Speyside wrote:Do you really want to call that Whiskey? Also don't call it Whisky. Any Whisky is a Scotch by definition. Heathen.
Fireball? Me? I call it crap. I will set out my free bottles at parties for those that partake and, perhaps, will steal....
But there actually is no hard and fast rule/"definition" on the "y" vs the "ey." Its just how different people transliterated the Gaelic words "uisce beatha" that applied to any distilled spirit, regardless of type or where it came from. Although most distilled spirits from Scotland do, in fact, use the "y," you can find some that use "ey" and you can find American, Canadian, Irish and Japanese offerings that use "y"
How do I know such fascinating things??? Just recently took a masters tasting class at the Whisky Attic in Las Vegas (highly recommended!) and, in addition to tasting some great spirits, they showed bottles of scotch that had "ey" and bottles of American Bourbon that had the "Y." One company had used both spellings on different size bottles of the same brand!