I’m not going to get into the whiskey v. whisky thing again, I think I already stepped deeply enough into that one.
But when thinking of cold weather booze I have to mention this beloved brown liquor. When it comes to whiskey, it’s all good - Irish, Scotch or Bourbon.
Each one has it’s own tradition and the difference in flavors is remarkable, as much among the three distinct styles as among the various distilleries that make them.
I like to keep it simple with whisky. I typically drink it over ice but when I’ve just had enough with the cold, I just add water at about 50/50 proportions. Simple, tasty and warming.
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Do you know who Ernest Shackleton was? After Columbus, he might be the most famous explorer who didn’t find what he was looking for.
In 1909 he and his team attempted to go to the South Pole. When supplies ran out they had to turn back before making it.
Now we know that they left a few things down there as well, specifically, two cases of whisky. The “Rare Old” brand was made by McKinlay and Co. McKinlay, now owned by Whyte & Mackay, doesn’t make Rare Old anymore but these two cases have survived, frozen in the ice in Antarctica.
Whyte & Mackay has asked a team to go down and recover the lost whisky. It was first discovered in 2006 but was too embedded in the ice to be taken. Now it is hoped that it can be retrieved with special drills.
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For most Scotch lovers the art of the thing is what’s inside the bottle. Since Scotch is on the pricier end of the booze spectrum I haven’t had the chance to taste a lot of really fine bottles. But the few that I have tried left indelible sense memories that are as strong as the first Monet original that I saw or my first experience hearing Mozart from a live orchestra.
But here’s a bottle with as much art on the outsidel as on the inside. It’s a limited edition Macallan 21 with an eagle etched in the glass of the bottle. With only 21 of these issued it truly is a limited edition.
The etchings are done by hand; hands belonging to the artists at Inner Light Crystal Studios.
With only 21 of these bottles they’re not cheap - $2,500 – but a bottle would be quite a “get” for the Scotch collector who thinks he has everything.
To learn more about or to buy a bottle check out For Scotch Lovers.
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I recently found myself in a conversation with William C. Meyers, Scotch Enthusiast. (That’s what the card he handed me said.) And enthusiastic about scotch he is. As we chatted he mentioned with some amusement that he’d been looking for rare bottles on Ebay and he came across one unopened bottle of scotch that was declared to be 32 years old. But, he told me, the label clearly said that it was 12 years old so he emailed the seller for clarification. The bottle was bought 20 years ago so 12+20=32 reasoned the seller.
Scotch and other spirits don’t age in the bottle like wine or good beer. When a bottle of whisky declared that it is 9, 12, 20 or whatever number of years old that means that the liquor sat in the barrel that long.
There’s not a lot in whisky when you come right down to it. In fact there’s little more than water and alcohol. One of the primary contributors of the characteristics of whisky that lovers and enthusiasts cherish such as color, aroma, character and flavor is the barrel and it happens during this aging process.
Generally speaking the longer the whisky sits in the barrel the more it will pick up from the barrel and the more it will mellow in flavor and character. But once it is removed from the barrel and bottled this process stops. So, even though the bottle in question was well over thirty years old, the whisky was still only twelve years old.
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The Whisky Magazine has named their winners for the 2008 World’s Best Whisky awards. For the first time the single malt award didn’t go to a Scottish distiller. The winner this is the twenty year old Yoichi from Japan. Yeah, Japan.
So, what does this world’s best booze taste like? Here are some of the judges’ tasting notes.
Dense Dr Pepper or Vimto with an aroma that explodes with water.
Medium amber hue with a bold nose of sherry tobacco and old leather. Very interesting, complex and bold flavour profile hazelnuts, orange peel, a hint of the sea, some smokiness, leather and dark cigar tobacco.
and my favorite
Sweetness coats the mouth, liquid dessert, makes me want to eat cookies.
But single malt isn’t the only category. Here are some of the other winners:
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Got a spare $30K lying around? You might want to head to Christie’s in New York this weekend for some pretty interesting old and rare bottles of booze are going on the block.
Among the amazing array of ancient alcohol are madeira from the 1700 and 1800s, 132 year old cognac, and the highlight of the event, a 1926 bottle of single malt which is expected to go for as much as $30,000.* In all there are over 1000 such lots at this particular auction.
I’m always amazed at things like this. Obviously the buyers are interested in more than whatever it is these bottles contain. If the stuff is really worth thousands or even tens of thousands why is it still around? Let’s assume that you could afford such a thing; upon obtaining it wouldn’t your first impulse be to see what a $5000 bottle of booze tastes like? I know it would be for me. So why haven’t one of the owners of these bottles through the years tasted it? I know the answer: They’re collectors.
Brewers, distillers and vintners do what they do so people will drink and enjoy what they make. If they wanted to produce museum pieces they would have spent their youth studying painting or sculpting. Instead they learned about the best soil for growing grapes, which trees produce the best wood for aging whiskey or where to find the best water for brewing. They make a consumable product and I’ve never met one of these men or women whose greatest joy wasn’t to see others enjoying it.
This isn’t to say that I don’t have a few bottles of this and that stashed away waiting for a special occasion. But when that occasion arrives I won’t hesitate to open them. This stuff is just water, fruit and grain. Enjoy it don’t collect it!
*That Scotch wound up selling for $54,000 - BE 12/10/07
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Drinkslover’s comment left on a previous “What’s In a Name” entry led to an email exchange wherein I was told that “Over on this side of the pond, only Scotch is called whisky. US, Canadian and Irish are all strictly referred to as whiskey here, and anyone doing otherwise in a blog or any drinks literature would be shot down.”
Feeling more than a little threatened I thought that I’d better look into this a little closer.
First I took a closer look at the ATF guidelines which I used as my basis for making the distinction for names of US distilled alcohol. The word used there is whisky. In fact it is used 183 times in Part 5 of the Code of Federal Regulations – Labeling and Advertising of Distilled Spirits. But even the author of this riveting document became confused over these two words and used whiskey once.
Complicating the matter, the section of Part 5 that addresses Irish whiskey uses the word whisky. Obviously, the ATF has no respect for the tradition that has long recognized whisky and whiskey as Scottish and Irish respectively thus removing them as a relevant source for this discussion.
But where to turn? The Scottish maintain that the distinction is clear. What they make is whisky. What everyone else makes is whiskey. I suppose the argument eventually goes back to the unanswerable question: Who made it first? Which ever group that was should be able to call the stuff whatever they want.
That’s all interesting but it doesn’t get us any closer to answering the question – what the hell do we call it if it’s brewed in the US?
Even the distillers themselves can’t seem to agree on this although there does seem to be a clear favorite:
Maker’s Mark –> whisky
Knob Creek –> whiskey
Four Roses –> whiskey
Early Times –> whisky
Jack Daniels –> whiskey
Woodford Reserve –> whiskey
My completely unscientific survey finds that the majority of US distillers respect Scotland’s claim to whisky. And I will do so as well.
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Whisky distiller, Ardbeg, on the Isle of Islay in Scotland has released a bottle of Scotch that is the biggest in the world. At 4.5 liters, that’s over a gallon US.
But don’t go thinking that this is the whisky equivalent of jug wine. This is 10 year old single malt and goes for £350 per bottle.
It’s called Ardbeg Mór. In Gaelic Mór means big which is not only a reference to the size of the bottle but to the big whisky itself. Besides big flavor, the Scotch weighs in at 57.3% ABV. It’s just big all around.
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This is the first in what will be an occasional series of posts that will explore the often confusing words that booze makers use on their labels. If you’ve ever stood in front of the Italian wine section at your liquor store and tried to make sense of those labels then you know what I mean. I’ll get to those Italian labels one day but for now, let’s explore one of the more fundamental labeling distinctions: whisky vs. whiskey.
The two words share the same etymology, coming down to us from the Gaelic uisgebeatha which means water of life. How true! But despite sharing the same history, the words do have specific and separate meanings.
Whisky mainly refers to Scotch whisky. It must be barrel aged for a minimum of 3 years in Scotland though most are aged for many times longer than that. Scotch whisky was traditionally made of alcohol distilled twice from a 100% barley mash though other grains are now allowed. 100% barley can still be had and is labeled malt whisky. When other grains, usually wheat, are used it is called grain whisky. When a whisky is produced entirely at one distillery is is called single malt. Blended malt whiskies are produced when Scotch from different distilleries are combined.
Whiskey is traditionally the domain of Ireland. Irish whiskey differs from Scotch whisky in a few of significant ways. First, Irish whiskey is also made from barley but not all of it is malted. Second, Irish whiskey is distilled three times. Third, during the kilning process the grains are not peat dried as they are in Scotch whisky production. These techniques make Irish whiskey much softer and rounder in flavor than Scotch with none of the smokey notes that are beloved of Scotch whisky drinkers.
When Scottish and Irish distillers moved to America they were faced with a much different environment in which to produce their water of life. Different available grains and a different social and legal climate resulted in a varied group of whiskies. I’ll explore these unique and relatively new whiskeys in the next installment of What’s In a Name.
But what are US produced distilled spirits that fit this category called? Whiskey seems to be most popular in casual usage but whisky is almost universally used ATF publications on the subject and, according to my causal survey of bottles at the liqour store, the prefered version for labelling. So, either word seems to work but if you want to put a fine point on it, whisky is probably the best bet.
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