"Too much of anything is bad, but too much of good whiskey is barely enough."- Mark Twain (American Humorist and Writer)
This one comes courtesy of Sheep Dip and The Spencerfield Spirit Company.
The Woolly Jumper
Ingredients:
- 5cc's of Sheep Dip Malt Whisky
- 1 large splash of Cointreau
- 1 Sugar Lump
- 2 drops of Angostura Bitters
- Chilled Champagne
- 1 Frozen 10oz tumbler
- 1 Blood Orange Slice
The Scotch Blog is once again hosting the Drammies! The award categories are up and it's time to make your nominations. Got a whisky you think is the most over/under-rated? Make sure that they make the list.
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a bottle of The Dalmore 12yo for a seemingly ridiculously low price. This whisky's won a number of awards, some best value nods, and the Malt Maniacs Bang-For-Your-Buck list. The Dalmore 12 is youngish and well structured, but not overly complex. Making it a great everyday kind of whisky. I shared a couple of drams with my buddy Daniel, then spent the remainder of the bottle at a reception for some visiting philosophers. While there were plenty of other whiskies to chose among it was The Dalmore alone that got killed that night.
My Tasting Notes
Color: golden amber (they add coloring)
Nose: sweet nuttiness and light caramel
Palate: sweet citrus and a hint of oak
Finish: mellow dried fruits
As I said above this is a well balanced malt suitable for everyday affairs. It would be a nice whisky to use as a baseline when introducing new drinkers to the joys of Scotch whisky.
Max Goss pointed out to me that Christie's auction house sold one bottle of 1926 Macallan Scotch for a mere $54,000. Bargain basement pricing! A number of news sources are reporting that this is an 81yo bottle of Scotch, which is kind of true. The Macallan 1926 was bottled in 1986 as a 60yo, which halts the maturation process. This isn't the first thim that a bottle of has gone for a mint. In 1991 a bottle went for £6,375 at auction and in 2002 another went for £20,150.
To my mind the real winner of the auction (aside from Christie's) is the person who landed the collection of 729 bottles of whisky for $102,000. That's an instant whisky library of some depth for the price of two bottles of the Macallan 1926.
A drunk gets brought before a judge. The judge looks down at the drunk and says, "You've been brought here for drinking whisky." The drunk says "Okay, let's get started."
Congratulations to friend and commenter Maxwell Goss on having his essay "Bourbon and Loyalty" accepted for publication in the forthcoming Whisk(e)y & Philosophy volume. In his essay Max argues that Americans, as a general matter, ought to prefer bourbon whiskey to its cousins from over the pond. (I hope that I'm not revealing to much, but you might guess as much from the title of the essay.) I have a lot sympathy for Max's thesis because he is of course correct. As much as I like Scotch whisky, I have to admit that I'm a Kentucky boy at heart. Scotch is an adventure that I've been enjoying for a number of years, but bourbon is where I come home to rest.
I've just discovered that Spencerfield Spirit has a blog dedicated to, among other things, their two whiskies Sheep Dip and Pigs Nose. I've yet to try the later, but the Sheep Dip was in fact my first introduction to Scotch whisky. Sheep Dip is that some what rare item known as a vatted malt, or blended malt, which is a marriage of various single malts. (The most well known of this group would is likely Johnny Walker Green.) This all has me thinking I should pick up a bottle for the holidays. In the mean time check out the site. They have a nice Flickr site full of pictures as well.
This past summer I had the opportunity to reconnect with a very good friend while stopping over in Knoxville, Tennessee. Part of that reconnection included an introduction to an excellent single malt whisky. Without a doubt, there are few things better than sharing a superior drink with an old friend. If you ever find yourself in Knoxville, and in need of a nice bottle of whisky, let me recommend that you check out McScrooge’s. The selection is fairly deep, though the knowledge of the staff can be fairly spotty. After some serious deliberation we settled on a bottle of Aberlour a'bunadh batch #18.
The a’bunadh (pronounced, a-boon-akh) is a unfiltered cask strength single malt whisky. At cask strength this whisky is about 59.8% alcohol, or nearly 120 proof! The Gaelic sourced name “a’bunadh” means something like “original”. Rumor has it that the a’bunadh is an attempt to recreate an older malt discovered in the distillery. I don’t know whether there is any truth to the rumor, but the a’bunadh is a closer replica of historic malts in that it is both unfiltered and bottled at cask strength.
My tasting notes:
Color: Dark copper.
Nose: Strong sherry, woody
Palate: Sherry pervades, very spicy and, without water, alcoholic. It opens up more with a touch of water; offering dried fruits and hints of caramel.
Finish: the sherry lingers on...
An interesting evening would be comparing the differences between batch #18 to earlier batches. unfortunately my pockets are not so deep.
"So long as the presence of death lurks with anyone who goes through the simple act of swallowing, I will make mine whiskey."-W.C. Fields
