We here at Whisk(e)y Apostle have been known to read from time to time. As you might imagine we read about whisky too! I just got notification earlier this week that a new book comes out this week written by Dominic Roskrow.
It is a collection of 750 drams that he believes to be the best in the world. It’s not just scotch. The drinks included come from all over the globe. We are supposed to be getting a copy to take a peek at. I’ve been a fan of Dominic Roskrow’s writing since he first joined Whisky Magazine a number of years ago. I’m very interested to see what his top 750 includes. If you are interested to find out if you agree with Dominic you can pick up a copy over at Amazon right now.
I am continually amazed at the increasing price of scotch and newest, most exclusive bottlings being released by blenders and distillers. Here are a couple that underscore my point. These are new offerings from Johnnie Walker and Highland Park. I am a fan of both producers but I haven’t been fortunate enough to try either (and I probably won’t be). No word on either of these coming stateside but I find these ultra-premium offerings intriguing none the less. They are awfully pretty though. Consider it whisky-porn for lack of a better reason. Here are their press releases.
The John Walker…
THE JOHN WALKER BLENDED SCOTCH WHISKY- A TRIBUTE TO THE FOUNDING FATHER OF JOHNNIE WALKER.
To mark the start of a new decade, the House of Walker celebrates the life of its founder with the launch of The John Walker (RRP £2,000), an incredibly special blend of whisky that is the epitome of the Johnnie Walker Blue family of scotch whiskies.
Hand-crafted and made to order in single barrel batches with only 330 bottles available, The John Walker embodies rarity and exclusivity. Presented in a unique, individually numbered Baccarat crystal decanter that is hand blown, polished and engraved by one of only three Master-craftsmen in the world; The John Walker contains whisky blended from 9 hand selected casks. Building from the predecessors “Johnnie Walker Blue Label” and “King George V”, this blend takes the idea of hand selection of extraordinary casks, and takes that to new levels of rarity and craft. Every care has been made to recreate the authentic flavours of a 19th Century blend in John Walker’s original style and the whisky has been taken from a range of distilleries, some of which are now closed; making this whisky quite literally priceless.
The John Walker is the ultimate luxury gift for any discerning gentleman. Encasing the gift is a hand crafted lacquer cabinet with over 60 hours of workmanship used to create the eleven layers of lacquer and luxurious cream leather interior. No detail is left to chance from the Baccarat cut crystal stopper to the 24 Carat Gold plated neck collar and travel stopper.
Inside, the taste of The John Walker whisky starts in sophisticated fashion with the richness of mature fruits slowly following from the more youthful aromas of fresh citrus. The initial burst of flavour is defined by a vanilla oak sweetness, with the Older Speyside whiskies contributing to the amazing smoothness. These casks are designed to give wonderful malty flavours, characteristic of classic 19th Century whiskies. Cambus grain whisky is the unifying force that binds the great Malt whiskies together in “The John Walker”, combining to make a stunning tasting experience.
The John Walker has a RRP of £2,000 and is available exclusively from Harrods.
Highland Park 50 Year Old…
Highland Park 50 Year Old is the distillery’s oldest and most prestigious release. Only 275 bottles of this remarkable Limited Edition are available. It is a vatting of five casks distilled in 1960. Like all Highland Park, the 50 year old has been cask-harmonised, that is to say, refilled into casks upon reaching maturity in order to ensure perfect balance and consistency.
Highland Park 50 Year Old has been bottled at 44.8% abv to ensure the full impact of the rich, complex flavours that come from a lifetime of maturation.
Inspired by the elemental forces of Orkney, each bottle is hand-crafted from sterling silver and designed by Maeve Gillies, an internationally-renowned designer of engagement rings and bridal jewellery based in New York. Maeve is also a Global Scot, a business ambassador for Scotland. Her design for Highland Park 50 Year Old celebrates Orkney; in particular the influence of the sea, wild weather and the passage of time.
If you have visited the distillery you will know that the Orkney Islands offer an unspoilt environment of breath-taking beauty and clarity. They are much influenced by their location; the sea, wind and rain all combine to create a unique micro-climate. The triumph of Highland Park 50 Year Old is that the design retains the purity of the original inspiration, that of Orkney itself. The beautiful, bespoke bottle with its hand-fitted sterling silver cage is a suitably stunning setting for such a venerable single malt.
Highland Park 50 Year Old is available at £10,000 per bottle and is limited to 275 bottles.
The John Walker is only available through Harrods right now and the Highland Park 50 Year is available through their store.
Atlanta isn’t usually the first on anyone’s mind when it comes to whiskey. As such, we tend to have to wait a little longer than a lot of other areas of the country to see some of the new or special releases. I know we’ve got a number of Metro Atlanta readers of our site. I wanted to let you folks know that I spoke with the store manager at Mink’s Package on Delk Road in Marietta about getting in a case or two of a few of the special releases coming out this fall. The owner is not as much of a whiskey fan as the store manager so he’s had some trouble getting the OK to order some of the more expensive bottles in the past. I pushed the issue and of course promised to buy at least one bottle each of whatever they’ll order. I got commitments that they will order Old Forester’s 2010 Birthday Bourbon, the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2010, and the 2010 Parker’s Heritage release. It’s still up in the air whether they will order cases up front or just do them on a special order basis. If you are interested call and talk to Matt Corker, the store manager at 770-952-2337. It would also give us here a little more street credit if you happened to mention you heard about them through Whisk(e)y Apostle ;).
Prices quoted to me: Old Forester 2010 Birthday Bourbon: $37.99 Parker’s Heritage 2010: $80.99 Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch: $99.99
They also have a few bottles of the 2009 OF Birthday Bourbon if you want to compare. If you’re feeling like dropping some serious change they also have at least one bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year Old too! If you’re wondering about the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, well…they fight for a piece of Georgia’s allocation like several other places so we’ll have to wait and see.
If you’re in Metro Atlanta and are having trouble locating a particular bottle, feel free to email me and I’ll be happy to help if I can.
I tried out a new barber recently. He did a pretty good job, but he didn’t have the care for his tools that my usual barber possesses. His blades were dull, something my usual barber would never tolerate. My hair had grown long and wild and the barber sawed at it like an Amish wood worker (another group that would not tolerate dull blades). He switched to some smaller, slightly sharper, scissors for the detail work and a straight razor for the neckline. Anyone who’s ever used an old blade knows the discomfort of a rough shave. Imagine that along a four-inch blade, scraping across your neck. Not all that pleasant, I assure you.
Where am I going with this? It is important for any craftsman to care for his tools, no matter his craft. This is true whether you are a cooper, a malt man, a Master Distiller, or even a spirits writer.
After the passing of Michael Jackson (not that Michael Jackson), John Hansel blogged about who would be the one to fill the great Beer Hunter’s shoes. One thing he brought up was the sacrifice it takes to be a spirits writer of such caliber. One requirement, you must abstain for foods and activities that may damage your palate and nosing abilities. It seems to me, that the life of the Master Distiller is much the same. The Master Distiller for Suntory eats the same lunch every day to ensure his palate remains unchanged. Given the Japanese obsession with perfection, I can only assume that the day his udon tastes different will be the day he retires.
These are sacrifices I could not make. I like garlic, onions, hot peppers, and searingly hot curries (not to mention the occasional cigar). Therefore, my tools are not as sharp as they could be. I’m okay with this. I don’t claim to be an expert of any kind, only an enthusiast. There are certainly Master Distillers and writers out there who smoke, drink coffee, and eat spicy food. I imagine it does affect the way they taste and smell. Even aging can cause problems. The older we get, the worse our senses (taste and smell included). I’m sure there are no Master Distillers under the age of 30 and only a few under the age of 40. It seems that all of us are operating at a disadvantage. How do the older distillers and writers keep up their skills? The same way they honed them in the first place; practice, practice, practice.
It’s a tough thing for a whisk(e)y writer to realize that he could probably never be a distiller (at least for me), but I have the added problem of having a crap memory. I was not kind to my brain during my late teens and early 20s and my memory was spotty before then. The only reason I blog is for a record of my tasting notes. The distillers I’ve met have encyclopedic memories. Heck, some of the bartenders I’ve met have encyclopedic memories. Ethan Kelley (formerly of Brandy Library) and a guy named Roger who worked at St. Andrews Pub before it turned into a tourist bar knew more about the whiskies they sold (and whisky in general) than just about anyone I’ve ever known. If anyone knows where these guys are now, let me know. That will be my new bar.
While I can’t do anything about my memory, my wife and I are embarking on a detox. If you don’t live in Los Angeles or New York City, the idea of detox may seem foreign, but we live in such toxic environments that cleaning your body out of processed suger, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine can be very cathartic. After my formal detox, I’m going to do some tasting notes and see if my senses are any better. If not, then I won’t worry. If I have a much greater appreciation and understanding of whisky, I’ll try to learn to moderate my intake of all the things that make life beautiful.
What do you do to help “keep your blades sharp” so to speak?
Richard asked me to contribute my thoughts on the plight of the fledgling whisk(e)y drinker. What can I say? Richard did a pretty thorough job. I can tell you that my biggest beef is with the internet (yes, I see the irony).
Like Richard said, when we came up with the idea for our Whisk(e)y Apostle, there were not a lot of folks out there doing the same thing. Through a series of false starts and general laziness, we got started right at the beginning of the blogger boom. Now, there are almost as many whisk(e)y blogs as porn sites (so I hyperbolize, I’m from the South). If you throw a cat in Brooklyn, you’re bound to hit at least one blogger and if they don’t blog about music or design, they blog about spirits or cocktails. That’s just the environment in which we live. Now, I’m not coming down on blogging per se. Blogging puts the power (or at least the voice) in the hands of the people. In order to avoid a lengthy discussion about populism, let’s just say that’s a good thing for now.
So, if ‘power to the people’ is a good thing, what am I bitching about? Well, the sheer amount of information sources available can be daunting for the first time consumer. There are some informative blogs, some entertaining blogs, and a few that are both. There are also blogs where the writers have very little knowledge of their subject and act as tools to disseminate false or inaccurate information (not intentionally, I’m sure). Some are even tools of the corporate machine. So, where does one go for accurate and well-presented information? Certainly not the sites from the distilleries, distributors, and corporate overlords.
Three or four years ago, most distilleries did not have individual websites. Now, even the small guys have sites loaded with flash animation, fanciful stories, some esoteric tasting notes and little else. If you want a good fairy tale, these are great sites. If you want some solid information on what is actually in the bottle, forget it. There are some exceptions to be sure, but distillery websites often drive me mad with their lack of information shrouded by flashy graphics and pastoral photos of moors and mountains.
In this internet age, we have to be more careful about what we believe and what we repeat. Someone who once was a lonely voice ranting in the darkness may now have 200,000 followers on Twitter. I’ve heard bartenders, liquor store personnel, and customers alike spouting half-truths and fallacies as if they were fact. At times, I may have done the same. And, for that, I apologize.
Marketing in general can be minefield for even the educated consumer. Many consumers believe that an age statement is an indication of quality, but they don’t really know what it means. Some believe an age statement to be the oldest or average age for the whisky in the bottle. In actuality, it’s the youngest whisky in the bottle (no matter what country you are talking about). Other terms like small batch, single barrel, pure malt, blend, blended malt, single malt, and single grain can further through a wrench in the works. This is especially the case when terms like “small batch” does not have a legal or agreed upon meaning. Jim Beam has an entire “small batch” line. When you produce as much whiskey as Jim Beam, a relative small batch is still quite a bit of liquid. “What Does John Know” had a great thread about this very topic recently.
While I think the shear amount of information (good and bad) out there may be daunting, it is also one of the greatest boons to the whisk(e)y novice. The same can be said for other challenges. The variety of bottles on the shelves can be dizzying in a place like Binny’s (Metro-Chicago) or Liquor Mart (Boulder, CO) or at specialty bars. However, this can also mean that you are more likely to find one that you like. Once you find one whisky (or whiskey) that you like, I promise you will find others.
