In the first of his regular series, celebrated whisky writer Dave Broom describes how interest in whisky (and American and Irish whiskey) has been exploding worldwide. Above, R&B Distillers' construction of the Isle of Raasay distillery, visitor centre and hotel in 2016.
There are now more than 140 whisky distilleries in Scotland, 250 in Australia, 200 in France, 100 in Japan, 27 in China and over 1,500 in the US. I could go on.
It is a recent phenomenon. In 2009, Ireland had four distilleries. Now it has 50. A decade ago England had three, now there are 49.
The world’s...