Last year I was at a meeting held at a pretty upscale (for me) hotel and conference center. There was a whole boutique sitting area staffed for a few hours every evening where they served only Scotch to drink. None of us drank, but a few off the golf course drifted in to have one before going up to their rooms, presumably to get ready for dinner.
Around the overstuffed leather chairs were small bottles of water, with a glass eyedropper, and I asked the attendant (who was mostly sitting around, but happy to have the attention) what was with the water. He said to add a little to the whisky to open up the flavors. OK. I have heard of taking whisky 'neat', and also on the rocks and with 'a splash' of water.
As an old chemistry fan, I could envision someone titrating their incredibly priced Scotch with a drop of water at a time until that magical moment was achieved, but it got me thinking about the whole things.
Several article on line have gone over the general idea that some of the flavor compounds in Scotch are inhibited by too much alcohol, and adding water will allow those to be absorbed better and improve the dram.
But a single drop? Or do you start out with a dropperful, taste, and then add more? I also read that to be called Scotch, it must be at least 40% alcohol by volume, but the drinker obviously can dilute it down.
The math of the thing is baffling, with the idea being the Scotch out of the bottle is so close to being 40% that you only need a few drops of water to bring it below that? And is 40% alcohol a magical number where below that the flavors come out no matter where it was distilled?
Are there any Scotch whisky drinkers out there who do add water, and if so just wing it and dump some in, or do you do the Quantitative Analysis from college chemistry to determine very accurate additions to make the right quantity?
Or is is all 'smoke' and mirrors and baffling bullsheet just to impress those who don't drink or don't drink the expensive stuff?