I've been intrigued for years at the extensive use in liquor ads of the term "smooth".
This all-purpose term seems to have no peer. Regularly I see it in ads for any kind of beer or spirits (wine too sometimes).
It seems like a modern expression and had you asked me, I might have thought its origin goes back to the 1950's or 1940's and an inspired word choice by an ad guy burning the midnight oil on Madison Avenue.
Yesterday in leafing again through Oscar Getz', "Whiskey, An American Pictorial History", I saw a reproduction of an ad from the Nov.-Dec. 1902 issue of Munsey Magazine. Glenfesk Rye - "10 years old, copper distilled" was advertised as, "having a reputation all over the world for its superior quality and purity: it is mellow and smooth".
There we go, whiskey was being pumped in 1902 with that seemingly modern term, "smooth". And if it was used in this connection then, the original use must go back years before that if not decades.
Smooth is a perfect word to describe a liqour of any kind: it connotes something easy to drink but of quality (I don't get the idea of blandness from that word alone). It is hard to think of a synonym as effective although I am sure the ad geniuses keep trying.
And so I give you Glenfesk Rye of 1902, a smooth number!. (The ad is not 100% clear but it seems this rye was made in Rochester, NY).
Gary