Why is Whisky Spelled Two Different Ways?

Whisky or Whiskey, Why the Two Spellings?

At Eagle River Whisky, you may have noticed that we have dropped the “E” from Whisky. But why?

The Spelling of Whisky or Whiskey Typically Follows the Country of Origin.

The classic general rule of thumb is, if the country’s name has an e in it, so does their whiskey (Ireland, America). And if the country’s name does not have an e (Scotland, Japan, Canada), their labels also drop the e. Simple enough.

Johnnie Walker Black Label Whisky, Scotland. Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, America. Oban Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Scotland. Jim Beam Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, America. Yamazaki Whisky, Japan. Jameson Triple Distilled Irish Whiskey, Ireland. Crown Royal Rye Whisky, Canada.

Got it.

But of course, there are some notable outliers. Maker’s Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky is obviously American, but spells their name with no e. According to the Maker’s Mark twitter account, the spelling is “to pay homage to their Scottish-Irish heritage”. But the Irish spell it with an e so isn’t that just more confusing?

George Dickel (Tennessee Whisky) and Old Forester (Bourbon Whisky) are also American companies that choose the Scottish spelling, despite making a classically American corn-based bourbon type of whisky. And then there is the Waterford Distillery in Ireland, which spells their single malt whisky without an e.

For such a small spelling difference, it can be quite offensive to some if you get it wrong. This little e invokes a lot of history, national pride and emotion.

The Original Spelling of Whisky, is Whisky, no E.

Or was it?

Well, actually the original, original spelling was the Gaelic uisge beatha. Or… uisca bethu, or uiscabaugh, depending on who you were speaking with in Gaelic at the time. Early forms of this Gaelic word for “water of life” in English actually also included uskebeaghe (1581), usquebaugh (1610), usquebath (1621), and usquebae (1715).

So, it seems like no one was getting the spelling right even at the very beginning.

Throughout the 1500s to 1800’s the words uisge and uisca kept getting mispronounced and misspelled into the English word “whisky”. It seems like pretty much everyone at that point agreed at least to misspell it the same way - Whisky. As has been pointed out many times, the 1879 book “The Truth about Whisky” written by prominent distillers in Dublin, actually uses the spelling whisky without the e, to describe Irish Whiskey.

In the late 1800’s, Ireland was dominating the global whisky industry, selling about 70% of the world’s whisky. But then trouble came in the form of the Coffey Still (invented, ironically, by the Irishman Aeneas Coffey in 1831). This revolutionary column still allowed for continuous distillation of almost pure alcohol much more efficiently than traditional pot stills, which had to be cleaned after each batch. The Irish refused to adopt this system as they thought the resulting alcohol product was inferior and should not be called whisky. Scottish distillers took to it much more willingly and started cranking out lighter tasting spirits with the continuous stills, which they then blended with their traditional whisky made in pot stills. The public loved it, and the Scottish blends started breaking the Irish hold on the market. Four great Irish Distilleries got together to write the aforementioned book “The Truth About Whisky” to rally the public and to call for a legal definition of whisky, which would not include the blended Scotch Whiskies.

The E Spelling Gets Introduced into the Whisky Lexicon.

When this legal definition did not happen, many of the Irish distilleries changed the spellling of their spirit to “Whiskey” to distance what they thought of as a superior product from the Scottish blends. Not all of the Irish distilleries made the change, even up until the 1960’s, but a majority did.

At this time in the early 1900’s, especially prior to the repeal of the Volstead Act, Irish Whiskey was still the most popular whiskey in the United States, and believed to be of higher quality particularly compared to the cheaper Scottish blends. The U.S. distilleries wanted to identify themselves with this higher quality product, and thus adopted the e to show their superiority.

Of note, the TTB - the American standard - still writes whisky with the traditional, or “historic” spelling with no e, despite most American whiskey makers using the e.

Even though this topic has progressed to carry a lot of emotion on both sides, the SWA Scottish Whisky Association actually states it pretty objectively. ”Production and maturations of whisk(e)y is governed by law, not the word. Scotch Whisky and Irish Whiskey are often distinguished in spelling.  American whiskey is usually spelt with an 'e', while English, Welsh, Japanese and most other world whiskies are not.”

Not a lot of hoopla there.

We Also Choose to Drop The E Here at Eagle River Whisky.

Two gentlemen, both named Rory, with no actual Scottish heritage to speak of, who truly share a spiritual Scottish heritage. Or at least, they have a passion for all things Scotch that runs generations deep.

And that brings us to well…us. We are Eagle River Whisky, based near Vail in the American “highlands” of the Colorado mountains. And yes, we spell our whisky without an e. People ask us why, when all it does is cause confusion and website errors?

We drop the e from our “whisky” simply because, like Ron Burgundy, we like Scotch. And we like barley.

Unlike most American whiskeys which use corn for the dominant grain, we follow the traditional Scottish way of doing things, with barley being our dominant grain. In fact, our purpose is to only ever produce single malts and blended malt whiskies made with 100% barley and traditional pot-still distillation. The processes that Scottish malt whisky makers used before the advent of the Coffey still, and before this whole e controversy came about in the first place.

And we feel that if we all have a glass of whisk(e)y in our hand, isn’t that pretty special, no matter how we spell it?

Our website says “Scottish Inspired, Mountain Made”. Dropping the e, we are paying homage to the traditional Scottish spelling, and in part, to barley itself. So, even though we have Irish heritage in our blood, we have Scottish heritage in our whisky.