Everyday Drinking_ The Distilled Kingsley Amis - Kingsley Amis [103]
3. From Bourbon County in Kentucky Territory, as it then was, where the first stills were set up in the 1780 s. For many years bourbon has been made in other parts of Kentucky and in other states, but Kentucky remains the Bordeaux, so to speak, of the trade.
4. (a) Corn (maize) principally, with some rye and barley.
(b) Casks of oak charred on the inside.
5. An American whiskey produced as the result of a fermentation partly set off by the residue of a previous fermentation. The best known is Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey, often inaccurately referred to as a bourbon, though it is indeed similar to bourbon in style.
6. Bourbon, Angostura bitters, sugar (plus a slice of orange and ice).
7. Washington and Jefferson, the first and third presidents. In each case the product was rye whiskey, and pretty rough too, it may safely be inferred.
8. John Jameson is an Irish whiskey, the others are American.
9. Purity, and consequent lack of any persistent flavour, therefore a readiness to be swamped in various mixtures. “Dullness” would be my word. Of course, lack of aftereffects is associated with purity.
10. Malt whisky imported from Scotland and blended with a local grain spirit. And yes, quite properly so called; blended Scotch is malt and local grain. The advisability of drinking such whiskies is another matter.
PORT
1. Along the upper valley of the river Douro to the east.
2. In the middle of the fermenting process, before all the sugar has turned into alcohol, grape spirit is added to the wine, stopping fermentation and increasing the overall content of alcohol.
3. Not in Oporto itself but across the river in Vila Nova de Gaia. (Once called Portus Cale, whence “Portugal.”)
4. A blend of wines from the best vineyards and of one exceptional year. It accounts for only about 2 per cent of total production, but is apparently the most profitable part of the trade. In other words the poor old consumer pays through the nose and no option, since no competing product exists.
5. (a) It is aged in an oak cask for two years only.
(b) It slowly improves, becoming ready to drink after ten to fifteen years but continuing to improve thereafter. It also accumulates a crust or sediment.
6. Stilton is the traditional answer, but some people think it and other English cheeses smother the port and prefer something milder, like unhung Brie or Camembert. This school would accompany Stilton with one of the types of port mentioned in the next question. (The practice of pouring any kind of port into a hole in a Stilton is regarded as being on about the level of brightening up caviar with a few dashes of vinegar.)
7. (a) A blend of wines from a single good but not necessarily vintage year aged in wood for about five years, bottled and ready to drink at once.
(b) The same, made with wines of different years.
(c) A blend of wines from good but not necessarily all vintage years, to be laid down like vintage port, but cheaper.
8. Just like all the other port, but with white grapes.
9. Equal parts of any old port and brandy. Supposed to be ineffective if the two are drunk successively. Many old stagers swear by it.
10. Dying like flies was the most noticeable. To drink at a sitting three bottles of old-style port, a light table wine, is one thing; to drink the same amount of the brandified article is quite another.
SHERRY
1. From a small area in Andalusia in south Spain to the west of the town of Jerez de la Frontera, formerly Xeres, the X denoting a “sh” sound.
2. Falstaff, of course, in “King Henry IV Part II.” The usual mark for getting it right, but five off for not knowing. Did the last bit inspire a famous beer ad?
3. “Dry,” from “seco,” is the usual answer. But “vino seco” was not a Spanish phrase at that time, and “canary sack,” also contemporary, was certainly a sweet wine, as wine normally was then. So there.
4. Nothing as far as I know. He was referring to R. B. Sheridan the dramatist, of whom he