Wine and Spirit : Ice, Ice Baby

The time: 1991. The place: the bar of a quiet, upscale hotel. An order of Talisker, a single-malt Scotch, arrives with ice cubes floating in it.

“What’s that?!” cries the patron.

“It’s your single-malt, sir,” replies the waitress. The customer blanches and firmly asks for his Scotch to be served neat.

At the time--just three years ago--this reaction was normal. Scotch connoisseurs considered it bad form to put anything into single-malt. It thins it out, they said; wipes out the distinctiveness, they said.

But retailers, wholesalers and restaurateurs all say that more and more people are adding water and ice cubes to their single-malt Scotch. And it is probably no coincidence that sales of single-malt Scotch have risen dramatically in Southern California during the last several years.

Willie Phillips, chief distiller for Macallan Distillery, says that putting just a few drops of water into a glass of single-malt Scotch causes a valuable chemical reaction. “It releases the aroma,” he says. He points out that good, clean mineral water is preferable to tap water, which could have chlorine and other elements that would rob the Scotch of its regional charm.

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In Southern California, the message is getting out that adding something to fine-quality Scotch isn’t necessarily a faux pas.

“It’s still sometimes consumed neat, but for the most part we’re now seeing it on the rocks,” says Jim Allen, general manager of Southern Wine and Spirits, the largest wholesale company in the area. “People are drinking single-malt because they are into the flavors and taste. When you have it neat, it’s not as easy to appreciate. But a little ice, maybe one or two cubes, makes a major difference. And a couple of drops of water makes an amazing difference.”

Restaurants have contributed to this growing trend. Robert Simon, owner of Bistro 45 in Pasadena, says that after a two-year dip, sales of single-malt have come back with a vengeance in the last eight months. “I think it took a while for the public to feel comfortable with it,” he says. “Usually they order it with one or two (ice) cubes. And we serve purified water in a carafe on the side.”