Drambuie
Encyclopedia
Liqueur
A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry.The...
made from malt whisky
Malt whisky
Malt whisky is whisky that is made from a fermented mash produced primarily from a malted grain. Unless otherwise specified, it is generally assumed that the primary grain is barley, although whisky is also made using malted rye...
, honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
, herbs, and spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
s.
Produced in Broxburn, West Lothian
Broxburn, West Lothian
Broxburn is a town in West Lothian, Scotland located west of Edinburgh on the A8 road. It is situated approximately from Edinburgh Airport, and to the north of Livingston....
, Scotland, it is served straight, on the rocks
Ice cube
Ice cubes are small, roughly cube-shaped pieces of ice, conventionally used to cool beverages. Ice cubes are often preferred over crushed ice because they melt more slowly; they are standard in mixed drinks that call for ice, in which case the drink is said to be "on the rocks."Ice cubes are...
, or added to mixed drink
Mixed drink
A mixed drink is a beverage in which two or more ingredients are mixed. Some mixed drinks are alcoholic beverages that contain liquor; others are non-alcoholic.-Types:Some popular types of mixed drinks are:...
s such as the Rusty Nail.
In 2009, Drambuie launched The Royal Legacy of 1745, an upscale malt whisky liqueur. The 46% alcohol by volume
Alcohol by volume
Alcohol by volume is a standard measure of how much alcohol is contained in an alcoholic beverage .The ABV standard is used worldwide....
spirit won the Drinks International Travel Retail Award for Best Travel Retail Drinks Launch at the TFWA, Cannes in October 2009.
Etymology
The name "Drambuie" may derive from the Scottish Gaelic phrase an dram buidheach, meaning "the drink that satisfies", or possibly an dram buidhe meaning "the yellow drink".History
After the Battle of CullodenBattle of Culloden
The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...
in 1746, Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Charles Edward Stuart
Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...
fled to the island of Skye
Skye
Skye or the Isle of Skye is the largest and most northerly island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate out from a mountainous centre dominated by the Cuillin hills...
. There, he was given sanctuary by Captain John MacKinnon of Clan MacKinnon
Clan MacKinnon
Clan Mackinnon or Clan Fingon is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the islands of Mull and Skye, in the Inner Hebrides.Popular tradition gives the clan a Dalriadic Gaelic origin. The 19th century historian W. F. Skene named the clan as one of the seven clans of Siol Alpin - who according to...
. According to family legend, after staying with the captain, the prince rewarded him with this prized drink recipe. (This version of events is disputed by historians – some believe it to be a story concocted to boost sales of the drink).
The legend holds that the recipe was then given in the late 19th century by Clan MacKinnon to James Ross. Ross ran the Broadford
Broadford, Skye
Broadford , together with nearby Harrapool, is the second-largest settlement on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, lying on the SW corner of Broadford Bay, on the A87 between Portree and the Skye Bridge....
Hotel on Skye, where he developed and improved the recipe, initially for his friends and then later to patrons in the 1870s. It was one of these friends who coined the name. Ross then sold it further afield, eventually to France and the United States. The name was registered as a trademark in 1893.
Ross died young, and to pay for their children's education, his widow was obliged to sell the recipe, by coincidence to a different MacKinnon family, in the early 20th century. The latter MacKinnon family has been producing the drink since.
The first commercial distribution of Drambuie, in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, was in 1910. Only twelve cases were originally sold. In 1916, Drambuie became the first liqueur to be allowed in the cellars of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
, and Drambuie began to ship world-wide to stationed British soldiers
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
. In the 1980s, the producers of Drambuie began to advertise the liqueur. More recently work has been done to strengthen the reputation of the brand after a downturn in popularity and sales.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Drambuie being bottled in Edinburgh, the makers launched a new style of bottle and embarked on a television and print advertising campaign in 2010. The new bottle is clear which allows the fluid to be seen. It is taller and thinner, supposedly easier for pouring. It has a new interlocking ‘DD’ Drambuie icon behind the brand name and this also appears on the neck. The sword-slashes on the neck are a reminder of the brand's alleged origins of the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and the four diamonds represent those values closely associated with Bonnie Prince Charlie – Risk, Rebellion, Passion and Mystery.
Reviews
Drambuie received the highest possible score, a "95-100", in the Wine Enthusiast's 2008 spirit ratingsSpirit ratings
With a growing number of microdistilleries and an expanding number of offerings from large corporate entities, a number of institutions have arisen to provide professional evaluations of individual spirits...
competition.