Words about whisky

Read Joe's story on the changes in the scotch whisky industry here. It's in a French newspaper so that's all ooh-la-la.

Scotland Day Eight: Edinburgh and the castle

We had a nearly four hour drive from Speyside to Edinburgh for our last day on the trip, but it wasn't drama-free by any means. Once again, the back door of the van popped open while we were going down the highway and two peoples' luggage fell out. I watched as one tumbled behind our bus and was run over by the truck behind us. The suitcase was ruined and the guy's laptop's screen was cracked, but the bottle of Pimm's No. 3 and the Linn House bottling of 35 year-old scotch survived intact. Hooray!

We stayed at the huge and impressive Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh, but I didn't spend more than 20 minutes awake in the room. I had bars to see! My drinking pal for the day was Bill Dowd, and we stopped into about 7 venues in three hours. Not bad. I'll have to reserve the write-up on those for a future story, but I loved Oloroso and Tonic most of all.

Back in the room for a quick change into the first suit jacket I've owned since First Communion (50 bucks at H&M), I was ready for a private dinner in Edinburgh Castle. Several of the distillers and blenders from earlier in the week joined us, and it was like everything else in the week: ultra-fancy. The people at Old Pulteney were kind enough to contribute some 31 year-old scotch for us to drink at dinner and at the after-party at the Balmoral Hotel.

It was almost a beautiful ending to a fantastic (and educational) trip, but alas, the trip home was not-so-fab. The combination of Delta and JFK airport caused delays, a missed connection, a night in New York, sleeping on a friend's floor, and an early next-day flight 15 hours later than I was supposed to be home.

Luckily when I arrived there, there was a bottle of scotch that had been delivered waiting for me.

Scotland Day Seven: The real post

This was our final distillery day in Scotland, but it was a double-header. We started off the morning with a tour of the Glenlivet distillery. By this time distillery tours were old hat, so we just stopped off at the points that deviate from other brands. The we had lunch and a demo of an old still that they set up on the driveway. It produced some pretty good new make spirit, as far as I can tell.

After a tasting, we headed off on one of the new Smuggler's Trails. These were set up as nature walks meant to be historically accurate trails that smugglers would take to get the whisky out in the days when distilling was illegal (without paying taxes, anyway). And due to our three hour walk, I actually came home from Scotland with a sunburn!

We drove over to our hotel for the night, the Linn House. It's the property of Pernod-Ricard, owners of Chivas, and it's pretty darn fabulous. After a quick walk around the grounds and building, it was time for dinner. We walked over to the Strathisla Distillery, where the Chivas visitor center is. The distillery itself is gorgeous with the double pagoda roof and stone front. Inside, the visitor's center is themed like an old grocery store, which is how the Chivas brothers started off.

We were treated to access to the Chivas archives, where there were some great old product catalogs, then treated to dinner in a modern part of the distillery where they hold corporate meetings. For the afterparty, we returned to the Linn House's Garden Bar, which is like a little club house in the gardens behind the house equipped with a pool table, jukebox, and a fully stocked bar. I stayed up to a sensible 2AM, unlike some of the less responsible writers who tried to re-rouse me for the after-after party in the living room.

Scotland Day Six: Macallan and no bagpipes

I was on a roll there with two bagpipe days back to back, but alas, the trend didn't continue. On our sixth distillery day, we drove from Inverness to Craigellachie. On the way there, we stopped in Elgin to visit Johnston's cashmere center, a huge wool and cashmere factory where they sew scarves for Burberry, Chanel, and other brands, in addition to their own. The tour was surprisingly cool and I even found things to purchase in the large gift shop- books.

Then we popped in to a supermarket and I headed straight for the liquor aisle. I found Pimm's Winter, a.k.a. Pimm's No. 3 Cup with the brandy base. Wahoo!

Off we went to Macallan for a tour. At each distillery, there is a combination of old and new technology present since most of them have been around for at least a hundred years. Much of the equipment lasts for up to five decades, so what's been replaced lately is rather variable. I was surprised to find Macallan a very modern distillery. I guess I believed the brand messaging story a bit too much.

Macallan has an incredible "wood expreience" exhibit as part of the tour. It's not like a museum where there is a lot of text and you lead yourself through it, but rather the tour guide takes you through and tells you what you're about to learn at each point. There is information on types of wood, sizes of barrels, color in whisky, a smell area with different substances in jars to identify, and other stuff. Interestingly, despite this nice big exhibit they try to keep the number of tour visitors down, not accepting large busses, and only doing about 6, 10-person tours a day in the high season.

For dinner and overnight, we stayed at the Easter Elchies house. It's the house on the Macallan label, built in 1700. I stayed in the room on the top right on the label, so now every time I drink Macallan it will be like looking at a postcard from my trip. Score.

We have just one distillery left to visit, and I'm already feeling separation anxiety from Scotland. I freaking love this place.

Scotland Day Five: Glenmorangie and the fancy hotel

Pipercount: 3!

On the fifth day of our trip, we headed to the Glenmorangie distillery. They use the tallest stills in Scotland, as the original one was a former gin still. The taller the stills, the lighter the particles have to be to reach the top during distillation, and the resulting scotch has a lighter, more floral character than the heavier, oilier ones from lower stills.

We had a lovely barrel tasting of some Glenmorangie that was first aged ten years in an ex-bourbon cask, then an additional seven in a sherry cask. (The finished whisky line by Glenmorangie is ten years in bourbon plus two extra in a sherry, port, etc. cask.) The stuff came out a dark vermouth color, and tastes like pecan walnut maple ice cream-yummers.

After that we headed to the Culloden Battlefield Visitor's Center, a new museum on the site of Bonnie Prince Charlie's last stand. It was built in the modern museum style, with high-tech displays interspersed with historical photographs, maps, and artifacts from the time. Cool stuff.

Then it was off to the Culloden House Hotel, where I am currently typing this. They have a bag pipe player wander around the front lawn of the estate before dinner time, so that brings our Pipercount up to three! As you can see from the picture, the place is incredible. I tried to convince the trip's sponsors that I "didn't get the right material for my story" so I'd need to stay on a few extra days here, but it didn't work.

Usually when people say that their hotel room is bigger than their apartment they're exaggerating, but in this case it's true. Walking back and forth between the rooms to pack is wearing me out. But then again, I'm still tired from the midnight croquet game on the front lawn of the estate. Ahh, country life.

Scotland Day Four: Pipercount- Two!

I started the morning at 5AM catching up on live blogging Scotland. Then I had a walk past Huntly castle and the adorable town of Huntly. It reminded me of towns in Napa and Sonoma in a way, in that it's all cute all-too clean small-town goodness, except in this case it's 400 or so years old and not created by some entrepreneurial developer.

We drove to the Ardmore distillery, which has a relatively new single malt on the market despite folks distilling whisky there for many years. It's one of the primary single-malts in Teacher's Highland Cream, which is a blended whisky once popular in the US and still popular in the UK and other markets. The distillery isn't open to the public for tours, yet is all shiny and new-looking despite its age. They do a good job keeping things clean.

We then headed off to a local estate now owned by the Scottish trust, had a tour, then a great tasting session of Ardmore and Laphroaig (also owned by Jim Beam). We were lucky enough to sample a Laphroaig 27-year-old whisky that was just terrific. I highly recommend buying a bottle if you've got a thousand bucks laying around.

We hopped back onto the bus, our second home, and drive for a few hours to the Glenmorangie House, an incredible hotel on the sea owned by the distillery. For dinner that night we were greeted by a bagpiper (Hooray! Finally!) who announced the meal, then later recited the traditional Robert Burns haggis poem. The cook even made veggie haggis for little old me so I could finally try some.

While I passed out early, the rest of the crew stayed up to three in the morning. I'm uncomfortable in my new role of party pooper.

Scotland photos

By the way, the photos from my trip can be seen on my Flickr page here, organized by day and distillery. I'll be adding more pictures as I go along.

Scotland Day Three: Death defying

This morning I feel much better after having suffered from near-fatal jetlag the whole trip. I was averaging four hours of sleep or less since the day before the trip began, but last night I finally caught up and had nearly ten hours' worth. It was easier here, as we're staying in the hotel adjacent to a castle in Huntly.

Yesterday we rushed out of the not-as-fancy hotel to drive across the mountain towards the Spey river and the famous Speyside whisky region. Most of the group then had their own death-defying experience canoeing down the Spey river. Almost all of them tipped over, up to three times, in the freezing water. One writer said, "Just minutes ago I was curled up in fetal position on the riverbank." When the four of us smarter folks who declined the experience showed up at the end point, everyone else was shaking like wet chihuahuas and had in their eyes the crazed stares of people who just survived something awful and had a new appreciation for life.

What I was doing instead was visiting Ballindalloch castle, where we were greeted by the family who lives there and owns it. They had the affected accents and mannerisms of the moneyed gentry that you couldn't pay a character actor to imitate better. They were awesome.

Afterwards, the river people dried off and we went to the Speyburn distillery. The place doesn't have a visitor's center, so we were given the close-up tour. What I never realized about scotch production is that there are two different steps to prepare the barley. First you soak it so that the barley germinates, then you dry it out at just the right moment. This is now mostly done at centralized malting houses rather than onsite at distilleries as it was in the past. (The pagoda shaped buildings many scotch distilleries have are the old roofs of the drying rooms.)

After you (now) buy your malted and dried barley, you have to grind it up, then soak it again several times to release the sugars. Only then does it go to the fermentation tanks, then on to be distilled twice. We tasted the products of the distillation in the barrel room, sampling the entire range of Speyburn and Old Pulteney.

We headed off afterwards to Dufftown where we were given a cooking lesson by the chef at A Taste of Speyside restaurant. It was tasty stuff -even my veggie version was delightful. Then we checked into our lovely hotel where I skipped dinner and slept through the night. Ahh. I"m up at 5AM but after 10 hours of sleep that doesn't bother me at all.

That's right folks- two days in a row without bagpipes! My whole theory about this trip has so far proven wrong.

Scotland Day Two: Pipe-free

Yesterday we visited the Royal Lochnagar distillery, a very small, pristine place located next to the summer residence of the Queen of England. (The distillery was there first.) On the drive here the landscape turned from lush and green to tall rocky hills covered in heather- which looks like an ugly brown bush when it's not blooming.

Also on the way here, the back door of the shuttle bus popped open and someone's luggage fell out onto the street. We turned around and went back a few miles to find a lady holding it by the side of the street waving us down. Nice people, the Scots.

But here's what's not nice: no bagpipes all day! Can I get a piper up in here?

Piperwatch

Scotland Day One- Bagpipe count: 1

I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of bagpipes involved on this press trip. When I went to Mexico on a tequila trip we had one to three different mariachi groups per day. I think it's gonna be like that with bagpipes, which are just as loud, but at least there's no singing.

Whoops- scratch that. We had a singing Scotch harpist at dinner. But she was soft and gentle, like the rolling heathered hills of Dunkeld.

The folks at the Aberfeldy distillery (Aberfeldy single malt is the main flavor component of Dewar's blended scotch whisky) claim that the soft and gentle countryside is reflected in their spirit, which has a heather-honey aspect to it, no real burn to speak of, and a dry, sandalwood with a touch of peat finish. Does whisky reflect terroir, or is this just convenient? We'll see.

Live from Scotland!

After 24 hours of traveling (some of it in economy class- the horrors!) I have arrived in Scotland. Bill Dowd is here, as is St. John Frizell. We're currently in Dunkeld and about to visit the Aberfeldy distillery.

Driving the hour from Edinburgh, everything is big and green and currently blossoming. All the trees look very... healthy. We passed little baby lambs, Shetland ponies, and fuzzy highland cattle in the fields. I didn't have a clear mental picture of what Scotland looked like before I got here- it's actually quite Medieval, with big stone castles and tons of smaller stone houses alongside the rivers, every 10 minutes or so in the car. Gorgeous!

Come to think of it, I've been in Scotland for three hours and I haven't had a scotch yet- I better get to it.

Off to the highlands

I'm heading off to Scotland tomorrow morning for 10 glorious days of work (read: drinking scotch). I'm going to attempt to post from the road, and I have some blog posts scheduled to appear on Alcademics while I'm gone, so I hope you won't get too lonely.

In the meantime, I could really use some recommendations for places in Edinburgh to get good cocktails.

Anyone?

SWA = OPEC?

The scotch whisky world is all a flutter with changing international markets. There's a growing demand for scotch in India and China, without enough scotch available to meet expected demand. Many distilleries are ramping up production and beginning to release single malts without age statements (allowing them to combine younger and older whisky together to make it taste mid-range) .

A lot of the industry's stress comes from one guy: Vijay Mallya, the Indian billionaire who bought Whyte & Mackay last year. From what I've read, whisky isn't very regulated in India, with some local producers even making "whisky" out of sugar. Mallya wants the Scotch Whisky Association, the powerful industry group that helps regulate and standardize whisky production from Scotland, to accept changes such as allowing additives and flavorings that will appeal to the growing affluent youth market in India.

The idea of the SWA allowing flavored whisky is just laughable. This is not a progressive organization. It's all heritage, heritage, heritage. But some of the comments Mallya made the SWA may like after all. From a story in The Scotsman:

Mallya now controls about 60% of the Indian whisky market following his £595m acquisition of Whyte & Mackay last May. Since that acquisition the price of bulk whisky has risen considerably as the widespread practice of selling whisky for cheap own label blends has stopped.

Mallya said he liked the idea of prices staying high and called on the SWA to restrict production, much like the Opec countries do with oil.

He said: "Over the last few years we have seen the price of whisky rise. Well, why don't we keep it that way? The SWA could become a value custodian.

"In the past we have seen overproduction ruin the profitability of the industry, one way we could prevent this is by restricting production. Opec does it."

I'm heading off to Scotland in May for a big press trip. I can't wait to hear some of the responses the distillers have to this.

For further reading, check out the latest issue of Malt Advocate magazine. They address the scotch whisky boom and its consequences.

CHOW booze round-up

CHOW.com is just cranking out the booze stories lately. Currently on the front page there are:

• A take-down of Vodka 360's greenwashing
• A terrific Japanese whisky primer by Aaron Gilbreath that even has taste comparison notes to scotch brands
  
• An analysis of why nose grease tames beer foam
• And why Champagne's AOC is expanding
  

A different kind of grog

Eco-friendly French to ship their wine under sail
60,000 bottles on a 19th-century barque from Bordeaux to Dublin is just the start

Interesting tactic, and a great PR move. Coincidentally, I'm reading Scotch on the Rocks, a book about a ship full of scotch that crashed off the coast of a small Scottish island and lead to looting and police chasing after looters and then a movie about it all. Let's hope the wine suffers not the same fate.

The Drammies

Kevin Erskine's Scotch Blog has the results of his annual Drammie Awards. Particularly worth seeking out for folks like me are the winners of the Bang for the Buck and Most Under-Rated Whisky categories.

I was surprised to see how much people hated the Canadian Club "Damn right your dad drank it" campaign. I kinda like it, and am wondering if people are just calling it misogynistic because they don't like the brand. (P.S. Did you see Clontarf's new ads? Pandering, but also hot. Let's see if they make next year's list.)

I thought the Glenmorangie repackaging was a shoe-in for the Worst Marketing Campaign. I was out drinking the other night and saw they had the pre-change line of Glenmorangie wood finishes. It was nice to ask which ones they had and get answers like "port" and "sherry" instead of "Lasanta" and "Quinta Ruban." Say what?

Video Bartender: Great Scotch Whisky (2006)

This DVD introduces Scottish and scotch history, then takes a tour of some scotch and Irish whiskey distilleries. The majority of the video is a visual tour of whisky distilleries, yet it's not quite as educational as going on the actual tours. In other words, I didn't learn anything from watching it.

The DVD visited the distilleries of Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Glenfarclas, and Bushmills, and maybe a few others that I didn't write down, with lots of countryside scenery images thrown in for good measure. Overall, it's a fine Sunday afternoon PBS-while-cleaning-the-house video, but nothing that will blow your mind.

Later I watched Rick Steves' Ireland and Scotland 2000-2007. Steves only visited one distillery, plus the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh. He spent a large amount of time touring Scotland and driving on country roads, as well as hanging in pubs in Edinburgh. While not a whisky video, it was a nice introduction or warm-up for those going on a whisky tour of Scotland.

And on that note:

I'm going to Scotland!!! I just signed on for a seven distillery tour with DISCUS in May, and I'm very, very happy about it.

But the more I look at these video tours, the more it feels like I won't be seeing as much of the country as I want. We're just hitting Highland/Speyside distilleries (Only seven? But there are 40! What about Islay? Can we spend more time in Edinburgh?) and I'm trying to resist the temptation to go nuts and extend the trip for too much longer. Damn that Rick Steves for making it all look so cool.

Celebrity Scotch

John Mayer's favorite scotch is Lagavulin 16 year. I don't think I've ever tried it. Opinions?

Lalique- So Chic!

By me, in today's SF Chromicle:

Splurge on a $12,000 bottle of scotch
Though the product isn't available until January, the whiskey lover in your life probably won't mind the IOU for this $12,000 Macallan 55-year-old single-malt Scotch packaged in a custom Lalique crystal bottle. The spirit inside is unusual for Macallan as it has more of an earthy, peaty profile than their younger whiskies, and the funky bottle on the outside is unusual in that there are only 420 of them on the market. (To get one, inquire at Macallan55@remyusa.com.)

Popular Singles

Roll out the single-barrel
Bay Area watering holes snap up bottlings of exclusive whiskeys
Camper English, Special to The Chronicle
Friday, September 7, 2007

The Cigar Bar & Grill in Jackson Square in San Francisco serves a Manhattan you can't get anywhere else, as it's made with the restaurant's exclusive 10-year-old bourbon. Harris' Restaurant and Nopa have exclusive bourbon, too, as does T-Rex Barbecue in Berkeley. None of these watering holes have stills in their backyards to produce their own spirits, but they each serve a different barrel of whiskey.

Most whiskeys are blends of dozens of different barrels, sometimes fewer if they're "small batch" whiskeys. The distillery's master blender mixes barrels together to achieve the desired flavor profile consistent with previous batches.

In the past few years, the master blender has had slightly less work to do, as single-barrel bottlings have become popular. In these bottlings, a barrel of exceptionally high quality (or an exceptionally old one) is put into bottles and labeled on its own. The resultant bottles are usually sold to multiple liquor stores, bars and restaurants, but increasingly, distilleries have begun promoting single-barrel bottlings to individual customers.

Read the rest of my story in today's Chronicle here.

If it ain't broke...

...why rebrand it?

Glenmorangie is rebranding much of its line of whiskies, changing the bottle style, and renaming the wood-finished lines.

The company is also replacing its Wood Finish expressions with the Glenmorangie Extra Matured range of three single malts with Gaelic-inspired names -- Lasanta, Quinta Ruban and Nectar d'Or -- aged for 10 years in Bourbon casks and then additionally matured in either Sherry, Port or French Sauternes barrels. The Glenmorangie 18-year-old and 25-year-old whiskies will also be re-launched with their own bespoke identities, the company said.

Apparently Quinta Ruban is easier to remember than "port" (or whichever one it is).

For continuing updates on this, check in with The Scotch Blog, which always has the news as it happens.

I was just speaking with a bartender yesterday about how obfusicating product information really turns off bartenders and consumers. In particular he was annoyed with US bourbon and French vodka companies who try to hide where, when, and from what the products were distilled. He said he's now trying to avoid a certain corporation's products because he thinks their being ultra-tight-lipped is akin to dishonesty.

There is an increasing trend toward consumer education in the booze industry, with brand tasting parties, bar education programs, and advanced coursework and training for bartenders. People are really curious about what they're drinking and always want to know more. I know I am (note the domain name) and I've made a career out of finding out stuff about booze and sharing it.

On the other hand, look at vodka. Sales continue to rise despite increasing negative attitudes from media, bartenders, and amazingly even brand people. Three times over the past month I've heard well-known bartenders, consultants, and even a vodka marketing bigwig say "There's no real difference in vodkas." The media barely reports on it, bartenders in better cocktail lounges have dropped it from the menu or limited their selection to just a few brands, and at industry events vodka is openly mocked as a product for suckers. And we've all been chanting "gin will be big" for years and it just hasn't happened.

So who knows, perhaps the Glenmorangie marketing people are making a smart decision, and those of us who care about what's in the bottle are too dumb to see it.

WTV

Formerly subscription-based Singlemalt.tv is now free. Watch and learn about scotch. The shows seem pretty high-quality and informative, so I'll be checking them out too. According to The Scotch Blog they're going to roll out the station on mobile devices, which is a new business model that several online booze tv shows are going with.

Whisky and Branch

I had heard that some bars were importing spring water from distilleries near where their bourbon was made to serve true bourbon and branch drinks. That would be a lot harder if you're trying to get your ice cubes for scotch flown in from Scotland. But wait! Now there is bottled Speyside Glenlivet water available in bubbly or non that you can freeze at home.

I kind of doubt it's available in the US, but then again, you don't really want to take it that far anyway.

Cocktailing with Cameron Bogue, Part Two

So anyway, Cameron Bogue, Smirnoff Cocktail Consultant and I went out drinking in San Francisco. He had a map of all the places he wanted to visit but we didn't get all that far because we stayed too long at every place we did visit.

Slanted Door- We were lucky enough to visit SD on a night when bar manager Erik Adkins was working, as he loves to talk shop and mix up a lot of drinks. (Both times when I spent more than 20 minutes talking with Erik I had more than six drinks in front of me, which seems normal to me but customers started making comments...) We tried a rhum agricole punch topped with grated nutmeg that was just great. I had a Casino, which is an Aviation with added orange bitters. These bitters were the homemade ones that I wrote about in the Chronicle, finally put to good use. They were also experimenting with homemade ginger beer, as Erik went off the menu and whipped us up so many more drinks. Eventually we had to flee as we had dinner reservations.

Absinthe- Absinthe also has a Casino cocktail on their menu, so it turns out that I'm right about the Aviation being the new Negroni. We had a few other drinks with dinner there that were tasty, and I don't remember what they were but they were all terrific.

Bourbon & Branch- It turns out that Cameron knows Todd Smith, and had considered working at B&B when it was going to open. That would have been stupendous. Anyway, we had several drinks and all were tasty. They've been brining their own olives for a while now, but recently made a brine with smoked salt and I think scotch. The smoky olives were fantastic, though I think they could find a better vehicle for them than a gin martini. In other news, Todd says that they're bringing back the Rouge No. 10 when strawberries are in season. Hooray!

Rye- Normally Rye never dissapoints, but the execution of the cocktails we had there this time was off so we went back to B&B for a nightcap that I really didn't need but thought was a good idea at the time.

The next day I was horribly, miserably, shamefully hungover. But I had a text message from Cameron before I'd crawled out of bed as they were headed to LA around 8AM. Yep, the guy is a pro.

Friday morning fun

I had to wake up early today and taste a bunch of wood-finished whisky for a story. But now I have to switch gears and turn in a flavored vodka recipe before I write my rum story due later today. Feel bad for me!

Listing the wood on whisky menus

This is probably only interesting to drunk nerds like me. In a press release for the StripSteak restaurant at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, they tout their scotch selection, which at 120 single-malts is pretty good. But I was interested in the statement about the menu:

The comprehensive program features a focused list of more than 120 single malt selections spanning the fertile production regions of Scotland. Broken down first by region, then by producer, age and finishing wood, the list is among the largest in the United States.

Scotch producers are using all sorts of finishing casks these days, now including lots of different types of wine. This is the first menu on which I've seen the finishing wood listed prominently. I asked to see a copy of the menu, which is 51 pages long. Each distillery is described, then the whiskies are listed like this:

Glenmorangie, 12 Year Old, Burgundy Wood Finish 15

Silky, soft, tangy, cinnamon, spicy, sweet fruit and oak notes, nice length with more fruit on the finish

Glenmorangie, 12 Year Old, Madeira Wood Finish 15

Soft and dry, spicy, baked cake, buttery, toffee flavors, clove, nutty, sweet, medium finish

And like I said, you probably have to be a whisky nerd to find that cool.