For many people, learning to drink scotch is a lot easier than learning how to pronounce the names on the bottles.  Have you ever wondered whether “BAL-ven-ie” or “Bal-VEN-ie” is the correct way to say The Balvenie?  Or perhaps you didn’t know Glenmorangie is supposed to be pronounced “Glen-MOR-an-gie.”

Let’s not even get started attempting to enunciate the likes of An Cnoc, Bruichladdich or Caol Ila without a little assistance. . . . Trust me, unless you’re the Gaelic equivalent of Henry Higgins — or you drink A LOT of scotch — you’re likely to get a few of them wrong.

Well, thanks to our good friends at Esquire magazine, actor & whisky aficionado Brian Cox is here to help you move past the simplistic and potentially embarrassing point-at-the-bottle or point-at-the-menu strategy the next time you’re at Seven Grand or The Edison or (insert name of favorite whisk(e)y bar here).

So pull up a chair, raise a glass of your favorite dram, and shout out a proud toast of “Sláinte!”  (. . . uh, that’s “Health!” in Gaelic, roughly pronounced SLAHN-chuh) as you enjoy this brief linguistic tour through some examples of Scotland’s most famous export.

(For the complete, rather thorough set of pronunciations, click HERE)