Sheep Dip. Good Shit.

Jim Murray describes Sheep Dip in his 2006 Whisky Bible as “Young and sprightly like a new-born lamb, this enjoys a fresh, mouthwatering grassy style with a touch of spice. Maligned by some but to me a clever accomplished vatting of alluring complexity."

Yeah, whatever. I want to see this Whisky Bible; I feel I may find in it the answers to my questions of existence, enlightenment, sense of purpose, etc. Or should I do as most religions have ended up doing and just write my own?

Bingo.

Sheep Dip, our baby lamb, is a unique whisky, vatted meaning a blend of several single malt whiskys and apparently created by Scotland's only Third Generation Scotch Master Blender Richard Patterson. My kind of a guy! Let us imagine, for a moment, what this gentlemen must look like. An aged gentleman, enjoys a nice straight up scotch, maybe with Perrier,
wears a little skull cap and a coral turtleneck...oh shit...something like this:

(Joey?)

Not only did I feel as if I were shipped deep into the grassy meadows of a sweetly warm Spring day, the grass blossoming its little spores into my nostrils, but the Joey and I were only out 39 dollars plus tax, encouraging us to indulge in a shiny new pair of bucket glasses to imbibe our particular pick of poison.

So, I've failed, in some respect, to understand the multi-faceted world of Scotch aficionado stuffiness, which, mind you, seems at least a little less pretentious than the parvenu riddled world of Winos (sorry Mom). Or perhaps scotch drinkers are just more fun. The comments section of the Sheep Dip website features a lively collection of satisfied customer responses. One wrote a limerick (but hasn't posted it there, or else I'd ask to reproduce it here). And I can relate. This scotch had a complexity that you could imagine might get lost or at least confused in a blend of several different 8 to 12 year old single malts, but maybe its Richard's master blending capabilities or the blind glee that caused me to dip, without reserve, my brain into this cup o' caramel splendour.

Three things!

1. Sheep Dip got its name from an ages old tradition of farmers hiding their whisky from the tax collectors and their wives in barrels labeled "SHEEP DIP" instead of "WHISKY." In honor of this amusing tradition, the folks at Spencerfield Spirit (the proprietors of Sheep Dip) so named the spirit we got infused with the night just past.

2. The term sheep dip refers to a liquid formulation of insecticide and fungicide which shepherds and farmers may use to protect their sheep from infestation against external parasites such as itch mite (Psorobia ovis), blow-fly, ticks, keds and lice. (Wikipedia Article Here)

3. If asked, one day, how do I know if this concoction my friend Stewart made is a genuine Scotch Whisky? Well, lucky quackers, the legal requirements for a Scotch Whisky are as follows:

1. Must be distilled at a Scottish distillery from water and malted barley, to which only other whole grains may be added, have been processed at that distillery into a mash, converted to a fermentable substrate only by endogenous enzyme systems, and fermented only by the addition of yeast,
2. Must be distilled to an alcoholic strength of less than 94.8% by volume so that it retains the flavour of the raw materials used in its production,
3. Must be matured in Scotland in oak casks for no less than three years and a day,
4. Must not contain any added substance other than water and caramel coloring
5. May not be bottled at less than 40% alcohol by volume. (thanks Wikipedia!)
   

Geesh, who knew? Someone did. And someone regularly enforces these rules, no doubt! Looks like whatever we make in our bathtubs and backyards here in America has no chance of carrying that classy label with the words "Genuine Scotch Whisky" on it.

To sum it up: Sheep Dip is a cost effective choice with a complex and interesting flavor, an alluring and well thought out marketing scheme, rave expert reviews (hey...an honorable mention in the Bible of Whisky ain't bad), a guilt-free morning after, and a permanent place on our Shrine to Scotch.