wiskey Bottle labels

whiskey refers to a broad category of alcoholic beverages that are distilled from fermented grain mash and aged in wooden casks Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and maize

The Mediterranean regions by Irish missionaries between the 6th century and 7th century. While the art of distillation originated in the East, its first European practice was in Spain introduced by the Moors in the Middle Ages, with perfumes and aromatics being distilled long before potable spirits.

Whisky is a shortened form of usquebaugh, which English borrowed from Irish Gaelic uisce beatha and Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha. This compound descends from Old Irish uisce, "water," and bethad, "of life," and meaning literally "water of life."



It thus meant the same thing as the name of another drink, aquavit, which comes from Latin aqua vītae, "water of life" which had been applied to intoxicating drinks since early 14th century. Other early spellings include usquebea (1706) and iskie bae (1583).



In the Irish Annals of Clonmacnoise in 1405, the first written record of whisky appears describing the death of a chieftain at Christmas from "taking a surfeit of aqua vitae". In Scotland, the first evidence of whisky production comes from an entry in the Exchequer Rolls for 1494 where malt is sent "To Friar John Cor, by order of the king, to make aquavitae".