For both uninitiated and seasoned drinkers, whisky is a tricky world to navigate. Obscure terminology, unhelpful labelling and marketing puffery make it all but impossible to figure out what means what. Here’s our guide of the most common types of whisky: from Scotch to Rye to Bourbon. Next time you're at the bar, impress your companions by effortlessly reeling off the definitions of each. Oh, and we've included a few of our choice favourites to look out for, because knowledge is pointless without utilisation. What is Scotch whisky? 1 of 3 Whilst ‘Scotch’ is often used as a catch-all term to refer to whisky of many sorts, that’s a bad habit worth breaking. In addition to casting aside the fact that a great many countries have their own long-established ways of distilling, it unhelpfully oversimplifies what it takes to (legally) call a whisky Scotch.