The Single Malt That Started It All

According to a blog that I found, The Glenlivet has dropped this claim. And I could find little evidence to suggest that it is still used, although several websites do associate the claim with the Glenlivet distillery. There also seems to be general agreement that The Glenlivet was the original single malt; according to Wikipedia, "George Smith was the first person to take out a licence for a distillery under the new law, founding the Glenlivet Distillery in 1824." The law in question "[made] commercial distillation much more profitable, while imposing punishments on landowners when unlicensed distilleries were found on their properties." Previously, whisky production had been driven underground by taxation, and it is said that George Smith made himself unpopular with "his former colleagues in the illicit trade" by going legit.

Today, The Glenlivet is said to be "the biggest selling single malt whisky in the United States and the second biggest selling single malt brand, globally."

© Macclesfield Quiz League 2019