Having labored within the drinks biz for extra years than I care to recollect, I’d prefer to suppose I’m fairly clued up with regards to whisky. Right here at Nice Drams nevertheless, we’re consistently studying because the extra we find out about whisky, the simpler it turns into to offer award-winning drams for our superb clients.
Regardless of realizing an important deal about whisky, I’m under no circumstances a bona fide professional. I’m at all times studying new enjoyable info about this superb spirit. Issues like the way it’s made, the way it’s saved, how different cultures produce it, and its historical past. This doesn’t solely make it simpler to provide distinctive whisky (like our Nice Drams Campbeltown, which was lately named the World’s Finest Blended Malt, selecting up Gold on the 2025 World Whiskies Awards), it additionally permits us to higher perceive whisky and its heritage.
For at the moment’s weblog, I assumed I’d discuss to you concerning the lesser-known facet of whisky. With that mentioned, right here’s a have a look at 5 stunning info you didn’t find out about whisky.
40 is the Magic Quantity
Okay, seasoned whisky lovers on the market will most likely already know this, however for everyone else, I’m together with this reality in any case.
To ensure that a whisky to be legally classed and offered as whisky, it have to be bottled at a particular ABV (Alcohol by Quantity) share. Right here within the UK, that quantity is 40% ABV.
By legislation, Scotch have to be bottled at a minimal of 40% ABV. Something much less, and it can’t be marketed and marketed as a whisky. As an alternative, it have to be labelled as one thing completely different. Often a ‘whisky liqueur’ or a ‘spirit drink’.
Whereas 40% ABV is the minimal a good few Scotch whiskies on the market are a lot stronger. Then in fact, you’ve obtained cask power, which may be as excessive as 60% ABV! Yikes.
No one is Certain Who First Invented Whisky
Whereas the historical past and origins of some drinks and innovations on the market are properly documented, others are shrouded in thriller. Our beloved Scotch whisky is unquestionably the latter, and I fairly like that about it.
No one is kind of sure who first invented whisky, or certainly, when it was first found. Among the earliest written proof of Scotch whisky’s origins may be traced again to the early 13th century. It was probably first produced on monasteries by monks. That can all have modified when King Henry VIII dissolved the entire monasteries.
If we have a look at Irish whiskey nevertheless, there may be proof which means that St Patrick himself might have taught the Irish the best way to produce whiskey greater than 1,500 years earlier.
What is probably going nevertheless, is that each the Irish and the Scots have helped to form whisky/whiskey into what we all know and love at the moment.
Whisky Doesn’t Age like Wine Does
With regards to a high quality whisky, usually a well-aged whisky goes to be a effective whisky. That’s the reason among the world’s costliest whiskies have been aged for many years.
Earlier than you begin getting enthusiastic about that previous dusty bottle of Scotch that has been within the storage, lined in cobwebs because you have been a toddler, simply keep in mind that whisky doesn’t age like that. Whereas wine tends to enhance as soon as bottled, for whisky, the principle adjustments happen throughout cask maturation.
A whisky matured for 10 years, earlier than being bottled will at all times be classed as a 10-year-old whisky. Leaving it within the bottle and consuming it 5 years later received’t out of the blue change it right into a 15-year-old whisky. If sealed and saved accurately, the style received’t change, however it actually received’t enhance.
Our recommendation? Good whisky is for consuming, so crack a bottle, pour your self a dram, and revel in it.
Whisky Was Smuggled Residence Utilizing an Ingenious Machine
Whereas whisky’s turbulent smuggling previous is well-documented, it’s possible you’ll not have heard of the infamous ‘Copper Canine’ smuggling system.
Again within the day, after the foundations, regs, and taxes on whisky manufacturing have been relaxed, increasingly more official Scotch whisky distilleries started popping up throughout Scotland. Whereas the distillery staff have been legitimately employed and earned a good crust, a few of them took liberties.
After growing a style for whisky, to not point out discovering that locals can be prepared to purchase whisky in bulk for a reduction, distillery staff would steal and smuggle the very whisky they have been paid to provide.
Whereas a few of them would merely fill empty bottles, and even attempt to get away with complete casks, the homeowners rapidly caught on. This meant that the shady distillery staff needed to discover more and more ingenious methods of stealing the whisky. Maybe essentially the most ingenious with the ‘Copper Canine’.
This was mainly a copper pipe, sealed on one finish with a copper penny soldered in place, and a cork on the opposite. Once they would get likelihood, these shady people would take away the cork, dunk the Copper Canine into the barrel they have been engaged on, seal it shut, after which strap it to their leg and stroll house with their stolen whisky on the finish of a shift.
Humphrey Bogart’s Important Remorse
Even should you’re not a fan of traditional movie, chances are high you should have heard of the enduring Hollywood actor Humphrey Bogart.
Bogart, who starred in such classics as 1951’s The African Queen, 1941’s The Maltese Falcon, and 1942’s Casablanca, is taken into account by many to be one of many best actors to ever reside. He was additionally an enormous fan of Scotch.
For a few years he would bask in Scotch. In actual fact, on the finish of a day on set, he would have a bottle dropped at him as soon as he had completed filming. He didn’t have a most popular model, although Scotch and Soda was his drink of selection. Later in life nevertheless, he started favouring Martinis as a substitute. The audacity!
On his deathbed, he’s reported to have mentioned he had one remorse in life, which was that he ‘ought to by no means have switched from Scotch to Martinis’. Personally? I can positively see that.
In case you’d prefer to study extra about your favorite whiskies, or just deal with your self to a dram or two within the course of, head on over to GreatDrams.com and try the various number of distinctive whiskies we at present have in inventory.
With a formidable number of limited-edition, uncommon, and award-winning whisky, in addition to heaps of whisky information on our weblog, it’s the proper spot for any whisky lovers on the market.
