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Glasgow Bars: Blythswood Square

The last time I was in Glasgow Scotland, actually just a month ago, I hit all the cocktail bars I meant to except one.  I returned to Glasgow on another scotch trip last week (I know!), this time with Isle of Jura and The Dalmore, and luckily I got a second chance.

The bar is at the Blythswood Square Hotel and I think was previously a Royal Air Force club of some sorts. The bar program is directed by Head Bartender Mal Spence. Spence was previously in Edinburgh and hired his own staff locally and from Edinburgh to work here.

The cocktail list includes classics like the Clover Club, Cobbler, and Southside, plus originals including the Last Word spin-off the Donna Lee (gin, lemon juice, maraschino, Yellow Chartreuse, egg white and pink grapefruit) and the Duchess Of Bedford (Hendrick's Gin, Earl Grey Tea tincture, lemon, maraschino, St. Germain). There was a lot of grapefruit, maraschino, and Yellow Chartreuse in the original drinks (they lean toward refreshing rather than spiritous), and egg white is all over the place on the menu.

The drinks are very reasonably priced, starting at 3.50 (English Pounds) with several drinks at 4.5 pounds to encourage experimentation.

We only had time for one drink each and were there early in the night so I can't describe the scene, but it's a nice-looking bar and one I'd surely revisit when next in Glasgow. 

Blending Scotch Whisky at Morrison Bowmore

After my visit to the Bowmore and Auchentoshan distilleries, our group stopped by the headquarters of their parent company, Morrison Bowmore. (This company is in turned owned by Suntory, and is distributed in the United States by Skyy Spirits.)

 

There we met with Senior Blender Iain McCallum, who is sort of a legend even though he’s less than 40 years old. He's engaging, fast, fun, and smart as heck. If given the opportunity to attend to an event he hosts, I highly recommend it. (If given the opportunity to go out drinking with him afterward, I recommend that too even though he may hand you a shot of Malibu mixed with coffee liqueur.)

In the aged spirits category, a brand may choose to promote its distiller (in charge of distilling), warehouse manager (in charge of aging), distillery manager (in charge of the whole process locally), or the master blender. We spent time with Bowmore's distillery manager on Islay and Auchentoshan's distiller in Glasgow.

The blender's job is (obviously) to blend whiskies from the various barrels into the final product to stay consistent with the desired flavor profile of the bottling. (Single malts are not single barrels, remember, and they may come from various years as long as they're distilled at a single distillery.) This person will not only assure quality of product, they'll have an incredibly good/trained nose and palate for doing this.

In the blending room, we sampled a few new bottlings coming out from Auchentoshan and Bowmore- but not for several months. More on those at a later date.

We also had the honor of tasting Bowmore Gold, which is every bit as wonderful as I remember it. The Black, White, and Gold Bowmore expressions are long-aged in Vault No. 1, the below sea level barrel warehouse on Islay. The thing about long aged Islay whiskies, particularly Bowmore with its lower phenol (smoky) content than other Islay whiskies, is that after a long time aging the smoke starts to dissipate and new flavors come through. 

I finally had the opportunity taste the Black Bowmore, one of the most thrilling (also expensive) whiskies I’ve ever tried. It had a few flavor notes in common with Bowmore Gold (I was again reminded of the “banana sandpaper” that doesn’t exist in nature ), plus papaya and mango notes, and a mysterious and slightly darker nature. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. 

(Iaian McCallum with a bottle of the original Black Bowmore.)

The only disappointing (I use this term very relatively) part about the visit is that I didn’t get the chance to try the White Bowmore. But that gives me a pretty good reason to come back.

An Auchentoshan Distillery Visit

On the last day of my trip to Scotland with Bowmore, we went to another distillery, Auchentoshan. This distillery is located just outside of Glasgow, on a former estate.

Auchentoshan is in the Lowland region of Scotland, one of just five single-malt-producing distilleries there. It’s also unique as the only scotch distillery that triple distills all of its whisky. This gives it a lighter flavor profile than most single malts, and a thinner body/mouthfeel. This makes it both an entry-level whisky for drinkers new to the category, and one  that can be easily mixed into cocktails.

Scotch whisky distilleries usually (always?) have stills in pairs for two distillations; a smaller one for the second. Rather than adding a third still at the end of the process, Auchentoshan has an ‘intermediate still’ between the other two. 

(I couldn't fit all three stills in the picture. They do exist, though.)

The spirit is distilled to a high alcohol percentage before the final distillation that will make the cut of the heads and tails. (Previous to that, they're mostly concentrating alcohol. The final distillation/cut will pick out the desired flavor elements for the whisky by discarding portions of the distillate.) According to Auchentoshan's distiller Jeremy Stephens, the higher level of alcohol sitting in the still forces the volatile aromatics in the alcohol to rise to the top first, rather than the heavier, oilier compounds that they want to avoid in this whisky.

After a trip through the distillery, we took a spin through the one of the aging warehouses then went for a tasting.

The Auchentoshan line includes the Classic, which bears no age statement but holds scotch most between five and eight years old, all aged in ex-bourbon casks. The twelve year old contains about 25% whisky aged in ex-sherry casks. We sampled the 18 and 21-year-old expressions as well, along with a 1988 Bordeaux finished bottle that I really liked. The Three Wood is matured in ex-bourbon, ex-oloroso sherry, and ex-Pedro Ximenez casks.

And then it was on to the blending room... see the next post.

Glasgow Bars: The Blue Dog

The Blue Dog, as three different people told me, is "the place where everyone ends up," as it's open until three in the morning. I got there a little before 1AM on Saturday night and it was jammed. 

 

The long bar had five or six bartenders working at the same time. The cocktail menu didn't look terribly appealing to me with the exception of a couple drinks.

After a short and understandable wait, I ordered a Spruce Moose, which calls for Rittenhouse rye, calvados, maple syrup, and orange bitters. Despite the crowd, the bartender took his time and made it with care, which I greatly appreciated. The drink came out well-balanced and pretty darn tasty. Huge points for that. 

The crowd was a complete mix of everyone from 20 to 50-plus year olds. It had the look of a place that really gets crazy the later it gets. It's just up from my hotel, so I might give it another visit in a fews days.

 

Glasgow Bars: The Blind Pig

The Blind Pig is a speakeasy-themed bar in Glasgow that I visited on a recent Saturday night while in town for a Bowmore/Auchentoshan press trip. 

 

The venue is split into a restaurant and bar area. The bar was absolutely packed but I managed to squeeze my way up close to watch the action. The shakers were all metal (Alessi, I think) and they use those brushed aluminum jiggers to measure. The bartender had the old-time (white shirt and suspenders) look of American bars, but without the ironic mustache. 

The cocktail menu that doesn't appear to be online consists of mostly floral drinks, so I was having trouble finding something I wanted to order. Naturally, my first choice they were out of- the Holland House made with Bols Genever, maraschino, lemon, and vermouth. (I was amazed not only at how many bars in Glasgow carry Bols Genever, but also how many of them have it in drinks on the menu.)

I opted for the Moonshine Martini instead, made with gin, dry vermouth, maraschino, and absinthe. It was pretty good, except for the garnish of bright red maraschino cherries sitting in the bottom of the glass.   

This bar is open for brunch on Sundays and at happy hour has a special of martinis for two people at a discount, served in tea cups and coming with a tea pot for refills. 

This was just one of the ways this bar has a strong Hendrick's Gin influence on it- you could see it named in the recipes, the floral drink style, and a few product placements around the bar. 

(I like the glass lighting that doesn't look as nice in the picture as in real life- glassware hung over the bar with small lights shining on it to spray the light through the crystal designs.)

Glasgow Bars: The Booly Mardy's

On a trip to Glasgow on the way to the Bowmore distillery, I took a bar tour through Glasgow and stopped in to several places. 

Booly Mardy's was originally going to be named Bloody Mary's but someone else beat them to the punch. It's a small bar with plenty of table seating, though on the Saturday night I visited all of the tables were occupied and it was standing-room-only. Of the places I visited in Glasgow, this one had the least hip crowd of what looked to be after-work types (this makes no sense as it was a Saturday at midnight) mostly in their forties. Perhaps a birthday party had been held in the place earlier. No problem, I was there for the drinks.

 The cocktail menu lists about drinks with each base spirit- gin, vodka, tequila, whisky, etc. I opted for a tequila drink called The Rosieta but it was kind of a flop. The drink is supposed to be made with Jose Cuervo Tradicional, Campari, sweet and dry vermouth, and Angostura bitters.The bartender had to look up the recipe, stirred with the wrong end of the barspoon (not the end of the world), tasted the drink and tried to correct it by adding more tequila (a good thing), but ultimately the drink came out tasting like tequila and way too much Campari. I wonder if he forgot the sweet vermouth. 

Anyway, we'll chalk it up to an off night with a new bartender. I've heard good things about the bar so I won't write it off just yet. 

 

Glasgow Bars: The Ivy

While every bar I visited in Glasgow was packed on Saturday night, The Ivy looked like the place to be. The DJ was playing some excellent abstract dance music, the crowd was a mix of casual and clubby 20- and 30-somethings, and all seemed to be having a great time. 

I came for the cocktails, of course. The menu lists a selection of mostly rum drinks, so I went right for the "Not Rum" section of the menu (nothing against rum, it's just sometimes you find interesting stuff in the margins.) And I did! They were out of the ingredients to make my first choice drink, the Old Tom Carrot that is made with old tom gin, Lillet, lemon juice, blood orange, and carrot (juice, presumably). 

My second choice cocktail turned out to be a winner though. It was the Brandy Celery Fix, made with cognac, Merlet triple sec, Peychaud's bitters, lemon juice, gomme syrup, egg white, and muddled celery. What? Yeah, the celery was great in the drink and acted as a bittering agent. 

The drink was delicious and if I have time on the last night of the trip, I'll return here to try more of them.

 

 

Glasgow Bars: Lebowski's

Hi! I'm in Glasgow for a trip with Bowmore and Auchentoshan. I arrived a night early to see what this town was all about. 

My first stop was Lebowski's. You would expect a bar named for the movie The Big Lebowski to be tacky and over the top, but this just wasn't the case here beyond the cocktail menu. The small bar offers up a fair amount of seating, all of which was taken on the night I came in, and a little bit of room to stand at the bar. I didn't see any posters of The Dude or bowling themed-anything. It could have been there, but if so it was subtle compared to the room.

The aforementioned cocktail menu includes a tribute to the movie. Lebowski's offers up a menu of 19 versions of the White Russian, The Dude's favorite drink. Most of them are slight spin-offs of the original with different vodkas or chocolate/coffee liqueurs, but some stood out. I had The Smokey, made with Ardbeg 10 year old (smoky) scotch whisky, espresso liqueur, and cream, garnished with nutmeg. It was not bad- and actually reminded me of the cocktail that won a Laphroaig cocktail contest in San Francisco, also with smoky scotch and chocolate.

 

(Smokey White Russian at Lebowski's in Glasgow)

There are many other cocktails on the menus with some classics like the Sazerac and Mint Julep, a cigar-infused Manhattan, and some tackily-named drinks including the Royal Pu**y, Smashed Virgin, and Pu**y Juice. Other than that, the place was surprisingly not tacky. There were a few more interesting drinks and a good neighborhood bar vibe that would inspire me to come back here if given the chance.