If you don't like Scotch, Stop ragging on it.

[Dave_in_Canada]

It makes bourbon drinkers appear somewhat defensive when they rag on Scotch Whisk(e)y. If you don't like it, fine... no offense. But why rag on it? It's not the right thing to do.

[squire]

Dave if any of my posts caused offense then I apologize as none was intended. I regularly drink and host Scotch tastings and if I seem in any post to disparage any distilled spirit it is always done with a "tounge in cheek" comment. I respect anyone's preferance and would not presume to say their choice of pour is in any way incorrect.

Winston Churchill commented that the drink of choice in his father's day was brandy and soda. When the philloxia louse decimated the vinyards of Europe in the 1870s-80s there was no wine for the Cognac distillers and the canny Scots stepped into the breach. Grain distillation used to make gin had been around for more than a century by then and the Scots took the opportunity to create blends that both softened their malts and created a brandy substitute. The rest, as they say, is history.

While in our local store last night I picked up a bottle of the WT Tribute. Asked the owner how many bottles he had and Al said "three, well two now since you bought one". Told him to set a bottle aside for Dr. B., I would be speaking to him over the weekend, and if he didn't buy it I would.

The fellow I reserved the bottle for is a die-hard Scotch fancier, a close friend and running bud. Also a regular at my tastings. I once chided Bill by saying "if Glenlivet was $10.99 a bottle and Old Forrester 100 proof was $29.99 you would be drinking the OF and serving it to your dinner guests extolling its virtues as being the best stuff there was". Men who know each other well can make such jokes without offence but the truth is without the label conscious buyers we in Bourbonia would not have the many expressions now available for our enjoyment.

I am of Scotish descent and often drink the whisky of my forefathers. I do not favor the Port/Maderia/Chardonay or multi-barrel finished whatevers because if it's a good dram in the first place then it shouldn't have to be "finished".

Thats why I favor good Bourbon. It's made by generations of men who know their business and does not require any "finishing".

Regards,

Squire