Obscure Whisky Facts You May Not Know.

Posted on by Whisky Ian

Obscure Whisky Facts

You may know the impressive facts about whisky that are in the mainstream; exports generate £3.95 billion for the UK (£125 every second), 28 bottles are shipped overseas each second, 20 million casks of whisky are maturing in Scottish warehouses, 40,000 jobs within the UK are supported by the industry, etc, etc – all good stuff and much publicised. What about the more obscure whisky facts?

Did you know the following?

  • Whisky can withstand very cold temperatures. Shackleton’s expedition carried whisky on their journey to the South Pole; the whisky remained liquid even at -30 degrees Celsius.obscure whisky facts
  • A bottle of whisky can be kept for 100 years without losing it’s flavour. After opening, the whisky will retain its flavour for around 5 years.
  • The world’s largest producer and consumer of whisky is India.
  • Your whisky may claim to be 21 years old, but it may in fact be quite a bit older. The age statement on the label refers to the minimum number of years the spirit has spent maturing in barrels.
  • France consumes more Scotch than any other country. More whisky is sold in France in one month than Cognac in an entire year.
  • A single cask whisky, not to be confused with a single malt whisky, is the contents of a single cask of whisky. Most single malts contain a blend of several different casks.
  • Bottles of Laphroaig 10 year old were once sold with forms that could be filled out and returned by the buyer to claim ownership of a single square foot of the peat bog in Islay adjacent to the Laphroaig Distillery. obscure whisky facts
  • Refill casks are reputed to reflect a distillery’s “house style” more accurately than first fill casks because of the strongly reduced influence of the previous cask’s content.
  • A Royal footman who poured whisky into the Queen’s corgis’ water as a party trick, was rewarded with a salary cut and a demotion.
  • Whisky contains no fat, no cholesterol and no carbohydrates.

Do you have any obscure whisky facts? If so, please e-mail us and let us know. The most obscure whisky fact (as decided by the good people of Whisky Please; no correspondence on our decision will be entered into etc, etc!) sent to us by 30th September 2015 will win the sender a beautiful Whisky Map of Scotland for their wall.

We look forward to hearing from you with your obscure whisky facts!

Slainte,

Whisky Ian.