Our language is whisky. Life is short, enjoy it.

I once had a dream, and now this dream still exists, that is to be a lovely drunkard and an interesting person. Many times, I take this sentence as my motto and often remind myself that it's time for a drink. So there is always wine at home and stock in the office, such as whisky, gin, brandy and vodka. In a word, it is unlikely that you want to have a glass of water in my house, because I will inevitably mix something else in it. Churchill once said, "Water is unfit for drinking. To make it delicious, we need to add some whisky. Through unremitting efforts, I finally learned to like this drink. 」

Compared with other kinds, whisky is my favorite. When two or three centimeters of gold or amber liquid is poured into the glass, the liquid will overflow the bottom of the glass and soak the ice in the glass. After waiting for a few minutes, caramel, floral fragrance, malt and vanilla, which are gradually dispersed, linger in the cup. After drinking, the clear liquid instantly warms up in the throat, and the mouth is full of the smell of sea breeze, peat, smoke and leather.

Some time ago, Miss Chen was going to other places. On the eve of her departure, she gave me a wine version, ballantine Teol. I looked at her in surprise and gave her a big hug. There are always so many coincidences in the world. The first whisky I owned was ballantine Teol, a blended scotch whisky, which introduced me to the world of whisky.

In the world of whisky, Scotland has the status of the holy city Jerusalem, because the word whisky means the water of life in the old Scottish language uisge beatha. However, in Europe, it seems that all spirits praise themselves more or less. Brandy and vodka are the same, and I probably feel that I have distilled from my soul.

Almost everyone who loves scotch whisky will often say one word-peat flavor, which is probably the biggest feature of scotch whisky. In the process of whisky brewing, after the malt germinates to a certain extent, it is dried with special peat, and the taste of peat remains in the wine. Because it is distilled liquor, the newly brewed liquor is pure white and transparent, similar to vodka and rum, with only a little peat flavor. At this time, the white wine is stored in oak barrels waiting for aging, which is how the unique color and fragrance of scotch whisky come from.

After drinking ballantine, I began to like another scotch whisky-johnnie walker. As one of the most famous whisky brands in the world, johnnie walker has produced many excellent whiskies with interesting names, all of which are called red, black, green, gold and blue. It is said that Gu Long could not afford brandy before he became famous. Every time he gets the payment, the first thing he does is to buy a lot of johnnie walker black labels to drink at home, while Murakami directly names the characters johnnie walker in Kafka by the Sea. Churchill liked Red Label very much (johnnie walker Red Label used to add some soda water when drinking it. In the American drama Mad Men, when Don de Lei Bai was waiting for news at the delivery room door, a prison guard who was waiting for news from his wife took out a bottle of red to share with him, and the tacit understanding between men was born in a glass of whisky.

Many times, johnnie walker is the guarantee of quality. When you want to add some wine and don't know what to drink, you can't go wrong. The red flavor is simple, retaining the most basic characteristics of scotch whisky, which is less than 100 yuan a bottle. Black flour is more expensive and deeper, with smooth taste and charming peat smell, and it tastes better with a spoonful of water. If you go to Golden Square and Blue Square, you can enjoy the most delicious mixed whisky style in the world.

Although we often think of Scotland when we talk about whisky, whisky is not exclusive to Scotland. Ireland, America, Canada and Japan all produce high-quality whisky.

According to legend, the earliest whisky was born in ancient Ireland, and the Irish even said that whisky should not be called whiskey, but whiskey. Compared with scotch whisky, Irish whisky is much milder. They don't taste like peat in Scotland. They roast malt with coal, and the raw materials used are all grain. In addition to the usual barley, wheat and rye, they even use oats, so Irish whiskey is often refreshing and soft, easy to eat and gentle like a little girl.

In the United States, although whiskey is also called whiskey, its style is quite different. At that time, there was a surplus of corn in America, especially in Kentucky, which was used as livestock feed. Thanks to Irish immigrants, they used corn as raw material, fermented with barley, wheat and rye, added some dealcoholized beer, distilled and matured in bourbon barrels, and became bourbon whisky. Legend has it that bourbon is named in honor of Bourbon House in France, but it is actually only because Bourbon is produced in Bourbon, Kentucky.

Bourbon can be said to be the tough guy in whisky. Compared with scotch whisky, it is more unrestrained, sweeter, more vanilla-flavored and stimulated by alcohol. Even European and American literature is like this. Scotch belongs to gentlemen, and tough guys only drink bourbon. When the famous James Bond first appeared on the screen, he was surrounded by Jim Liang of Bourbon, and in Leitinggu, Jim Liang was said to be the representative of Bourbon. Perhaps, it is this manly atmosphere, wrote Haruki Murakami, who opened a translation agency in billiards 1973 when he was a teenager. 」

One of my favorite cocktails, whisky sour, is based on bourbon. Some lime juice, some sugar and some bourbon are sweet and sour. Even after three drinks, you can still smile at life. In a familiar bar, it goes without saying that the bartender will deliver it naturally.

It is worth noting that unlike the production of Scotch whisky, which requires the use of "second-hand oak barrels", American bourbon must be aged in brand-new oak barrels. Most of these oak barrels are made of American white oak over 90 years old and processed by special baking process. Interestingly, American law stipulates that used bourbon oak barrels cannot be used to age bourbon, so the best place for these used oak barrels is Scotland.

In addition to bourbon, in the south of Kentucky, Lynchburg, Tennessee produces the most famous American whiskey in the world, and of course, it is also the worst street wine in China-Jack Daniels, which is a Tennessee whiskey. I believe that many people, like me, are exposed to whisky for the first time. It is dark amber with a flamboyant caramel and licorice flavor. Coke and iced black tea are the most common drinking methods in KTV.

In the brewing process of Tennessee whiskey, the liquor that was originally distilled and sent directly to oak barrels was sent to sugar maple charcoal and filtered drop by drop. This treatment removes the rough taste of liquor, leaving a delicate and smoky sweetness, which is quite strong.

We traveled to the south and arrived in Canada. The whisky they produce is somewhat similar to Irish whisky, but it is mainly made of corn, almost all of which are gentle, elegant and supple. In the 1960s depicted in Mad Men, Americans at that time thought Canadian whisky was better than American whisky. For example, Don Drey often puts a bottle of Canadian club on his desk. At the beginning of the American drama Empire on the Boardwalk, there is a scene in which countless Canadian club whiskies rush to the feet of the protagonist steve buscemi.

In the world of whisky, the quality of Japanese whisky is even so good that even Scots envy it. Japanese whisky is more in line with oriental preferences. At the same time, because it is inherited from Scotland, Japanese whisky retains the traditional flavor of Scottish whisky. Both Yamazaki and rice congee are silky smooth, fresh and fruity, as transparent and clean as sake, which is not felt in Scotch whisky.

When I was in Shanghai, I often went to bars, ordered a cup of Baizhou 12, and drank it pure, enjoying the creamy texture and tropical fruit aroma brought by it, and killing the night with jazz. I also tried to buy a cheap bottle of Suntory Horn whisky, a bottle of Suntory beer, a bag of peanuts or other cooked food in a convenience store, sit on the street, mix whiskey 1: 3 into the beer, and chat with friends until late at night.

For many people, drinking whisky is a process of gradually opening taste buds and trying more styles. Those who have drunk Scotland want to try America and Canada, those who have drunk Europe and America want to try Japanese style, and those who have drunk blended whisky always want to try blended grain whisky and bourbon, and finally enter the ranks of single malt whisky.

In the eyes of many people, single malt whisky seems to represent the highest hall. Compared with blending whiskey, it is more professional, more accented, and even often becomes a means to show taste. In fact, the earliest whiskies are single malt whiskies, but because 100% is made of barley, it is well-made and expensive. At that time, in order to ensure the supply of barley, the government imposed heavy taxes on brewers. Later, with the improvement of distillation technology, people began to use wheat, oats and other grains to produce whiskey in large quantities to reduce costs. However, because its quality and taste are not as good as malt whisky, wine merchants have to add a small amount of malt whisky to improve the taste, so blended whisky came into being.

From the taste point of view, cereal whisky is easier to obtain mild texture and easier to drink. The unique peat flavor and crisp taste of single malt whisky are not acceptable to every consumer. Therefore, compared with blended whisky, single malt whisky is more of a personal preference and stylized pursuit.

As for whisky, I like Raymond Chandler's statement very much: "Whiskey is good wine; If some whiskies are not good, it is only because they are not as good as others. They are still good in themselves. In my eyes, since the birth of whisky, there is no wine more attractive than it. It takes time to ripen and give the grain a soul. It is a perfect combination of water, mud, wind and valley, and a variety of pure drinking styles, which extend the flavor by adding ice and water. Wilde, Fitzgerald and William? Faulkner, Bernard Shaw, Hemingway, Joyce and Haruki Murakami were all fascinated by it, and left praise sentences for it in their works-in short, the years are long, but it is worth waiting for.

If our language is whisky, and life is short, enjoy it.