Only Judi Dench’s M could have upended James Bond with an “I prefer Bourbon” when he suggests cognac for her in a scene in Golden Eye. This is the same scene in which she calls him a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur”. But you don’t really have to be the head of MI6 to like whisky, ladies. Mortal women have enjoyed the smoothness and the smokiness of a single malt for long. It is likely, though, that you will be called a badass.

For it’s far more womanly, still, to twirl the slim stem of a wine glass than it is to hold a whisky in your hand. A whisky girl is often found “unusual” (order a whisky with a male companion and chances are the drink will land in front of your friend), a little rough around the edges, a lot to cope with and even difficult to handle. She is not exactly a poster child of femininity.

Spirits are gendered. Whisky has long been deemed a man’s drink, just like Cuban cigars or the mustiness of a leather armchair are considered man things. All these are symbols of male power, though why they should be so is anyone's guess. Is it a kind of solidity associated with them, despite whisky being quite liquid? On the other hand, vodka has been deemed all right for women. Like the classic gin and tonic. Yet, even if the vodka drinker is the life of a party, full of light, the whisky drinker is the one with the stories: deep, dark, scintillating and, of course, male. P.G. Wodehouse’s Mr Mulliner is a case in point.

But when a woman does drink whisky, she oozes the quiet confidence of having led her life on her own terms. Much like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. If she didn’t light up a cigarette in that famous scene where she is being interrogated for murder, she could well have nurtured a glass of single malt, while crossing and uncrossing her legs.

In real life, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Christina Hendricks, Halle Berry and Mila Kunis, as well as Hillary Clinton and Kate Middleton, love their whisky. Margaret Thatcher had said that whisky gave her energy. Actress Ava Gardner had said that she wished to die with a cigarette in one hand and a whisky in another.

Women have not just been drinking their whisky; they have been making it too. In ‘Whiskey Women’, Fred Minnick tells how whisky would not have existed without women who created iconic brands like Bushmills, Laphroaig and Maker’s Mark. Cheers to women and whisky, then.

Women have promoted the drink as well. They have been brand ambassadors for various labels, including Kunis, who happily supports her favourite brand of Bourbon, Jim Beam. In 2016 when Diageo launched its biggest campaign #LoveScotch, the company roped in Freida Pinto and Mandira Bedi. Both confessed to loving their scotch on the rocks. Bedi likes it with two blocks of ice and in the company of her dad.

And don’t we all. After all the home cellar has always been a forbidden go-to for teenagers alone at home. Expensive quarter cask Laphroaigs have had water poured in as camouflage for the teen’s misdemeanours, much to the annoyance of fathers. But as you mature into adulthood a peg enjoyed with the first man of your dreams turns into some of the finest moments of your life.

A young woman, like the young man, might begin her alcohol career with the affordable Old Monk, the dark, sweet, heavy liquid that preps one to enjoy the headiness of whisky later. A quiet drink after a hard day’s work will be her reward, too, for years to come.

And as the pandemic rages relentlessly, it’s the occasional single malt that eases the creases on the forehead, soothes the troubled mind, mulls the senses and fills one’s being with a sense of hope that all may be well, some day. Here’s to the women who love whisky and the well being of all the world.