Whisky: The Perfect Lady-Drink

Whisky at the tasting room, Bowmore distillery, Islay, Scotland. Note the shape of the little glass, designed to give the drinker the best possible flavour experience. The sea air and view didn't hurt either!

Contrary to popular belief, we don’t all suffer from being addicted to sugary food on the one hand, and obsessed with calorie-counting on the other. Many women – myself included – don’t have much of a sweet tooth, and at a bar might wonder what they can order that isn’t over-sugared, pink or creamy.

            The answer is whisky. Once considered the province of old codgers, Scotch whisky is becoming more and more popular around the world, and a new breed of drinkers – Japanese, Chinese, Scandinavians – are increasing demand. Drinks giant Diageo recently announced that they were going to invest £5bn in Scotch whisky production, including a new distillery, to keep up with demand. But sadly few of these new drinkers are women. (I wrote an angry feminist article – complete with penis jokes – about why I think this is recently for The Vagenda magazine.) Yet good whisky is a wonderful drink. It’s a perfect digestif after a sophisticated dinner and rounds off a meal much better than an oversweet cheesecake or chocolate pudding. And you won’t find it decorated with an umbrella.

How to drink it

Ask for a single-malt Scotch. This means that the whisky is made at a single distillery rather than being blended from the produce of several. Blends can be very nice, but a single malt will give you more of a sense of the individual distillery and its location, which affects the flavour, just as it does for wine. Blends can be a bit samey.

If you’re a whisky novice, ask for something not too heavily peated. Talisker, Jura and Glenfiddich are all fairly light – as whisky goes, that is. If you enjoy the peaty, iodine flavours, try some of the Islay whiskies. Laphroaig is the peatiest one you are likely to come across in the average bar or restaurant, and tastes like smoky seaweed. Talisker is sweeter and more fruity. Highland Park is a good all-rounder that's not overly peaty.

If you can, get it in a tulip-shaped glass, not a straight-sided one. You want to be able to smell it, like wine. The tulip shape traps the aromas and funnels them up towards your nose, which improves the flavour as well as the smell. You don't need very much, either. Good whisky is best drunk in small sips – gulping will be too overpowering.

Don’t ever order it ‘on the rocks’. It’s a myth that this is how you’re supposed to drink it. Ice kills the flavour of the whisky. It also means that you have to drink it too quickly so as to finish it before the whole drink’s diluted and slushy. But then, maybe that’s the point of all those on-the-rocks orders in Hollywood movies; in film noir they’re not drinking fine single malts but cheap bourbon. Ask for it straight instead, with a little jug of water on the side.

Swirl it around the glass and sniff it. Now take your first small sip. Hold it at the roof of your mouth and breathe through your nose, taking in the scents. You will probably taste the smokier, peatier flavours first. Before the second sip, add a drop or two of water from your jug. This will ‘open up’ the flavours and make them rise up through your nose. The whisky might now taste more floral to you, or more like honey. Add more water if you like, a few drops at a time.