What's the difference between Scotch, Bourbon and Whiskey? I had been told they were different (regional) names for the same thing.
whiskey is a general term for grain alcohol that is aged in wooden barrels. The term means different things in different countries. In America, whiskey must be aged for at least 2 years. In Scotland, I believe it's 3, but don't know. Whiskey can come from any country.
Bourbon is whiskey that uses at least 51% corn in its recipe. The other 49% can be any other grain. Bourbon is usually sweeter than other whiskey on account of the corn. Bourbon also has to be distilled and aged in America, in barrels that have never been used before to age anything. Kentucky straight bourbon is bourbon aged in Kentucky. Tennessee straight bourbon is aged in Tennessee, and so on.
Scotch whisky (I dropped the "e" on purpose; that's how it's spelled) can be of any grain and must be distilled and aged in Scotland. It can be aged in barrels that were already used to age things, so there are a lot of bourbon cask or sherry cask scotches, because it's cheaper to buy barrels off the bourbon distilleries than to make their own. A lot of times, scotches from different distilleries and using different grains are blended together. Something like that would be called a blended scotch whisky eg. Chivas Regal, Johnnie Walkers red, black, double black, gold, blue. The more fancy pants scotch is stuff that comes from one distillery, and comes from 100% malted barley. That's called single malt scotch whisky eg. Glenlivet, Maccalan, Ardbeg. There's also stuff that's 100% malted barley, but is a blend of products from different distilleries. That's called a blended malt eg. Monkey Shoulder, Johnnie Walker Green Label.
A whiskey does not need to have an age statement, but if there is an age statement, it must be the age of the youngest thing in the bottle.