Why we have Scotch whisky regions
This is a short history of the Scotch whisky regions, one that will explain why they were created and what they mean.
Jump to section
Author:
Reading time: 5 minutes
Our guide to the five Scotch whisky regions & the Islands
- Scotland has five defined whisky regions: The Highlands, Speyside, the Lowlands, Campbeltown, and Islay.
- The Islands are often categorised separately despite not being an official region and part of the Highlands
- The Highlands is the biggest region by area, but Speyside is the biggest whisky-producing region in Scotland.
Why do we have Scotch whisky regions?
The Scotch whisky industry is regulated by laws that define what can be labelled as Scotch whisky and how it must be produced, and part of that framework divides Scotland into five legally defined regions: Speyside, Islay, Campbeltown, the Lowlands, and the Highlands.
These are geographical divisions, but their story entails a lot of history and politics. If you’ve ever wondered why we have Scotch whisky regions or how they came about, then you’re in the right place. This guide will hopefully help you understand everything you need to know
The Highlands and Lowlands
We can trace the first notion of any regional division back to the Wash Act of 1784. This legislation stated certain duties and legal requirements that had to be fulfilled by distillers but drew a notional diagonal line across Scotland that ran between Dumbarton on the Clyde and Dundee on the Tay. This was designated the ‘Highland line’. Above it was the Highland region and below the Lowlands, a separation that reflected two regions that made whisky differently.
Distilleries in the Highlands, for example, almost exclusively produced whisky from malted barley, whereas the more fertile plains of the Lowlands allowed for the use of mixed grains, notably wheat. Distilleries there also followed the Irish method of using unmalted barley and this, along with alternative grains, provided a workaround to the tax on malted barley. In The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith reported: “In what one called malt spirit, it [the malt] makes but a third of the raw materials; the other two-thirds being raw barley, or one-third raw barley and one-third wheat.”
An Amending Act in 1786 soon followed, and this was concerned with duty payable according to still capacity. The House of Commons Committee which set the tax, estimated the output a still would produce in a year, taking advice through declarations made by the leading London distillers, who “settled upon the supposition that stills could be discharged bout seven times a week”. But the Scottish distillers in the Lowlands managed far more than that, leading the London distillers to complain to the Lord's Commission of the Treasury: “Scottish distillers had, by the ingenuity of their contrivances, found means to discharge their stills upwards of forty times a week”.
The Scotch whisky regions. Image credit: The Scotch Whisky Association.
Death, taxes, and whisky
Whisky writer Charles MacLean explains in his excellent article Whisky Regions - are they still relevant for the Malt Whisky Yearbook 2020 that the Lowland giants were speeding the rates of distillation thanks to shallow stills with broad, saucer-shaped bases and tall heads, used in conjunction with stronger, thicker washes. But this process also allowed for little to no reflux as the copper interaction was minimal, a process essential in removing unpleasant flavours and refining the spirit. Lowland distillers soon got a reputation for making rough spirit, which explains why a lot of it was simply used as a base for gins – whereas Highland distillers favoured malted barley, weak mashes, and small stills that were run slowly.
The quality of the whisky was higher, but a provision of the Wash Act banned licensed Highland distilleries from selling products into the Lowlands. This framework based on taxation schemes applied to distilling resulted in a distinct regional divide: Highland distillers that were making great whisky, but often illicitly in small-scale setups because they were harder to trace and apprehend in the vast north, and large Lowland distillers that traded with England and beyond.
With the 1820s came the continuous stills. These super-efficient alternatives to pot stills were largely rejected by the Irish due to the quality of the spirit that was made but was embraced in Scotland, patriotically in the Lowlands, for easing the rate and cost at which pure, high-strength spirit could be made. The Irish complaint that it stripped too much flavour out of malt whisky was felt too in many parts of Scotland but the train was already out of the station. Grain whisky thrived and with an abundance of it came the blenders who sought to mix grain and malt whisky. It was also financially prudent, as, before Gladstone’s Spirits Act 1860, duty had to be paid before blending which meant that you could hold and blend malt and grain whisky under bond. A tax reduction in 1823 incentivized the illicit whisky makers in the Highlanders to become legitimate, increasing the distillery number in Scotland further.
The era of blends
This marriage of convenience where grain whisky was being pumped out at a huge rate and the variety of legal malt distilleries increasing led to a new dawn of Scotch whisky, where blending became an art form and the great blends ruled the roost. By the mid-1860s, spirits merchants and blenders were sending casks to be filled at the distilleries they favoured to assert more consistency and quality control. As the boom period of the 1890s came around, blending houses were building distilleries to their own needs, with 33 distilleries commissioned alone in this decade.
With so much whisky, blenders would categorise the spirit by region and quality. Ledgers and logbooks from the 19th century reveal that distillery names were not logged, but instead terms like “Highland style” were favoured. Alexander Walker II used the term “North Country” to group together the malts he was buying from the Highlands and Islands to create Johnnie Walker Red and Black. These broad terms were synonyms for flavour groupings. Islay meant smoky. Campbeltown was oily and robust. Mainland distillers moved away from the bold and smoky to create light, fruity, and sweet single malts. The demand for what whisky blenders wanted began to dictate what kind of whisky was made and where with a wider palate of flavour options becoming the bedrock of regionality.
While there wasn’t an exact consensus, the big four were the Highlands, Lowlands, Campbeltown, and Islay, with grain whisky forming its own category. Even our old friend, Victorian whisky writer Alfred Barnard, referenced this practice in his classic The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom, noting the aforementioned four malt types as well as Mull and Strathisla. He did make a couple of interesting references to flavours and styles fixed to regions, saying that the Albyn distillery in Campbeltown made “Highland malt”. Most notably, Barnard wrote this of the Bankier distillery near Falkirk, “[The whisky] is now made on North Highland principles, and, although the Distillery is situated in the Lowlands of Scotland, the quality of the spirit appeared to us to be of a most pronounced and excellent Highland style of Whisky.”
Whisky was so distinct from areas like Campbeltown the region itself became defined
Speyside, trains and Glenlivet
You might notice Speyside is conspicuously absent here so far. There were distilleries by the Spey and some would reference that on their bottles, but it wasn’t anywhere near as prominent as the other regions of today, and distilleries in what is now Speyside belonged to the Highlands (and still do to an extent, we’ll get to that). That’s where trains and Glenlivet come into play. The expansion of the Great North railway in the late 19th century made a prime barley-growing location with access to great water an even more attractive place to build a distillery. Remember those 33 distilleries commissioned in the 1890s? Well, 26 of those were in Speyside.
The reputation of one of the leading producers in the area was key too. Glenlivet Distillery was founded in 1824 in Drumin by George Smith and by the end of the century carried such great sway and appeal that over twenty-five distilleries in the area attached the suffix -Glenlivet to their name. There was Aberlour-Glenlivet. Cragganmore-Glenlivet. Glen Moray-Glenlivet. Even Macallan-Glenlivet. While Smith won the trademark to the name “The Glenlivet” in 1884, he couldn’t stop them from cashing in on the suffix. The fruity, sweet, and lightly peated whisky that Glenlivet made was in high demand from blenders and soon became synonymous with the region itself.
In 1909 came the first real formalisation of the whisky regions we see today, with the Report of the Royal Commission on Whisky and Other Potable Spirits that was published by the UK government. In this comprehensive survey of Scottish and Irish distilleries, the regions listed included: Highlands, Lowlands, Islay, Campbeltown, and Speyside. But it wasn’t a perfect system by any means, as we can glean from Aeneas MacDonald’s Whisky (1930): “... it is impossible to discover any reasonable geographical basis for the district-names assumed by different distilleries. No amount of research can determine why some of these are called ‘Strathspey’ whiskies and others ‘Speyside’. Both are equally beside the Spey and in Strathspey. And it is not as if the names are interchangeable; they are jealousy guarded.”
Single malt and the big five
These whisky regions would have also meant nothing to the average whisky drinker, of course. What began as a legal distinction based on tax, then a useful shorthand for blenders would soon develop into a framework to understand Scotch whisky by region with the rise and rise of single malt. As blends declined, the big drinks brands were increasingly keen to market the malt and regions became a way of distinguishing products in the market.
The United Distillers & Vintners (UDV), a predecessor of Diageo, utilised its wide spread of distilleries to introduce the Classic Malts of Scotland range in 1988, with every region represented, other than Campbeltown: Glenkinchie (Lowlands), Cragganmore (Speyside), Lagavulin (Islay), and Dalwhinnie (Highlands). There was even a bonus Oban (West Highlands) and Talisker (Isle of Skye), making up for the lack of a Campbeltown malt and showing that the regions were still not exactly set in stone.
During this era, the notable whisky writers of the time began writing about whisky regions with some regularity and passing that knowledge down to the consumer. Michael Jackson’s Malt Whisky Companion (1989) contained a section called The Classic Regions complete with a map. He outlined a brief summary of the Lowlands, Highlands, Islay, Campbeltown, and Speyside, writing: “Like wines - and many other drinks the single malts of Scotland are grouped by region. As with wines, these regions offer a guideline rather than a rule. Within Bordeaux, a particular Pomerol, for example, might have a richness more reminiscent of Burgundy; similar comparisons can be made in Scotland. The regions in Scotland… have their origins in the regulation of licenses and duties, but they also embrace certain characteristics”.
Whisky is made all over Scotland and we love each and every region!
Setting the five regions in stone
As we arrive in the 21st century, the big five as we know them today were understood by seasoned whisky enthusiasts and by 2009, The Scotch Whisky Regulations really rubber stamped each one, in a move designed enhance Scotch whisky’s European Union geographical indication (GI) and protect its identity and reputation worldwide. The Scotch Whisky Act outlined the following definitions for each region.
Campbeltown: Comprises ‘the South Kintyre ward of the Argyll and Bute Council as that ward is constituted in the Argyll and Bute (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(a)’.
Islay: Refers to whisky made on the island. Nice and easy.
The Lowlands: The area lying to ‘the south of the line dividing [it from] the Highland region.’ This is a reference to the original line established by the tax laws of the early 19th century, not a reference to the geological fault that runs diagonally across the country, for all you geology fans.
The Highlands: Again, this definition takes its history from the “regulation of licences and duties” as Jackson puts it, and it’s quite a mouthful. Bear in mind too that the whiskies from the islands (bar Islay) are all classed as Highland whiskies. The Highlands ‘…means the line beginning at the North Channel and running along the southern foreshore of the Firth of Clyde to Greenock, and from there to Cardross Station, then eastwards in a straight line to the summit of Earl’s Seat in the Campsie Fells, and then eastwards in a straight line to the Wallace Monument, and from there eastwards along the line of the B998 and A91 roads until the A91 meets the M90 road at Milnathort, and then along the M90 northwards until the Bridge of Earn, and then along the River Earn until its confluence with the River Tay, and then along the southern foreshore of that river and the Firth of Tay until it comes to the North Sea.’
Speyside: Alright bear with us here, because confusingly Speyside does fall within the borders of the Highland region and whiskies distilled in Speyside have the right to label themselves as Highland whiskies. Regardless, Speyside as a region is defined as consisting of ‘(i) the wards of Buckie, Elgin City North, Elgin City South, Fochabers Lhanbryde, Forres, Heldon and Laich, Keith and Cullen and Speyside Glenlivet of the Moray Council as those wards are constituted in the Moray (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(b); and (ii) the Badenoch and Strathspey ward of the Highland Council as that ward is constituted in the Highland (Electoral Arrangements) Order 2006(c).’
So there you have it. A history of the Scotch whisky regions. All that reading has probably made you thirsty. Anyone know where we can find any good Scotch?
Whisky from every Scotch whisky region
Below we have an example of whisky from each of the Scotch whisky regions
More whisky guides
Find out how whisky is made, about the different types of whisky available, and more...
