World Whisky Day an annual event that’s the perfect excuse to enjoy a dram or two and celebrate the water of life. Later this year during The Hague Cocktail Week (new dates to be confirmed) you can enjoy whisky from two giants from Scotland – Chivas Regal and Johnnie Walker – at participating venues.
Twelve Scotch whisky facts to tickle your tastebuds:
With a value of £4.91 billion, Scotch whisky exports accounted for over 20 per cent of all UK food and drink exports in 2019. Scotch exports earned £156 every second that year.
Some 42 bottles of whisky are exported from Scotland every second.
With a population of 5.4 million, and more than 20 million barrels of whisky in store, Scotland has almost four casks of whisky per citizen.
Laid end to end, these casks would stretch about 30,000 kilometres – or about six times the distance between Edinburgh and New York.
The vast majority of whisky exported from Scotland is blended, not single malt.
Before they started blending and selling Scotch, the Chivas brothers ran a grocery in Aberdeen, Scotland. It opened in 1801, yet the brothers wouldn’t start producing whisky until almost half a century later.
According to the Scottish Whisky Regulations of 2009, Scotland is divided into two protected localities (Campbeltown and Islay) and three protected regions (Highland, Lowland, and Speyside). There are around 130 commercial whisky distilleries in operation in Scotland.
Some 43 per cent of German tourists in Scotland visit a distillery while visiting, making it the second most popular activity for the demographic.
John ‘Johnnie’ Walker was a grocer in Kilmarnock, Scotland in the mid-1800s who specialised in blending tea before he decided to start blending whisky.
In Victorian times, some Scottish distilleries allowed workers to stop for a dram each time a bell rang.
The average measure of whisky contains just 64 calories – fewer than a banana.
Whisky in Gaelic reads ‘uisge beathe’, which means ‘water of life’.
Find out more about #WorldWhiskyDay at www.worldwhiskyday.com