(from the "Orange County Register", Thursday March 10, 2005)
(Wine & Food Section, Pages 1 & 6)
(By Cathy Maestri of The Press-Enterprise, Riverside)
Given that DW is set in the Orkneys, on the far side of Scotland from the Emerald Isle, I'm going to guess there's a covert slam in DW against those peat-smokers with the wooly skirts. Perhaps the advance of civilization is really all about the potent potables....
There's whiskey and then there's whisky. Triple-filtered, the Irish liquor is spelled with an "e"; its Scottish counterpart, filtered once, is also known simply as "scotch". Irish whiskey, which became popular during the 16th century, is made with oven-dried barley.
Scotch whisky is made with barley dried over peat fires, providing its smoky taste.
With or without an "e," the name derives from the Galic term uisce beatha (ISH-ke BAH-ha), meaning "water of life."
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