Before the Toulouse Whiskey Festival, discover three secrets to better taste a whiskey
This weekend, on the occasion of the 4th edition of the Toulouse Whiskey Festival, the curious and amateurs will meet producers and bottlers from all over the world. Whisky, whether Scottish, Japanese, Irish, American or even French, is an alcohol complex that arouses the interest of great enthusiasts of this “eau-de-vie”. To savor it, it is therefore better to know its secrets beforehand.
Why is bourbon a very specific whisky?
Bottles that can inherit the bourbon label must be produced on American soil. Another prerogative is the presence of at least 51% corn. The specialist Anne-Sophie Bigot, manager of the Hopscotch Pub in Toulouse, founder of the festival and author for Larousse editions, also indicates that “aging is necessarily done in new oak barrels. Once used, the barrels are reused by European distilleries as well as a circle of reuse, a virtuous circle”.
Does France consume a lot of whisky?
When it comes to “scotch whiskey”, the French are by far the most fond of it in the world. France buys more than 50 million liters each year from its Scottish neighbours. Surprisingly, all whiskeys combined, India is among the biggest consumers by volume. The country even began to produce local whiskeys “in Tetra Pak” a few years ago.
Should you drink it with or without ice?
Anne-Sophie Bigot clearly answers “without ice cubes” because for her “the cold deprives a lot of aromas, which is counter-intuitive in a tasting logic”. Nevertheless, the dilution based on stones and not ice cubes is interesting because it avoids the loss of the “aromatic and organoleptic potential of whiskey”.