Captain Blighty🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿⚓🐾

Put the ice down. Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay's legendary master blender, is about to teach you how to drink whisky like a sir. Behind a bar lined with Whyte & Mackay bottles, the man with the magnificent mustache pours a dram, swirls it, and throws it out, "because you want to get rid of any odours that are perhaps on the lip of the glass." Then he pours again, swirls it around, and brings it up to "say hello." He even checks in on it: "How are you?... Quite well. Thank you very much." Rule one: "Don't knock it back like a cowboy." Rule two: add water, but test it with your finger first, "because many barmen unfortunately stick their jug under a hot tap by mistake." He says that's happened to his whisky six times, from America to France to Stockholm to England. The target is "35% alcohol," which he calls "the ideal strength for really bringing out the whisky in the palate." A sip, a long, thoughtful swish, "And then let it go down. Absolutely fantastic." Skip the water? "This is what would happen." Down goes a sip, and his face crumples into pure agony. Then comes the grand finale. Winding down at the bar after a presentation, he says, there's "nothing more wonderful than the sound of whisky being poured by the barman into a glass"... until he hears "not just one or two bits of ice, but many bits." He rattles a glass packed with ice right at the camera. "This is now Scotch on the rocks. This is taking my whisky, ruining it with all this ice." He even has an origin story: in the olden days, the Scots went to the river beds and took cold rocks "chilled by the mountain snows" to put in their whisky. "And that's why we call it Scotch on the rocks." His advice if a barman ever hands you one: "Chuck it away. You don't need it." And with a big theatrical fling, he does. Pure theater from a true whisky legend. So be honest: neat, a splash of water, or on the rocks? Tell me how you drink yours. Watch: