Try a bottle of Aberfeldy Scotch here: bit.ly/drinkinghistorybottles Also, I recorded this only days before Queen Elizabeth II passed and have left my mention of her in as a future reminder to myself of where I was at the time.
It's surely a trip of the ages for you. It would be appropriate for you to have a gin and tonic to toast The Queen. She did have one or two on occasion.
Hey Max, you should do a vid on bourbon sometime. Interesting history behind America's spirit, anything from charred fish barrels to the conflicts between the different distilleries in Kentucky
I would be very interested in your opinion of Ardmore whisky: it went from a purely blending whisky to a full blown single malt in the space of about 20 years and my _god_ it's peated out of it's mind!
@@TastingHistory The Queen had been summering in Balmoral for 95 years. Glad you got to visit while she was still in residence, even if it was only for a few days. Literally the experience of a lifetime.
Interesting factoid: I'm in Missouri and we actually do a lot of trade with Scotland. Making oak barrels for Scottish distilleries is actually a large business in the Ozarks. The Scots depleted their oak forests centuries ago and now must import their barrels in from North America. The oak barrels from Missouri also end up in the bourbon distilleries in Kentucky and Tennessee. 😀
Not just the fact that we depleted our oak forests, but a lot of the barrels you guys make go through the bourbon industry first. Therefore, Scotch whisky gets some of that lovely bourbon flavour from the barrel. So, on behalf of a lover of bourbon cask whisky, I thank your state for its service!
Yeah, bourbon legally requires fresh barrels every time, but after that there is still lots of life to get out of them, so they will get sent around, lots to Ireland and Scotland, to be used there, because Irish and Scotch whisky don't have that barrel requirement. Sherry barrels are another common thing for this.
@@DrBrangar yeah a lot distilleries in Scotland "loan out" barrels to Bourbon distillers and Sherry to "break them in" before being brought to Scotland for scotch
@@DrBrangar There are even more, I bought some nice Port barrel aged Glenmorangie last time I was in Scotland and Madeira barrels are used as well. Bourbon barrels are probably most common though followed by new barrels, they add a little extra flavor and are cheap to buy so win-win. Oaks are not that common anymore in Great Britain, the Royal Navy spent a few hundred years cutting them down and instead of replanting them everywhere, a lot were instead cleared for farming after the large oaks were cut down. Particularly Scotland have very few trees today even though there is a replanting program in some parts of the country. Early bronze age Scotland was a very different looking place.
Should have gone the other way. Like catching your kid smoking and forcing them to smoke the rest of the pack one after another in a way to make them sick and never smoke again....
@@rw-xf4cb That backfired with a few of my friends. Even the one whose father bought a carton of cigarettes and made her smoke them all. One was even forced to eat a pack of cigarettes. It's been 30 years and they all still smoke.
Here in Scandinavia, aqua vite (akvavit) is a predominately dill-flavoured herb-infused vodka at 30-35%! It's also got a centuries long history, dating back to a Danish noble sending a letter and a bottle to a Norwegian bishop, urging him to try this "life water" to alleviate him from his illnesses!
@@cvdirecto5008 the more the merrier, maybe if we get enough people onboard we'll eventually pick up someone that can actually speak the native languages
My favourite part of this video was the "medicinal" section. When we were little and came down with colds, Grandma would run to pour us kids a capful of Whisky. She swore it would kill the sickness!
I used to get hot black tea with honey and whisky when I was down with a bad cold as a child. Only before bed, with vicks vaporub, and it sure had us kids sleeping soundly, and generally waking up not too sick any more. A little sniffly, but not as bad and coughy as the night before.
There really is something about getting a good night of sleep for healing. I'm not suggesting you give a hot toddy to your kids when they're sick, but not everything older generations did was not helpful. I don't give my kids whiskey cough syrup, but I do for myself.
I remember getting a cold at my grandparents’ house & my grandpa giving me a shot of whisky & honey, I was absolutely terrified I was going to get in trouble for it 😂
You have to make a drinking history about the Port wine... :D there's so much to explore there. If you ever visit Portugal, there are 2 museums dedicated to Port wine - one dedicated to the storage and sale of the fortified wine in Vila Nova de Gaia (just across the river from Porto), and another dedicated to the production of the wine itself, from the agricultural process to the production of the wine itself, and the process of shipping it downriver to Vila Nova de Gaia - this museum is called the Douro Museum and it's located in Peso da Régua, inland from Porto.
@@TastingHistory As a Portuguese (and Porto city) native, I'll be glad to show you around. Please let me know if you ever visit Porto. Is there any way I can contact you via private message or mail? So that I can share my contact information?
@@TastingHistory And while you are there, how about a lil' episode about Bacalhau à Brás, to go with your wine? And if you ever go south, try the Licor de Medronho e Mel from Algarve. Pretty tasty dessert drink, imho.
True story: my wife and I decided to enjoy a dram while watching your video, so I poured us a couple glasses and pressed play. By pure coincidence, the whisky we were drinking was . . . Aberlour! So, sláinte, sir! You gave us a delightful flashback to our own jaunt along the Whisky Trail back in 2008. An aside, but please tell me you've learned about the drunk Highland cows! As my great-aunt from Aberdeenshire told us, "People say the Scots are frugal, but I think we're just canny." Canny, indeed!
I live in Moray, which has the highest concentration of distilleries in Scotland, and my husband works in one, and yes we do get an allowance of free whisky! so I really enjoyed this episode.
I noticed you commented on the phylloxera epidemic of the 1800s. It might be interesting for you to do an episode on how Missouri vineyards saved France from the phylloxera epidemic because Missouri wines were resistant to the plague. It’s a very interesting story that involves Thomas Jefferson France and history. Love your channel
Ian Tamblyn has a nice song called "The Angel's Share" which is what people call the part of the whiskey that evaporates through the cask before bottling. Some small percentage every year. I remember hearing him sing it on a ship in the Hebrides many years ago now. Its why it gets mellower with aging in the cask up to a point...
@@TastingHistory, good and inspiring teachers are simply that, no matter what they are teaching; Bruce came into this with a background of both teaching high school physics and doing stand-up! I have been following his channel as long as I’ve been following yours.
Wow! If you dig deeper you'll find that my state (Missouri) has played a huge role in the Scottish whisky industry and the French wine industry. Besides Missouri supply Scottish distilleries with oak barrels today, Missouri also rescued the French wine industry from phyllozera. In the late 1800s a region of Missouri about 100 miles southwest of St Louis was known as the "Little Rhine" where German immigrants had planted vineyards. It was the Napa Valley of the 1800s. Long story short: Grape vine cuttings from Missouri were sent to France to help reestablish the vineyards that were diseased. Those vines are still producing French wine today.
@@jjudy5869 That could be a whole episode of Tasting History. Up until Prohibition the region around Hermann, Missouri, was the wine capital of the US. Prohibition killed it. But after Prohibition was lifted many of the winemakers from Missouri moved to California and started Napa Valley. They brought the knowledge of winemaking and the grapevine clippings to California and made it what it is today. Forgotten history: The ties between Missouri and California in the US wine industry.
So what you’re saying is that when my grandpa made bathtub gin during prohibition, he was simply following in the cultural footsteps of his ancestors in the Highlands.
Max, you're one of the few Americans who actually pronounces a lot of Scottish words. As soon as I head you say 'Dram' I knew you did your homework, didn't call Edinburgh EDINBRUG so 'max' respect.
Yeah, Whisky in Gaelic, Usige-Beagh literally translates into water of life. I'm sure we'd debate over Irn-Bru, Buckfast or Whisky having that name but its a pretty interesting name
"eau de vie" in France, though this describes rustic distilled liquor in general rather than any specific spirit and as far as I've seen is always colorless. It's often added in small amounts to Ratafia to compensate for the shorter fermentation period of grapes for it...
@@pedroarjona6996 almost the same for Portuguese, Aguardente. Literal juxtaposition of "burning water" First began it's appreciation as the thing being added to Porto and Madeira wine to make them stronger, and stop their fermentations
I really wouldn't mind if you made more of this kind of history only content on cooking. The depth of research and you delivery of it is extremely entertaining.
The modern Irish for whiskey is “uisce beatha” (ishka bah-ha) which means holy water I would love a follow up video on Irish whiskey and how it compares to scotch - especially because of how it’s making a massive comeback, there was a very long period where Middleton had one of Ireland’s only 3 distilleries and now Irish whiskey is seriously challenging scotch because of its smoother taste, the importance of the US and UK market in all this cannot be understated EDIT: There were 3 distilleries instead of 1 - I got my facts wrong so I've edited what I said
@@ragnkja considering that Celtic and Italic languages are closer related on the Indo-European language family tree, you can very well see the cognates if you squint a bit.
First, RIP HRM Queen Elizabeth II - even as an American, her passing is so sad. Second, love how a pokemon still made it into an episode being filmed in a busy restaurant
If you ever come to Philadelphia to explore cheesesteaks or scrapple or even shoo-fly pie, come to New Hope! We're where Washington crossed the Delaware. (Coryell's Ferry was the original name.) I'll make sure to show you around!
This was awesome. And believe me, the public wants more. Come back to europe when you can, though I believe a Mexican history on tortillas and tequila and mezcal come first
1. Thanks for introducing us to Bruce, at Scottish History Tours. I'm descended of Clan Donald and am having a blast learning about my distant ancestors. 2. In college, 30 years ago, an English Lit teacher told us that mid-twentieth century popular fiction in the US used Scotch as a "woman's drink" to either indicate a provocative female character or to indicate a "less than masculine" man. I would expect Scots to scoff at the notion, and this old queen prefers Bourbon anyway, but I wondered if that might be a subject to explore sometime, here. Thanks for keeping us engaged and learning!
It's funny, when I bartended at a dive, Scotch was the preferred drink of old ladies. I don't get it. Whiskey always seemed to be considered the "manly man" drink, and Scotch, especially a super peaty one, seemed like a very refined taste, but...eh, no accounting for dumbass stereotypes. I love a good peaty Scotch, a smooth Irish whisky, and I *love* a good Pennsylvania Rye...but I can't stand bourbon, or any sour mash, really. Just tastes sweet and rotten. You'd think that would be a woman's drink.
@@clobberelladoesntreadcomme9920 It was only older ladies, ones who tended to be overdressed for the joint. Younger women, by and large, preferred the sweet mixed drinks.
Whisky in Ireland has an e in it in order to note it apart from scotland because in scotland they can use a continuous still for the base alcohol where in ireland it has to be from pot stills, if you can get a bottle of yellow spot from ireland, or poteen if you can.
There's a anime called "Bartender" that has a great episode on Scotch Whisky - they go into how important blends were for Scottish businesses, since the English forced a tax on single malts - it's why Ballantine's is so highly valued, since it has a long history and the blending process was refined to be just as complex as the distillations themselves.
Great episode. Fun fact: The term "sheepdip" in modern parlance, refers to when the military or intelligence agencies pretend to discharge a soldier from the special forces, but actually have them go deep undercover in some capacity as a citizen, without actually being out of the branch/agency of origin. This is where a lot of the infiltrators of militia groups come from in America.
And infiltrators are where most of the militia groups come from,one three-letter agency does enough entrapment to make a bust then it turns out all the members are other government agents,or they convince some previously harmless person to commit a terrorist attack to justify their agency's overreaching existence.
Whisky is one of the best resources of the world ...I must have some 45/50 bottles of different brands just to "appreciate" their different taste and I'm extremely happy about them so thank you Scotland and Ireland from the bottom of my heart 🙂
These teetotallers have done so much for whisky. Not only David Lloyd George was one and he improved it by forcing it's ageing, but the most famous person in the (blended) whisky circles also was.
About the Aqua Vitae, in French some strong transparent liquors are called "Eau de Vie" (even if they're not whisky), meaning the exact same thing, so there might be a correlation. I never knew why they were called like that!
It's awesome to see you coming to Scotland! That Eilean donan castle you showed used to be garrisoned by my ancestors. Have you been enjoying your stay?
for future reference max, edinburgh = edin-bruh and glasgow = glas-go ("go" as in "i have to go")! as a scottish fan, this was otherwise amazing. hope you enjoy your visit!
I've been learning Scottish Gaídhlig over the last several months and giggled a bit when I learned the word for whiskey, Uisge Beatha, literally translates to "life water".
Looking forward to the Macbeth vid! Never went to Balmoral when I visited Scotland loooong ago, my fondest memory was visiting Loch Ness and the Bannockburn where Robert the Bruce led the Scots to victory over the English (against King Edward the second I think?). Enjoy yer trip Mr Max! 😁
16:00 the English (and I say that rather than British very carefully) government really never learned did they? In the Raj cobras were a pest, and so the government offered a bounty for every head turned in. Unsurprisingly, this just led to people breeding cobras just to hand in for cash after a while they cottoned on and stopped handing out the bounties at which point the cobras were all turned loose and the problem was worse than at the start!
@@tams805 because this specific anecdote was about colonial rule in India. Whilst the government was nominally British, it was (and continues to be) overwhelmingly dominated by the English to the extent that even if all the other constituent countries of the UK's MP's disagreed with the English MP's, the English ones would get their way
I personally don’t drink. Partially because my medication cannot be mixed with alcohol and partially because I just hate the taste of basically every alcoholic drink I’ve ever tried. And I particularly dislike whiskey. But I’ll happily listen to Max talk about about whiskey any day. 🥰
My Grandmother was a Dewar, and that’s my middle name! 😊. The Dewars that are my ancestors came to NC a long time ago…like before the civil war. One day I would love to travel to Scotland. Thanks for taking us along, Max. 😊
I live in the same village as Bruce Fummey & he's a real character. Also an excellent tour guide, stand up comedian & RU-vidr. Hope he took you to our local distillery while you were here? Must say I'm a Speyside fan as opposed to the peaty Island whiskies. While Malts are usually preferable there is the odd blend which wasn't bad, unfortunately the best of them "Bailie Nicol Jarvie" has been discontinued & it was better than some Malts. We do still use it medicinally, still say there's no better way to cast off a stinking cold than a good hot toddy [whisky, honey, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon stick, lemon juice & hot water. Dosage is drink & repeat...often] When I still lived further North I liked to bruise a couple of juniper berries from the tree outside & place them in my glass, added a nice taste to an already lovely drink. It used to be a relatively common practice in parts of Scotland. Hope you had a good visit to Scotland & 'Haste ye back'.
Speyside are the best! And Aberlour is one of the best of the Speysides :D I had a lovely 22 year old Tamdhu cask strength half bottle gifted to me a few years ago, I used it very sparingly but it’s all gone now. It was supremely smooth, nicely spicy, and had so much depth.
@@TastingHistory Oh looking forward to that. I'm very lucky having him on the doorstep, great quality meat & service. Hope you had a chance to try one of his skirrlie topped pies?😋
Aqua vita or Akevitt as its called here is a spirit which vaguely matches the description of early Whisky. A ~40% distilled spirit, but which here is usually made on potatoes, but maybe also on other grains. But it is usually spiced with either caraway or dill. But maybe also i.e. anis or fennel. Also by here i mean Norway
If you expand more on whiskey in subsequent videos, don't forget to mention the Whiskey Rebellion here in western Pennsylvania! (I would not be surprised if my ancestors took part.)
All the fascinating history aside (and despite my aversion to brown liquors), Max you are looking absolutely stunning in this video. Your lighting and color as well as your sound design are top notch here!
that moment when your historical drinking video becomes a super tight record of a moment in history I hope you are able to enjoy your trip even with the very different nature of what you expected.
I've made some of the older usquebath recipes with fruit, licorice root, and spices (not musk or ambergris). It is .... absolutely nothing like anything we would call whiskey today
@@erzsebetkovacs2527 Books like _Cordial Waters_ from the Amphora Society, _A Sip Through Time_ , old distilling manuals and late 19th/early 20th century formularies and "receipt" books. I'm pretty sure the Googles will get you a fair number of them. The strangest one I ever made was Rosa Solaris made from an old Aqua Composita recipe further flavored with the carnivorous sundew plant (a friend of mine raises all sorts of carnivorous plants).
I'm 33 and I've managed to crawl through life without ever taking a sip of alcohol. However, I am deeply fascinated by the history and production of all kinds of alcohol, particularly rum and whisky. For my birthday this year I took a tour of a local rum producer and it was a fascinating experience.
Interesting - Aquavit is also significant in Scandinavian countries - but it looks like it evolved in a different way as a reflection of the local culture.
Most likely people noticed how good it was against diseases like infectious ones and heart ones. My grandpa used to drink whisky to keep his blood flowing.... amd the doctor said he had to
Hard to believe that my country has a King now for the first time in 70 years - RIP Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II :( P.S. I love that you managed to get a Pokemon plush in the shot even though it's not your regular kitchen :)
I was in Edinburgh at a bar and asked for Irish whiskey. The very young bartender asked if I knew where I was. I said I was used to drinking the very best Irish, but challenged him to change my mind. He scoured the shelves and brought me the results. It was very good scotch, but I'm still stuck on Redbreast Irish, but I didn't tell him that, He tried so hard.
Interesting you note at the end that whisky producers marketed their drink as ‘medicinal’. Cheers in Scottish and Irish Gaelic (Slàinte/Slàinte Mhath) translates as health/good health.
Big fan of the one who went "This is a stimulant that will affect neither your head nor liver". Like, that is a ridiculous amount of wrong, even cocaine cough syrup actually stopped coughs.
this was a really great story/history presentation. Maybe it's bc I'm halfway thru a dry-September, but this is among my favorite episodes. Proves the channel's great format, even on the road.
Fun fact: the reason Scotch is so much lighter in color and often aged so much longer than American bourbon is the lack of temperature variations in Scotland. If you had a 70-year-old American bourbon it would just taste like barrel because of the juice going in and out of the barrel with the very hot summers and cool winters in Kentucky. On the other hand a 70 year old Scotch might sell for several thousand dollars. American whiskey enthusiasts do have the Irish and Scotch heritage to thank as those immigrants came over here and used the materials they could find, for example corn, and as a result bourbon emerged.
I find that first claim hard to believe. Are they not aged underground, where temperature variance is significantly reduced regardless of where you are on the planet?
@@NewChiqueChloe No they do not age bourbon or Scotch (both are whiskeys) underground. Both are aged above ground in what are called rickhouses. The temperature extremes in Kentucky causes the oak barrels to expand and contract pulling the whiskey into and expelling it out of the wood, giving it it's color and flavor. The temperature in Scotland is much less diverse causing less interaction with the wood and allowing for much longer aging. Just for some context I do reviews on a website called Whiskey Suggest 🥃
@@waynemontpetit8181 this is what I love about bourbon, the oakiness. Scotch whiskey is more mellow and don't even get me started on Irish whiskey. Irish is so smooth that it's like drink water.
@@waynemontpetit8181 How does distilling before aging strip the flavor out? It may strip out any flavor imparted by the grain itself, but in many cases that is a plus not a negative. Properly distilled moonshine has no flavor. There are many whiskeys that are distilled and filtered repeatedly before being aged, yet are not flavorless. Jack Daniels is purposely filtered through 10ft of charcoal to remove flavor before it goes into barrels for aging, so is Jack Daniels flavorless? The vast majority of whiskeys start off with almost no flavor, only gaining flavor due to the aging in charred oak barrels.
"Behind the Bar" channel is a great source of information and the Scottish lass tells us it was indeed Irish monks who brought "Uisce Beatha" and the Gaelic language to Scotland. Either way both have good versions of the wee dram..
Thank you yet again for an amazing video! I'm actually about to go to Scotland in a few weeks so I can try some Whisky at some Scottish distilleries for the first time. I've been planning my trip to the UK for months, and it was so sad to hear the passing of Her Majesty the Queen right before my trip. I leave tomorrow for London, and at least this way I get to pay my respects. Thank you so much for another great video, it made me so much more excited to try Whisky in Scotland for the first time!
I am so thankful for this episode. There is a whole whisky nerd community on RU-vid. This video is the first I've seen with such a fun, immersive, and full explanation of the history of Scotch whisky. I've a feeling this will be a popular video. Now we need a video on the Judgment of Paris. When Californian wines beat French wines in a blind tasting, not when Paris brought destruction to Troy in Homer's Illiad.
Tasting History in Scotland. Can life get any better than this? I don't think so. P.S. So a Californian got sunburnt in Scotland (Max) and an Italian got sunburnt in Ireland (me, in 2018). Climate is definitely changing...
Personally more of a rye or bourbon kinda person, but anything with more of a spice note than peat note sounds intriguing. I do recall visiting one heck of a whisky shop in Edinburgh, certainly seems to be quite the range of types/blends out there. Hopefully you've enjoyed/are enjoying your time in Scotland, I'm hoping to go back next year myself (work vice leisure, but still counts in my mind).
Try Blackadder unfiltered if you get the chance to, you'll grow a glorious beard and a deep voice after just a few sips. One of my favorites, it's unfiltered and cask raw, but I drink it very rarely, for two reasons, primary one is that I'm not going anywhere after a glass except for reason two, I want to brawl. Jokes aside it's a very strong raw whiskey, most tend to not appreciate it much unless they like interesting Whisky, and it's pretty pricey.
I highly recommend trying something from Ardbeg if you haven’t already. They have an offering by the name of Uigedail which is my personal favorite whisky of all time but all of their bottlings are fantastic. It’s very heavily peated but also full of lightness and nuance. Truly beautiful stuff
The Celtic name of the water of life was Usque-beathe, the name eventually developed into the name wishky. A liqueur called Usque Baugh was produced in Scotland, of which there are several variants. In the 18th century, in his cookbook, Swedish Cajsa Warg named the liquid Uskueba. Which you could try to make her infusion: You need lot (13.3g) of anise, fennel, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, ¾ bullet of nutmeg, half a bullet of cloves, licorice root, dill and hyssop. Crush and mix with two jugs of liquor/booze. (The jug holds about 2 2/3 liters.) Add ½ lot of saffron, half a pound (a pound weighs 425 g.) of raisins and dates or figs. Let it brew for 8 days, filter. Sweeten to taste As she didn't bother to season small amounts of liquor.
The name whiskey developed from the Irish uisce beatha directly not from Scottish Gàidhlig I'm afraid. Interesting the ingredients because an early Irish annals mentions Anise and pepper as part of Irish whiskey. Whiskey meant something very specific in Ireland, it meant spirit made in Ireland thus made from barely as grapes don't exactly grow in that country. From the early fifteenth century onwards, we have evidence that the wine, whatever its quality, was now supplemented by whiskey. In 1405 the Annals of Clonmacnoise record that "Risdard MaGranell. . . died at Christmas by takeing a surfeit of aqua vitae, to him aqua mortis". (See also Freeman 1944, 392, 514). The term uisce beatha or aqua vitae could be applied to any kind of distilled alchohol, as for instance French brandy, but the uisce beatha of the medieval Irish was actually made in this country, and could thus be fairly equated with the modern whiskey. A brehon charter drawn up in 1458 included as part of the price of a parcel of land in county Clare "one aquavita distiller called Corkan" (Hardiman 1828, 51). A nonsensical anecdote occurring in a crosdntacht addressed to Maolruanaidh O Cearbhaill (1*1532) not only mentions some of the ingredients used, but gives us to understand that uisce beatha was made in the country by the native Irish and sold to the towns: and as for O'Kearney, he used to be in Cashel, and it is for him O'Grady made the whiskey, and sent one of his followers for spice, that is pepper and aniseed, telling him to memorise that well, like any lesson, and the boy started learning it well, as he had been told, and on drawing near the big town he got an extraordinary and unfortunate tumble.
You should do an episode or two of the queen. It would be cool to see some of her favorite meals and a history lesson of her life. See was a remarkable woman
As I watch this video I am enjoying an Islay peated whisky. I think the Highland whiskies are made from malted barley while lowland whiskies used rye or other grains. Blends usually use both types. I do enjoy the water of life.
Thank you for this video! I've always wondered why there aren't any distilleries in Scotland that go back farther than the mid-18th century, and it's kind of neat to know that all the attempts to kill the production of Scotch actually made the drink better over time. As an American with Scottish ancestry I can confidently say that history very much mirrors the history of the Scottish people. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Slainte mhath, my friend!
Watching this video right now, at the scene change point where you removed to your room, I am moved to note how very easy on the eyes you are in that blue shirt, with the muted soft colours of those walls behind you. It all really lights up the remarkable blue of your eyes!
I really love this style of video. One: your style of presentation is just so nice and I really love how you share what you’ve learned on your trip with those of us who might never be able to afford the trip.
I invite you to some day come to the north of Ireland and have a tour around the oldest licensed distillery in the world, Bushmills. Without a doubt the best whiskey (although I might be a wee bit biased...)
Ah but sure aren't we all though? Something about drinking the local stuff makes the soul happy, methinks. Though of course my spirits are dampened slightly by the little fact the local whiskey to me is in Offaly of all places (Tullamore D.E.W, which I always thought was dew like the morning until I did their tour. The more we know.)
If by any chance you ever visit Bakewell in England (home of the famous pudding of the same name,) visit The Wee Dram near the town center. It is a specialist whiskey shop and the bloke that owns it has a massive amount of knowledge about whiskey and an enormous range. The only downside is you'll walk in mention what you like and stagger out 15 mins later having tried six and bought two
Diaspora Scot here, so proud of my cunning ancestors who collected bounty on their old stills and used it to build new ones. Saor Alba, na bruch!! 🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴🏴❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
10:00 Latitude does affect how drunk one gets. It is more difficult to get drunk in higher altitudes... So, when drinking the usual amount, highlanders would appear/be more drunk in lower altitude (lowlands).While the lowlanders would be able to drink more than their usual in higher altitudes without getting as drunk. hence the double/reverse thinking/theorising
Home brewing in the states is completely legal as long as it's solely for your own consumption. The moment you sell or otherwise distribute it, it's illegal. My grandpa used to make his own wine, and my best friend's stepfather brews his own moonshine all the time. They've never once been in any trouble because they don't sell it, and I don't think drinking grampa's mulled wine at thanksgiving dinner in his home counts as "distribution" lol
Distilling is illegal even if you don’t sell it. Wine, beer, mead, etc. is legal to make if you don’t sell. Distilling isn’t the same thing as home brewing.
Aberlour is my favorite scotch I've ever bought. I'm not a huge drinker or a critic, so I've not tried everything scotch has to offer, but Aberlour does stand out at least for me. Good choice
