Post photo: Drops of water | © Pixabay
Pindar praises the water itself in one of his Epinicles and in an English translation as follows:
"Best of all things is water; but gold, like a gleaming fire by night, outshines all pride of wealth besides."
Pindar, OLYMPICS 1
This ancient Greek poet from the 5th century BC certainly did not know the British Isles, which demanded something more from people than the pure pleasure of water.
It was probably an irony of fate that, beginning in the 5th century AD, Christian monks apparently managed to give the water itself a golden touch and then to market it as the water of life, today more commonly known as whiskey or whiskey.
Much later I got a taste for it myself when a friend introduced me to good tea and even better whisky. I still have fond memories of our tasting evenings together and I hope that he came as close as possible to his goal of trying every single malt at least once.
Years later, I myself had to realize that this is probably a hopeless undertaking, since the market reacts immediately here too and adapts the supply to the demand.
Whiskeys that were hardly or even non-existent in the 1980s and 1990s are now available in every form and, to me, very astonishingly, in almost every vintage. What makes me wonder is where the producers and dealers had hidden all these barrels and bottles for all these decades, so that collectors like me were unable to uncover these treasures in the last century.
I console myself with the fact that it was obviously only due to my very limited financial capacities and I am happy that there are now distilleries again that were dismantled and demolished a few years ago.
In any case, my passion for collecting, which lasted well into the noughties, has ensured that I have more supplies than I will ever enjoy for myself. But it also allows me to ensure that I only drink whiskey that actually dates back to the last century, before supply had to be matched to demand.
Another irony of fate is that my better half has never been able to get used to this drink and my youngest has also developed a passion for gin.
"Very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life."
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Book VII, 67)
