October 2010

Laphroaig at Mac McGee’s

/ / Richard's Blog, Scottish Whisky

Last night my buddy Sam and I ventured over to Decatur for a Laphroaig tasting at Mac McGee’s led by the always entertaining Simon Brooking, Master Ambassador for Laphroaig and Ardmore. I post the coming events at Mac McGee’s whenever I hear about them but this was my first chance to actually go to one. Here are my impressions.

The Good
First, Mac McGee’s is a great bar with one of the best whiskey selections in town. It’s a quaint pub with a neighborhood feel and a good menu of beer, spirits, and food. This is the kind of bar everyone should have within walking distance of their home. For those in town it’s also right next to a transit rail station so the location couldn’t be better. I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and it killed me that there isn’t a place like this near my house. Great staff, great food, great drink, and great location, what else could you ask for?

Second, Simon and the Laphroaig were just great. Simon led us through a tasting of Ardmore Traditional, Laphroaig 10 Year, Laphroaig Quarter Cask, Laphroaig 18 Year, Laphroaig 25 Year, and Laphroaig Cask Strength while giving us healthy doses of knowledge, wit, humor, and song. This man was born for his job. On top of all that, Laphroaig provided everyone there with branded Glencairn glasses and hats. It was a very nice touch.

Third, the value couldn’t be beat unless it was free. For the six drams (normal bar pours on all accounts) they only charged $30 a head. That also included a chocolate truffle pairing for the last three whiskies. One of these was a bacon crusted chocolate truffle. Bacon…chocolate…and scotch, I thought I died and went to heaven.

The Bad
Two words…Time Management. The event was supposed to start at 6:00PM and they had a smaller event of local Laphroaig distributors at 5:30PM. Those guys didn’t finish leaving until 6:45 and we didn’t get started until almost 7:30PM due to technical difficulties with the media presentation. Things happen and you deal with them. I understand that. However, a one hour plus wait is a little bad form on Mac McGee’s part. Hopefully, that won’t be a repeat problem in the future.

All things considered it was a very nice event and I look forward to doing it again. My one regret is that I don’t live within walking distance of Mac McGee’s like some of the gentlemen I talked to at the bar.

Drink wisely my friends,

Richard

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Barriers for New Whiskey Drinkers Part 1 (Richard)

/ / Bourbon, Irish Whiskey, Other Whisk(e)ys, Richard's Blog, Scottish Whisky

As you might imagine, I think about whiskey quite a lot. Matt and I write a blog on the stuff that we try to update with new content as regularly as we can. But that’s more of a product of our obsession rather than a driver. The idea behind Whisk(e)y Apostle was to help get the word out. “Proselytizing the way of malt.” When we started formulating the idea for the site a couple of years ago there really wasn’t too much out there on the subject. Most distilleries didn’t exactly have the greatest websites and in terms of blogs and related websites there was really only John Hansell, Sam over at Dr. Whisky, the ruminations of various Malt Maniacs, and one or two others.

Oh how times have changed. Every distillery seems to be revamping their websites multiple times a year and it seems like everyone and their brother is talking about whiskey. This isn’t a bad thing at all. The more we talk about it, the more people learn about it. The more they learn, the more they buy and ultimately the more stuff comes out on the market.

So with that in mind I decided to take a step back and think about what is still inhibiting people from drinking whiskey…aside from those poor misguided souls who still think that they just don’t like it. Here’s my top four.

Price
Whiskey isn’t exactly cheap once you move off the bottom two shelves and let’s face it, there’s a lot down there that might make you never want to try whiskey again. Bourbon and Irish are still relatively affordable up against the increasing prices of Scotch but their prices are soaring too. However, you can still value good values in all these categories if you know what to look for. Scotch has some great blends like Black Bottle and value single malts like Glenfiddich and Glenlivet shouldn’t be sneezed at. You can even move down the connoisseur route if you’re selective. Macallan may get all the love but Edrington’s Highland Park Distillery puts out great single malt at noticeably lower prices than Macallan in the same age ranges. Bourbon and Irish are rife with old labels at good prices offering solid value. Weller, Old Grand Dad, and Evan Williams are just some of the Bourbon names to look out for. Powers, Paddy’s, and a number of other Irish tipples are worth a shot. Also, Rye is still an under marketed value gem (but don’t tell anyone). Don’t let the prices scare you. Buy smarted, not harder.

It should also be noted that you might also look at price per drink. If you spend $20 on a bottle of wine you my only get four or five glasses out of it. That’s $4 or $5 per drink. If you assume a standard pour of around 30 ml or so then that gets you 25 drinks for the price of a $45 bottle of Scotch. That’s less than $2 a drink. I’m assuming you’re drinking the glass of wine and the glass of Scotch at about the same pace and not slamming back shooter like a frat boy. It’s just something else to think about.

Variety
It really is a great time to buy whiskey. There are so many choices that it seems like you could spend your whole life trying to taste them all. However, that same variety that makes me giddy when I walk in the liquor store may seem daunting to the uninitiated. Bourbon, Rye, Irish, Single Malt, Blends, Blended Malts, Japanese, Indian, Australian, American Craft, Welsh, English, Swedish….you see where I’m going with this. Don’t be afraid. Take it slow. It’s no different than beer or wine. Try a few at a local drinking establishment and then try others similar to what you liked. It’s as simple as that.

Tradition
Do you know how you’re supposed to drink whiskey? Neat? With a splash of water? On the rocks? With cola? Out of a tulip shaped glass? Out of a tumbler? The real answer is to drink it however the hell you want. Why would you let someone else tell you what to do with something you bought? You don’t have to drink every glass of single malt scotch neat out of a tulip shaped nosing glass while wearing a kilt in front of a roaring fire used to cook haggis. You can. You might try it sometime because you might like it but that doesn’t mean you have too. Don’t worry so much about what you’re supposed to do and spend more time doing what you enjoy.

Advice
This one is tricky. How do you talk about advice as a barrier for new drinkers without giving advice? You really can’t but I feel that I have to. If you ask questions about whiskey to bloggers, writers, aficionados, bartenders, shop owners, etc. you will get plenty of opinions. You just need to remember that at the bottom of the glass that’s all they are, opinions. It is all relayed with good intentions but the only way you will know what you like is to get out there and try stuff. Then you can decide for yourself. If over time you find the recommendations of one blogger or writer similar to what you like then you can give that person more weight than others but that’s up to you. We do reviews on Whisk(e)y Apostle because we enjoy doing them and some people might find them helpful. Personally, I think our event postings and editorial posts are a more important part of what Matt and I do. After all, we may think Redbreast walks on water but if you can’t stand Irish whiskey then you’re not going to agree. You have to make up your own mind.

That’s all I’ve got so say on the subject…for now (have blog, will pontificate). Matt’s take on the topic should be along soon.

Drink wisely my friends,

Richard

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Chivas Live

/ / Matt's Blog, Richard's Blog, Scottish Whisky

Richard and I participated in the Chivas Live online tasting recently.  I attempted to tweet along (quite unsuccessfully) and Richard signed in remotely.  Here are our notes.

Matt:

I love events like this.  Deconstructing a blend, vertical tastings, or anything of that nature revs my whisky engine like nothing else.  I’m not sure the comparison with Johnnie Walker Blue at the end actually did anything for them, but the lead up was great.

Dram #1:  Strath Isla 18 is quite good and everyone at the tasting (and in the blogospere) asked what it would take to get this bottled as a single malt.  My note to Twitter was “maple bacon wrapped around aged goat cheese with a side of green apples.”  I stand by this note.  Green apples and maple on the nose with a hint of smoke.  One of the other bloggers came up with the bacon note and everyone in the room jumped on it.  There is this aged goat cheese that I get at the Green Market in Union Square that is hard and creamy and leaves a very grassy taste in the mouth.  This is the goat cheese I refer to.

Dram #2:  18yo Grain blend.  This dram is quite good if a little simple.  It’s like salted caramel covered in milk chocolate on the nose and palate.  Please bottle this too.

Dram #3:  Islay blend.  This a great Islay blend that I would drink on it’s own.  The nose is a little peat heavy, but the palate has some great dark berry and sherry notes lurking under the smoke and earth.

Dram #4:  18yo Longmorn.  This is great.  Like sour cherry strudel.  Long finish.  I need to revisit this.  To bad they do not bottle this one.

Lastly, we compared Chivas 18yo to Johnnie Walker Blue Label.  Ultimately, we came to the same conclusions as when we did this exercise last Christmas.  Chivas tastes like green apples wrapped in Toblerone and JW Blue is over blended and boring.  The revelation came with the component tastings.  I already liked the Chivas 18yo.  Tasting the components just gave me a greater appreciation for the blend.  Note to all other blenders.  DO EVENTS LIKE THIS.  I want to be at a JW tasting next month and a Ballentine’s tasting the month after.  Cutty Sark, Old Parr, Whyte & McKay, Grant’s, this is what I want.  Our hosts were excellent and I hope to see them all again.

Richard

The deconstruction of a blend by components is something I haven’t been able to do before. I found it incredibly interesting. Obviously, we only tasted four components and Chivas uses quite few more than that for Chivas 18.

Dram #1: Strathisla 18 was the crowd favorite. This particular distillery is the heart of every Chivas blend. I found it heathery and smoky with a long dry finish. Very approachable. I absolutely loved it! We all seemed to love this even more than the Chivas and begged to get this bottled. Seriously, to everyone out there reading this, we need to launch an email/phone/letter campaign to Pernod Ricard to get this bottled. They will try to tell you that they already bottle a 12 but it’s not even in the same league.

Dram #2: Grain 18 took a lot of people by surprise. I was surprised by the number of people (mind you these were bloggers and drink aficionados of one type or another) that initially thought it was silly to age grain like this. They soon changed their tune. Three words for the rest of you…Compass…Box…Hedonism if there are any lingering doubts about grain scotch. I thought this one had a sweet nose and was very grassy and buttery on the palate with hints of salt. Very enjoyable.

Dram #3: Islay 18 was and odd duck. Everyone tried to peg it. I used to think it must be Laphroaig because Pernod used to own them and probably had a reciprocity or sourcing agreement coming out of the divestiture. Finally, Alex with Chivas broke down and told us it was a blend of multiple Islay distilleries. This blended/vatted Islay malt was nice too. I wasn’t as enamored with it as everyone else. It was very delicate and approachable for an Islay with hints of sweetness but I also got a strong taste of Chloraseptic throat spray that I didn’t like. I was in the minority opinion on this and it was my least favorite.

Dram #4: Longmorn 18 is another unbottled gem that should be. It had a very quite nose that opened up to lots of berries and dark fruit on the palate ending with a woody finish. Very nice indeed.

As Matt said, we finished with the Chivas/JW Blue comparison. My opinion of both didn’t change from last year. They are both nice drams but I think they are really for different target markets. I’m still not sold on the angle Chivas is selling putting the two up next to each other. That was more the opinion of the online group than the folks in the room. The people in the room all seemed to gush over Chivas like a little school girl. Maybe free booze will do that to you. (I kid because I love) I was in the definite minority on this one. Everyone tried to make the value argument which I find amusing because you have to be careful or it can backfire on you. They went on about “JW Blue is three times the price of Chivas 18, is it three times better?” No it’s not. It’s different. I don’t think Chivas 18 is three times better than Buffalo Trace either but the price is. They are different. I don’t like the “this is better than that” argument at all. That’s partly why we rate the way we do on Whisk(e)y Apostle.

I’ll close by saying that I couldn’t agree more that I absolutely loved this event. Even doing it remotely via webcam and chat room it was great. I also really enjoyed chatting with some of the other bloggers out there. We don’t really get to do that very often. We should do it more (hint hint). Many thanks to Stephanie and Alex for their time.

Oh…I almost forgot. They were serving the Crooner Fizz at the event and singing it’s praises. I got the recipe for you if you’re interested:

Crooner Fizz
– 2 ounces Chivas 12
– 1/2 ounce Rum
– 1/2 ounce lemon juice
– 1/2 ounce raising syrup (made by muddling equal parts raisins and boiling water)

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New U.S. Releases – September ’10

/ / Bourbon

Do you hear that? That’s the sound of tumbleweed rolling across the whiskey landscape. There are 30 days in September and only one new whiskey made any noise last month. I’m guessing everyone was busy at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

Old Forester 2010 Birthday Bourbon
Timeframe: Any day now
ABV: 47.5%
Price: $49.99
This is always something to look out for. Brown-Forman releases a new one every year and like the annual Evan Williams release from Heaven Hill, this tends to exemplify some of the best stuff in the age range coming out of Brown-Forman. This year’s batch came from 72 barrels that went to wood on October 24, 1997. They waited in the middle of Warehouse K on the 5th floor in ricks 42, 43, and 45. (I wonder what happened to rick 44?) I’ll be grabbing a bottle and so should you.

That’s it for September. As always, let me know if I missed anything.

Drink wisely my friends,

Richard

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