Water of life

I am nursing a mild hangover from last night. I had been invited to a friend's farewell party, which went on till the wee hours of dawn today. After some boring office gossip, the party picked up momentum via a game of dumb charades and really came to life when we started gambling with cards (we played 'Teen Patti' - literally three cards, also known as Flush, and Banco, also known as Jackpot). But this post is not about gambling.
Although I was remarkably moderate (by my standards!!) in my intake of alcohol, 3 of us managed to polish off a new litre bottle of Teacher's Highland Cream. Memories of the pleasant experience made me want to dig into the history of whisky.
Few drinks are as synonymous with a country (and vice versa) as Whisky and Scotland. 'Whisky and freedom gang thegither' wrote Scottish poet Robert Burns. Whisky is made with the most elemental ingredients - water and barley (with perhaps a dash of peat). Successful maturation relies to a large extent on the cool, maritime climate of northern Scotland. These conditions are apparently impossible to replicate anywhere else in the world, and therefore tie whisky to Scotland like a singer to his song.
The very origin of the word whisky comes from uisge, which is an abbreviation of uisge beatha, Scots Gaelic for 'Water of Life'. Distillation of this king of drinks was first done by monks in monastries for medicinal purposes (With a monopoly on the production of whisky, is there any wonder that monks led such contented, secluded and peaceful lives :-) .
There are two major categories of whisky, single and blended. Single means that all of the product is from a single distillery, while Blended means that the product is composed of whiskies from two or more distilleries.
1) Single malt whisky is a 100% malted barley whisky from one distillery.
2) Single grain whisky is a grain whisky from one distillery (it does NOT have to be made from a single type of grain).
3) Vatted or Blended malt whisky is a malt whisky created by mixing single malt whiskies from more than one distillery.
4) Blended grain whisky is a whisky created by mixing grain whiskies from more than one distillery.
5) Blended Scotch whisky is a mixture of single malt whisky and grain whisky, usually from multiple distilleries.
Thanks to wikipedia and the Scotch Whisky website for all this information!!
Whew!! All that terminology has left me feeling thirsty. I think I need some of the medicinal benefits of a stout glass of Chivas Regal!!