccharified by the distaste of malt that 'Scotch whiskey' [here, amusingly with the e blotted out by a previous owner to reflect the spelling prevalent in Scotland] is whiskey, as above defined, distilled in Scotland and that 'Irish whiskey' is whiskey, as above defined, distilled in Ireland." While many single-malt purists saw this as a loss for their cause, these proceedings laid the foundations for modern regulations.Andrew Jameson's appeara

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