Welsh whisky - the early distilleries
Welsh whisky - the early distilleries
Alex Kraaijeveld
The earliest solid record of the distilling of an alcoholic spirit in the "Land of the Dragons" that I know of is from Pembrokeshire. It suggests that distilling was brought to Wales from Ireland sometime during the 16th century. George Owen of Henllys writes in his Description of Pembrokeshire, completed in 1603:
As many out of the county of Wexford say they understand no Irish, neither do any well understand his English. They are so increased that there are some whole parishes inhabited by the Irish, having not one English or Welsh but the parson of the parish. And these Irish people here do use their country trade in making of aquavitie in great abundance which they carry to be sold abroad the country on horseback and otherwise, so that weekly you may be sure to have aquavitie to be sold at your door, and by means thereof it is grown to be a usual drink in most men's houses instead of wine, some of them making exceeding good, and sold better cheap than in any part of England or Ireland, for I have drunk as good as some rosa solis made by them, and this sold usually for 17d. a quart, but commonly you shall have very good for 10d. or 12d. the quart, which is better cheap than ever I could buy the like in any part of England.
Whether this 'aquavitie' was distilled from wine or grain-based is not clear, but my hunch is that it indeed is the first record of a forerunner of whisky distilled on Welsh soil. 'Rosa solis' by the way was a cordial flavoured with the juice of sundew or Drosera, a small carnivorous bog plant.
Several recent whisky sources mention the existence of commercial distilleries in Wales in the 18th century. A Williams family allegedly founded a distillery in Dale, Pembrokeshire in the early 1700s and midway through the 18th century a Daniel family did the same in Cardigan. Members of both families are said to have emigrated to the US and founded distilleries in Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively.
Despite help from a lot of sources in Wales (among which the Museum of Welsh Life, the Pembrokeshire Historical Society, the National Library of Wales, and a number of experts on 18th century Welsh history based at several of the Welsh universities), I drew a complete blank. Not a single bit of evidence emerged for the existence of these Dale and Cardigan distilleries, or any other distilleries in Wales in the 18th century.
Attempts to find evidence on the other side of the Atlantic proved equally unsuccessful. The Filson Club, the Historical Society of Kentucky, told me there were no references in Kentucky records to distilling in Wales by the Williams family. The Barton Museum of Whiskey History had no records of any link between Wales and these two names in American distilling. Finally, David Duncan, historian of the Jack Daniel distillery, was quite surprised by the supposed Welsh link. David sent me all the available genealogical information they have on Jack Daniel. His grandmother, Bettie Calaway is said to have eloped to America in 1772 with a man called Joseph Daniel, who was employed as a coach man by her family in Scotland. Their son Calaway was born in 1800 in Newbern, North Carolina and married Lucinda Cook in 1822 in Franklin Co., Tennessee. The youngest of their 10 children was Jasper Newton ('Jack'), born in 1846 (or possibly 1850). The details concerning Jack's grandparents are not fully clear; some sources suggest that Jack's grandmother Bettie came to America with a man named Andress and married Joseph after divorce or death of her first husband. Anyway, in none of the distillery records is there any evidence for involvement of the Daniel family with distilling in Wales or anywhere else before Jack took out his licence in 1866.
Although the possibility that two of the most famous names in American distilling history have their roots in Welsh soil is intriguing, no historical evidence to back this up has so far emerged. Obviously, I could have been looking in the wrong places. So if anyone does have information on these or other 18th century distilleries in Wales, please get in touch!
So was there ever any real Welsh whisky besides the 16th century 'aquavitie'? Well, according to local legend, an elderly spinster in Cnwcau in southern Wales had a still hidden in a cave in the slopes of Cemaes Head. She distilled whisky there, but was discovered by the excise men. Sentenced to a week's imprisonment in the county gaol in Haverfordwest, 25 miles way, she was marched there but by the time she arrived it was almost time for her to be marched back again! When she got home again, she said she'd enjoyed her sentence, never before in her life having had the luxury of meals being served to her!
And what about legal distilleries? Unless and until historical evidence for the Dale and Cardigan distilleries surfaces, it appears that the first commercial distillery on Welsh soil was erected at the end of the 19th century. The Fron-goch distillery near Bala, at the edge of Snowdonia, will be the focus of the next article in this series.
Many thanks to a lot of people for their help, including Pen Bogert (Filson Club), Andrew Davies (Gwalia Distillery), David Duncan (Jack Daniel Distillery), Richard Gordon (Scotch Malt Whisky Society), Brian Lile (National Library of Wales), Dillwyn Miles (Pembrokeshire Historical Society), Christine Stevens (Museum of Welsh Life) and the discussion forum at www.straightbourbon.com
© 2001 Alex Kraaijeveld
