Have you ever noticed the delicious scents which permeate a distillery? The scents of beer, cereals and yeast in the tun-room; of pear drops and nail-varnish-remover in the still-house, and of old oak, hessian sacking and, most glorious, whisky in the maturation warehouses. Even outside, on a still day, distilleries breathe a delectable odour. And each one smells different.

It's true. Before Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay was sold, it was operated for a couple of months each year by the boys from the neighbouring Isle of Jura Distillery. They told me that, even at the first stage of production, the smell of the mash in the mash tun was entirely different from the smell of Jura, in spite of using identical malt.

The later scents—arising from fermentation, distillation, maturation — are imbued with the vapours of alcohol. It hovers like a mist around malt whisky distilleries, and in the mist, drinking in the vapour, are many thousands o f invisible angels. We know they are there because of the huge quantity of whisky that is lost each year as the spirit slumbers, secure under lock and key, known as 'The Angel's Share'.

It is not known whether angels attach themselves to only one distillery, like Excise officers of old, or whether they move around — perhaps if there is a change of management (they are sensitive to atmosphere), or a change in spirit character (they are, apparently, conservative in their tastes). Like distillery workers in the past, they are especially fond of 'clearic', fiery new-make spirit, and sip less avidly from casks containing old malts.

Of course, the loss they cause to the whisky industry is incalculable, but so far no device has been invented which will drive them off. They are immune to crow-scarers, ultra-sonic bleepers and flashing lights. The Scotch Whisky Research Centre at Heriot Watt University is understood to be collaborating with Professor Alexander McCall-Smith of nearby Edinburgh University, the well-known expert on angels, to find a substitute for whisky vapour, a placebo, but so far they have found nothing which works.

But, as I say, it is a grave problem; as the Scotch Whisky Association says: "Financing stocks of maturing whisky is the most significant capital investment which Scotch whisky companies have to undertake". There are just under three billion litres of whisky maturing in Scottish warehouses (2,858,000,000 Litres of Pure Alcohol in 2002). It has been estimated that around 57 million litres of this is lost to the angels each year — around 340 million 70cl bottles of ten years old whisky at 40%Vol! Worth more than the gold reserves of the Bank of England! Macallan alone loses over two million bottles a year.

So serious is the situation that even H.M. Customs & Excise have to make allowances. Following vigorous lobbying by Sir Peter Mackie in 1915, backed by thinly-veiled angelic threats, Lloyd - George's Government passed the Immature Spirits Act, which first, fixed the angels' allowance at 2% per annum of the contents of each cask, and, second, permitted that this 2% should be free of duty

IN TRUTH, WE HAVE A LOT TO THANK OUR ANGELS FOR!

Were it not for the angelic lobby, we might still have new and immature liquor foisted upon us - as in the case of lesser spirits, which can either be sold fresh from the still, or with only minimal maturation. And were it not for them 'leaning on Lloyd-George to allow for 2% per annum to be duty-free, we would not be able to afford long matured whiskies, ever mellowing, ever decreasing in the cask as the angels enjoy their share.

1970 I Concorde flew for the first time and instigated the very first - supersonic service between London and New York. Pan American World Airways offered reservations for a flight to the moon—with 93,000 people signing up. Jimi Hendrix, the inspirational rock guitarist, died. Alan Shugart invented the first regular use of an 8 inch floppy (magnetic storage) diskette.

1970 I The music of the 70s was ushered in with the eponymous Led
Zeppelin III, 'Let It Be' (The Beatles) and 'Déja vu' (Crosby, Stills, Nash and
 Young). New publications included Saul Bellow's 'Mr Sammler's Planet',
 James Dickey's 'Deliverance', and 'Love Story', by classics professor-turned-writer Erich Segal. 126 runners showed up for the very first New York Marathon.

1971 I This year was a real boom year for technology The introduction of
the microchip meant that such equipment as VCRs and microwaves
 became affordable for personal use for the first time. The 26th Amendment 
lowered the United States' voting age from 21 to 18. Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1971 I After 1,200 years, on February 15th 1971, the United Kingdom changed
from using 12 pence to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound to a new
decimal 100 new pence to the pound. China was officially seated in the United
 Nations and launched its first space satellite. George Harrison, became the first ex-band member of The Beatles to have a solo number one hit with 'My Sweet Lord'.

1972 I Offerings in popular culture included M*A*S*H, The Godfather,
Don McLean's 'American Pie' and books such as 'Watership Down'. Bobby -
Fischer defeated Boris Spassky to become the first American to hold the world chess title. Five men were arrested inside the new Democratic National Headquarters with surveillance equipment and cameras, marking the beginning of the Watergate Scandal

1972 I Richard Leakey and Glynn Isaac found a skull in Kenya which potentially dated the first humans to 2.5 million B.C. Nike—, destined to 
become the world's largest sneaker company, was founded by Philip H. Knight and William Bowerman, who had been importing Japanese running shoes for the past six years. Mark Spitz won seven Olympic gold medals at the Munich Olympic Games.

Written by Charles MacLean

The text is an excerpt from "The Definitive Guide to Buying Vintage Macallan" (pp. 78 - 85), First Edition, published 2003 by Macallan Distillery Ltd.