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It was last used when whisky was measured in hogsheads and production of the water of life was moving from an often-illicit farmyard enterprise to a thriving national business.Now the secrets of whisky production from 200 years ago are being uncovered by archaeologists probing the remains of a distillery which ceased production in 1824.Fire pits which would once have heated copper stills, tasting glasses, bottles and the timber-lined vats which held gallons of the amber nectar have all been unearthed at the National Trust dig on the old site of the Glenlivet distillery.During the past two weeks the archaeology team...

A pensioner who has smoked almost 300,000 cigarettes during his lifetime has celebrated his 100th birthday. Arthur Langran, who survived being blown up by a grenade during the Second World War, claims the secret behind his longevity is always doing what everyone tells him not to. The father-of-two started smoking when he was 20 and has smoked at least ten cigarettes every day since then - the equivalent of 292,000. The centenarian, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, also drinks a glass of single malt whisky every night before he goes to bed, another factor he credits for his long...

The Nova Scotia distillers of Glen Breton, Canada's only single malt, make its richly gold and aromatic whisky by mimicking the masters, copying every step of the process used in Scotland for centuries. Its homage to Scotch, however, has now been found to be too close for comfort. The tiny Glenora Distillery on Cape Breton Island, a Gaelic community with deep roots in Scotland, can no longer use the word "Glen" in its whisky's name because it misleads consumers into thinking they are drinking Scotch, according to a ruling released yesterday by the Federal Court of Canada. The ruling in...

Last bottle of world's oldest single malt whisky leaves Scotland Fri Feb 25,12:29 PM ET Offbeat - AFP LONDON (AFP) - The last remaining bottle of the world's oldest single malt whisky left its distillery in Scotland bound for Hong Kong, where it will be the star attraction at an airport shop. The bottle of Glenfiddich Rare Collection 1937, left to mature in a cask for 64 years before being bottled, is heading for Hong Kong's Chep Lap Kok Airport, where it will be available for a well-heeled buyer, but only at a steep cost. Previous bottles sold direct by...

It gives new meaning to the phrase "lifting their spirits." The theft of a $3,200 bottle of Scotch whisky from the Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa has resulted in a felony charge against a Pima County man. You heard right: That's one bottle of Scotch, costing about the same as 228 of the 20-bottle packs of Bud Light sold at your local Circle K. Pima County Sheriff's Department investigators said a resort employee at La Paloma was caught trying to steal a 50-year-old bottle of The Macallan Scotch, imported in a hand-cut crystal bottle. [snip] Even Tucson's tonier resorts...