The growth and boom in the single malt industry in the last 15 years or so has given birth to the rise of the Whisky Nerd. The sort of person who knows (or thinks they know) every last detail about a distillery, or a particular bottling, or the latest industry gossip. They’ll be able to tell you which distilleries still use wormtubs; what year Laphroaig was founded; and – if you hand them a glass of anonymous whisky – they’ll sniff the glass and tell you which distillery it comes from; what its age is; and which warehouseman farted on the day the cask was filled.
They are the same people who can get very passionate if they hear you say something about whisky that they disagree with or believe to be incorrect. Fights have started and blood has been spilt over such simple opinions like which vintage release was the best ever Ardbeg! (Okay, readers, so was it the 1977 or 1974?)
So – if you’re the sort of person who likes to upset an OCD sufferer by visiting their house and tilting all of their hung pictures so that they’re crooked on the wall – here is a list of things you can say or do to annoy a Whisky Nerd: