Travel Reference
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history, its relation to the land and what it means to people both here and abroad is a way
of getting to know more about the country where it's made and the people who make it.
And there's a further quest involved here, too, besides this search for the perfect dram.
I've never tasted it, never been offered it, never really heard anything about it, but I'm
convinced that somebody, somewhere, must be making illegal whisky; whisky the way
it used to be made, before it became first outlawed and then legalised, before it became
taxed, before it became (and this is very much a relative term, given the small scale and
considerable art involved in the process) industrialised. There has to be a secret still out
there somewhere; probably there are many, surely there have to be several. I'd like to see
a still in action but I'd settle for a taste of the product (I mean, providing it isn't likely
to blind me or anything). I'd like to talk to the people involved, if I can convince them
I'm not going to expose them or report them to Customs and Excise, but it's that taste I'm
particularly interested in, because it'll be a taste, to some degree, of the past, a link to the
place where the whisky we know now came from.
Apart from anything else, I'd like to know why there's so little illegal whisky in Scot-
land. In particular, why is it so uncommon compared to its Irish equivalent, poteen? Go to
Ireland for long enough - blimey, stay in Scotland for long enough - and you'll be offered
poteen sooner or later, by somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody … But
in over 30 years of sometimes casual, often determined and occasionally assiduous drink-
ing in pretty much every cranny and indeed neuk of Scotland, I can't recall ever being
offered hooch which was actually made in the place, and none of my friends have either.
This strikes me as odd. Given the nature of some of my friends, it's practically preposter-
ous.
I'm almost tempted to believe that the more likely explanation is that I've been
offered whiskeen - or whatever it might be called - dozens of times and accepted it ful-
somely on each occasion, only to, for some reason, forget all about it by the following
morning, though this is of course a patently absurd suggestion and I'm mildly surprised
I've even thought of it. Come to think of it, just ignore it. Actually, I'll probably take this
bit out of the first draft. In fact, I know: I'll remove it tomorrow morning when I look
back at what I wrote the night before.
Gosh, this 'research' stuff is fascinating. Now I know, from reading other books about
whisky, that Scotch poteen is called peatreek.
Peatreek. It's an old word, and has already fallen almost completely out of use, but
that is the technical term for what I'm looking for. Actually, as a word, I quite like it. In
common with a lot of writers and not a few readers, I kind of collect words, and peatreek
seems like a good one to have in the collection.
But no sign of the stuff itself. Not so far, anyway. I've made a few inquiries and
dropped a few hints, but to date nobody has come up with anything. I didn't really think
