Whiskey Fun Facts

Here are some whiskey fun facts that may surprise even seasoned whiskey geeks.

• Contrary to popular belief, rye whiskey is not legally required to be made in Indiana.  While much of it is made in Indiana, some is made in Canada.
• "Whiskey" is never spelled with a z in Scotland, Japan or Ireland and never spelled with a % in the United States or Canada.
• In most countries, brand ambassadors do not have diplomatic immunity.
• Diageo is the world's largest whiskey company; they are also almost universally considered to be assholes.
• Cask strength whiskey can be good, but it really hurts when you inhale it.
• Honshu and Ireland are not technically considered part of the "Islands" region of Scotland. 
• The USA is divided up into 50 whiskey distilling regions known as "states."
• In most jurisdictions, it's considered battery to slap someone, even if they don't hold their whisky glass by the stem.
• Jim Murray's Whisky Bible has more tasting notes than the actual Bible. 
• If you post something with a technical error on a whiskey forum, it takes an average of .48 seconds for someone to post a correction, and the average number of posts that will then repeat that same correction is 37.
• Nine out of ten dentists do not recommend brushing your teeth "with a bottle of Jack."  The tenth dentist works for Brown Forman.
• In order to receive the title "Master Distiller" you are not legally required to be either a master or a distiller.
• While it is not entirely clear how bourbon got its name, most historians agree that it was probably not named for Bourbon County, Kansas.
• White whiskey is neither white nor whiskey...nor good.
• The law passed last year defining Tennessee Whiskey was written to exclude Jack Daniel's Barbecue Sauce from the requirement to be aged in new, charred oak barrels. 
• If international law had allowed only one new whiskey blog per year, it would have taken over 500 years to reach the number of blogs we have today.  That means the first whiskey blog would have been founded in the 1500s, possibly by Shakespeare. 

Now you know.