The spirituous p/p of the Isle of Man
The spirituous past and present of the Isle of Man
Alex Kraaijeveld
The Isle of Man is the smallest Celtic region in the British Isles, situated between Ireland, Scotland and England. But small though it may be, only about thirty miles long and ten miles wide, its whisky and distilling history is unique and unusual in several ways.
Manx British history began in 1266, when the island passed from Viking hands to the Scottish crown. In the middle of the 14th century it became an English possession. Although some Latin was used in the administration of the island, English quickly became the language of power and prestige. In spite of this, Manx, a Celtic language most closely related to (Scottish) Gaelic and Irish, remained the first language of the majority of the population until about the 1830s. Manx as a spoken language died in 1974 with Edward Maddrell, the last native speaker. However, Manx is prevented from being lost by "Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh", the Manx Language Society.
The Isle's unique distilling history starts to take shape in the 18th century. In those days, there were virtually no import duties on the island and this, plus its location, made it ideal as a major centre for the smuggling of a wide range of products, including whisky and other spirits, into northwestern England and Wales. Many goods were especially shipped to the island from France and Holland for re-export and it was said that ten to twelve boats are almost every week seen in a fleet leaving the Island for Whitehaven, Cheshire and Wales. To put a stop to this, the British Government enacted a new law in 1765, the Revestment Act, and purchased the fiscal rights of the island from its owner, the Duke of Atholl, for £70,000 plus an annuity of £2,000. Whilst these measures were designed to save the British Treasury approximately £100,000 per year, they deprived the islanders of their main source of income: smuggling.
Following the Revestment Act, another Act of Parliament, passed in 1767, imposed a penalty of £200 plus the forfeiture of produce and equipment on any person engaged in distillation in the island. Although a handful of small stills were thought to have been introduced from Ireland and worked illegally, the excise duties on brandy and rum in the late 18th century were very low compared to those on whisky; these low duties would have prevented any substantial illicit distilling on the island.
However, in the early 19th century, the Duke of Atholl repeatedly complained to the Treasury about the ills arising from illicit distilling in the Island and the loss of £3,000 to £4,000 per year in revenues through the introduction of illicit stills, which are extremely difficult to suppress. An Act of Parliament of 1826 prohibited distilling of any spirit on the Isle of Man. This act was repealed in 1861, without making a new provision to continue the ban on distilling. The oversight was discovered six years later and the 'Distillation Act 1867' was passed by Tynwald (the Manx parliament) again banning the manufacture of all spirits from any material. The only exception was the distillation of spirits for scientific or medical purposes; the maximum legal still capacity for this was two gallons.
Any legal distillery on the Isle of Man must have operated before 1767 (or in the six years between 1861 and 1867), but I could find no records of 18th or 19th century Manx distilleries. For instance, Industrial Archaeology of The Isle of Man, one of the standard works on the issue, makes no mention whatsoever of distilling or distilleries. So, Manx contribution to distilling history would have been confined to smuggling and some illicit distilling. That is, if nothing else had happened ...
The first sign that things might change occurred at the turn of the 19th century. A Commission appointed to enquire into the condition of local industries and the feasibility of extending them reported in 1900 that apart from lead and copper ores, barley, and wood, the Isle of Man produces scarcely any raw material for manufactures, so that, except perhaps in spinning and weaving wool and in distilling whisky, it could not compete with English and Scotch manufacturing centres, where they have coal on the spot, together with a steady support of labour and enormous capital to establish large concerns, which can work much more cheaply than smaller ones. To set against these advantages we have only excellent water power. Besides woollen manufacturing and distilleries, which would be hampered by the difficulty in obtaining a steady supply of labour, the only industries which would have any chance of success would be art industries: wood‑carving, fancy articles in brass and iron, embroidery, &c., which could be carried on in the people's homes during the Winter.
Not surprisingly, no distilleries were established in the wake of this report and it wasn't until 1976 that the 'Distillation Act 1867' was repealed with the aim of allowing a distilling industry to develop. The repeal made it possible for Lucian Landau to establish a distillery at Kella Mills, Sulby, and use a distillation technique he developed to produce Manx Whiskey, a whisky from which the colour is removed. Glen Kella White Manx Whiskey was available as a blend, a vatted malt and a single malt. In all cases the base whisky was imported from Scotland, where it had matured up to 12 years, re-distilled at Glen Kella distillery, and bottled without further maturation. The philosophy behind removing the colour by a special re-distillation process was that 'lack of colour' was the natural condition of the distilled spirit.
In 1997, United Distillers, Allied Domecq and the Scotch Whisky Association took Glen Kella to the High Court to prevent them from marketing their product as 'whiskey'. The key issue was that by law, whisky has to mature for at least three years after distillation. By redistilling, they argued, Glen Kella 'set the clock back to zero'. Some considered the spirit to be not too dissimilar from the rectified spirit, produced in England in the 19th century from whisky from the large Scottish Lowland distilleries with the aim of turning it into gin. Glen Kella lost the case and was prohibited from further selling its product as Manx Whiskey. It is now marketed as ManX Spirit and the bottle of Glen Kella White Manx Whiskey in the photo is among the very last few bottles of legally sold 'Manx Whiskey' (I got it about a week before the court decision). Will the smallest Celtic region have its 'own' whiskey again in the future? Time will tell!
Many thanks to Fenella Bazin, Centre for Manx Studies; Frances Coakley, University of Surrey; Andrew Dixon, Glen Kella distillery; Roger Simms, Manx Museum; and Ray Todd, a former excise officer on the Isle of Man. Distillery pictures courtesy of Glen Kella.
© 2001 Alex Kraaijeveld
