Hope Springbanks eternal...

Can you drink whisky with a clear moral and political conscience? What’s the best dram for those “o’ independent mind”? Tom Morton investigates.

by Tom Morton

THERE'S no question that whisky is important to Scotland - culturally, emotionally and economically. According to a Herald survey in 2015, the industry supports over 10,000 jobs in Scotland - and another 30,000 or so in the rest of the UK, and directly, 7400 jobs in rural Scotland. This includes employment in things like glassmaking. Total value of The Water of Life to the overall UK economy? Almost £5 billion.

When Diageo closed its Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock in 2012, 700 jobs there were lost

That was then, and of course the economy has changed, with the value of the pound plummeting and Brexit introducing the threat of European tariffs for whisky export. But the fact remains that whisky is a crucial driver of Scotland’s economy, and is inextricably linked to the country’s identity. Yet only 29 of Scotland’s 102 working distilleries are owned by Scottish companies. Of the rest, two-fifths are in the hands of companies based abroad, in countries from France to Thailand. Nearly a third are owned by firms with London headquarters, and a quarter are Scottish - the biggest being Edrington, makers of Highland Park and Macallan and William Grant and Sons.