Question:

Is it permissible to drink blended Scotch whisky, which is often aged in old sherry casks?

Answer:

Having been the rabbi of the Orthodox Giffnock community in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late sixties and early seventies I had a unique opportunity to study the way Scotch whisky is made.

The term "blended" whisky in Scotland means the blend of malt and grain whiskies. Cheap whisky is the fermented grain that is soaked and heated in tap water and stands for a while in metal vats and then glass or metal containers. Malt whisky is fermented barley with purer highland or island spring water, heated up over peat fires, and then put into wooden casks that are either North American oak (which has not been used for anything else and doesn't absorb too much of the precious liquid or allow it to seep into the wood and evaporate), or old, redundant Spanish sherry casks whose wood has been primed by use over the years. (Such wine residue as may be in the dried wood gives not a taste, but a slightly darker color to the whisky, which is sometimes augmented by caramel. Otherwise, whisky is colorless.)

Each distillery in Scotland produces its own unique malt and experts can tell by the taste and color whether the malt comes from the Islands, the Highlands, the West or the East, or the Lowlands. Good quality blended whisky contains fewer barrels of grain and more of malt and the blending is a skillful process, bringing together a range of different malts. Usually the commercial ratio is roughly three of grain to one of malt, but of course this varies, as does the time the malts or the blends are left to "age".

In the USA, it seems a certain company in Kentucky claimed to be producing good old fashioned American whiskey¹ by mixing in wine or brandy with fermented grain. Adding non-supervised wine raises the issue of Stam Yayin, non-Jewish wine (as opposed to Yayin Nesech, Idolatrous Wine) which was forbidden 2000 years ago in order to prevent socializing and intermarriage. Actually, the chumras (stringencies) of Yayin Nesech were originally applied to Stam Yayin. This meant one could not trade in it, due to Issur Hanaah (not benefiting from something ritually forbidden). However both Rashi and Rabbeynu Taam, by their own evidence, did trade in non-Jewish wines.

Over 50 years ago, the great Rav Moshe Feinstein z''l was asked by Rav Pinchas Teitz z''l, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, whether or not it was permitted to drink this Kentucky whiskey. In a series of replies printed in his collected responsa, Iggros Moshe (Yoreh Deah 62.63.64), Rav Feinstein permitted it on a range of grounds. Wine is cancelled out in water by a ratio of 1:6 (not 1:60 which applies to other forbidden liquid). There are issues such as intentionally canceling out a forbidden substance (as opposed to dealing with it when the mixture comes about accidentally) and cases where the forbidden matter gives a crucial taste (Noteyn Taam) or when it is an essential ingredient (Davar HaMaamid) and therefore can never be cancelled out. But all of these he dismisses in his reply. He even allows the drink where it has added glycerin that may be of treifa (non-kosher) animal origin. Although he says that it is best to avoid drinking whiskey with wine in it, he admits that he often used to, to avoid offending hosts.

But none of this is relevant to Scotch where no wine is actually added. On the contrary, to add wine to whisky would be anathema to a Scot. The issue is entirely one of the sherry casks that some malted whiskies are allowed to stand in and mature over a period of several years. And the fact is that as the majority of distilleries do not nowadays use sherry casks any more. Therefore there is a rov (a majority) of malt whiskies where there is no question anyway, and one may rely on the majority. However a baal nefesh (someone who wishes to be strict) will need further reassurance.

As mentioned, the main value of the sherry casks lies simply in the seasoning of the wood and perhaps some coloration that seeps into the otherwise clear spirits. But the sherry casks give neither taste (Noteyn Taam) nor an essential ingredient (Davar HaMaamid), and therefore the issue of Bitul (the need to cancel out a forbidden substance) is not even relevant. These are the reasons that the late Dayan Weisz of Manchester, and later of the Edah Charedis, allowed whiskies in his responsum (Minchas Yitschok Yoreh Deah 28).

Rabbi Wosner of Benei Brak also deals with the issue of whether dried residue from the wine-making process (Shemorim veChartzonim) that is then "revived" by new liquid counts as forbidden or not. He says not. Anyway, in our case there is no definable, measurable matter derived from the original liquid, itself, only a mixture of residue in the wood. Besides, even if there were, according to Rabbi Wosner (although there are dissenting voices) any actual wine would be Botel BeShishim, cancelled out with a sixty times counterbalance, as mentioned above (Shevet Halevi Yoreh Deah 52).

Recently Rabbi Bleich has castigated those Orthodox Jews who belong to Cigar Clubs where they gather to drink fine malt whisky and smoke expensive Cuban cigars. If the motive is to stop the dangerous increase in levels of materialism corroding the values of Judaism, then this is a valid basis for trying to find a reason, however remote, for forbidding both. Halacha has always been used to stop things that were thought inimical to the grander designs of the Torah, such as banning Shechitas Chutz (external slaughter), perfectly kosher meat from an external source that might ultimately lead to putting local shochtim (slaughterers) out of business. (Or, indeed, the whole ban on Stam Yayin (non-Jewish wine) which is at the root of this issue, is an example of this.) If this is the motive, then one should be consistent and apply a ban equally on expensive drinks of all kinds. However purely on the issue of contents, there is no halachic basis at all for forbidding Scotch whisky.

This position is supported by the London Beth Din under Dayan Chanoch Eherentrau which allows whisky at its supervised functions.

¹ Whiskey from America and Ireland is normally spelled with an "e" ("whiskey"), while that from Scotland and Canada is spelled without ("whisky").