But brandy—which essentially means distilled fruit—is sublime. Like whiskey, brandy is a categorical term with subcategories throughout the world. Let’s explore.

According to a 1935 Hunter Baltimore Rye Whiskey ad: “In the Gay Nineties, and on through the Spanish-American War when Theodore Roosevelt took his Rough Riders to Cuba, Hunter Rye was in demand nation-wide, and had become well-known in London. ‘First Over The Bars,’ it had won a world reputation for taste among English-speaking peoples—it was in fact the largest-selling rye whiskey in the world.”

So, it’s time to lose the college frat-boy mentality with Irish whiskey. Sip and savor, my friends. This is great whiskey.

Did you know vodka didn’t have a US federal definition until the late 1950s? It’s true. And when the mostly Russian and Polish spirit started garnering minute amounts of acclaim, the whiskey distillers lobbied the government to create a definition that would surely defeat its popularity.