THERE'S no such thing as a bad whisky, they say in Partick. Just some that are better than others.
But yesterday, connoisseurs and world experts pondered the validity of the saying after they sampled a wee dram of Old Havana, a Cuban whisky passed to The Herald after Scotland Office Minister Brian Wilson visited the country last week.
President Fidel Castro reportedly sent ''spies'' to Scotland 20 years ago to learn how to make whisky. Today, a corner of a rum distillery on the island is devoted to the production of Old Havana.
Although Castro stressed that it was never intended as a threat to the real thing, we took it to the experts to find out how readily they would swap an Old Fettercairn for an Old Havana.
At the Edrington Group in Glasgow, John Ramsay, a master blender of Famous Grouse, and Gordon Motion, a whisky quality technologist, were initially turned off by its slightly greenish colour and the ''sweet, vanilla ice-cream like smell''.
They agreed that the whisky was not as unpleasant as it looked, but had a slightly synthetic taste and oily texture.
Mr John MacLellan, manager of the Bunnahabhain Distillery in Islay, said the drink did not even act like a whisky. ''There is no after-taste, nothing lingering. It's history.''
In the Bay Horse pub in Glasgow city centre, Mr Joe Moran, a Partick born and bred whisky connoisseur of more than 60 years' standing, declared: ''It's rotten. Take it to the pub up the road. They drink anything in there.''
Mr George Muir, a 51-year-old from Bearsden, found Old Havana not as harsh as some foreign whiskies. ''It is quite acceptable, quite palatable. I would never choose it in preference to a Scottish but if I was in Havana, I would certainly ask for one.''
His drinking partner Frank Kent, 53, also a TV lighting engineer from Bearsden, suggested the name should be spelled with an ''e'', like other ''foreign Japanese and Irish brands'' or re-named Castro GTX.
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