Whisky Stereotypes

let’s begin

There seems to be a strange idea that if you’re a women with a knowledge of something, that knowledge will never be as great as your male counterparts, or just some regular guy off the street.

Since you’re a woman, you have women’s things to concentrate on, like shoes and knitting. How could you possibly ever think of anything else?

This is an idea that seems to be pretty prevalent all across society, from women in universities being regarded as inferior to men in academic writing, to women in football automatically being assumed to know nothing of the sport.

But I’m here today to smash those stereotypes. Er, well, something like that.

I’m here to turn the tables on these stereotypes. Rather than looking at women and whisky and delving into the mind boggling fact that yes, women do drink whisky,I’m going to look at men and whisky, and the types of men who inhabit the whisky world.

1. Scotch Before All Else

All hail The Mighty Scotch, seated upon its golden throne, peering down on us poor plebs who cannot fully understand its grandeur. But lo, a hero approaches who has a deeper understanding of The Mighty Scotch than we could ever hope to have. His name? Sir Scotch Before All Else.

You definitely know this guy. He drinks nothing but Scotch and refuses to even believe that Whisky exists outside of his beloved land of Scots. Never mind the fact that Japanese Whisky has outdone Scotch at all the major awards shows for a good decade now. Or that Scotch hasn’t appeared in Jim Murray’s Top 5 for at least 2 years now and it was a Canadian that won last year. Nope, Scotch is top and nothing else will do for this guy. Good luck trying to convince him otherwise.

2. The Know It All

No matter what you say, no matter what you do, this guy will always know more than you. Or at least he will thin he does. You could literally be an encyclopaedia of whisky knowledge with legs, and this guy would still try to argue with whatever you said. Regardless of whether he is right or wrong, he will argue until he is blue in the face or you just bow out. Best not to start something with him, because the only way to make him stop is either give in or die trying to convince him he might not actually know everything there is about Whisky.

3. The Hipster

Ah the hipster, the guy who exists solely to make the rest of us feel like sheep. He insists on only purchasing little known craft drams and flashing them in your face, so you know he knew about them first. He probably has a mate who owns a warehouse and distils some weird hybrid of Whisky and Gin that is only available from vintage clothing stores and is bottled in an old boot. This guy drinks the type of Whisky that everyone stands around pretending to like but secretly hating it and trying to hide their shame at being not hipster enough to enjoy it. This guy is not as cool as he would like you to believe.

4. The No-Icer

In my opinion, this is the most annoying man you’ll find at a bar or tasting. He insists that ice is the devil and anyone who drinks Whisky with ice has no idea about the stuff. “But it ruins the taste!” Sure, maybe in your opinion it ruins the taste, but to many others maybe it’s preferable. Whisky is about finding your own style and tastes and if that includes ice then go for it. Of course that is meaningless to the No-Icer. He will look down on you with disdain, acting as though he is the High Judge of Whisky and basking in what he thinks is a rich knowledge of the stuff. Chances are he probably got told that ice breaks down flavours in Whisky by someone else and thinks it makes him sound like an expert. He probably has no idea why ice does this or what the resulting flavour change is. The best way to deal with this kind of man is to ignore him and hope he moves on.

5. The Normal One

Hopefully this is the guy you’re most likely to find in your local pub. Whisky to him is a hobby, something to enjoy and engage with and not to argue about or judge people on. He doesn’t care what you drink or how you drink, just that you enjoy it and you like talking about Phenol Parts Per Million with him. Contrary to the others on this list, he doesn’t try to educate you or give you a lesson in dramming. Rather, he accepts that since you’re actually drinking the stuff, you probably know a little bit about it and would like to know what you think so you can have a nice civilised conversation about it. This is the guy all other stereotypes on this list should aim

Tags: DrinkWireScotch Before All ElseThe HipsterThe Know It AllThe No-IcerThe Normal OneWhisky Stereotypes

Rebecca

Rebecca is a graduate of Queen's University Belfast and very much a student of whisky, having only began appreciating it fairly recently. She studied English which gave her the best opportunities to sit down with a glass of the finest whisky and try to look sophisticated reading leather bound volumes of Shakespeare (or more likely whichever comic book she last set down).