Pah

whisky notes

This post just to capture some whisky notes:

Old Pulteney (Highland) 12 year old

Salty.

Laphroaig (Islay) Triple Wood

A milder expression: less peaty, more buttery.

I tasted the Old Pulteney in 29 May 2009, which shows (a) how slack I have been with blogging, and (b) how little new whisky I have pursued in the last year.

The Triple Wood has a nice story behind its production and a taxing story behind my importation, but it hasn’t excited me as much as I had hoped. This, of course, only in relation to the excellent Laphroaig baseline.

17

Last night I went round to Mr Lee’s to watch Robinson Crusoe on Mars. He kindly offered me a sample of his very special 2007 expression of Laphroaig:

Laphroaig (Islay) Vintage 1989 17 year old

Explodes through your body with fire and smoke. Full bodied. Recommended.

Helps take the edge off my first five day week of work since February.

Drinking to a New Year’s Day

Benriach (Speyside) ‘Curiostas’ 10 year old

Peated, but characterless.

Whisky imported and local

Whisky with Harris:

Glen Ord (Highland) The Singleton 12 year old

Strong bourbon flavour, but you can drink it straight.

Caol Ila (Islay) 18 year old

Smoked rather than smoky aroma. Upfront it’s like Ardbeg with pepper, but it finishes with a bit too much saltiness for me.

Whisky with Rob:

Highland Park (Orkney) 16 year old

Smells refined, tastes rough.

Scapa (Orkney) 14 year old

Slightly fiery, basic whisky flavour.

(I also want to mention the very nice Maxime Trijol XO cognac that Rob bought me for my 30th birthday. It lacks the harshness of most cognacs. It’s like a platter of fruit, the layers washing over your tongue. Recommended.)

Whisky at Enoteca:

Sullivans Cove (Australia) bourbon cask 6 year old

Some whiskies are fiery, but this is fire. Burns away the inside of your mouth, then heats your body, and pushes out of your ears and pores. Like no other whisky I’ve tasted. Recommended.

The Australian Spirit

Lest you think that all we did was drink beer on our trip, let me assure you, we also drank spirits.

Yes, we picked up three bottles of whisky along the way to keep us warm on cold nights in the van, and we also tapped my friend Brad’s collection in Adelaide.

The scotches:

Aberlour (Speyside) 10 year old

I’ve lost my notes on this, but I remember it being a typical Speyside whisky.

Glenfiddich (Speyside) Solera Reserve 15 year old

Nice and fiery. Thanks, Brad!

Glen Parker (Tomintoul, Speyside) 12 year old

Mildly salty, but unremarkable.

We picked up Smith’s Angaston Whisky in a dingy bottle shop in Northbridge. This isn’t a scotch. I mean, it’s from Angaston in the Barossa Valley, so it’s obviously not Scottish, but it also doesn’t taste like scotch.

Smith’s (Barossa) 7 year old

Fruity bouquet. Bourbon and cognac flavours. Recommended.

There were only three vintages of this: 1997, 1998, and 2000. It was the 2000 we picked up in Northbridge, but I’ve since found some bottles of 1997 in Carlton. The 1997 is a little bit rougher, but still very nice. If you like scotch or bourbon or cognac I’d recommend it, it’s delicious. Get it while you still can!

We also didn’t just drink cocktails while in Broome. One night Pen got us a few drinks from the bottle shop and we sat on the grass to watch the sun set. She bought be a Cruiser, which at first I wasn’t happy about, because they are ultra-lolly drinks, but this one turned out to be different, as this SMS transcript shows:

I may be completely insane, but the guava flavoured Cruiser seems to taste like Purple Goanna! It’s made by the same people [Independent Distillers], but without the fun branding…

Bowie quickly nipped into a passing bottle shop to confirm:

Similar. Sweeter. Less sharp alcohol flavour? Or it could all be in my head. It’s nice.

Should buy liquid guarana drops and try adding. I think that flavour is missing.

In fact, their ingredient lists are quite different: Purple Goanna seems to be fermented (in NZ), while Guava Cruiser is a vodka mix (from Australia). But there is that unmistakeable smell and the taste is very close. What do you think, Goanna fans?

Bourbon

One of the first alcoholic drinks I ever really had was a shot of bourbon—Wild Turkey, I think—straight from the bottle: I vomited it back up immediately, a polite chuck. That was in high school. At university, I got into Jim Beam, developing a taste for the Black Label—sweeter and stronger—but only with cola, of course. One time I was lucky and acquired a bottle of the Gold Label; I drank that neat, as my palate then desired.

As my tastes have developed, I no longer find bourbon drinkable straight. It is too harsh, too rough. I drink Cougar with cola as something cheap and refreshing. Thanks to Rob, who likes his bourbon, I still try new things: Cougar XS, Wild Turkey Rare Breed, Woodford Reserve, Knob Creek, etc.

Recently we tried Booker Noe’s special barrel bourbon. This is one of the Jim Beam specialty bourbons; they claim it is the “rarest, absolute best bourbon available”. It probably is. It’s fiery. It goes down the throat burning and lights up your whole body. I coughed. They should replace the rum that St Bernard’s carry with this stuff, it’s like eight standard drinks per sip! There’s a taste of crystalised orange. It’s very smooth. But too fiery to drink much of and still too rough to really drink appreciatively. Yet problematic to drink it with cola: all you can taste then is cola and bourbon.

In fact, cola corrodes whatever is dipped in it. What can you mix with bourbon to make it truly palatable? I turned to the internet for mixers, but true aficionados drink it neat. The best hint I could find was a comment that it was best mixed half and half. So Rob, Penny and I brainstormed some possible mixers: dry ginger ale, ginger beer, soda water, tonic water, lemonade, and orange juice.

Our results? Soda thins the taste out too much, leaving a mainly soda water flavour. Tonic too thins the taste, leaving mainly its own. I imagine lemonade would be the same, but didn’t get the chance to try. Dry doesn’t mix well: you get the dry ginger ale taste, chased by the bourbon. Ginger beer is probably our favourite mixer, though it mixes the same way cola does; I guess it’s just the novelty. Orange juice was bad: it mixes superbly with a nice scotch, its organic complexity complementing the whisky perfectly—it similarly tries to complement bourbon, but bourbon’s got nothing, so it’s a one-sided taste argument that doesn’t go down too well.

So: bourbon is a fine refreshment, mixed with the same again of ginger beer, or as you like with coke; but to me it seems it will always be a poor person’s scotch.

Through a glass brightly

For Christmas, Rob gave me a beautiful pair of WMF cognac glasses. Terrifically wide bulbs with fat bottoms sit on short stems—perfect for gripping and letting your body heat gently release volatile aromatics from cognac or whisky. From there, the aromatics are concentrated at the tapered opening of the bulb, to give a perfect introduction to each drink. This gives the best possible smell and taste, and of course the spirit is also displayed delightfully. Afterwards, the spirit clings to the bottom of the bulb, drawing a beautiful Scotch lace. Even a lesser whisky becomes an exciting experience in these glasses!

I recently had the opportunity to trial some new whiskies in the glasses, when Mark came round bearing duty free Highland scotch.

Dalmore (Highland) 12 year old

Sweet, nicely balanced fieriness, flavourful, with a salt aftertaste.

Glen Ord (Highland) 12 year old

A little alcohol spike to it. Progresses from fiery to salty to mellow.

We also had Dalwhinnie 15 year old, which I’ve had before, and which I preferred to the two new drops, though all were nice.

Today we took the tram down to the Gertrude Street Enoteca. I carried Daniel in a sling. He slept, while Penny chilled out with a wheat beer, and I sampled some scotch.

Brora (Highland) 24 year old Rare Malts

Soft aroma. Really powerful, full bodied flavour, which sheaves a secondary saltiness. After several sips, the salt builds up, then evaporates as fire. Recommended.

Caol Ila (Islay) 12 year old

Peat, straight up. Laphroaig’s little brother.

I also had Tamdhu, which I’ve had before, and which is still lovely. I realised that it’s actually cheaper than Glenfiddich, which is hard to believe! I tried to buy a bottle, but they didn’t have any in stock.

When I first started coming to Enoteca, I had hardly had any whiskies, so I used the bottle display to aid my decisions. Now that I’ve had quite a few whiskies, I pick names from the menu to fill gaps in my tasting library. This lead to some problems today where Enoteca no longer had some of the whiskies I selected—and one of them, in fact, is no longer made.

Penang Affair

At the recommendation of Cos, we dropped into Penang Affair last night to try out the Lao beer, Beerlao.

The restaurant has indeed expanded its range to something like 50 foreign beers (most of which I’ve tasted). Obviously the distribution floodgates have opened up to demand—I’ve given up noting restaurants and bars that carry a large range of beer. My main quibble is that most of these are simple lagers, so the choice is somewhat illusory. (Save me from bottle shops “opening up” their range to Heineken, Grolsch, Stella Artois, Becks, Sol, Peroni, etc; don’t even get me started on the huge “variety” of Australian lagers.)

Beerlao is a lager. It’s a rice beer, but unlike rice wine (saki) which doesn’t taste like wine, it does taste like beer. In fact, Beerlao tastes like Tiger, a lager that I’ve always got time for. It’s a much lighter and “sweeter” flavour than Australian lagers. Refreshing.

(Penny’s had Beerlao in Laos. She thought and still thinks that it’s watery. Oh well.)

Of course, I didn’t go to Penang Affair just for the food. Their mee goreng is the best I know of in Melbourne (since the passing of Wei Wah in Clayton). I also had some excellent roti chennai and divine spicy tempura eggplant. The staff were as friendly as always. For dessert I had mango icecream and some whisky:

Glen Moray (Speyside) 12 year old

Very syrupy. A subtle flavour—some might say weak, but I find it’s actually quite charming. Give it a chance and it’s like a gentle cognac.

Islay, my Islay

As promised, a showdown between three Islay malts: Bowmore 12 year old, Ardbeg 10 year old, and Laphroaig 10 year old. Up in Anglesea, Rob and I got out the three bottles, some glasses, some glasses of water, and sat down to business. (The water was for cleaning our palate. The whisky was drunk neat.)

We started with the Bowmore, which I have been despondently drinking since I got back from Fiji. Bowmore claims it is “universally regarded as the ‘best balanced’ of all the Islay malts”. Rob confirmed my contrary feelings: it’s so balanced that it’s not distinctive. Thin, light, nothing strong enough about it to dislike, but nothing to like either. It would be fine as an introductory scotch, if not for Islay expectation and high price. Rob says it’s the least flavoursome scotch he’s had.

Next up was the Ardbeg, “considered by whisky connoisseurs to be not only the best of the Islay malt whiskies but the best whisky in the world” (and, in a clear shot at Laphroaig: “it does not flaunt the peat”). Rob thinks it smells awesome; scotchy, peaty, interesting. The taste is smooth and lovely, and coats the mouth pleasantly. I agree, it is genuinely balanced and subtle.

However the clear winner of the night was Laphroaig, “most richly flavoured of all Scotch whiskies” (though it moderates that by saying it “has always kept itself a bit remote, like the islanders of Islay themselves. A touch aloof at first, but make the effort, broach acquaintance, and you’ll have a warm and genuine friend for life”). Rob says it smells peaty, slightly eye watering, but in a good way. The taste is very dry. I say: that smell!! The taste is full, more than I can describe.

There was no meal to accompany our tasting because I wasn’t organised enough. However, Jim Murray of The Whisky Bible says this about pairing food and whisky:

No, it’s pretentious crap, avoid it completely. You’re in danger of screwing up the flavour of absolutely beautiful whisky, or the delicate taste of the food you’re pairing it with.

The BBC on the other hand advises that “whisky is a surprisingly good match with a vast array of foods, from smoked fish to roast meats.” I’m actually leaning towards Murray, but I also think most wine is ill done by food.

Later on in the night I drank some Bowmore with cola. It was lame. Bourbon and cola (any bourbon and cola) is better.

Here is my final note on Bowmore, plus the Dalwhinnie that I had at a cafe in Lorne the next day:

Bowmore (Islay) 12 year old

Smooth, bland, boring.

Dalwhinnie (Speyside) 15 year old

Salty. Like a milder, more palatable cousin of Glenkinchie.

Coming of Age drinks

For Richard’s 33rd, we trammed off to Transport for a beer, then went upstairs to Taxi for a feed. Afterwards, me and Rich walked to the Gin Palace for some whisky and Paul Giraud XO.

We had some old favourites, and also tried somethings new:

Bunnahabhain (Islay) 18 year old

Smooth. Definite cognac flavour—but I’d rather drink a real cognac.

Dalmore (Highland) Cigar Malt

Smells like golden syrup on crack. Honey flavour. The burn just builds and builds on your tongue with each new sip.

Glenfiddich (Speyside) 18 year old

Very nice (unexciting).

Macallan (Speyside) 10 year old

Boring. Really nothing.

Okay, that last one I actually tried a few days later, at the St Kilda Baths.

Fijian Cocktail

I picked up the Ardbeg duty free, but I felt like a total traitor to Laphroaig, especially when I read the Ardbeg tasting notes:

Ardbeg stands alone as the most delicate and complex of all the Islay Malts. It does not flaunt the peat.

Well! But it is lovely:

Ardbeg (Islay) 10 year old

A kind of subtle negotiation between familiar Islay peatiness and what I think of as basic whisky flavour. Recommended.

When we got into Sydney, I picked up a bottle of Bowmore, so I’m planning on an Islay tasting showdown dinner in the near future.

What else did I drink in Fiji? Well, the Fiji Bitter was nice, a Fosters-level lager. But what I really have to mention was a new cocktail I discovered: the Cau Cau—whisky, black sambuca, red wine, pineapple juice.

I know! So many questions!

• “Whisky?” I don’t know, but I suspect it was just Fiji’s own cheap-looking Regal Whisky.
• “Red wine?” I don’t know, but probably an Australian cab merlot house wine.
• How much of each? Your guess is as good as mine, but the Fijian cocktails I observed made all had generous measures of alcohol.
• Red wine? I’ve never heard of red wine in a cocktail either.
• Sambuca? Yeah, I always thought that sambuca (and blue curacao too) would devastate all other flavours, but somehow this mix worked.

And it did work, thought it shouldn’t. It sounds like something drunken party animals foolishly create at 4am with left over booze. But there was a complex interplay of each of the four flavours, I could taste each, and none where overwhelming. I’m not sure I’d say it was good, but it was interesting, and not bad. Though the alcohol content was as feral as you’d expect, and you could feel the strength. Luckily I was sitting in a deck chair next to the pool, so I didn’t need to move.

October Distilled

I’ve had the opportunity to try out a number of scotches during October:

Glenlivet (Speyside) 12 year old

This is the original Speyside whisky. Straightforward, nice, but better if you’ve had something nicer first.

Laphroaig (Islay) 15 year old

A pleasure as always.

Oban (Highland) 14 year old

Good, but unsurprising.

Tamdhu (Speyside)

Lovely! Syrupy, not fiery, a bit salty, with a heart of fruitiness. Recommended.

I also had a Japanese single malt whisky, Nikka “Yoichi”, which was very nice. I’d like to investigate this distillery some more.

I was also fortunate enough to try out some other lovely spirits:

• Paul Giraud XO cognac—simply amazing!
• A really nice tequila that I didn’t catch the name of, but which was better even than Herradura.
• 21 year old Jamaican rum—again, I didn’t catch the name, and I really regret that. I also now regret not being more adventurous at the Notting Hill Street Festival four years ago.

A lot of these drinks were drunk at the Gin Palace, which is sort of like a cross between Chaise Lounge and the Gertrude Steet Enoteca. Decadent decor, quiet clientele, an impressive depth of drinks, and smart bar staff—trust them to delight you! It’s down the lane opposite JB on Bourke St.

Sold

We sold our apartment at auction on Saturday; got we wanted, so we’re happy.

But even happier to get our lives back! Emptying the apartment of all our stuff, keeping it studiously clean, getting out (and getting the cat out) for inspections, etc, made our home into an unlivable hell. It was very, very stressful.

All of the effort and stress left me desperately taking what relaxation and escapism I could get. I hated that too. I don’t read books or watch televison or movies to escape. I don’t do it to turn my brain off. I do it to think, to excite my imagination and critical faculties. I do it to live. Turning off, living mentally hand to mouth, isn’t really living, just surviving. Yuck.

After the auction we walked over to the Marquis, where I kicked back with a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, claimed to be the finest blend scotch whisky (50–60 years old, apparently!). It was very, very smooth and nice. But unexciting, though I did register more interesting things going on as the drink progressed.