I was in Dundee, Scotland and seized the opportunity to taste some fine single malts. While imbibing, the question came up – is Scotland the place where whisky originated? Turns out that the credit for discovering whiskey goes to the Irish, and Irish priests brought the brew to Scotland (thank you Irish priests!!!). But now Scotland is the home of whisky, with a population of about 5 million Scotsmen and approximately 18 million barrels of whisky being aged at any given time! One can imagine that the drink quickly took hold and no doubt made the Scottish weather, particularly in the long winter months, more bearable. Ask a Scotsman about the weather and he will say it is “fresh” – that translates to cold and windy; if he says “quite fresh” then the temperature has dropped quite a bit and it is blowing like anything; and when he upgrades it to “verra fresh” expect gale force winds and heavy rain!
