Description
More than 300 years ago, the remote Scottish region of Speyside – now known as the largest whisky region in the world – was considered a smuggler’s paradise with hidden distilleries in every corner.
At that time, whisky was heavily taxed: landowners became richer and richer, while the common people had to struggle financially.
Besides the illegal distillation, the workers showed great ingenuity in transporting and consuming the good whisky as unobtrusively as possible.
A century passed and still more than half of the Scotch whisky consumed was not taxed “black ware”.
In 1823 the “House of Lords” succeeded in getting illegal distillation in particular under control again by a new law.
There were various ways to smuggle the whisky home, whether from official or unofficial production.
The most common was the “Copper Dog”. This was a copper pipe which was soldered with a penny at one end and closed with a cork at the other.
The Copper Dogs were attached to the trousers or the belt and kept well hidden. A popular meeting place for whisky makers and connoisseurs in the region was from 1893 on the Craigellachie Hotel Pub – there people met to have a good sip from one of the other Copper Dogs
to enjoy. In 2014 the new hotel owner Piers Adam took these old stories as inspiration to put his idea for his own whisky, Copper Dog, into practice.
Copper Dog is a blend of no less than eight Speyside single malt whiskies (including Knockando, Inchgower and Roseisle) of different ages, matured in various casks (including refill American and European oak, first fill bourbon, but also rejuvenated casks).
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