Take a look at whisky from across the world and, before getting into the nuances of how it’s made in various locales, arguably the first notable difference is the spelling: whisky versus whiskey.
Which begs the question, is there a difference? Or what spelling came first? Truth be told, it’s a little bit of a chicken or egg scenario, but we’ll do our best to tell the tale.
The tl;dr version is that they’re both the same word, meaning the same thing. At its core, whisk(e)y is the anglicisation of Scots and Irish Gaelic ‘uisge/uisce beatha’, meaning water of life. A general rule is that Scottish made whisky is spelled without the e, and whiskey from Ireland includes the additional letter.
In summary, they're both "right".
But where did the the difference come from, and why have American producers adopted one while most of the rest of the world favours the other?
One could maybe make the assumption that the US spelling of whiskey is one of the many idiosyncratic American English spellings, like colour without the u or replacing the s with z in words like analyse. However that would be an oversimplification that overlooks the history of the word.
So here we will try to unpick the story spellings, why some places prefer one spelling and settle the score on whether or not it matters.
To begin, we need to throw back almost 200 years to the Victorian era. Throughout the 19th century ‘whisky’ was the preferred spelling by producers everywhere, including Irish and American. However, the key-word here is ‘preferred’; there was no fixed rule, and both spellings could be used almost interchangeably.
During this period it’s important to remember that Irish whisky was the global leader in terms of sales and production. For example, Royal Irish Distillers in Belfast had a capacity of 2.5 million gallons of spirit, while four of the six Dublin distilleries (those owned by John James, William Jameson, John Power, and George Roe) had a combined capacity of 5 million gallons.
By comparison, Scotland’s largest distillery, Glenlivet, could produce around 200,000 gallons. Very few could manage more than 100,000.
Irish whisky’s dominance was to change towards the end of the century. In 1860 the Spirits Act was passed, allowing Scottish distillers to blend whiskies using grain and malt whiskies for the first time. The result was a new style of whisky that had a similar smooth style to Irish whisky. Importantly, it was also cheap to produce.
This led to a new wave to Scotch producers who combined blending prowess with exceptional marketing to take the industry to new heights. The likes of Johnnie Walker, Ushers and Dewars were set to take over the whisky world and become the leading names in whisky.
(An interesting and ironic aside, if you’ll permit us. The continuous still - the equipment commonly used to distill grain whisky that was shunned by Irish producers but adopted by Scots, ultimately leading to Scottish spirit usurping Irish whisky as the world’s favourite - was invented by an Irishman, Aeneas Coffey.)
Understandably, Irish producers weren’t happy about this challenge. In 1879 the four largest producers published a book called Truth About Whisky that denounced the use of grain spirit, arguing that blended whisky is not whisky at all.
Note the title of the book. No ‘e’. Indeed, ‘whisky’ was the preferred spelling throughout the text. However, that was soon to change.
It was around this time that many of the larger Irish producers opted to use the ‘whiskey’ spelling as a way to differentiate themselves from Scotch. Over time this developed into a near universal norm, but the spelling never became completely standardised. Paddy’s Irish Whiskey didn’t adopt the ‘e’ until the 1960s, for example.
Even today, just because spirit is made in Ireland doesn't mean that they’ll add the e to whisky. Waterford distillery favour ‘whisky’, claiming that the ‘e’ is a relatively recent marketing gimmick. The distillery also specialise in single malt whisky, unlike most of their compatriots, so they feel the e-less spelling was more fitting for their mission as whisky makers.
Just to confuse matters further, there are no strict rules on the spelling of Irish whisk(e)y. EU regulations allow for both ‘whisky’ and ‘whiskey’, as well as the Gaelic ‘Uisce Beatha Eireannach’. By contrast Scotch whisky’s spelling is enshrined in law.
When we look across the Atlantic, we see the history of how to spell whisk(e)y is equally muddy. As with whisk(e)y in Scotland and Ireland, early records show that the two spellings were used interchangeably. For example, two governmental documents from the 1790s use ‘whisky’ and ‘whiskey’; a 1790 ration agreement for American soldiers written by Alexander Hamilton used the former spelling, while the 1791 Excise Whiskey Tax used the latter.
In terms of the contemporary scene, many of the best known brands such as Jack Daniels and Wild Turkey utilise the ‘whiskey’ option,. This seems to be the preference for most distillers and bottlers across the United States.
One theory suggests that these producers borrowed the spelling from Irish whiskey. Whiskey from the Emerald Isle outsold Scotch from the 19th century through to the end of prohibition in the 1930s. It has been been implied that some American whiskey distilleries aimed to piggyback on the prestige of Irish spirit by adopting their preferred spelling.
But as in Ireland, not every American producer opts for the typical spelling. Brands such as Makers Mark, George Dickel and Old Forester all drop the ‘e’ from whiskey. Most of these companies chose for the ‘Scottish’ way of spelling whisky to pay tribute to their founder’s Scottish heritage.
American legislation doesn’t make the situation any clearer. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms - the governing body for American whisky production - uses the e-free spelling and whisky is spelled as such in US laws.
On the other hand, the laws regarding whisky manufacturing and marketing in the States don’t state that whisky must be spelled in a particular way and the BATF have generally uses the more common ‘whiskey’ spelling in public communications.
Historical immigration may also hold a clue as to why countries spell whisk(e)y one way or another. As stated, some American producers honour their Scottish lineage with their spelling. But it’s well known that many Irish people emigrated to America from as far back as the 18th century. As such, that might also explain the predominance of whiskey rather than whisky.
Similarly, north of the border in Canada almost every whisky producer uses the e-free spelling. Little surprise given that, during the 19th and early 20th century, the number of Scots emigrating to Canada compared to Irish was almost five-to-one.
What about the rest of the world? It seems as if no one else really uses the whisky-with-an-e spelling.
Japan has become a global whisky making juggernaut, with whisky from the country revered for its quality and collectability. Distilling took off in the country in the 1920s and was heavily inspired by Scotch whisky production. Many early Japanese distillers learned their craft from their Scottish counterparts. As such, whisky from Japan uses the traditional Scottish spelling.
Many other distilleries throughout Europe and Asia also choose ‘whisky’ over ‘whiskey’. Perhaps the most widely hypothesised reason is Scotch whisky’s global popularity.
Apologies to our Irish brothers and sisters for bringing this up again, but Scotch is the modern day world leader when it comes to whisky, and it has been for nearly a century. Just as early American producers may have tried to borrow from Irish whiskey’s reputation by adopting their spelling, so too may many modern producers the world over, only now stealing from Scotch and dropping the ‘e’.
Returning to North American briefly, two Mexican whisk(e)y distilleries utilise the two different spellings. Abasolo uses the ‘whisky’ variation while Sierra Norte prefer ‘whiskey’. Each of these relatively young brands may have their reasons for choosing one or the other, but it’s equally likely the decision was arbitrary.
So, the question remains, does the spelling of whisk(e)y matter? Well, yes. Kinda.
How the word is spelled tells something of a whisk(e)y’s cultural heritage and that is always something to be celebrated, or at least taken seriously. No one enjoys having their name misspelled after all.
Of course, some people will take it a little too seriously. In 2008, New York Times writer Eric Asimov wrote a piece about Scotch but used the Irish/American spelling. It resulted in the NYT being flooded with emails decrying both the writers’ and the paper’s credibility.
At the end of the day the spelling has nothing to do with the liquid’s quality. We all know that quality is subjective and our preferences may swing towards, for example, American whiskey rather Japanese whisky. But that will be down to a myriad of factors, none of which have anything to do with a particular vowel.
Just as a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, a dram will be as good with or without the e.