Whisky Advocate

Single pot still is made in Ireland from a mash bill of malted and unmalted barley. Other countries typically make whiskey from malted barley, like Japan and India. Single malt whisky is whisky from a single distillery made from a mash that uses only one particular malted grain. Unless the whisky is described as single-cask, it contains whisky from many casks, and different years, so the blender can achieve a taste recognisable as typical of the distillery. In most cases, single malts bear the name of the distillery, with an age statement and perhaps some indication of some special treatments, such as maturation in a port wine cask. These types of American whiskey must be distilled to no more than 80% alcohol by volume, and barrelled at no more than 125 proof.

A common way to increase reflux was to shape the stills so that the rising vapours were cooled or exposed to lower pressure and copper. This was easily done by adding bulbs or balls in the still head. Boil balls could be one reason for the perceived fruity and light "Speyside"-style of spirit, since they probably increase copper contact, reflux and ester formation, while decreasing the heavy oily and sulphury notes. Early 19th century was the golden era for still experiments.

Australian whiskies have won global whisky awards and medals, including the World Whiskies Awards and Jim Murray's Whisky Bible "Liquid Gold Awards". The earliest certain chemical distillations were by Greeks in Alexandria in the 1st century AD, but these were not distillations of alcohol. The medieval Arabs adopted the distillation technique of the Alexandrian Greeks, and written records in Arabic begin in the 9th century, but again these were not distillations of alcohol. Distilling technology passed from the medieval Arabs to the medieval Latins, with the earliest records in Latin in the early 12th century.

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Fusel oils are higher alcohols than ethanol, are mildly toxic, and have a strong, disagreeable smell and taste. A variety of methods are employed in the distillation process to remove unwanted fusel oils. Traditionally, American distillers focused on secondary filtration using charcoal, gravel, sand, or linen to remove undesired distillates.

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A blend may contain twomoreglasses from many distilleries so that the blender can produce a flavour consistent with the brand. The brand name may, therefore, omit the name of a distillery. Most Scotch, Irish and Canadian whisky is sold as part of a blend, even when the spirits are the product of one distillery, as is common in Canada. The spelling whiskey is common in Ireland and the United States, while whisky is used in all other whisky-producing countries. From the late eighteenth century to the mid twentieth century, American writers used both spellings interchangeably until the introduction of newspaper style guides. Since the 1960s, American writers have increasingly used whiskey as the accepted spelling for aged grain spirits made in the US and whisky for aged grain spirits made outside the US.

Irish

Whisky is probably the best known of Scotland's manufactured products. Exports have increased by 87% in the decade to 2012 and it contributes over £4.25 billion to the UK economy, making up a quarter of all its food and drink revenues. In 2012, the US was the largest market for Scotch whisky (£655 million), followed by France (£535 million).