Whisky or Whiskey?

There has always been a a big issue over the spelling - whisky or whiskey. People have their own interpretations on the usage - albeit not a single person will ever be able to correctly explain why. Wikipedia has a definitive explaination... read on.

Whisky comes from the Gaelic uisce/uisge beatha meaning "water of life". The name itself may have originally derived from the Scandinavian aquavit; although it may also be modelled on the Latin phrase aqua vitae or the early name for brandy, aqua de vite, meaning "water of the vine".

The spelling whisky (plural whiskies) is generally used for whiskies distilled in Scotland, Wales, Canada, and Japan, while whiskey is used for the spirits distilled in Ireland. A 1968 directive of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) specifies "whisky" as the official U.S. spelling, but allows labelling as "whiskey" in deference to tradition; most U.S. producers still use the latter spelling.

In the late Victorian era, Irish whiskey was the world's whiskey of choice. Of the Irish whiskies, Dublin whiskies were regarded as the grands crus of whiskeys. In order to differentiate Dublin whiskey from other whiskies, the Dublin distilleries adopted the spelling "whiskey". The other Irish distilleries eventually followed suit. The last Irish "whisky" was Paddy, which adopted the "e" in 1966.

A mnemonic used to remember which spelling is used is that "Ireland" and "United States" have at least one "e" in their names, while "Scotland", "Canada" and "Japan" do not.