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It’s known by many names: whiskey, bourbon, scotch. Whatever you may call it, it is enjoyed by many people around the world, from real people to famous and notorious fictional characters such as James Bond in Quantum of Solace, Die Another Day and GoldenEye and Will Smith’s character Hancock in the self-titled movie. Whether you down it in one shot or enjoy it sip by sip with a good cigar, this ‘uisge beatha’ or water of life (in Scottish) is often associated with class and style.

Same difference

Whiskey and whisky are essentially different spellings of the same thing. Whisky is the Scottish English version while whiskey is the Hiberno-English or Irish spelling. Whisky is also known as Scotch whisky and is made in Scotland. Everywhere else around the world, this alcoholic drink made from fermented grain is known as whisky or simply as scotch.

It’s all in the name

Whiskey was first invented in Ireland and spread to Scotland where it was refined, so to speak, and thereafter to the rest of the world. There are five main types of whiskey: bourbon, American blended whisky, Irish whiskey, Scottish whisky and Canadian whiskey.

Whiskeys are generally named after the region in which they were produced. This means that Scotch can only be labelled Scottish whiskey if it was in fact distilled and matured in Scotland.

Irish whiskey is divided into four categories: single malt, single grain, pure pot still and blended whiskey. Scotch is labelled as single malt, vatted or pure malt, blended and single grain.

Whiskeys around the rest of the world are regional variations of Irish or Scotch whiskeys. There are American, Australian, Canadian, English, Finnish, German, Indian, Japanese, Swedish, Welsh and a host of other whiskeys.

If you would like to know more, Whisky Magazine is a good place to start. Or you could certainly purchase a couple of bottles of your favourite aqua vita and learn how to drink them properly.

Tags: alcohol, drinking, drinks