In the artisanal distilling movement, the French wine term terroir is readily borrowed for whisky. Some distillers studiously conduct product experiments, while others merely hype the notion of whisky terroir for marketing upsell.
Surprisingly, assigning flavour characteristics to regional and limited geographic confines is a longen-trenched whisky practice. Before the mid-19th century, America had a dozen regional whisky production styles, from Monongahela and Baltimore ryes to Kentucky bourbon and charcoal-rectified Tennessee whiskey. By the late 19th century, Scotland was divided into four, then seven, then five flavour-based whisky regions by the trade. Manufacturers of whisky have long claimed specific provenances, citing celebrated water sources, endemic yeast strains, regional processes, and the cultivation of favoured grain varieties by the local agronomy.
Archaeobotanists credit the domestication of barley, wheat, rye, and oat…
