without whiskey all would be darkness and chaos

^If this were my wife, I would wonder - is this a reflection of her love of whiskey (she really only likes a little Tito's white Russians now and again), or a subtle hint that I am "driving her to drink"?
T

 

You've introduced her to the finer things in life! Well done.
T

 

Lucky lady!

T

 

This is an old thread, but still on the first page so.. just wondering, what is the difference between whiskey and scotch?

 

Old? ☹️
Scotch is a type of whiskey.
Whiskey is a type of distilled spirit. Wiki says it comes from grain...T

 

Ireland used to be the center of whiskey production. Until the late 19th century, they and everyone else spelled whisky without the 'e'. Irish whiskey was considered to be better than the Scottish variety. Even into the 20th century, the difference in spelling wasn't uniform, except that the Scottish pretty much always spelled theirs as whisky, which is pronounced a little differently than if the 'e' was included. Whisky is a modernization of the Gaelic 'uisga', 'uisge beatha', and 'usquebaugh'; all loosely meaning 'the water of life'. The Irish word for whisk(e)y is similar, but ends with an 'see' sound ('uisce') instead of the Gaelic 'ga' sound. That may informally be why the words work respectively for the two parties.

The Irish eventually standardized on using whiskey for their spirits, as do the Americans. The reason for the difference in the early 20th century was because Scotch whisky was considered inferior, and the Irish wanted to make sure you knew to buy their stuff. The Japanese, Canadians and Indians all spell it as the Scottish do (Japan learned the craft from the Scottish, same for India). There is no "law" for its spelling, although you can't produce "scotch" unless it is aged for at least 3 years in Scotland, and have no added coloring. Everything else is whisk(e)y, even if the liquid is produced in Scotland, but aged elsewhere.

 

My wife has become an authoritative source on Scotch over the years from buying bottles for me for Xmas and birthdays. She's to the point where we're looking to travel to Scotland for the Feis Ile on Islay, and then travel through the country visiting distilleries. There are a couple organizations that do training for professionals, and she wants to sign up to learn more.

This year, she found a bottle of Laphroaig 18 that was sitting in the spirits safe of a local shop, almost a unicorn purchase since it is out of stock worldwide. She also bought a bottle of Michel Couvreur's French Whisky (he imported Scottish spirits, sourced Port casks directly, and then aged it in Burgundy). It can't be called "Scotch" since it was aged in France, but is supposed to be really good. She also gave me several other bottles of great Scotch whisky, as well as bottles of Basil Hayden's Dark Rye and an Old Forester Statesman.

BTW, the French drink more Scotch per capita than people in any other country in the world. Considering they also lead the world in wine drinking, the Irish are going to have to step up their game & drink more Guinness to stay even...