Whiskey’s Origin As The “Water Of Life”
I always thought whiskey was invented by moon-shiners in Tennessee, but in reality it was invented hundreds of years before the colonization of America. With that said, the Gaelic or Scottish word “usquebaugh” literally translates into “Water of Life,” this Gaelic word when sounded out phonetically sounded like “usky” which later was translated into “whisky” by the English. And if you are interested in investing in this particular water of life, Diageo (ticker symbol: DEO) is your stock, which also claims the Smirnoff Vodka and Guinness brands. Ironically, the stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as an American Depository Receipt, another irony is Diageo plc. is incorporated as a public limited company in England and Wales.
Preceding whiskey’s current status, the legend is still very much alive that St Patrick introduced distilling to Ireland. St Patrick presumably acquired the knowledge in Spain and France, countries that likely had knowledge of distilling at that time, in particular France would have been using grapes to produce their wines and champagnes. Speaking of grapes, the distilling process was originally applied to perfumes first, then to fermented cereal mash in places where grapes were scarce. Finally, to give whiskey a globally excepted name it was renamed in Latin; aqua vitae “water of life.”
Recent Comments