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CULTURAL VOCABULARY
A GUIDE TO CURIOUS WORDS AND GESTURES FROMAROUND THE GLOBE
Skye High
SAMPLING A LEGENDARY SCOTCH IN
A SINGULAR SETTING
“Now,
this
... this is something very special,”
says master distiller Mark Lochhead with a
warm Glasgow burr, leaning on an oak barrel.
“
This
is the Talisker 34-year-old.” Inside one
of the oldest whiskey distilleries in Scotland,
a small group is assembled, murmuring excit-
edly. The feeling in the dark, musty room,
which looksmuch the same as it didwhen the
Talisker Distillery opened in 1831, is that of a
clandestine meeting. Outside, a cold rain falls
froma slate-gray sky, lashing the cobblestones
in the courtyard.
An assistant carefully opens a handsome
wooden case, removes one of just 250 bottles
released (retailing for $1,500 apiece) and fills
glasses with a dram of the precious spirit, which has a deep golden color and a powerfully smoky aroma. Then
Lochhead bears down on everyone in the room like a schoolteacher: “Very few people have tried this whiskey,”
he says, almost in a whisper.
The taste of the 34-year-old hits with notes of peat, chili and spicy fruit. But it’s primarily salt, accompanied by
pepper, that comes to the fore; after all, the Talisker Distillery sits next to a brooding sea loch and is in fact the only
distillery on the Isle of Skye, off Scotland’s wildwestern coast. “It’s thewater we use, the sea and the aging that give
these flavors and aromas,” Lochhead says, swirling thewhiskey, eyeing it and then sippingwith palpable satisfaction.
Robert Louis Stevensonwas also a big fan of Talisker, having immortalized it in a poem thusly:
“
The king o’ drinks,
as I conceive it / Talisker, Isla or Glenlivet!
”
Judging by the reverent hush that has fallen over this room, it’s clear
Stevensonwould have been particularly pleased by the 34-year-old. The king o’ drinks, indeed.
—CHRIS BEANLAND
CARBOST, SCOTLAND
GERMANY
To wish someone “good
luck,” squeeze your thumb
inside the other fingers of the
same hand.
handschuhschneeballwerfer:
A coward; literally, “someone
who wears gloves to throw
snowballs”
FRANCE
Smacking one hand onto
the other, both palms down,
means “let’s get out of here.”
anticonstitutionnellement:
The word for “unconstitution-
ally,” which also happens to be
the longest word in the French
language
JAPAN
The thumb held up alone
(a thumbs-up) means “five.”
yokomeshi:
The stress
caused by speaking a foreign
language; literally, “a meal
eaten sideways”
RUSSIA
Reaching a hand behind
your head to scratch the
opposite ear indicates that
something has been made
too complicated.
pochemuchka:
Someone
who asks a lot of questions;
an inquisitive tourist, perhaps
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