Whisky is grain — saccharified, fermented, distilled, then rested in wood. Bourbon is one member of that family.
Distilling traces back to medieval alchemy. The liquid they drew off was believed to be an elixir of immortality and was called, in Latin, aqua vitae — the water of life. Translated into Gaelic as uisce beatha, it became the word whisky. It began in Ireland, then crossed to Scotland.
Scotch from Scotland, Irish from Ireland, bourbon from America, Canadian from Canada, and Japanese from Japan. Two stand out for character: Scotch, heavy with peat smoke, and bourbon, bright with the perfume of charred wood. Irish is mild with the grain woven through it; Canadian, the lightest of all.
Malt Scotch is peat-smoked malted barley alone, twice distilled in pot stills and aged at least three years in oak. From one distillery it is single malt; several married together, vatted malt. Add lighter grain whisky and you have blended Scotch, which accounts for some 60% of all Scotch sold.
Scotland holds around 150 distilleries. Highland is powerful and various; Speyside, refined and fragrant, is the centre of things today; Lowland runs light and gentle; and Islay wears its own iodine and smoke — a heavy family that also forms the core of many blends.
Some 900 bottles, bourbon at the centre. Best tried in the glass.
Call +81-72-682-15562-1-5 Akutagawacho, Takatsuki, Osaka / 1 min from JR Takatsuki, West Exit
18:00-25:00 (L.O. 24:30) / Closed 1st Tuesday & every Sunday