In message 023101c177ea$15276340$0c00a8c0@codex, Una McCormack una@qresearch.org.uk writes
One small corner of the UK spells it whiskey. The rest spells it the Scottish way, even though *we* have the world's oldest licensed distillery, not the Scots.
I always thought the spellings were a distinction between Scottish whisky and Irish whiskey.
These days, between Scottish whisky and everything else. But the oldest licensed distillery in the world is Bushmills, in the town (bloody tiny village, actually) of the same name in Northern Ireland, UK. Triple-distilled in the Irish style, providing both blends of varying minimum ages and a single malt, all of which have 'whiskey' on the label. I would cheerfully wind up Iain at this point by declaring even the cheapest Bushmills to be superior to any of that stuff they come up with across the water, but he's probably well aware that all alcohol tastes the same to me anyway.