Nanohedron wrote:
....considering he's cracking wise about a people known to hold whisky as high art, whose contributions to it are his bread and butter, and in whose country he resides as well. All in good fun no doubt, but just sayin', Gavin ol' buddy...
Ben, are you in possession of the book? I wonder what the proverb's greater context was. If Smith quoted it in order to disagree with or disprove its spirit as a supposedly Scottish artifact, that would make sense.
You can find the book on Google-books (though I suppose I've must have read the paper copy at some point), and the proverb - real or not - is quoted to impress on the reader that Whisky is an intoxicating beverage, whether advertising and "whisky culture" wants to admit it or not.
Nanohedron, you have a very high opinion of the Scottish people, or at least their attitude to whisky. But whereas I don't know where Johnny Walker Red Label (shudder...) comes from, I am sure that Dewar's White Label (slight shudder) is bottled in Scotland (a taste at the bottling plant only a few days after visiting Orney's Distillery - and tasting one of theirs - taught me more about the difference between whisky categories than all the books). Quite obviously they see a market for cheap whiskys and have no qualms about producing for it.
At the very least there's mixing: There's no point in using a single malt for whisk(e)y cola! (The only requirement is that the whisk(e)y is not too sweet on its own - the Canadian we had didn't work.)