40 facts about whiskey

Whiskey is a popular alcoholic beverage.

Let’s find out more about this quite strong alcoholic beverage.

1. Whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage.
2. It is spelled as whiskey or whisky.
3. It is made from fermented grain mash.
4. There are many varieties of whiskey.
5. Whiskey is aged in wooden casks.
6. Normally the casks are made of charred white oak.
7. The word whiskey comes from the Classical Gaelic uisce.
8. Uisce means water.
9. Whiskey is related to Scotland.
10. Scotland is the “mother” of more than 20 million casks of maturing whiskey!
11. It generates huge tax revenue in Scotland reaching up to 125 pounds for the Scottish government.
12. A single malt may see several casks.
13. The world’s most expensive whiskey wasn’t sold in Scotland but in Hong Kong in 2015.
14. It cost 628.205$.
15. This record was held until 2018, which was broken when someone bought a bottle of Macallan Valerio Adami 1926.
16. This bottle cost 848.000$.
17. Its auction did happen in Scotland.
18. It is very often that generations of families own distilleries.
19. Scotch whiskey can be called whiskey only if it has been left for at least 3 years to age in casks, in Scotland of course.
20. During, WWII, many bourbon distilleries were converted in order to make fuel and penicillin.
21. On average 34 bottles are exported from Scotland every second.
22. The Scottish Parliament first taxed whiskey in 1644.
23. Licensed whiskey was banned from 1757 to 1760.
24. This happened because of a poor grain harvest.
25. Kentucky has more barrels of maturing bourbon than… humans!
26. Scotland though has 4 casks of whiskey per citizen.
27. Whiskey is Alabama’s official state beverage.
28. The majority of whiskey that is exported from Scotland is not a single malt but blended.
29. The Japanese market of whiskey is quite competitive, too.
30. This is why whiskey makers rarely trade casks with one another.
31. Frank Sinatra was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
32. Un-aged American whiskey is often called “white dog”.
33. The co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous demanded whiskey on hi deathbed.
34. He didn’t get it.
35. Drake and Conor McGregor own whiskey brands.
36. In some places in South America, some people say “whiskey” instead of “cheese” when posing for photographs.
37. Visiting a distillery is the second most popular activity in Scotland.
38. John Jameson, the founder of the Jameson whiskey brand, was Scottish.
39. John or Johnnie Walker was a grocer in Kilmarnock in Scotland who specialized in blending tea before starting blending whiskey,
40. In 1994 marked 500 years since the first written reference of Scottish whiskey.