The guest speaker for the Forum’s meeting held on the 15th of February was Mark Southon who had travelled to Wetherby from Bawtry. His talk was titled Scotch Whisky – A Bottled History and Forum members were delighted to see a bottle of whisky and some tiny glasses on a table at the front of the meeting.
Although Scotch whisky has been distilled since the late 15th century spirit distillation has been around since the ninth century BC.
Whisky itself was invented by Irish monks in the sixth century.
Mark gave us a potted history of Scotch whisky, the name being derived from a Gaelic word meaning the water of life. We learned of the difference between malt, grain, blended and single malt whiskys. The history of whisky is closely tied to smuggling, taxation policies and American prohibition.
Mark explained why Irish whiskey includes an ‘e’ which does not appear in the Scotch version.
After a particularly lively question and answer session Chairman Mike Earle proposed a vote of thanks and then members took enthusiastic advantage of an invitation to enjoy a small sample of the amber liquid from the bottle that we had noticed on the table.