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Whiskey has a long history, a lot of it concentrated here in Scotland, which is where I am now, sitting

in a cottage hiding from the rain on a hillside in Strathardle in Perthshire.

And I've got with me a glass of the 12-year-old Eddra Dower from what claims to be Scotland's smallest distillery, which is actually

just over that hill at the north end of the Strath.

But even on a damp evening this is a magical place and the

heathers softly glowing on the hills and it really looks like some dream of

the Highlands, all somehow romantically caught in this lovely

dram.

But Edredara's claim to being the smallest distillery isn't going to last long.

Scotch whiskey, especially single maults like this one, have survived for a long time

on a mature and traditional set of customers.

However, over the last decades, it's been all change,

a change that's speeding up.

There are new distilleries and new ways of maturing and a new British

whiskey scene. From a small distillery in Northern Ireland giving bush mills a push to the Welsh and the English reclaiming their

whiskey traditions. This is a modern story of Whiskey Britannia, a scene that Dave Broome, one of the UK's top whiskey tasters and

writers, has been monitoring since its beginnings. What we're seeing is really an extension of what is happening all around the world.

People are interested in making spirits and relatively small scale and really looking at the local.

And to a certain extent it comes off the craft brewing industry

...