India, Nov. 9 -- 1823 was a pivotal year for Scotch whisky. That was the year the House of Lords passed the Excise Act, which has shaped a lot of the whisky we drink today. Taxes on whisky, first introduced in 1644, gave rise to illicit distilling and smuggling in Scotland. The Scotch Whisky Association says that over 14,000 illicit stills were confiscated every year by the 1820s. (In fact, the National Trust of Scotland regularly excavates several of these stills that were set up in remote locations and restores them as part of the country's cultural heritage.)

The Excise Act created a regulated framework for whisky production and encouraged distillers to produce whisky legally. Several distilleries sprang up in Scotland the next year, ...