Before downing a shot or partaking of your next wee dram, gain a fuller appreciation of the drink in your hand

Jake Norris became a whiskey distiller through a chain of fateful circumstances. “I made my first still when I was just 15,” he says. “I wasn’t looking to make whiskey. I was really into the idea of alternate fuel sources.” Nor did he take a slew of classes in chemistry or physics. “I was lucky enough to meet an old moonshiner who taught me the process, and how to do things the old way.” The rest he learned by devoted reading, and, of course, by cultivating a healthy taste for his favorite spirit. Indeed, where creating the perfect whiskey is concerned, taste is really at the center of the occupation. “Distilling is one of those things, like cooking, where it’s important to start with the best ingredients. More so, because you keep concentrating it and concentrating it. If you use low quality in there, it’ll show.” So, as Head Distiller for Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, he uses the highest quality ingredients available.

Jake is quick to point out that whiskey is one of the oldest spirits in existence, if not the oldest. The facts are in constant dispute by experts, but he stands by the “crusade” version of spirit distillation’s origin: “The first distilling was done in Egypt, but it wasn’t alcohol. They were making perfume. When the English crusaders got down there, they liked the stills enough that they brought some back. Then, count on an Irishman to pour some beer into the thing.” So was born uisce beatha in Gaelic: water of life. “Over time,” says Jake, “the word uisce changed, leaving us with ‘whisky’.” Or whiskey. Believe it or not, though it’s mostly the same product, the ‘e’ does reflect some very important differences, including from which side of the Atlantic the spirit hails. For more information visit www.stranahans.com

SCOTCH

• Made mostly from barley, Scotch must be aged at least three years in oak barrels and conform to the other stipulations of the Scotch Whisky Order of 1990. Irish whiskey is an offshoot that uses some unmalted barely, which imparts a spicier flavor.
• Under the New Scotch Whisky Administration rules of 2005, there are two major Scotch categories: single and blended. Single means that the entire product is from a single distillery, while blended means that the product is composed of whiskies from two or more distilleries. A “single malt” is thus a malt whisky from one distillery; a “single grain” is a grain whisky from one distillery, and a blended Scotch whisky is a mixture of malt and grain whiskies.
• Peat smoke flavor, associated with some Scotches, comes in a very early stage of the spirit’s production: peat is burned to dry the barley before any mash or fermentation. “The magic of peat is the enormous effect it has on the taste of the final product even though it is only involved in the initial drying of the barley,” says Bryan Hansen, a Whiskey Ambassador with Jim Beam brands.

BOURBON

• Closely associated with the rolling hills of Kentucky, bourbon is named for an old, large county where some of the first Kentucky whiskies were set to port, which was in turn named for a French family of nobles who helped the colonials during the Revolutionary War.
• According to a 1964 resolution of the U.S. Congress, bourbon, “America’s Native Spirit,” must be made in the United States and it must consist of a minimum of 51 percent corn (maize), though most contain more than 70 percent. It must be aged in new charred oak containers, distilled to 160 proof or less, barreled at 125 proof or less, and bottled at no less than 80 proof.
• While bourbon can be aged in new oak containers for any period of time (seconds, for that matter), it must be aged for a minimum of two years in order to be labeled “straight bourbon,” and only water may be used to cut bourbon during any part of its creation.
• Chris Morris, master distiller at Woodford Reserve, says premium bourbon is not unlike fine wine. “It should be so complex that it requires multiple samplings to ascertain what flavors it presents to the palate,” he says. “It should exhibit a good representation from the five areas of bourbon flavor: sweet aromatics, spice, fruit, wood and grain.”