There are many reasons why whisky has not only remained popular but has found new markets, particularly in Asia, where the response of local populations over the centuries to dirty water was to sterilise it by boiling it, and then to enhance its taste by adding some flavour from herbs and tea leaves. In contrast, when swelling conurbations in Europe made water supplies murkier, locals responded pragmatically by slaking their thirst with germ-killing alcohol instead.
Obviously the motives were not entirely medi-cinal. Who wants to come home after a day at the office to a milkshake? Or a nightcap of lemonade? As Compton Mackenzie spotted in Whisky Galore, love may make the world go round, but whisky makes it go round twice as fast. Often it takes just one shot of a good whisky to make you start feeling giddy: it’s usually the ninth.
So what is so surprising about the 150-year-old bottle of Glenavon Special Liqueur Whisky sold at auction in London yesterday is not that it should have fetched so handsome a price, but that it has remained securely corked for so long.
The bottle is thought to be the oldest in existence, though whisky-making is found in Scottish records dating from 1494. For five centuries whisky has been solving (and causing) life’s problems, lending reckless courage to karaoke singers, and eclipsing rivals such as ouzo, which some people rudely think is Greek for windscreen de-icer.
Of course, moderation rules: it is frowned upon not to be able to hold your whisky (unless you happen to be wearing thick gloves). And if you want to claim you drink no more whisky than the next man, just make sure you are standing next to a man of the calibre of Dean Martin.