Drambuie: The Liqueur and the Prince's Recipe

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The trademark registration and corporate history are documented. The connection to Bonnie Prince Charlie is a family and brand tradition with no contemporary evidence. The meaning of the name, often given as Gaelic for "the drink that satisfies", is also debated.

The legend

traditional According to the story told by the company, in 1746, after his defeat at Culloden, Prince Charles Edward Stuart was sheltered on Skye by Captain John MacKinnon. Having no money to reward him, the prince gave him the recipe for his personal cordial. The MacKinnons kept the recipe secret for generations.

The trademark

established The liqueur was served at the Broadford Hotel on Skye in the late nineteenth century, and in 1893 the hotel's proprietor, James Ross, registered "Drambuie" as a trademark.

shared Accounts of how the Rosses came by the recipe differ. Carol Foreman, in Made in Scotland (2nd edn, 2010), working from information supplied by the company, says that in 1871 John Ross, who kept the inn at Broadford, persuaded one of the MacKinnons to let him make the liqueur and sell it there, and that his son James registered the name. The brand's current history says John Ross received the recipe from the estate of Alexander MacKinnon, and that James Ross replaced its original base with Scotch whisky. Foreman also notes that the MacKinnons had several recipes in different branches of the family. None of these steps is documented outside the company's own story.

The MacKinnons of Edinburgh

established In the early twentieth century, Malcolm MacKinnon, an Edinburgh wine merchant, acquired the recipe and developed commercial production, founding the Drambuie Liqueur Company. The MacKinnon family ran it for most of the century, and it became an international brand. In 2014 it was sold to William Grant & Sons.

established Foreman gives the details. Malcolm MacKinnon left Skye in 1900 to work for W. MacBeth & Son, an Edinburgh wine and spirit wholesaler, and became a partner. James Ross's widow, Eleanor, had moved to Edinburgh with the recipe, and MacKinnon agreed with her to make and sell Drambuie, with the trademark assigned to MacBeth's. He began in 1909, a poor year for a new whisky drink, since Lloyd George's budget had raised spirit duty sharply. Only twelve cases were sold in the first year. MacKinnon advertised heavily in papers such as The Times, Punch and the Tatler, using Bonnie Prince Charlie and Highland scenery, and devised a squat bottle to stand out on the shelf. In 1914 he took over MacBeth's business and formed the Drambuie Liqueur Company. Wikipedia and the brand's history add that his fiancée, Georgina (Gina) Davidson, urged him on, and they married in 1915. Wikipedia's version has MacBeth's buying the recipe from the Ross family in 1912; Foreman and the brand give 1909.

shared Foreman reports, from the company, that Drambuie was the first liqueur admitted to the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, and that both world wars helped sales because continental liqueurs could not reach Britain. In 1937 the company took over the old Edinburgh blenders Innes & Grieve and moved production to their premises at 12 York Place. A plant at Easter Road followed in 1959; Foreman says work began on a larger plant at Kirkliston in 1969, while Wikipedia dates the move to Kirkliston to 1959. In 2001 bottling moved to Glenmorangie's plant at Broxburn. The company's head office was Hillwood House, Malcolm MacKinnon's former home, which his grandsons bought back in 1998.

shared The secrecy was part of the brand. Foreman, writing in 2010, says the recipe was kept in an Edinburgh bank, that a woman of the MacKinnon family mixed the herbal essence in a locked laboratory, and that Gina MacKinnon held that women were better at keeping secrets. Since the 2014 sale the brand says the recipe is kept in a safe at William Grant's blending site near Glasgow. Every bottle carries the Gaelic motto Cuimhnich an tabhartas Prionnsa, "Remember the gift of the Prince", which ties the product to the legend rather than proving it.

established By the 1960s the company was led by Mrs Gina MacKinnon. The folklorist F. Marian McNeill, in the 1963 edition of The Scots Kitchen (first published 1929), thanks "Mrs. Mackinnon, Chairman of the Drambuie Liqueur Company and guardian of its secret" for a recipe. The phrase confirms that the family presented the formula as a closely held secret, kept by one person. Notably, McNeill, an enthusiastic recorder of Jacobite lore, does not repeat the Prince Charlie story anywhere in the book.

In the Scottish kitchen

established McNeill treats Drambuie as an established Scottish ingredient by the mid-twentieth century. Her "Drambuie Cream", supplied by Mrs MacKinnon, is a set custard enriched with whipped cream and Drambuie, poured into a charlotte mould lined with sponge fingers over a layer of wine jelly. She also recommends Drambuie to flavour the whipped cream on a trifle, to sprinkle "over strawberries in lieu of cream", and to flavour ice cream. She lists heather honey as an ingredient of "such classic drinks as Drambuie and Atholl Brose", placing the liqueur in the older Scottish family of whisky-and-honey mixtures.

established The Oxford Companion to Food (3rd edn, 2014) helps place these uses. Its entry on alcohol in cookery observes that sweetened, flavoured liqueurs are usually added without further cooking, unlike wine or beer, and that spirits and liqueurs have long gone into creamy puddings such as trifle, syllabub and cranachan, and into fruit desserts. McNeill's Drambuie Cream, Drambuie trifle and Drambuie over strawberries follow that pattern exactly. The Companion's entry on honey also explains why heather honey is distinctive: it holds so much gum that it is almost a jelly and will not pour.

The name

shared The name is often said to come from the Gaelic an dram buidheach, "the drink that satisfies", but Gaelic scholars have suggested other interpretations, such as dram buidhe, "yellow drink". The exact origin is uncertain.

The Rusty Nail

established Drambuie is the key ingredient in the Rusty Nail, a cocktail of Drambuie and Scotch whisky, popular from the mid-twentieth century.

Advertising

established Foreman traces the brand's image through its advertising: Jacobite romance and the "Isle of Skye Liqueur" from 1909; a stylish art-deco series in the 1970s under the slogan "It Travels Well", when the whisky trade was struggling; and television only from 1990, with comic commercials featuring the actors Robert Hardy and Robert Powell.

• Drambuie contains whisky, honey, herbs and spices.
• The name was trademarked in 1893 by a Skye hotelier.
• The Bonnie Prince Charlie story has no contemporary evidence.
• The Rusty Nail mixes Drambuie with Scotch.
• William Grant & Sons bought Drambuie in 2014.
• In 1963 the company's chairman, Mrs Gina MacKinnon, was described as "guardian of its secret".
• McNeill's The Scots Kitchen includes a Drambuie Cream pudding supplied by the MacKinnons.
• Heather honey, a Drambuie ingredient, is so gummy that it is almost a jelly.
• Only twelve cases of Drambuie were sold in its first commercial year, 1909.
• Malcolm MacKinnon launched Drambuie in the year Lloyd George's budget sharply raised the duty on spirits.
• The Gaelic motto on the bottle means "Remember the gift of the Prince".

• Disputed: Bonnie Prince Charlie gave the recipe to Captain John MacKinnon in 1746. This is a family and brand tradition with no contemporary evidence. Even F. Marian McNeill, an enthusiastic recorder of Jacobite lore, does not repeat the story in The Scots Kitchen.
• Disputed: how the recipe passed from the MacKinnons to the Rosses. Carol Foreman and the brand's current history tell it differently, and none of the steps is documented outside the company's own story.
• Disputed: what "Drambuie" means. It is often said to be Gaelic an dram buidheach, "the drink that satisfies", but Gaelic scholars have suggested other readings, such as dram buidhe, "yellow drink". The origin is uncertain.
• Disputed: Drambuie was the first liqueur in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament. This is a company claim reported by Foreman.
• Disputed: when the Kirkliston plant opened. Foreman says work began in 1969, while Wikipedia dates the move to 1959.