How an icon was born
Published Date:
16 October 2008
I was interested to read your "Recipe for a row", regarding Drambuie's long-held claim that its secret recipe was handed down to the McKinnon family by Bonnie Prince Charlie (Business Gazetteer, 10 October).
The record has been partly put right by the claim of John H Birkett that one of his ancestors, James Ross, either acquired the recipe or invented it when he was lessee of the Broadford Hotel in Skye. Some years later, my grandfather's brother, Calum McKinnon, went to work in Edinburgh in a whiskycompany. He later decided to go into business on his own with the Drambuie recipe and approached his six brothers for financial aid. The company was born and became the powerful Scottish icon it now is.
I recall that when my grandfather died, his loan was paid back to my cousins and I; an inheritance now, sadly, long gone. It would be churlish to decry Drambuie's highly successful marketing efforts, but history is history.
ARCHIE BLAIR
Riverside Park
Blairgowrie, Perthshire
The full article contains 172 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
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Last Updated:
15 October 2008 9:21 PM
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Source:
The Scotsman
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Location:
Edinburgh
