Alcademics.com

New Booze: Pimm’s Blackberry & Elderflower (UK Only)

Here are some new spirits launching. The text is taken from these brands' press releases.

Pimm’s Blackberry & Elderflower (UK Only)

Pimm’s Blackberry & Elderflower is now available nationwide.  This twist on the iconic summer favourite blends the quintessential British flavours of fruity blackberries and fragrant elderflower. Based on a new Pimm’s blend, this first ever flavoured infusion from Pimm’s is perfect served over ice, mixed with lashings of lemonade, and topped with the freshest blackberries you can get your mitts on, perfect choice for adding some sunshine to summer shin-digs with chums and it tastes just as good on those not so sunny days.  RRP £15.49 for 70cl; 250ml pre-mix can (5.4%ABV), RRP £1.85

St. George California Agricole Rum (July 2013)

St. George Spirits will release its initial bottling of St. George California Agricole Rum at the end of June 2013. Bottles will start hitting shelves nationally in July. St. George California Agricole Rum is the re-launch of the California craft distillery's Agua Libre Rum, first released in 2010. While St. George California Agricole Rum is a new name and sports a new label design, the rum itself is the same spirit under the name Agua Libre.

St. George California Agricole Rum is made from fresh sugarcane, not molasses, in the style of a rhum agricole or cachaça. The sugarcane is grown in the Imperial Valley of Southern California. Immediately after harvest, stalks of sugarcane are shipped to the St. George Spirits distillery in Alameda, where the stalks are run by hand through a sugarcane press in order to extract fresh juice. The freshly pressed, uncooked cane juice is then fermented and distilled in the distillery's 500-liter copper pot still.

The SRP is $50 for a 750ml bottle at 43% ABV. 

Glenfiddich Cask of Dreams 2013

This month, Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whisky celebrates the launch of the 2013 Cask of Dreams Limited Edition Bottling, exclusive for the USA. 

Cask of Dreams is a special marriage of Glenfiddich whiskies taken from a selection of American oak barrels holding matured whiskies of a variety of ages, with the youngest at 14 Years Old. This whisky was then decanted into virgin American oak barrels to bring an intense and powerful vanilla sweetness. Glenfiddich Cask of Dreams will be available in a very limited quantity of 6,660 bottles at select retailers starting in June with a recommended retail price of $99.

Canadian Mist Flavors (June 2013)

The makers of Canadian Mist announce the release of Mist Flavors in the United States. Launching in 14 markets beginning in June, the three products – Peach Mist, Cinnamon Mist and Maple Mist – are crafted with Canadian Mist which is mingled with proprietary liqueur. Canadian Mist is triple distilled and aged in white oak barrels, charred to expose the "red layer" and create a light-tasting, flavorful whisky. The whisky is then added to the proprietary peach, cinnamon or maple liqueur to create the unique, smooth taste of Mist Flavors.

Mist Flavors will be introduced in 14 markets this summer:  Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.Peach Mist, Cinnamon Mist and Maple Mist are available in 50ml and 750ml bottle sizes in select U.S. markets. Each bottle will be presented at 70 proof with a suggested retail price of $9.99 for a 750ml bottle.

 

Castello Mio Sambuca

Castle Brands announces that Castello Mio Sambuca is now available in the US in "classico" style as well as espresso. The classic Castello Mio Sambuca Superiore is a unique combination of all the traditional sambuca flavors with a secret blend of herbs and spices. One of the great traditions of sipping sambuca is to add three coffee beans to it, allowing the natural coffee flavors and aromas to lightly infuse the glass. Legend has it that this will also bring you good luck. Castello Mio Sambuca Espresso takes that tradition one step further - with an infusion of real Italian deep roast coffee beans added to the classic sambuca.  Both products retail for a SRP of $24.99.

Luxardo Aperitivo 

Luxardo, in partnership with Anchor Distilling Company, introduces Luxardo Aperitivo to its family of Italian liqueurs. Luxardo Aperitivo (11% ABV, 750 mL, SRP $19.99) expresses the rich aperitivo tradition for which it was named. This amari, or liqueur category of Italian bitters, is an infusion of herbs, roots & citrus. The mild alcohol content & bitter orange flavor offers a complement to several fruit juices, wines and Prosecco. The favorite Italian cocktail is the Spritz, or the mix of Prosecco and Luxardo Aperitivo.

 

 

Malibu Sundae and Malibu Swirl, May 2013

Malibu announces the launch of two dessert-flavored additions to the Malibu family marking the brand’s debut into the confectionary spirits segment. Malibu Sundae combines the brand’s signature coconut taste with the flavor of chocolate ice cream while Malibu Swirl pairs the flavor of coconut with the taste of strawberries and cream.

Malibu Sundae, and Malibu Swirl, 21% ABV will be available in 1L, 750ml, and 50ml sizes and will retail for a suggested price of $14.99/750ml. 

 

 

Expresiones del Corazon Tequila, June 2013

Expresiones del Corazon, a limited, tequila collection aged in barrels from Buffalo Trace, and made at the Casa San Matias Distillery located in the Los Altos region of Jalisco. Offered in five unique expressions: Buffalo Trace Reposado, George T. Stagg Anejo, Sazerac Rye Anejo, Old Rip Van Winkle Anejo, and Blanco.

Using 100% blue agave from the highlands of Jalisco in Mexico, the brix was measured to determine sugar levels before harvest, rather than a traditional clear cut.  Two sets of agave were harvested, one with a lower sugar content and flavored a little drier, and one with a higher sugar content considered a little sweeter for agave, resulting in more floral notes. The result was a harmonization of the two sets of agave in the amazing Blanco, which was then used as the base for the other four Expressions noted above.    The agave was then slow cooked in stone ovens, infused with oxygen to further enhance the flavor and aroma, and then double distilled.

Expresiones del Corazon will be available nationally in mid-late June. Quantities are limited, with only 6,000 bottles of each variety available.  Suggested retail prices range from $59.99 to $89.99, depending on expression.

Buffalo Trace Reposado – 10.5 months in Buffalo Trace Bourbon barrels. 80 proof.
George T. Stagg Anejo – 22 months in George T. Stagg Bourbon barrels. 80 proof.
Sazerac Rye Anejo – After 24 months in Sazerac Rye Whiskey barrels. 90 proof.
Old Rip Van Winkle Anejo – 23 months in the wood of Old Rip Van Winkle Bourbon barrels. 80 proof.
Blanco. 80- proof. 

Tapatio 110-Proof Blanco Tequila (May 2013)

Carlos Camarena, the iconic distiller of Mexico’s 75-year-old Tequila Tapatio brand has launched a 110-proof Tequila. Tapatio 110-Proof Blanco (55% alc. by vol.) was distilled at Alteña Distillery from 100% estate-grown blue agaves in the Arandas Highlands of Mexico. Under Master Distiller Carlos’ Camerena, the agaves were hand-selected for ripeness and slow-baked for four days. After being crushed, the agave ‘Mosto’ was fermented in small wooden fermenters using their proprietary 75 year-old yeast culture. The ‘Mosto Muerte’ was then double-distilled in small (90-250 gallon) Alambiques Tequilano copper pot stills and aged lightly in stainless.  

Suggested retail for Tapatio 110-Proof Blanco is $48 (1 Liter). It is available in CA, WA, OR, TX, NY, NJ, CT, FL and MO.

Ron Barceló Imperial Premium Blend 30 Aniversario

Ron Barceló Celebrates 30 Years Since the Introduction of Ron Barceló Imperial with a Limited-Edition Release of Ron Barceló Imperial Premium Blend 30 Aniversario. Each year since Miguel Barceló first created Ron Barceló Imperial in 1980, private reserves of this prestigious ten-year-old blended rum were set aside for two years of additional aging.  Aged in barrels made from selected cuts of white oak, these reserves, some from the Bordeaux house of Château d’Yquem, each with different grades of toasting, were blended to create the limited edition Imperial Premium Blend 30 Aniversario in 2011.

Only 9,000 bottles of the Imperial Premium Blend are bottled annually, and of that 9,000 only 600 are allocated to the United States where this Dominican rum was recently introduced. The Imperial Premium Blend 30 Aniversario is 43% alcohol by volume.Ron Barceló Imperial Premium Blend retails for $120.00 per 750ml bottle and is currently available for sale in Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. For more information or to request an interview, please visit www.ronbarcelo.com 

 

Sia Scotch (June 2013)

SIA Scotch Whisky, a blended whisky distilled in Scotland and matured, blended and bottled by Douglas Laing & Co., Ltd., is heading for US shelves. Created by Scotch Enthusiast, licensed bartender and former Creative Director Carin Luna-Ostaseski, SIA is a blend of Speyside, Highlands and Islay malts, specifically created to appeal to a contemporary palate. The product is initially available in San Francisco.

SIA (43% ABV) is expected to be on shelves beginning in June with a retail price of $44.99 (750ml). SIA is imported by Spirit Imports, Inc. of Sunrise, FL. Named after the Gaelic word for the number six, SIA is the first Scotch to be funded through Kickstarter, the crowd sourcing website that is commonly used to fund start-up projects such as films or tech innovations. For additional information, visit www.SiaScotch.com.

UV Vodka Salty Watermelon and Peach (May 2013)

Phillips Distilling Company (Phillips) today announces two juicy new flavor additions to the UV Vodka portfolio, UV Salty Watermelon and UV Peach. Just in time for summer, the new flavors extend UV Vodka’s award-winning selection to 19 flavors. UV Salty Watermelon is the world’s first salted fruit flavored vodka. The flavor was inspired by memories of eating salted watermelon during hot summer days. Phillips experimented with various amounts of salt with all-natural watermelon flavors until they arrived at the blend of sweet, ripe watermelon and a hint of salt to bring out the flavor.

UV Vodka is distilled four times for premium quality and activated carbon filtered to ensure the highest level of purity and the perfect pH balance. UV Salty Watermelon and UV Peach are available in all bottle sizes with a suggested retail price of $12.99 for a 750mL bottle.

Five Gabriel Boudier Liqueurs

21st Century Spirits, a Los Angeles-based importer and producer of wine and spirits, extends its import portfolio holdings with France's Gabriel Boudier to include five new liqueurs. Four of the five new liqueurs will broaden the Gabriel Boudier Mixologist Range from 8 to 12 liqueur flavors with the addition of premium flavors: Caramel, Hibiscus, Darjeeling Tea and Vanilla and Cognac. The fifth Gabriel Boudier introduction is a special dedication to the late French Chef, Bernard Loiseau whose collaboration with Gabriel Boudier to create a unique cherry and chocolate liqueur blend lives on through the Gabriel Boudier Bernard Loiseau Morello Cherries and Chocolate Liqueur bottling, now available to U.S. purchasers nationwide.

The Caramel, Hibiscus, Darjeeling Tea and Vanilla and Cognac flavor additions to the Gabriel Boudier Mixologist Range join the original Mixologist Range portfolio, including: Lychee, Apple, Maraschino, Orange, Parfait Amour, Pomegranate, Ginger and Williams Pear.

Suggested retail pricing for a 750 ml bottle of the existing Gabriel Boudier Mixologist Range, as well as all five new liqueurs, including Gabriel Boudier Bernard Loiseau Morello Cherries and Chocolate Liqueur is $30 USD.

****

See more New Booze by clicking the link below. 

How Different Waters Affect The Flavor of Whisky

This is some seriously cool stuff!

A few weeks ago I tasted waters sourced from Scotland's Highlands, Speyside, and Islay regions and noticed how they brought out different flavors in scotch whisky. 

Bowmore's master blender Rachel Barrie recently performed a similar experiment, though she didn't name the source of the waters. But it turns out they were pretty similar to the waters I tasted, and her results echoed my own. I love not being totally wrong.

But the truly exciting thing is if we combine the results of her tasting with what I've learned about regional waters of Scotland, we see that the water from certain regions of Scotland, when added to whisky, seems to bring out specific taste qualities in the whisky for which those regions are known.

In other words, if you dilute a whisky with water from Islay (or in the style of Islay water based on mineral content and pH), it seems to emphasize Islay-ish flavor notes in the whisky, no matter where that whisky is from. 

Okay, let's get started. First lets see how Barrie's waters compared to the ones I tasted from UisgeSource.

 

UisgeSource Water	Rachel Barrie's Water
Highland Water: hard water, high in minerals. 225 parts per million dissolved solids and high in nitrate, calcium, and magnesium. pH around 7.7 (lightly alkaline)	Mineral-rich, with above average concentrations of Calcium and Magnesium minerals, high hardness and an elevated pH of 8.
Speyside Water: soft water, low in minerals. 125 ppm dissolved solids. pH around 7.8 (lightly alkaline)	Soft water with low conductivity, hardness, minerals and polarity with pH 7.
Islay Water: higher natural acidity. 183 ppm TDS. pH around 6.3. High in sulphate, potassium, sodium, and chloride.	Acidic water with higher Sodium chloride and Potassium sulphate, lower Calcium and Magnesium and pH 6-7.

As you can see, the waters we each tasted were pretty similar to each other. The only not-major difference was that the pH of Barrie's low-mineral water was more neutral than the water I tried. So I think it's fair to say that we tasted basically the same style of water. 

Now lets compare tasting notes, taking into account that Barrie is the Master Blender and the expert at this, while I'm just making stuff up as I go. Barrie noted that she didn't expect the subtle tastes in the water to bring out dramatic tastes in the whisky, but it did. They conducted a blind tasting with equal parts whisky and water. 

UisgeSource Water- My Tasting Notes	Rachel Barrie's Water- Her Tasting Notes with Bowmore 12
Highland Water: The Highland water brought out honey notes from whiskies.	The mineral-rich water unlocked additional layers of floral, herbal and peaty notes on the nose, and provided a more intense and intriguing textural experience (chalky minerality) on the tongue.
Speyside Water: The Speyside water made both the Islay and Highland whisky taste sweet.	The soft water brought out more of the sweet honeyed and citrus fruit notes, and delivered a softer, sweeter and smooth rounded taste experience.
Islay Water: The Islay water brought out the creme brulee and smoke.	The acidic water brought out more peppery peat, iodine and brine with unripe fruits and cereal notes.

While our notes don't agree entirely, we each found that Speyside water brings out sweetness, while Islay water brings out Islay-specific flavor notes like peat, smoke, iodine, and brine. 

I've always been skeptical about the bourbon-and-branch concept of pairing a whisky with the water from the same source. In the process of distillation, nearly all of the source water is removed from the spirit, and then it is diluted with purified (usually municipal) water. There is hardly any branch water in a finished whisky, so why bother going through the effort of pairing it? 

But yet, if we look at the results of the experiment above, Barrie's tasting notes for what the water brings out in the whisky are pretty similar to the generic tasting notes for whiskies from those regions:

 

Tasting Notes for Regional Whiskies, from a story I wrote for Imbibe Magazine a few years ago	Rachel Barrie's Water- Her Tasting Notes
Highland Whisky: these whiskies tend to yield a light smoke/peat element and flavors ranging from heathery and spicy to fruity	The mineral-rich water unlocked additional layers of floral, herbal and peaty notes on the nose, and provided a more intense and intriguing textural experience (chalky minerality) on the tongue.
Speyside Whisky: gentle, elegant and, refined whiskies	The soft water brought out more of the sweet honeyed and citrus fruit notes, and delivered a softer, sweeter and smooth rounded taste experience.
Islay Whisky: pungent with peat smoke, iodine, and brine flavors	The acidic water brought out more peppery peat, iodine and brine with unripe fruits and cereal notes.

Isn't that awesome? Turns out there just might be something to all that bourbon-and-branch stuff after all.

Note that Barrie wasn't trying to gauge the "best" water to pair with Bowmore. She writes, "Which water and Bowmore combination you will prefer is all down to personal taste. If you prefer a sweeter honeyed taste, adding soft water may be preferred. However, if you prefer the drier/briney tastes in Bowmore, a slightly acidic water (such as the water sourced locally on Islay) may be preferred." Read Rachel Barrie's full experiment and thorough tasting notes here.

This experiment deserves more testing. Here are some projects you and I might try to validate this experiment and take it further:

• Survey the scotch whisky producers for more information on their waters. As I wrote previously, even distilleries close to each other may have very different water sources. 
• Try whisky from each region paired with water from each region. In my experiment, I tried both Highland and Islay whisky and found the waters brought out the same notes in each, but it's worth trying all three of these regions. 
• Try this with waters from the Lowlands of Scotland, and Kentucky and Japan with those whiskies. 
• Find commercially-available bottled water that has the same or similar properties to the waters from each of these regions. (I'll get on this one right away.) If I can't find them, I may need to make them myself with what I've learned about creating mineral water. 
• Then repeat this experiment with those waters to see if it still works. 

 

So, yeah, awesome! 

--

The Water Project on Alcademics is research into water in spirits and in cocktails, from the streams that feed distilleries to the soda water that dilutes your highball. The research for the project is supported by Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky. For all posts in the project, visit the project index page. 

 

Live from Buenos Aires: David Wondrich on Drink History in the Americas

Hello from Tales of the Cocktail on Tour in Buenos Aires! I am attending three seminars today held at the lovely Intercontinental Hotel. (Then the rest of the time I'll just be in bars.)

The first seminar was a talk by David Wondrich called Drinking the Americas from Punch to Prohibition

Below are notes I took in the seminar, mostly unedited, but let me know if these raise any questions and I'll try to answer them.

When Columbus arrived some South American and North American peoples had localized fermented beverages but not really any trade or exchange in them.

When the Spanish came, they tried to recreate Spain in the Americas. Havana, Cartagena, Santiago, Chile, etc. So they planted wine grapes which in some places succeeded. Then distillation. The Spanish weren't big spirits drinkers as much as Northern Europeans. So in the Americas it became important because distilled spirits travelled better than wine.

But the Spanish government in Spain tried to discourage practice of local distillation of grapes as it didn't profit them.

In the Caribbean, sugar cane grew very well. Wiped out existing land and economy, imported slavery. English islands were particularly brutal. English weren't interested in building new England - it was more like strip mining the local land to bring it back to England.

Making sugar produced a lot of industrial waste- molasses. But they realized it could be made into (bad) rum that is basically free; made from free raw materials. By the middle of the 1600s the rum industry was growing. Went up and down coast of the Americas; becomes the national drink of the North Americas and the Caribbean.

The English "weren't water drinkers" - drank beer and spirits. But beer didn't work in the Americas so well - hard to make and took up lots of space. When travelers come to America, they notice that everyone is drunk. Because wine doesn't work except for in a few places, not much beer outside of Massachusetts and Philadelphia, but for the most part it was spirits.

Before early 1600s people drank straight spirits, or fortified wines, or fortified beer drinks (pop-ins); infrequently spirits and honey or sugar and water.

Around 1610 English sailors got 1 gallon of (beer gallons = 5 liters) beer per day, which was 8-10 pints per day. But now boats are full of beer - takes up lots of storage. This worked in Northern Climates but not when going to hotter ones where beer would spoil.

First mention of cutting heads of spirits comes in 1700s., so spirits at this point were gross and needed mixing with other ingredients to make them palatable.

1610s, some crafty sailor decided to turn spirits back into wine, since beer was all spoiled. So someone restored acidity of wine with lemons or lime juice (citrus from coasts of Africa); then to cut the sourness/bite they added sugar. Sugar doesn't spoil so they can carry it on ships. Then they add water to reduce it more toward wine proof, then add spices. Now you have Punch.

Supposedly origins of the name comes from the Indian word ''paunch" for "five" (ingredients) but Wondrich doesn't believe it. Indians weren't drinking punch; they were drinking spirits but not punch. Probably comes from English word 'paunch' meaning round and short.

When punch got back to the Caribbean they found it made the rum taste good, which had been problematic before.

Punch spread around the world, particularly England and on the coasts. But in America you can't get very far inland easily. So didn't have access to limes etc.

Inland you had the whisky distillers. Still needed to mix it but didn't have lemons etc. But did have mint. So Juleps started happening. Inland uses whisky. On coast used rum. If you could afford it you used brandy or genever in Juleps.

The birth of the yankee school of drinking was the addition of ice. Frederick Tudor created the ice industry. The Mint Julep was the first iced drink, and it was world famous - people hated America but loved the Julep- thought it was marvelous that such ignorant hicks came up with something great.

Then they invented the cocktails.

Richard Stoughton invented and advertised Stoughton's Stomach Elixir in South London. Advertised it as good for you after a night of drinking, and recommended you to drink it with sweet wine in the morning - so that's bitters, sugar, and alcohol. In England, 'cocktail' was a generic term for something that cocks your tale up. (There was a practice of sticking ginger in a horse's butt before trying to sell it; this would make the horse cock its tail up and prance around, looking healthy.) Any drink in the morning could be called a cocktail, including ginger beer.

In the United States, however, the cocktail became standardized and attached to a spirits and bitters drink very quickly. (In that story from 1803 where cocktails in the US were first mentioned, a guy was also drinking a 'gin bim' which is gin barbados-style. So that's a gin swizzle. )

Cocktails became a thing in the upstate NY area, but the 1820s spread to everywhere in the US, made with most spirits (except rum), brandy, genever, whisky. Initially it was not an iced drink. Julep was an iced drink but not cocktail.

But by 1830s-1840s ice industry had been around a while as had the cocktail. So ice came to more drinks - sherry cobbler. Shake it in a cocktail shaker (just invented).

Then the cocktail became iced and because cocktail was a quickly-consumed drink you wouldn't want ice in it so you'd strain it out. By 1849 the gold miners popularized the way of drinking cocktails with strained (it was initially a luxury) for a cocktail but after this became the standard way of drinking it.

Ice created a need for a whole new set of skills to mix with. So bartending golden age came about. People like Williard pioneered making individual drinks to order, created new iced drinks.

This iced style of American drink became the international style of drink - American bars popped around the world (70 or so years before US Prohibition; not driven entirely by Prohibition). In Paris by 1860 there were 5-6 American bars, also in Argentina, Melbourne, Sydney, London. Sort of the drink of the (pre-)jet-set, the world travelers.

Then drinks became invented locally by local American or American-trained bartenders, such as the Pisco Sour. Other hybrid drinks came about, such as the Cuban cocktails. Late 1898 American bartenders rushed in to open bars, expecting a business rush. They refashioned mixology for the local and tourist audience. They invented the idea of putting lots of citrus, pineapple juice in Cuba.

Around 1900s Bronx cocktail invented. It was the Cosmopolitan of its day. (It contains gin, vermouth, orange juice- a new cocktail ingredient.) It opened the door for Cuban-style drinks to come into the US. Daiquiri showed up after that in US in 1910s. (Introduced the idea of small glass of sour- previously if you wanted a lot of citrus you'd have a punch.)

Before 1920 tequila was a curiosity in North America at best. Prohibition brought tequila drinks into US.Then the Margarita came after.

That's as far as we got- not bad for an hour and a half-hour seminar!

 

Tasting the Regional Waters of Scotland

In my search for information about water sources used for various spirits as part of the Water Project, I came across Uisge Source, a company that bottles waters from different regions in Scotland.

The waters from Speyside, Islay, and the Highlands are meant to be representative of the waters used by distillers in those regions to make scotch; for dilution of drinks in the bourbon-and-branch style.

As I learned in the book Whisky on the Rocks, even distilleries next to each other may have different water sources, so it shouldn't be assumed that all the distilleries in an area use waters just like these in their whisky, but it seems like a good place to start.

The really cool thing about Uisge Source that it's not just water they sourced from these regions; they actually tell you about the chemistry of the water. 

Islay’s Ardilistry Spring produces water with higher natural acidity which is created by filtration through peat.

St Colman’s Well in the Highland region produces a hard water, high in minerals due to filtration through porous and brittle red sandstone and limestone.

The Cairngorms Well in the Speyside region produces a soft water, low in minerals as a result of being filtered through hard rock such as granite.

And they give a chart of each water's properties. I love charts! (Click to make it bigger.)

As you can see from the chart, the Highland water is full of minerals including calcium and magnesium. Islay water is high in potassium, chloride, and sodium, and has a lower (more acidic) pH. Speyside water is low in nearly all minerals and has a slightly higher (more basic) pH than the other waters.

So: How do they taste? Happily, they sent me some to experiment with. 

Uisge Source Taste Test

Speyside: Tastes quite dry. I notice this in distilled waters without mineral content, though at 125 ppm dissolved solids this still has a lot more minerals in it than my tap water. There is a granite taste to the water as well - not a creamy soft minerality but a hard one. 

Highland: I measured the total dissolved solids (TDS) in this one at 225 ppm. It tastes softer in body and sweeter than Speyside. It's also more earthy. 

Islay: At 183 ppm TDS it is halfway in mineral content between the other two, but this water has the most flavor- it's got a pronounced dirt/earthiness to it but I also taste grainy minerality. 

Then the natural test would be to try different whiskies with the different waters, so that's what I did. The results were surprising!

Tasting Uisge Source with Scotch

I tried a 25-year-old Highland single-malt with each water, and a 10 year-old cask-strength Islay with each. I was surprised to find that each whisky tasted best with its regional water! Maybe I just got lucky - I didn't measure quantities down to drops and such, but I really didn't expect these to align.

The Speyside water made both the Islay and Highland whisky taste sweet. The Highland water brought out honey notes from whiskies, but it was totally in synch with the flavor profile of the Highland scotch where it wasn't a perfect fit for the Islay. The Islay water brought out the creme brulee and smoke of the Highland scotch which was good but not the typical flavor profile I associate with it, while it did the same for the Islay scotch to great effect. 

This could all be in my head (and down my throat at this point) but I was surprised at how much these waters with subtle differences brought out pronounced differences in the whisky. Awesome. 

 

Looking to buy Uisge Source? Unfortunately it's not in the US yet, though they tell me they're in talks with an importer and I'll share the news when it's available. They have a list of retailers on the site for UK customers and you may find it in duty-free shops in some airports. 

--

The Water Project on Alcademics is research into water in spirits and in cocktails, from the streams that feed distilleries to the soda water that dilutes your highball. The research for the project is supported by Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky. For all posts in the project, visit the project index page. 

 

 

Related articles

Announcing the Water Project on Alcademics

The Geology of Scotland and the book Scotch on the Rocks

Making Mineral Water: Starting from Scratch

First White Whiskey, Now Brown Gin: Beefeater Joins the Unusual Aging Trend

Today Beefeater annouced the launch of Burrough's Reserve, a gin aged in Lillet barrels. It comes as part of a larger trend of reversing the traditional aging times of spirits and cocktails. 

White whiskies have been a huge trend for several years, mostly led by the craft distilling movement. The small batch distillers couldn't afford to wait for their whiskies to fully mature before selling them, so they all started selling young, barely, or not-at-all-aged spirit. The trend became so big that the major brands couldn't ignore it. Even Jack Daniels and Jim Beam released young/unaged whiskies at the end of last year. 

Meanwhile, in the mixology world, bartenders are taking things that are usually not aged and aging them: cocktails. This trend has also become too big to ignore, with even Vegas casino bars offering barrel-aged drinks. Bartenders are aging  straight spirits in small casks as well; sometimes to make them woody, sometimes to absorb the previous spirit soaked into the wood into the current spirit aging in it (the equivalent of cask 'finishing' frequently used in scotch whisky).

A couple months ago, word leaked about Absolut Amber, which is "a 40% abv vodka that has been aged for a minimum of six months with a variety of wood, including ex-Bourbon barrels, American oak and Swedish oak, as well as a variety of roasted American and French oak chips."

That was a pretty big departure for a company with mostly fruit and spice flavored vodkas, and seems to acknowledge the barrel-aging trend.

So too does the new Burrough's Reserve Gin from Beefeater, which is "distilled in a small historic copper still from the 19th Century, then uniquely rested in Jean de Lillet oak barrels. " (Jean de Lillet is a vintage reserve version of Lillet aperitif.) It will launch first in Spain in June, then the UK, then the US in October 2013. 

These are not by a long shot the first aged vodka and gins on the market. There was a big spike in aged gins several years back, after the launch of Bols Genever and Hayman's Old Tom, with other distillers deciding to create vintage-styled spirits. And some aged vodkas, like Starka from Poland, go back centuries. 

But with some of the world's biggest spirits companies now getting behind the unusual aging trend, many more people will be exposed to it, and perhaps more people will consider  how and why spirits are aged, and what that does to create the flavors of their favorite brands. 

 

Related articles

New Booze: Tequila, Sake, Rum, Vodka, and Tons of Whiskey

Please Don't Hoard The Malacca

A Few Whiskey Discoveries

100 Classic Cocktails You May Have Heard Of Made with Satisfactory Results

A Few Whiskey Discoveries

I attended Whiskies of the World in San Francisco this April and made a few discoveries. Here are some notes.

Tasting Highlights:

• Exclusive Malts (and independent bottler new to the US) Littlemill 1988 24 year old was terrific. 
• Mezcalero mezcal batch #7, which will be out soon, uses three different agaves. It is delicious. 
• Gordon and MacPhail Old Puteney 21 Year Old was terrific, and  Old Pulteney's own 21 and 30 year old expressions were a treat as always.
• Samaroli is an Italian independent bottler of both rare rums and scotch whiskies. I tied a Bunnahabhain and a Caol Ila that were both excellent. They brought some rums to sample but someone stole the box! 
• Willett Rye - I've had this before and like it a lot but didn't realize that it's the only rye on the market that is charcoal-filtered in the Tennessee whiskey style. 

Other notes:

Kavalan Single Malt is made in Taiwan and aged in various full-sized casks. They have one aged in an ex-fino sherry cask that I didn't get to try, unfortunately, but I did try another aged in a wine barrel that was really juicy. I also tried a bourbon cask-aged whisky. While it's not the greatest whisky I've tried by a long shot, it is really impressive as t is only four years old but it tastes far superior to most products of its age. Dr. Jim Swan, who helped develop the product, said that they get all the barrel interaction they need after about three years, but then keep it in wood (somehow sealed to have no more angel's share and no more wood interaction) for another year for labeling reasons. I think he said the angel's share was above 10% and despite the hot weather they don't temperature control their warehouses; they just distill it differently to accommodate its fast aging. Fascinating. 

Lost Spirits Distillery is doing some crazy shiz. They are making American single malts in Monterey and peating it up to 110 ppm phenol with Canadian forest peat, and then aging in various wine casks. They taste pretty young but the peat is wild- I'd call it swampy, even. The distiller said, "We get as much hate mail as fan mail." 

Tomatin is a Highland single-malt that made a big impression and ended up being a topic of discussion for a bunch of us. It's tasty scotch on its own, but what impressed us more is that it is very reasonably priced - the 30 year old can be found for $250. This is definitely a brand to watch. 

 

Related articles

New Booze: Highland Park Loki and Knappogue Castle 16-Year Irish Whiskey

The Geology of Scotland and the book Scotch on the Rocks

Announcing the Water Project on Alcademics

Soon Everything Will Taste Like Mezcal

The Geology of Scotland and the book Scotch on the Rocks

In my studies of water in spirits and cocktails, I picked up the book Whisky on the Rocks: Origins of the 'Water of Life' by Stephen and Julie Cribb. The book is about the geography of Scotland and how that influences the water sources for scotch whisky. 

It turns out Scotland's geology is pretty varied between very old (2900 million years) and new (60 million years), with large faults that divide the country into different areas, rift valleys, metamorphosed Dalradian rocks, schists, volcanic islands, and more. I don't know what most of those words mean either.  

Distilleries in Scotland draw their water from streams, rivers, springs, reservoirs, wells, and other sources. Even within a single distilling city like Dufftown, water comes from several different sources. The water used for scotch whisky seems to be just as varied as the whisky produced there.

One of the most interesting and useful passages in the book (to me), comes from an early page.

The primary source of water is rain, but what happens to rainwater before its arrival at the distillery affects its chemistry and thus the uniqueness of the resulting malt whisky. The rain may end up as a stream or river, in a loch or a reservoir, coming from the rock as deep or shallow boreholes, or as a spring high on a hillside. 

If it falls on bare mountains made of crystalline rocks it will flow rapidly downhill as streams. This water has little chance to interact with the underlying rocks and often has a low mineral content. It will be acid and soft. 

On the other hand if the strata are more permeable, or have many joints and fractures, the rain will percolate into and through the rock, dissolving it and increasing the water's mineral content. Limestones and sandstones, for example, yield water rich in carbonates or sulphates; such waters will be neutral or slightly alkaline and hard. 

'Soft water, through peat, over granite' was the traditional and still oft-quoted view of the best water for distilling. Remarkably, out of the 100 or so single malt whiskies, less than 20 use water that fits this description. 

Though the book covers how geography influences the water sources for scotch and the paths it takes to get to the distilleries, it doesn't really get to deep into how that water then influences the distillation and importantly the taste of scotch, noting that it is just one factor along with peat smoke, still shape, and aging that may influence the final product. But of course, that's a big question that I'm researching in my Water Project.

Some facts about water sources for whiskies from the book (keeping in mind it was published in 1998 so it may be out of date):

• Water for Laphroaig is acidic due to quartz mountains and peaty lowlands, but the mineral content in the water is low.
• At Bunnahabhain on the same island, in contrast, spring water is piped from the hills without passing over peat. The spring from which it is sourced is rich in calcium and magnesium so the water contains more minerals.
• Bowmore's water takes a long path to the distillery passing through quartites, limestones, sandstones, and through peat.  
• Tamdhu uses well water beneath the distillery and is the only Speyside whisky using water from the River Spey.

 Those are just a few tidbits from the book, which is only 70 pages but rich with diagrams of the geography of the regions being discussed. It is definitely a geography book rather than a whisky book, and can be a little hard for the novice (me) to parse. That said, I have a feeling that the more I learn about water and its effects on fermentation and distillation, the more I'll refer back to this book. 

--

The Water Project on Alcademics is research into water in spirits and in cocktails, from the streams that feed distilleries to the soda water that dilutes your highball. The research for the project is supported by Bowmore Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky. For all posts in the project, visit the project index page. 

Cocktail Recipe: The Brown Trout by Dave Newman

I sort of didn't care what was in a cocktail called the The Brown Trout, because the name is so awesome I would have probably ordered it regardless. 

But the ingredients are... intriguing anyway. Gin, scotch, Aperol, gentian liqueur, and elderflower - what could go wrong? Everything!

But the drink was very nice - give it a try sometime. 

I ordered this drink at Pint + Jigger during Hawaii Cocktail Week and it was my favorite drink that night.

 

The Brown Trout
By Dave Newman

1.5 oz Hendrick's Gin
.5 oz Johnnie Walker Black
.5 oz Aperol 
.75 oz Bonal
.25 oz St Germain

Stir with ice until well chilled, strain into a chilled coupe glass with an orange twist expressed over the top and then discarded.