ROLL OUT THE BARREL
The first written record of whisky production in Scotland dates from 1494, when an exchequer, the water of life: in Scottish Gaelic. The Scottish parliament first introduced a tax on the production of spirits in 1644, although illegal distilling and smuggling flourished until 1823 when an Act eased the tax burden on licensed distillers while making life harder for illegal stills. In 1938 Hiram Walker & Sons (Scotland), a subsidiary of a Canadian company, opened a huge grain distillery in Dumbarton; the site grew to at one point employ almost 2,000 people. The distillery closed in 2002, but today Scotland has more than 130 whisky distilleries and exports 1.14 billion bottles every year.
