HOW TO DRINK WHISKY

I like the little things, the way a glass feels in your hand, a good glass - thick, with a heavy base. I love the sound an ice cube makes when you drop it from just the right height. Too high, and it will chip when you drop it. Chip the ice and it will melt too fast in the scotch.

Quote from John Spencer’s character, Leo McGarry, in the TV series West Wing as part of a dialogue on alcoholism.  

This is one of my favorite homages to whisky but it also points out one of the most common miss conceptions that whisky is a hard core drink for hardcore drinkers and inseparably linked to inebriation.

I was having coffee with an Italian friend the other day and I asked him if he enjoyed whisky.  He told me he didn’t drink.  Being a southern Italian he most likely drinks wine and even grappa, a local distilled spirit, but he was quick to assure me he was not a heavy drinker and certainly not a scotch drinker.  This is not an uncommon reaction and with whiskys ranging between 40%abv and 70%abv for some cask strengths it would be disingenuous to imply that it is not a strong spirit.  However the jump from a strong spirit to alcoholism is one of the largest misconceptions surrounding our understanding of the drink.

One of the sites I use to order whisky from, posts at the bottom of each page a reminder “Drink Responsibly - Sip, don’t Gulp”.  I remember going to work one day around the Christmas period and hearing that a regular bar patron had won a nip of a 45 year old Bowmore in the holiday raffle.  The way the story was told, the man clenched his teeth and threw it back like a shot. The person telling the story laughed, ‘I thought the gaffer was going to cry’.

Undoubtedly there is a technique to drinking and tasting whisky.  I’m not sure if I would go so far as to say that there was an etiquette to it.  I find that some ‘connoisseurs’ can be a bit pedantic.  Jim Murray, the author of the ‘Whisky Bible’, whom I deeply respect,  has a list of nine guidelines to tastings including no perfumes, only glass, no food and spittoons. Someone once told me ‘you can tell you’re a whisky snob if you object to the way another man takes his drink’.  I would personally add anyone who mentions spelling or chill filtering to the list but thoughts are just my pet peeves.

Here are a few things to keep in mind to make your whisky experience a bit less of a step toward inebriation and more of an indulgence of flavor.

First point: On the Rocks

Firstly, no one I met in Scotland ever asked for whisky ‘on the rocks’.  Using the phrase is equivalent to pinning a sign to your forehead saying you are American.  Second, cold temperatures do shut down taste.  However, water opens up the flavor and releases more aromas changing the character of the whisky.  When tasting whisky it is good practice to taste the whisky before and after adding water.  Many people find they enjoy a whisky more with water than with out.  Adding room temperature water is a technic used by whisky professionals and master blenders and should not be construed as watering the drink down or dulling the flavor.

‘Even if you don’t take your whisky with water usually, it is essential for purposes of whisky appreciation and analysis’

SMWS Handbook

If you are in a warm climate feel free to add ice for your enjoyment.  If not try it at room temp with water. 

Second: A Wee Large

A nip of whisky is 25ml. A wee large used to be 35ml.  A wee large is something I heard about from the older generation of whisky drinkers. As I understand it the larger measure used to be the common unit in the north of Scotland and in working class areas of Glasgow, Inverness and Aberdeen.  As a result of modern licensing laws it is now illegal but still rumored to be served at some bars and pubs.

Like the ‘dram’, the wee large is a measure of weight and value, now fading into antiquity, that reminds us that quantity can effect value.  Make sure you are enjoying the quality of the drinking experience.  

Because whisky is so strong make sure to take your time and drink the right amount.

Third: a Good Glass   

There is undoubtedly something satisfying about a heavy based whisky tumbler like the one described above; a sturdy piece to accompany a no nonsense activity.  But the real thing you are looking for in a good tasting glass is a rounded bowl and narrow neck, a glass you can get your nose into.   At the Grill we used Glencairn glasses. These glasses are shaped a bit like a tulip with a soft angled short base.  The spherical bowl and weighted stand means that I have many memories of chasing after them either as they rolled around on their side or righted themselves after a miss-judged placement on my part.    

FLAVOR

Have you ever noticed that certain foods or wafts of smell can take you back to childhood moments, remind you of people or places? Things like the smell of pipe tobacco.  My grandfather used to smoke a pipe and when he would come to visit he would take us down to a little store on the Seattle docks with a wooden statue of an indian outside the door.  To this day the smell of that tobacco reminds me of that little shop with its glass counters and wooden bins and the painted indian.   

I read an article in an airport about a year ago entitled ‘the art of forgetting’.  The article was about how we as humans store experiences as memories, that what is remembered are sensations or events that have some emotional significance and that because of our limited ability to store these experiences we have to forget.  In the process of forgetting, only the strongest emotional markers are retained.

The wonderful thing about smell is that it can be one of the strongest triggers for long-term memories.  When you smell or taste something, what you will remember of the sensation will be much more than the sum of your senses.  It’s worth noting that taste refers to five sensitivities; sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami (savory, the flavor of red meat or tomato).  When talking about taste ‘aroma’ is key.  Your nose is a far more sensitive organ than your palate.  Neuroscientists refer to it as an ‘olfactory’ sense.

While you may be able to detect more complex aspects of flavor through smell the multiplicity means that we need a far more complex frame of reference and for that the brain uses comparative memory.  You associate smells with objects, you smell vanilla or cherry, pencil shavings, or wet leaves.  This is one of the reasons whisky notes often employ metaphors in describing taste.

The sensation of flavor includes smell, temperature, expected texture and length.  It is what is called a ‘hedonic’ sense meaning that it is a culmination of molecular stimuli which form a sensation that is quite literally greater than the sum of it’s parts. 

‘Consult the Oxford English Dictionary and it will define aroma as a pleasant and distinctive smell. Ask almost any Society member, and they will tell you it is one of hundreds of potential memory triggers, conversation starters and sensory delights that leap out of a whisky glass at any one time.’

- The Scotch Malt Whisky Society Handbook

Talking about flavor and aroma instead of taste and smell are a semantic nod to the complexity, emotion and individuality that we appreciate and which colors each person’s enjoyment of whisky.  The memories will be personal, the smells will be associations and the taste will ground the experience together creating the personality of the spirit.

A SCOTTISH BROGUE

A quick look at the regions and flavors of Scotland.  

What and who are the Scots? The story of whisky is invariably a story of identity weather it be Scotish, Irish or American. Each whisky has a bit of an accent. Some have a hard peaty Gaelic accent from the west cost of Scotland, the Islands and Ireland.  Others hit a milder lowland note with more delicate refined flavors. The Highlands, true to Walter Scot’s vision, are a mixed bunch of full-bodied malts some salty, some sweet but never lacking in character.  But it is up north that one of the most recognized Scottish tastes is found, it is from the distilleries along the river Spey and known as Speyside. These malts are classically matured in ex-sherry casks and are the sweetest in Scotland.

To be considered Scottish malt whiskey, or as is sometimes called, scotch, the whisky must be distilled, matured and bottled in Scotland for at least three years and one day. Single malts must be made solely of three ingredients; barley, Scottish water and yeast.

How a whisky cask matures is one of the most fascinating parts of learning about whisky.  It is the crafted variability of whisky that appeals to a romantic image of the spirit.  The personality of a whisky is formed in the cask. Each cask acts as a lung breathing out alcohol and breathing in the flavors of the wood and the surrounding area. Most distilleries are in agricultural or wooded areas with the obvious exception being the costal distilleries that pride themselves on the sea spray flavor of their malts.  Each cask is individual. Scotch whisky is matured in ex-sherry or bourbon casks.  While the whisky is breathing some small amount of the spirit disappears, evaporates in to the air and is lost. This is called the ‘Angle’s Share’ and is a testament to the mystery of whisky and the dedication of the people who make it. 

I started my scotch education in Aberdeen purely by accident. When I started at The Grill I didn’t know whether Macallen was a bottle or something off the tap.  I am sure the regulars regarded me as something of a nuisance, always asking where things where, mixing up orders on top of not understand a word any one said. I remember the first time I had to serve a ‘half and half’ and poured the nip right in to the half pint, the shock and horror where instantaneous. For all my blunders those guys had all the patience in the world. Don’t get me wrong they still took the piss out of me for it but it is thanks to the regulars at The Grill I’m writing about whisky today. Because what they taught me is that more than the drink itself it is the stories of whisky that make it interesting.