Still Here ... I Guess

I'm still here, though I know it doesn't look like it. I've started writing a few things in the past month or two, but each time I get started ... I set aside what I was working on. Not sure why other than that I really haven't been drinking much whisky of late (wrong times, too much going on, etc.; not disinterest, though). I did have a nice, very enjoyable glass while watching Batman: The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray Saturday night. And that got me thinking about this blog again. So, I guess we'll see what happens.

I also want to apologize to Keith who posted a comment way back in March. I didn't realize that I had comment moderation turned on. I never think to look for comments needing approval and so somehow I missed that comment. It has now been posted.

Still Here … And a Little More Highland Park

Yes, I’m still here and yes, I know it’s been a while since I posted anything. Time for this blog has been at a bit of a premium lately and I really haven’t had the opportunity to spend much time tasting whisky of late. Plus, if I’m being honest, the fact that this blog has received very few hits and I’ve received virtually no feedback has been … um … disappointing. Oh, well. I guess I was really writing this primarily for myself, anyway, right?

But last night I did have some time and the inclination so I poured a little more of that Highland Park 12-year old. I once again used my stainless steel ice cubes and cut the whisky with a bit of water (is there a magic ratio for whisky to water?). The biggest difference was that last night I wasn’t really trying to “taste” the whisky; rather, I was just trying to enjoy it while I surfed the web and read my Twitter feed. And you know what? I think when I wasn’t trying to be so serious and so careful … I found much greater enjoyment from the glass of whisky. Though again, if I’m still being honest, I think I would have preferred a Tawny Port. But I did find myself growing rather fond of the whisky as the evening wore on and the glass grew less full.

Also, I recently purchased another bottle that I’m planning to open, try, and write about soon. I think that I’ll try it on its own, probably going through the progression of straight, cold, and cut that I tried with the Highland Park. But I’m particularly interested to have a side-by-side tasting so that, perhaps, I can begin to understand the differences between the bottling of one distillery and another. So what bottle did I buy? Ah, for that you’ll have to keep checking back.

And I’ve read that Thursday is World Whisky Day. I’m hoping to make it to the tasting being hosted at Vine & Table … but my son is having his tonsils taken out tomorrow so “me” time may be a thing of dreams rather than reality. We shall see.

My Posts on the Use of Shelf-Talkers for Wine Sales

On my primary blog, I’ve written several posts about the use of shelf-talkers and ratings to help sell wine. In the limited shopping and browsing that I’ve done for whisky, I haven’t seen anywhere near as much use of shelf-talkers as in wine sales, but I have seen some, including references to ratings from publications like Whisky Advocate.  Thus, I thought that it was worth posting links to my wine shelf-talker articles here.

Wine Shelf-Talkers: Consumer Aid or Consumer Fraud? (posted February 28, 2010)

Wine Shelf-Talkers: Consumer Aid or Consumer Fraud? (update) (posted March 1, 2010)

Wine Shelf-Talkers: Consumer Aid or Consumer Fraud? (update 2) (posted yesterday) 

What is your experience with shelf-talkers for whisky? Do you pay attention to ratings? If so, which publications do you trust (and why)?

Slow Start & Filling in a Few Blanks

Sheesh. Sometimes the world around us just doesn’t want to cooperate with our plans for relaxation and exploration. I’ve got all kinds of ideas for things I want to do and write about on this blog … but I keep having to postpone those plans to deal with things like wife and kids. Now tell me, is that fair? Really?

Anyway, I did want to take a minute to fill in a few blanks from an earlier post. In A Wine Guy’s Exploration of Whisky (Part 2) I mentioned the “whisky guy” at Vine & Table and identified him as “Dennis”. Well, I’ve since learned that I added an extra “n” (sorry, Denis) and that his surname is Lynch (his card says that he’s the beverage manager). I’m not going to include his email here in order to spare him the spam that would likely be generated by the flood of traffic to this blog (does Spam pair well with whisky?).

More importantly, I was also able to go back to the store to find out which whisky Denis had first poured for me (the one I identified as all alcohol heat). It was Wild Scotsman 15-Year:

Is this a whisky that you’ve tried? If so, let me know what you thought of it. And besides the bottle of Highland Park that I purchased, what else would you recommend … and why?

Update February 13, 2012 (formatting and typo corrections).

It’s a Good Thing I Didn't Open That Bottle

Knowing that Friday was going to be a relatively easy day (we closed our office to give our staff some relief from Super Bowl traffic and to allow them to take the day and go partake of some of the Super Bowl-related activities), I had planned to sit down fairly late last night, open my bottle of Highland Park, and … um … taste it.

But as it turns out, that didn’t happen … and it’s a good thing.

Thursday nights are occasionally hectic in our household due to the kids’ activities. My wife wound up asking me to carry in some Panda Express for dinner. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as you’ll see in a moment), the food tasted good … but stayed with me all evening. I decided that sitting down for my first careful taste of a not-inexpensive single malt whisky while I still had the taste of spicy Chinese food in my mouth (and some rumbling in the tummy to paraphrase a particular Pooh bear) was probably a bad idea. So the bottle stayed tightly sealed.

So why was that fortunate? About 10 minutes (literally) after I would have poured that first drink, my wife became very ill. Details aren’t really important, other to say that both she and I were up all night long. Again, I’m speaking literally. She has a rare disease and for a while it was touch and go as to whether I was going to be calling 911 for an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Thankfully, we made it through the night. By morning, I was able to recall, quite vividly, how the first 6 months of being a parent to twins felt. And my sneaking suspicion is that as totally horrible and miserable as my night was … with a belly full of whisky it would have been that much worse.

Ah, well. there are many more nights. Um, like tonight, maybe?

Update February 12, 2012 (formatting and typo corrections).

Creating a Sense of Community

One thing that I didn’t make clear and should have: I would love to hear from others with a passion for single malt whisky. Tell me what you like (or don’t). Do you have a favorite bottle? Let me know what it is and, more importantly, why you like it so much. Help me learn about whisky by telling me what you like and give me ideas for directions for my explorations.

If you live in the Indianapolis area, let me know if you have a particular store that you think has a very good selection (or good prices) or a good proprietor with an understanding of customer’s palates.

If you know of a good book that will help me learn more about single malt, send me a link.

And if you disagree with something that I said or if I made a mistake that should be corrected, by all means let me know!

It's hard to create a sense of community on a blog … but I’d like to try.

Update February 12, 2012 (formatting corrections)

Hello and Welcome to a Wine Guy’s Exploration of Whisky

Hello and welcome to my newest blogging endeavor. I guess the best place to start is at the proverbial beginning. Several years ago, I started down the path to become a wine drinker (or wine snob, to some). I’ve discovered that I really enjoy drinking wine and I really enjoy learning about wine. I’ve read (or at least skimmed) numerous books on wine and have made learning about it as much of a hobby as actually drinking the wines. I have maps of wine regions and keepsake sleeves for my wine magazines. And I’ve had a lot of fun.

Maybe 6 months or a year after I started my wine adventures, I wrote a few posts for my planned wine blog. I was trying to write about my reasons for becoming interested in wine and my reactions as I learned about wine. The problem that I ran into, almost immediately, was that it was difficult to write about new experiences months after they occurred. Some of what I wanted to write and talk about was (I thought) interesting, but the temporal delay from experience to journaling made the process much more difficult and seemed to lessen the impact of anything that I wanted to say and share. So that project, sadly, was shelved (though I may post those essays here one day).

Now step ahead a few years.

I’ve always heard people talk about having a Scotch or a whisky (or whiskey) but, at least since college (more on that in a minute), haven’t really paid much attention. I’ve heard people mention Glenlivet or Johnny Walker and just tended to smile as if I knew what they were talking about. I couldn’t tell you the difference between a Scotch and bourbon. And frankly, I really didn’t care that much. I put tequila in a margarita, rum in a Cuba libre, and vodka in a screwdriver. Those and a chocolate martini were about the extent of my liquor knowledge.

But recently, my wine explorations have branched slightly. I’ve found myself trying some dessert wines and then Port. A few weeks ago, I found myself sipping a Port (Yalumba Antique Tawny Museum Reserve) while I surfed the web and live-tweeted one of the Republican presidential debates (oh, the pain…). And I realized that I was quite enjoying myself. A few days after that, I decided to sip a Port while my wife and I watched Top Chef (hey, it beat eating a bag of chips…, though she did ask my why I was drinking paint thinner). And a few nights later I really stepped up and poured myself a bit of Port while I sat down to read my book. I think it was at that moment that I realized that there was something that I was enjoying but that I’d been missing. You see, almost all of my wine drinking is as an accompaniment to a meal. It wasn’t until I started sipping those Ports in the late evening that I really recognized the simple enjoyment that I could add to watching TV or reading a book.

From that realization came the thought that perhaps I should expand my horizons further still. And my imagination sort of took off and I found myself thinking back to discussions that I’d heard from time to time about the pleasures of single malt whisky and other sorts of spirits. I also remembered the passion with which single malt whisky was discussed by author Barry Eisler (via his protagonist John Rain). Eisler (who happens to be one of my all-time favorite thriller writers) made some of Rain’s favorite whiskies practically come to life, almost like characters in his books (and if you haven't read Eisler, why not?). I even recall reading Eisler’s discussion of his favorite whiskies on his blog.

Now for a brief confession: As a high school kid, I really liked Chivas Regal. I think that can be traced back to the fact that my father used to order a Chivas and water with a twist whenever we’d go to a nice restaurant. Add to that the fact that I really didn’t like beer (hey, growing up in a suburb of Indianapolis in the early ’80s, my exposure to beer was pretty much limited to Bud and Miller; I’d never heard of things like Guinness). So when we snuck out to drink (um, is this confession of underage drinking, nearly 30 years after the fact going to stop me from having a career in politics?) and my friends brought their cases of beer, I would find a way to lay hands on a bottle of Chivas Regal. Or maybe something cheaper. But as a high school kid, how much attention was I really paying to precisely what I was drinking? Exactly.

My flirtation with Chivas (and whisky) in general, ended on a very, very memorable night during my freshman year of college. All-in-all, it was a really, really good night (no, I won’t go into more details, but I’m sure you can guess), but I had way, way, way too much (no, seriously, more than that…) Scotch that night. And by the time that I could stagger down the hall the next day, the allure of that particular beverage just wasn’t there anymore. In fact, the allure of any sort of alcohol was pretty much gone…

In the intervening years (28 years? Yeesh!) I’ve had a sip of Scotch here and there, but never really paid it any attention. It was just another alcohol. Take it or leave it. I do know, however, that none of those sips was of anything memorable (or which should have been memorable).

Now as I mentioned earlier, in my exploration of wine, I’ve really enjoyed learning about wine; for me, it hasn’t just been about the experience of drinking the wine. So as I found myself thinking back to what I’d heard others discussing about whisky over the years, I realized that perhaps there was more to know about the subject. I remembered a friend trying to explain to me the differences in whiskies based on the region of Scotland from whence they originated. But as that discussion was still a few years before I began to learn about wine and the importance of terroir I didn’t pay it much heed. Though it did stick in my mind as an interesting subject. (OK, one more confession: I’m fascinated with Scotland. Don't believe me? Perhaps you should visit another one of my webpages that has a direct tie to Scotland.)

So a week or so ago, I happened to be in one of my favorite wine shops (Vine & Table in Carmel, Indiana; stop in, say “hi”, tell ’em I sent you…) and I decided to step off my own beaten path through the shelves of wine bottles and venture into the big scary area devoted to whisky. Wow! I had no idea (though I don’t know why…) just how many different varieties and brands of whisky there were. I found myself reading label after label (hey, those boxes that some of the bottles come in are pretty cool!) and wondering what some of the terms meant. But I quickly realized that, even though I was suddenly curious enough to maybe give one of these whiskies a try (and what the hell, I kept wondering, do they mean by single malt?), I didn’t know enough to even guess as to which bottle to use as a starting point. What was good? What was bad? What would help lead me down the path of discovery and what would cause me to run for the exits crying out for my mommy.

I decided that I wanted to learn about whisky and single malts and all of this new terminology. And, of course, I wanted to try tasting some of these spirits that were fetching pretty impressive prices. But I knew that I needed a lot more knowledge and I needed help and direction.

And so my exploration of whisky was about to begin. Stick around and share my exploration.

Next up: My first tentative steps, some questions, some tastings, some books ... and a purchase!

Update February 13, 2012 (formatting and typo corrections).