Sheep Dip toasts Slang launch

Nov. 7, 2008 - PRLog -- Wordsmiths with a thirst for the seamier underworld of words sipped Sheep Dip cocktails at The Cartoon Museum on the launch of the new Chambers Slang Dictionary by Jonathon Green.

‘Sheep dip’ is country slang for whisky. To avoid taxes farmers hid ‘home made’ whisky in barrels marked ‘sheep dip’.  Farmers’ merchants continued the tradition by entering cases of whisky as ‘sheep dip’ on farmers’ bills.

Alex Nicol, founder of Spencerfield Spirit comments:  “We could not resist wetting the head of the Dictionary of Slang with Sheep Dip.  It had to be done. Whisky is something to be enjoyed and not taken too seriously.”

From a farmhouse on the banks of the Firth of Forth in Scotland, Spencerfield Spirit offers whisky which is individual, unusual and above all of the finest quality.

Whisky has been produced on Spencerfield Farm since 1795.  Originally a brewer and malt stead, Duncan Montgomery created the first distillery on the estate by the Keithing Burn.

George Washington’s distiller, James Anderson, left Spencerfield Farm in 1791 for West Virginia, USA, where he established a distillery for George Washington called Mount Vernon.

Created by Richard Paterson, Scotland’s only third generation master blender, Sheep Dip is a hand crafted scotch malt whisky made from sixteen single malt whiskies aged between eight and sixteen years in first fill oak, perfectly balanced and a joy to drink.

An orphan brand Sheep Dip was rescued from the edge of oblivion by Spencerfield Spirit.  Originally made just for the Anchor Inn in Gloucestershire, it gained cult status in the 70s and 80s, selling in excess of 40,000 cases a year.

Sheep Dip has always been drunk by iconoclasts, rebels and mavericks and that tradition continues today. Sheep Dip is a lovely creamy blended malt, full of rich fruity flavours and hints of smoke on the finish.  “A clever accomplished vatting of alluring complexity”  Jim Murray, 2006 Whisky Bible.

Also on display in The Cartoon Museum will be Spencerfield’s private collection of a series of very naughty, utterly ‘non-pc’ cartoons by McLachlan created for Sheep Dip in the 70s.

From yatty, shotting, and quiddish to blind tiger, swisher and skeng, the new Chambers Slang Dictionary by renowned slang lexicographer Jonathon Green covers the forefront of non-standard English.

Chambers Slang Dictionary shows exactly how the meaning of each slang term has developed over the years, decades and even centuries, with intriguing explanations of where and when words like maggoty entered our language.