Dean Martin in 'Kiss Me Stupid'
We are left with the little things and few more pleasant things, we are going to stop being squeamish, that whiskey in the afternoon just before the applause and the bad news on the news that we no longer see; that silly hour - one of my favorite times of the day, I'll tell you - when the sun falls and the skin is gilded with the color of wheat and beautiful sex. Whiskey with ice is also tinged with coppery tones and hope Let's see if we are not so bad.
Whiskey is the alcoholic beverage (horror, he said alcohol! Bring on the torches!) least social of all and therein lies a large part of his philias that are also his phobias: one does not drink whiskey to know anyone, but to know oneself . And the fact is that if a few beers in the middle of the afternoon are the cultural equivalent to the first season -so perky- of Friends or Sex and the City, a quiet whiskey is the leopard by Luchino Visconti Dubliners by John Huston or Down the Swann Way of Marcel Proust: just nonsense, as in that ode to the water of life of George Bernard Shaw, “Whiskey is a liquid dawn”.
It is a drink that is not intended to amuse you; intends to accompany you , sit next to you and tell you -slowly- that everything is fine. My best friends drink whiskey except for one who doesn't drink yet, but will drink; he will drink because life gives jewelry to sensitive people and you are a source of sensitivity, Dani. It doesn't fit inside and the glass helps. It's a drink, almost always, spartan and little friend of giving explanations that nobody has asked , and there goes one of the many wonderful things it has: you don't have to understand anything, just open the bottle, put an ice cube (at most) and swallow slowly.
A couple of notes for young padawan of the copeo : according to its production, whiskey can be classified into single malts (made in a single distillery with malted barley), blends (mixtures of different malt whiskeys) and grain whiskeys made from other types of grains , for example the corn and rye in Kentucky bourbon.
Choosing my favorites is not an easy task, but here are a handful of names that always, always sneak into the cupboard: Macallan 12 years, Hibiki from Suntory, Glenmorangie, Aberlour A'Bunadh and Laphroaig there in the back of the closet, which not all days are for Laphroaig but when they are, how they are.
As for the Scotch and that paradise on earth that is the Highlands, there are six zones and each one brings different nuances to the drink; there is a lot of literature about it but I would summarize it for you in that Speyside is sweetness, lowlands lightness, highlands complexity and Islay -the southernmost island of the Hebrides- the end of the road, the drinker's Everest, your secret corner. The mob, the smoke and the fire ; the love of the land and of things that are not easy, almost nothing worthwhile is.