Scotch Mist
What is it with whisky and clichéd images of Scotland? Richard Jones starts the fightback…
In a previous life I had the dubious pleasure of judging the monthly Scotch malt whisky competition for a national supermarket chain.
The competition required entrants to buy a bottle of the featured malt, answer a simple question about the distillery and then complete a tie-breaker in less than 15 words along the lines of: âMy ideal occasion for drinking x malt whisky would be ...â
With depressing regularity the tie-breakers could be divided into two: the minority (otherwise known as the winners) from professional or hobby competition players whose answers would sparkle with wit and originality; then the majority (from the genuine whisky drinkers), whose
attempts at poetry or prose would invariably contain one or all of the following: âin front of a roaring log fireâ, âafter a brisk walk through the
glensâ, âpeat/heather/tartan/kiltâ or, horror upon horrors, âanytime, because x malt whisky can turn any occasion into a celebrationâ.
The lesson I learnt from judging this competition was simple: avoid clichés and, in particular, Scotch whisky clichés, like the plagueâ¦
After my moment of epiphany, I drew a line in the sand. I vowed to rage a battle royal against the curse of the cliché.
Like a man on a mission I would fight to the bitter end to rid the whisky industry from what Merriam-Webster defines as, âa hackneyed theme, characterization or situationâ, or what a visitor to Steven Morgon Friedmanâs Cliché Finder website www.westegg.com/cli.....
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By Richard Jones
Section : Whisky image
Page number : 52
