Whiskey

For those who don't already know, WhiskyFest is a great show put on by John Hansel and Malt Advocate Magazine. They hold 3 shows every year in Chicago, San Francisco and New York.

The focus is squarely on our favorite brown spirit and the products represented are predominantly whiskies. Brandy,  Vodka, liquers and Rum make appearances but are in the extreme minority.

For us, it's a whisky wonderland.

Every one of these shows has its own personality and character. Some of that comes from the format, some from the attendees and a health chunk comes from the sponsors. People like John Hansel and Riannon Walsh work very hard to keep these three forces in alignment and aimed in the right direction.

WhiskyFest is very much an industy showcase. The major players and minor importers are on the same footing here. Everyone has the same space to work with, but that doesn't imply that the presentations are at all equal.

Mark and I trace the genesis of our whiskey adventures back to a science fiction convention in March of last year, but perhaps the biggest watershed for us was attending WhiskeyFest San Francisco in 2007. WhiskeyFest is an annual event hosted by Malt Advocate Magazine in Chicago, New York and as of last year, San Francisco. They rent the ballroom of a major hotel and fill it with whiskey exhibitors to the tune of about 250 different bottles from all over the world. I wrote about one of our more colorful experiences there in The Teacher's Pet, but there were many more important moments from that night. Really, we went from drinking almost exclusively Irish whiskey to finding some of the most exceptional Bourbon, Scotch and world whiskies we've seen to this day.

Father's Day is apon us again and what better time to get that special dad a bottle of something special. As a father of four myself, this guide for is a projection of what *I* want since there are no guidelines from a congressionally sponsored Government Institute Managing Mandatory Inferred Expression (GIMMIE?).

My first son was born in October of 1994 so this marks my 13th Father's Day. I thought that the perfect gift would be a bottle of whisk(e)y that is the same age as my fatherhood. The more I thought about this, the better I liked the idea. It has serious flaws for getting something affordable for my dad at 35 years but he doesn't like Scotch so I get off easy.

Just to prove that we are real human beings, once again we will crawl out of the whiskey cellar back at HQ. This time to share a couple of great American whiskeys; Bulleit Bourbon and George Dickel. We'll be at the Elixir in San Francisco starting at 7pm and pouring until 9pm.
So come on down Mike and I will be sharing schwag, stories, and some great hooch!

Last night was the premiere of the new season of The Deadliest Catch on The Discovery Channel. The captains have always gathered for drinks before the fleet sets out on the next crab season. This time we got to see what they drink for their toast -- Duck Farts.

Ingredients:

• 0.5 oz. (15ml)  Kahlua
• 0.5 oz. (15ml) Baily's Irish Cream
• 0.5 oz. (15ml) Crown Royal Whisky

Layered, not mixed, each in a shot glass in order.

Hat tip to this blog.

UPDATE: I've decided to catch up with the rest of the world and start using a 100 point scale. We probably will never rate anything below 30 points (because we're not planning on rating anything that doubles as an industrial floor cleaner) but the conversions to the old ratings will be easy enough.

• Bushmills Original - 50
• Jameson Original - 50
• Crown Royal - 50
• Crown Royal Special Reserve - 55
• Midleton 2007 - 85
• Bushmills 21 - 87

I think this works, considering I also placed Bushmills 1608 at an 88

Original Story:

The other night, Mike, Travis and I got together to do some serious tasting. Before we began we had four new bottles to open. We tasted Bushmills 10, Bushmills 21, Midleton 2007, The Balvenie Doublewood, and Scapa 14.

This is hard work. There are so many great flavors there to try and quantify, codify and categorize them is very difficult. But that is what we do and we try to do it well.

Boy, Bushmills is very busy this year. In addition to the release of Bushmills 1608, they're doing a Twin Cities poll with a drawing for a trip to Ireland:

One of my idle daydreams is to take possession of and restart a silent distillery. The two news stories here and here point to good news for the Scotch industry but bad news for me and my idle daydreams.

Soaring demand for Scotch whisky around the world has prompted another major distiller to announce expansion plans, this time on Speyside.

Chivas Brothers yesterday said it was reopening its mothballed Braeval Distillery and extending its Glenlivet production plant.

Diageo is also adding capacity like crazy:

Work started recently on the £40million plant at Roseisle in Moray - part of a total £100million investment in whisky by Diageo.

as is everyone else in the industry:

Ah... The next batch is out, now I need to know where to find them. The prices are a bit steep for most of us but these bourbons are special. I really respect Buffalo Trace for sharing their developments with the rest of us. I look forward to trying these new experiments. I'm very curious about the actual effect of the wine woods since Macallan has taken a clear stance that the wood is more important than the sherry in sherry finishing.

The core Buffalo Trace products are good, and extremely well executed, but I haven't been blown away by Eagle Rare, Blanton's or Buffalo Trace. I like them all and we'll be getting some reviews / notes up on all three of these soon but I'm still looking for the mind-blowing bourbons from these people that I keep hearing about.

Old Forester 2007 Birthday Bourbon and Pappy Van Winkle 15 or 20 are bourbons that stand out to me as mind blowing. It may just be my particular taste that marks these as the stand-outs but I think they take bourbon to a new level.

Even though the Martini gets all the press these days, the Manhattan is an older drink with stronger provenance. Where the modern Martini bears little resemblance to its early incarnations, the Manhattan has retained much of the original character. Both can easily find their roots in the 1800's but were developed on opposite coasts.

My first Manhattan was made with Crown Royal as I will describe below. This seemed like a perfectly reasonable choice for a Manhattan, but for some reason the last couple bar tenders have not agreed.The last time I ordered a Manhattan, their preference was for Maker's Mark. The traditional whiskey was rye, but like so many modern interpretations of old drinks, bourbon has become the whiskey of choice.

I serve my Crown Royal Manhattans in a martini glass, stirred and straight up. Here's my recipe:

The Old Fashioned is cited as the oldest cocktail. This claim comes from the early 19th century and defining the word "cocktail" in a manner that describes this very drink. So deeply rooted in cocktail history is the Old Fashioned that the glass it is served in is called an Old Fashioned.

As I've been sharpening my palate on single malts, my thirst for cocktails has waned. There are a couple though that will meet my need for complexity and variety at a basic bar. The old fashioned is wonderful in that it brings added character, body and flavor to normally pedestrian whiskeys. When it's made with a really good bourbon like Bulleit, it's even better.

Here is my personal recipe for the Bulleit Old Fashioned:

• 7.5 ml (1/4 oz) simple syrup
• 5cl (1.5oz) Bulleit Bourbon
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Mix all ingredients over 3-4 ice cubes in an old fashioned glass. No garnish is required. Zest with orange and rub the rim if you want some extra citrus zap, but you don't need it.

When we had the opportunity to pour the Bushmills 1608 at our fund raiser we where thrilled on multiple levels. Not only did we get to share one of the finest Irish whiskeys with people who would truly appreciate it, but we were able to do so before the official Release. We only pulled it out for the very savvy or the very curious. Even with its limited exposure, and our lack of emphasis on its presence, the 1608 created a buzz of excitement every time we pulled it out.  

Now that was fun!

 The day was rainy and somewhat miserable, but this didn't dampen our spirits at all. We were prepared for an entertaining evening where we were part of the main draw.

Mike went down early to drop off the whiskey and to scope out the location while Mark was still working at his day job. There were many supplies that had still not ben acquired and they would have to come at the last minute like so much of this event.

My regular job requires me to travel from time to time. I find myself in Texas this week. Funny thing about Texas, they love Canadian whiskey.

When I spoke with John Hall at Forty Creek, he told us of his Small Batch Reserve. I managed to get a couple of bottles in from Toronto by way of Vancouver. He also told us that the only markets for this 6000 bottle run were Ontario and Texas. Since I'm here, I'm trying to get some.

Last night, I went to two different local liquor stores. Somehow I ended up in a dry city surrounded by dry cities and we barely made it before they stop selling at 9pm. I was surprised to see the extent to which Crown Royal is promoted here. They've got two 50ml bottles in a little purple baggie on huge endcap displays of 1.75L bottles.  One place skipped the Special Reserve and only carried regular Crown, Cask No.16 and Crown Royal XR.  I've also heard that Crown Royal outsells Jack Daniel's here.

The days are ticking away and we're busily putting all the pieces in place for our first big event of the year. We've gotten some amazing donations that have ballooned the whiskey list from the originally intended 30 up to an incredible 50!

I'm thrilled to announce the arrival of Eagle Rare, Blanton's, Sazerac Rye, and Buffalo Trace from our friends at Buffalo Trace. This is a batch of bourbons that we wouldn't have been able to serve without their support. Skyy Spirits ensured that there would be no shortage of single malt variety with their donation. Malt Advocate has sent us a box of the first issue of 2008 to give away, and they have also helped getting me in touch with the right people to make this event possible. Diageo has promised to help as well, but Steve Beal has been ill, our best wishes go to him for a speedy recovery.