A certified wine sommelier, columnist and Lucaris brand influencer, Magandeep Singh found his calling in wines while working in France. In India, he spends his time as a consultant with hotels and restaurants, conducts wine appreciation .
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“If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street. If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.”
The Beatles might have opted not to include a line or two about distillation in the 1966 tongue-in-cheek classic “Taxman,” but make no mistake about it: For about as long as industrial distillers have produced whiskey, governments have had a hand in their pockets.
We need only look back to 18th-century Ireland as a fine example. Booze was big business, then as now. The British government ruling Ireland at the time was strapped for cash thanks to the many wars it was engaged in. (No fewer than nine throughout the 1700s, in countries including Spain, France, Austria, and America.) Taxing alcohol had the dual intentions of raising money (successful) and curbing rampant overindulgence (not so much); by the latter half of the century, Irish distillers found themselves paying duty on everything from the amount of spirit they produced to the internal capacity of their