Whiskey & Whisky (pronounced hwis-kee or wis-kee)
(1) An
alcoholic liquor distilled from a fermented mash of cereals (the grains usually barley,
rye, or corn) and typically containing 43-50% alcohol; the end
product usually aged
in oak barrels and sometimes a blend from various mixes.
(2) A
drink of whiskey or whisky.
(3) Of,
relating to, or resembling whiskey or whisky.
(4) A
light gig or carriage (historical reference only).
(5) In international standards (as “w for whiskey”), the NATO, ICAO, ITU & IMO phonetic alphabet code for the letter “W” (familiar to many in the form WTF).
1715: A variant of usque,an abbreviation of usquebaugh, from the Irish uisce beatha (water of life) or the Scots Gaelic uisge-beatha (water of life), ultimately a translation of the Medieval Latin aqua vītae (water of life (originally an alchemical term for unrefined alcohol)). The form whiskybae has been obsolete since the mid eighteenth century. The Scots and Irish forms were from the Proto-Celtic udenskyos (water) + biwotos (life), from biwos(alive). The Old Irish uisce (water) was from the primitive Indo-European ud-skio-, a suffixed form of the root wed- (water; wet); bethu (life), from the primitive Indo-European gwi-wo-tut-, a suffixed form of gwi-wo-, from the root gwei- (to live). The noun plurals are whiskies & whiskeys. Although iskie bae had been known in the 1580s, it appears unrelated to usquebea (1706), the common form of which was uisge beatha which in 1715 became usquebaugh, then whiskeybaugh & whiskybae, the most familiar phonetic form of which evolved as “usky”, influencing the final spellings which remain whisky & whiskey. Wisely, the Russians avoided the linguistic treadmill, the unchanging vodka freely translated as “little water”.
The Medieval Latin aqua vītae (water of life) had great appeal to those Europeans making drinks (especially distilled spirits). In Sweden there was the cordial akvavit, the French called Brandy eau de vie and in Scotland and Ireland, the most popular liquor was called uisge beatha, all these forms meaning “water of life”. The Gaelic variety was with both alacrity and enthusiasm embraced by the English, one noted champion and consumer being Henry VIII (1491–1547; King of England 1509-1547) although given the fondness for strong drink long shown south of the border, it’s likely that even without the royal imprimatur, success would have anyway been assured and it was certainly guaranteed after 1541 when Henry dissolved the monasteries and with that one act, also the English monopoly on distilling enjoyed by the monks. The spellings whisky and whiskey are used world-wide to distinguish regional drinks (Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, bourbon whiskey etc) and the terms “Scotch” and “Bourbon” are common ellipticals for their types. The adoption of the spelling “whiskey” in the US during the nineteenth century was unusual in that the usual US practice was to simplify things by removing a letter or two but it was technically an adoption of an older form rather than an innovation.
Having a belt. Crooked Hillary Clinton enjoys a shot of Crown Royal Bourbon Whiskey, Bronko's restaurant, Crown Point, Indiana, Saturday 12 April, 2008.
Scotch, Bourbon and
Rye are all types of whiskey or whisky, both distilled liquors made from a
fermented mash of cereal grains and aged in containers, traditionally of oak. The most commonly used grains are corn, barley
malt, rye, and wheat but what makes each type different is not only the grain but
also the distilling process, the aging and critically, the water used. Despite the widespread perception that there’s
a clear rule about the application of “whisky” and “whiskey”, although there
are conventions, the distinctions are not always absolute and the only reliable
guide is what the maker chooses to print on the label. As a general principle, (1) the spelling
whiskey is common in the US & Ireland while whisky is used elsewhere and
(2) all labelled as scotch is whisky while other types tend to be whiskeys. However, in the US, the two spellings were
used interchangeably until the mid-nineteenth century when whiskey began to
predominate but it wasn’t until the widespread availability of style-guides in
the late 1940s that US use became consistent, writers using whiskey as the
accepted spelling for aged grain spirits made in the US and whisky for those
distilled overseas. Despite that, many American brands use whisky on their labels, and the Standards of
Identity for Distilled Spirits which sets out the legal regulations for spirits
sold in the US, also uses whisky. North
of the border, the Canadians prefer whisky.
Within Scotland, the whisky that is locally made is called simply whisky,
while everywhere else, (and in the UK regulations that govern its production),
it’s almost always called “Scotch whisky” or "Scotch". Anything made in Ireland is a whiskey whereas
what’s distilled in Japan, in the style of the Scottish product, is whisky.
Whiskey and whisky can be straight or blended, the
former not mixed with anything or only with other whiskey from the same
distiller and distillation period; the latter can include various combinations
of whiskey products from different distillers and different distillation
periods as well as other flavorings, such as fruit juice; blended whiskeys
generally have a lighter flavor than the straight. With Scotch whisky, the distinction is fourfold:
(1) Pure Malt which is a spirit made solely from barley malt. It’s an uncompromising taste, purer (and
usually much more expensive) and more intense in flavour, with what the aficionados
(who, like the “cork dorks” who “taste” wine have their own language of
criticism) tend to describe pure malts in terms of their “personalities”. Confusingly, a pure malt is not the same as a
single malt and for this reason pure malts also received the denomination “vatted”,
helping buyers to differentiate. (2) The
single malt differs from the pure in that the former has only the one malt, the
result of a single distillation whereas a pure malt has at least four. Single malts are almost always stronger but
not necessarily more expensive than pure malts.
For those searching for some scientific reason to justify their fondness
for single-malt whiskies, there is some research which suggests consumption may
lead to a reduction in internal cancers, apparently because single-malts are high
in ellagic acid, an antioxidant thought to absorb rogue cancer cells. Critics note a more effective might be to eat
more fruit, higher still in ellagic acid but, in typical academic fashion, all
agree “more research is required”. (3)
Grain Whisky is a simpler Scotch, produced using only the distillation of
grains such as rye, wheat or corn and can thus be produced much more
quickly. The grain whiskies are much cheaper
and the manufacturing process is commonly used throughout the world. (4) Blended Scotch is the most consumed. Produced using a combination of grains and
single malts, blends deliberately are mixed to be both affordable and
accessible, the taste perhaps less challenging than pure or single malt Scotch,
both of which have a minimum maturation time of 12-15 years while a blended
Scotch can be ready in eight. However,
at the upper end of the market, there are blends matured for 24 years.
Scotch is a whisky made from grain,
primarily barley which is malted and then heated over a peat fire. There is much UK legislation which governs the
definitions of various categories and marketing of Scotch whisky and it can’t
be so-named unless wholly produced and bottled in Scotland. Bourbon is a type of whiskey which was first produced
in Kentucky and regulations demand it must be based on a mix with at least 51%
mash from corn in its production. It uses
a sour mash process, so-called because the mash is fermented with yeast and
includes a portion from a mash that has already been fermented. For a whiskey to be called bourbon, it must be
made in the United States but it’s a myth it can come only from Kentucky
or Tennessee. Rye uses either a rye mash
or one with a mix of a rye and malt and while US regulations demand a minimum 51%
rye content, other jurisdictions, such as Canada, don’t set a lower limit. Bourbon is one of some twenty defined
categories of American whiskey and it’s thought the name is derived from Bourbon
Street in New Orleans, on the basis that the name was used first in 1854 while
the claim of a link to Bourbon County in Kentucky wasn’t asserted until twenty-odd
years later.
Whisky and whiskey, like rum, gin
and other spirits, have a history of involvement with fiscal systems. In eighteenth century Pennsylvania, whiskey
was both commodity and currency, used for cooking, medicine and drinking as
well as being a store of value and a means of exchange and there began the Whiskey
Rebellion (1791-1794), a violent protest against the first tax imposed on a
domestic product by the newly formed federal government. The new tax became law in 1791, levied to generate
revenue so the debt incurred during the War of Independence could be serviced
and to call it the “whiskey tax” was misleading because it applied to all distilled
spirits, but consumption of American whiskey had greatly increased while rum production
hadn’t recovered its pre-war levels so the name stuck.
Less violent was the Whisky War (also called the Liquor War), conducted (1984-2022) in gentlemanly fashion between Canada and Denmark, two of the world’s more civilized nations. The Whiskey War was “fought” over a border dispute concerning Hans Island, a previously obscure barren and uninhabited lump of rock (1.3 km2 (½ sq mi)) which sits in the Kennedy Channel between Greenland (a Danish territory) and Canada’s Ellesmere Island. The actual border had been left unresolved in 1973 when other matters in the region were resolved but in 1984, Canadian soldiers provoked a border incident by raising the national flag and leaving a bottle of Canadian Whiskey. In retaliation, the Danish Minister of Greenland Affairs visited the island, respectfully lowering and folding the Canadian flag, raising the Danish standard, taking the whiskey and leaving a bottle of Cognac. The flag ceremonies and exchanges of bottles of liquor went on until 2005 when both countries agreed on a process to settle the dispute. Remarkably, this took until 2022 when it was announced a border had been agreed, dividing the inhospitable place equally between the Canadian territory of Nunavut and the Danish constituent country of Greenland. As geographers and cartographers updated their records, they were pleased to note the historically unusual side-effect the transaction meant Canada and Denmark now shared a land border whereas before, each had a border only with one other country (respectively the US and Germany).
Lindsay Lohan advertising the (fictitious) Japanese chewing gum Number One Happy Whiskey Chew, filmed for the TV show Anger Management, March 2013. It was interesting to note that what was notionally a Japanese product was labelled "whiskey" rather than "whisky" which is the usual form in the Japanese domestic market. That may have been something dictated by the sitcom's plot.
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