the.com/scotch
liquid Scotland aged in a barrel until it learns to lie smoothly about its age
means To scotch something is to decisively put an end to it or block it; as a noun, it's also a wedge or chock used to stop a wheel from rolling, and (capitalized) it names whisky from Scotland.
from Two different words sit under this one spelling. The 'put an end to it' sense comes from a late-medieval verb meaning to cut, gash, or notch — once written 'scocchen' and likely tied to Anglo-French and Old French words for slicing; Shakespeare uses 'scotch'd' for wounding. The 'wedge under a wheel' sense is of murky origin, possibly the same notching idea or possibly unrelated. The whisky and the people are a separate story entirely — 'Scotch' is simply a worn-down form of 'Scottish,' clipped through 'Scottisc' into 'Scotch.'
- legal minimum
- three years in oak or it isn't scotch
- peat smoke
- flavor from burning ancient bog to dry barley
- angel's share
- 2% evaporates yearly, gifted to thirsty heavens
- region rules
- five legally defined Scottish whisky regions exist
- oldest bottle
- a Macallan sold for over a million dollars
macallan 1926 — bottle sold for $1.9 million at auction in 2018, world's most expensive scotch
dalmore king alexander iii — bottle worth $250,000, highland single malt bottled in 2011
highlands park 25 year — award-winning orkney islands distillery scotch, aged 25 years minimum