History
Wales has a long history of alcohol creation; but distillation came in the Middle Ages. 'The Great Welsh Warrior' Reaullt Hir is said to have distilled 'chwisgi' from braggot brewed by the monks of Bardsey Island in 356 AD. These monks then allegedly developed the art of distilling further.
However the name "Reaullt" is a High Mediaeval loanword from Anglo-Norman French; and "chwisgi" comes from either the Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha or Irish uisce beatha (both meaning "water "), themselves calques from Mediaeval Latin aqua vitae. The Mabinogion refers to fermentation but not distillation; and the end of the "Mead Song" in a 16th century manuscript of the Tales of Taliesin mentions distillation, although mead is a fermented beverage.
Read more about this topic: Welsh Whisky
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