Note:
(a) “The Scots may need a stiff drink. The Whisky Bible [compiled by Jim Murray], a guide, has for the first time since it began rating whiskies in 2003 said there are no Scottish malts in its top-five shortlist for 2015.”
(i) stiff (adj): “POTENT <poured her a stiff drink>” www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stiff
(ii) Jim Murray's Whisky Bible www.whiskybible.com/
The book is not free, whose content is not available online. Mr Murray is based in Wellingborough.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellingborough
(iii) The Scottish surname Murray (accent on the first syllable): “from Moray in northeastern Scotland, which is probably named with Old Celtic elements meaning ‘sea’ + ‘settlement’
(b) “The guide awarded whisky of the year to the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask [bottled in] 2013, the first time a Japanese dram has come out top. Yamazaki is Japan’s oldest distillery, founded in 1923.”
(i) TORII Shinjirō 鳥井 信治郎 founded Osaka-based Suntory in 1899 and built Yamazaki distillery 山崎蒸溜所 (located in Yamazaki area of Osaka Prefecture 大阪府] in 1923 in the Vale of Yamazaki.
(A) 山崎
ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/山崎
(山崎とは元来、山が岬のように突き出た部分、あるいは半島を表す言葉であり、同様の地形をもつ場所の地名として多く使われている。)
translation: Yamazaki is, originally, a mountain rising up like a cape, or a peninsula. Places named after the same geographical features/ topography are numerous [in Japan].
(B) vale (n): from Anglo-French val, from Latin valles, vallis [noun feminine, meaning ‘valley’] ): "VALLEY" www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vale
(ii) Chapter 5 Maturation. In A Beginner's Guide www.maltmadness.com/malt-whisky/ ... -05-maturation.html
(“Almost every cask that's used for the maturation of malt whisky [in Scotland] has been used before in the production of other beverages - BOURBON or SHERRY.”)
(iii) sherry
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry
(a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain; The word "Sherry" is an anglicisation of Xeres (Jerez))
(iv) dram (n): "chiefly Scottish A small drink of whisky or other spirits" www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/dram
(c) “Two American bourbons (William Larue Weller and Sazerac Rye 18 Year Old) came second and third on the list.”
WL Weller
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._L._Weller
(a brand of wheated bourbon whiskey; currently owned by the Sazerac Company; Like all bourbons, Weller is distilled from a mash composed of at least 51% corn; "William Larue Weller (1825–1899) * * * was supposedly the first to produce straight bourbon using wheat instead of rye in the mashbill")
(d) “Perhaps more painfully for the Scots, his prize for European whisky went to the Chapter 14 Not Peated, distilled by the English Whisky Company.”
(i) peating (n): "Kilning over burning peat, a process used in whisky production to impart an earthy, smoky flavour"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/peating
(ii) Peat and Its Meaning for Whisky. The Whisky Store, undated www.whisky.de/archiv/experts/peat.htm
(“For what do you need peat in the whisky production? The old Scots used peat for heating the pot stills. However that didn’t lead to the smoky taste of the whisky. Only during the drying process of the damp malt over a peat heated fire, the smoke gets into the barley. The difference in the smokiness of the whisky depends on the time the barley is exposed to the biting peat smoke. The drying time of damp malt lies at approximately 30 hours. At Laphroaig about 18 hours of these 30 hours it is dried over peat fires; in contrast at Glengoyne it is dried over non-peat fire. Thus a huge pallet starting from extremely peaty up to whiskies with little smoke flavor develops. There is a special characteristics of malt. Even without peat, the seed develops a little peatiness”)
(iii) English whisky
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_whisky
(section 2.2 St George's Distillery: The company [in Roudham, Norfolk; began production in 2006] that operates the distillery is called "The English Whisky Co, Ltd")