No, you don’t need to ‘go on a journey’ with whisky
I had a fascinating conversation on my way back from a whisky event. I was sharing a car with two very senior women who worked in drinks retailing. We were chatting about the whiskies unveiled the night before. There had also been an array of cocktails on the menu – we’d been thoroughly treated. It had been wonderful.
“I loved both the cocktails I had,” one enthused. “Whisky cocktails are fantastic. I’m so sorry though, I struggle to drink it neat.”
I was taken aback – not by her preference for whisky cocktails over a neat dram. But by her apology. Why say sorry for liking what you like?
The conversation went something like this: me reassuring her, her colleague chiming in that she really appreciated whisky neat, but didn’t really drink it ‘for fun’. More apologies. I assured both of them that despite loving all kinds of whiskies, from single grains to heavily peated malts, one of my pub go-tos is whisk(e)y and ginger ale. This was followed by exclamations of surprise. A whisky writer mixes the spirit?!
This exchange needled at me the whole way home. We were all professionals, all at a professional whisky event, all equally valid in our attendance. And yet these two women felt the need to apologise to me for not drinking or enjoying whisky in what was seen as the ‘right’ way. Just where was that coming from? Where is this ‘should’, ‘ought’, ‘must’ rooted?
I don’t think whisky is like any other spirit when it comes to ritual, tradition, convention. So much is held to be true – and actually, if you look at most of it through a contemporary lens, it really is time to let go. Who has made these rules? Who holds them to be true? It reeks of gatekeeping, privilege and exclusivity. And it’s time to be done with it.
Much has already been debunked (“do you actually like whisky, though?”), yet there’s a mighty great hangover lingering when it comes to the dos and don’t of drinking whisky. So, off the back of that conversation, I decided to re-write four:
DO drink whisky however the fuck you like. Neat? Wonderful. With ice or water? Marvellous. In a cocktail? Brilliant. It’s your drink, do what you want with it. And yes, I would extend this to single malts deemed ‘rare’ or otherwise fancy.
DON’T feel the need to ‘progress’ as a whisky drinker. Some people see the process of whisky discovery like going on a journey. And if that’s you, that’s totally fine. But others, like my new friend in the car, find that while they like whisky cocktails, but are less keen on it neat. That’s also totally fine. You don’t need to ‘graduate’ to more ‘challenging’ whiskies. All that matters is that you enjoy your drink!
DO embrace whiskies made outside of the ‘big four’ regions – Scotland, Ireland, the US and Japan. And celebrate styles that aren’t single malt. Whisky offers such a vast spectrum of flavour – tradition says some are better than the other. And that’s just not true.
DON’T fret about the glassware you’ve got at home for your whisky – however you’re drinking it. Yes, traditions might dictate a certain glass goes with a certain drink. And maybe in a bar you might expect that. But at home, it literally doesn’t matter. If you’re specifically nosing and tasting, a tapered shape will help. But outside of that, whatever glassware you’ve got is fine. Again, just enjoy your whisky!
If we’re serious that whisky is for everyone, then it’s time to affirm all kinds of whisky drinkers. And all kinds of whiskies. Have personal preferences, sure. And embrace them! But in the same way that they are not wrong, neither are other people’s. Here’s to a wider acceptance of the exciting, flavoursome and more dynamic ways of drinking whisky.
