Who's Who | Drinking
Think of drink in Scotland and you may first think of whisky. However, beer, wine and soft drinks all play a part in the nation’s heritage. Brewing started with the ancient Picts, who used spruce and heather in their fermented refreshments. Scotland’s historic links to France ensured that wine was important, so that by the 1690s, one-third of Edinburgh’s civic income was from the duty on imported wine. Later, the Victorians – definitely with a sweet tooth and motivated by temperance principles - experimented and developed soft drinks, the forerunners of the pure and refreshing home-produced ranges of today.
‘If all be true that I do think
There are five reasons we should drink:
Good wine – a friend – or being dry –
Or lest we should be by and by –
Or any other reason why.
Dean Aldrich 1647-1710