low_delta

Twice a year, we put on Scotch whisky tastings for our Scottish society. We have about a hundred people attend. There are three of us Whisky Masters on the team. Larry, who started the whole thing in 2005. My dad joined a couple of years later, and helped refine the event. I joined in 2013.

When presenting, Larry emcees the whole thing, and talks about the whisky itself - the flavors and character, and interacts with the attendees, getting them to talk about what they taste. I'm the researcher. I discuss facts about the whiskies, the distilleries and such. My dad adds to the discussions where he sees fit.

We always have a theme. Past themes have included single distilleries, cask enhancements, the nature of peat, whisky masters' favorites, budget whiskies, etc. Next month's tasting is Women of Whisky - the Master Distillers. Last Spring's tasting sold out, but only barely. I think this one is going to sell out immediately.

We found six woman Master Blenders, and a whisky that each one was responsible for. I usually try to keep my remarks short, to give Larry or my dad time to talk, but there's a lot to talk about that's connected with this theme. For one, I have to tell them something about the whisky. For another, it's about the women, so I need to give a little bit of their stories. And I have to talk about what a Master Blender does. I was able to illustrate that with passages from each woman's own story.

If you're curious how it goes, here are my notes... ( behind the cut )

Every year my Scottish club has a raffle as a fundraiser. The main item is a custom made kilt. Then there are whiskies as additional prizes. This year, they asked the whisky masters to choose the whiskies.
There are three of us, so Larry and I drove to Illinois one night, to get the whiskies. One cost $50, one cost $100, and the third cost $150. I was pleased with my selections. Then there were three gift certificates of the same values, for a liquor store.

We had the drawing at tonight's meeting. I was kinda hoping to win the kilt, but I did not. Then they said they would draw for the whiskies, and asked which one was next. I asked "high or low?" and they said high. So I told them which one that was, and they drew my name! Then they asked me which was next, and I told them, and they drew my wife's name! She just joined a month ago. Then they gave away the third whisky. Then, for the first gift certificate, of $150, they drew my dad's name! He's the third whisky master. So our family got half the whisky prizes!

Members get the raffle tickets automatically, with their dues. A little bit after the drawing, I realized that they don't normally give raffle tickets to new members. I asked the treasurer about this, and he said that he's decided to add them into the drawing, just to make things easier. So we really lucked out!

Monday night was the big Scotch whisky tasting at the St. Andrew's Society. This one was a lot of work! The three of us used to do one meeting to prepare, plus a few e-mails. This time we did three meetings, many e-mails, and at least one more meeting would have been nice. We really had to do a lot of research to be able get across our points. It went well though. It might not have been our best, but we are happy with it.

Tuesday night was the CoPA meeting, our photographers' group. Kinda dull, but oh well.

Wednesday was Whisky Head. the theme was Irish whiskies. Educational, since I'm not too familiar with them.

Thursday and tonight I worked on my photograph for the show.

Tomorrow is Drammit. I need to write tasting notes.

Whisky groups... St. Andrews, we present two tastings a year. Whisky Head is put on by my friend Doug, five times a year. Drammit is a group of friends (we all bring bottles) which meets four times a year. November is when they occur in the same month, and this year they are all in the same week!

Crossposts: https://low-delta.livejournal.com/1697584.html

My dad and I went down to Union House to meet our new friend Monique for dinner and whisky.

We had an interesting variety of whiskies. Since my dad is friends with the proprietor, whisky is always cheap there, no matter what old and rare whiskies we've had. Tonight it might have been free. I don't know, since Monique treated us.

It's an expensive place to eat, though. I had the duck, which was excellent. I kinda felt like I should have one of the specials, even though they were more expensive than most of the menu items. I just had the duck, though. The wild game selection for the evening was pheasant. My dad ordered that since he'd never had pheasant before. He said that when he was a kid, he raised pheasants. The county gave him 150 eggs, and food for the chicks, and he released them into the countryside when they were ready.

The restaurant probably has the best Scotch selection in the state. Monique asked the proprietor how he got into Scotch. He said that when he first opened, he hired a chef, and the guy asked him what single malts he had. He replied, "what's a single malt." After that, he had to keep buying them to prove to the guy that he had good taste and knew what single malts were. Then his wife asked what he was going to do with them. So he put them behind the bar, and started selling enough of them to buy more. That chef only lasted two years there, but the next one is still there - since the late eighties.

Monique is totally charismatic. She makes everyone like her. She talks a lot, and can carry the conversation by herself, but she doesn't dominate it it, if anyone else has anything to say. As someone said, she was inoculated with a long-play needle. She usually has something in common with you, even if she has to exaggerate to get there. On the other hand, she knows a heck of a lot about Scotch whisky. I can always pick her brain about whisky-related topics.

Crossposts: https://low-delta.livejournal.com/1688119.html

My dad and I went to Chicago this afternoon/evening.

First stop was at the whisky store. I could not make up my mind on which whiskies to get. Then I was supposed to pick something up for someone, but couldn't remember what.

Then we went back up to meet someone for dinner. It took an hour in 5:00 traffic, which would have been fine, but I spent over an hour at the whisky store, so we were half an hour late. Fortunately, the person we were meeting was late too.

We met with Monique. She's a spirits distributor, so we talked whisky most of the evening. She wants to do a whisky tasting in August, for my dad's 75th birthday.

Crossposts: https://low-delta.livejournal.com/1681353.html

I had a bunch of people over for whisky last night. I need people to help me finish some of my whisky. I think there were twelve people including me. Jacqui came late since she was delivering rescue dogs, but there were eleven people in the room for a while. It got hot, and I had to get a fan.

I had 22 bottles on the table for people to choose from. I think every one was sampled by somebody. John brought an old bottle of Scotch from the early eighties. That was interesting. Kilby brought a friend, and they each walked in with a bottle. Then they left them. I guess they felt obligated to give me something, but the whole point was to get rid of whisky! I'm getting to the point of having to give bottles away. One guy commented that a particular one was his favorite of the night, so I was going to give it to him to take home, but that bottle ended up getting emptied. There were only four bottles that were low enough to be finished off, but there were several other bottles that were drained quite a bit.

Crossposts: https://low-delta.livejournal.com/1676785.html

What a crazy night.

I leave work early. I have an hour to load the car, eat and get dressed (kilted formal - tux). Half hour drive, and I get there by six.

For setup, we put out papers including the placemat. We set the glasses - six times 100 people. Then we pour the whisky. There are usually four or five of us, and we usually get done around 7:00. This time there were even more people, and it took longer. We had food this time too, but extra people were handling that, and it still took us for-freaking-ever.

When I went to load the whisky in my car, I decided to count the bottles. I was short one. I called my dad to make sure he didn't have it - he didn't. I looked everywhere, but it wasn't there. I can only assume it was literally stolen from my basement*. So I had to run from the store and buy another one. So I'm out $60. And that cost me half an hour, though I was only 20 minutes late. I'm just glad that the one that was missing was actually replaceable. There was one whisky that I got from the UK, because it's not available in the US. I'm not sure what we would have done if that one had gone missing.

I got down there, and it turned out my dad forgot a bunch of stuff. Like his marked cups, so we can pour the correct amount of whisky into each glass (600 of them). So he had to make something up on the fly. The first set I poured, I ended up having way too much whisky leftover. So the next one I compensated by filling the cup a little high, but then I ran out with one table to go. First time that ever happened. I had to decant a little from the poured glasses to get enough to finish. And the one guy even forgot his table markers.

We're usually done by 7:00, but it took us all until 7:30 to get set, and I was still fixing things for a while after that. I just wanted to sit for a while, but pretty soon it was showtime. The tasting went pretty well. No real screw-ups, but a guest commandeered the mic for a bit, and a couple of times we went long.

Afterward I just wanted to get the hell out of there, but people want to talk. They want to learn more, or they want to share their experience, or they want to tell you what a great time they had. I have trouble walking away from a conversation. And with all the people gathered around, I couldn't really clean up and walk out. I was tired before we even started. And it was hot in there. But I hung around and chatted, and had my picture taken with people, and we sang songs. Didn't get out until 11:00.

* Last weekend we had the junk people clean some old furniture out of the basement. I think that when the guys were down there by themselves, one of them saw the box of whisky, picked up the boxed bottle that was lying on top, and pulled one of the bottles out of the box, then set the other one back on top so it looked undisturbed. I'm not certain this is what happened, but I can't think of another explanation. When I carried the box upstairs, I thought it was odd that the boxed bottle that was on top, seemed to fit down inside the box, when the box had previously been packed tight.

Crossposts: https://low-delta.livejournal.com/1675433.html

The first half of the week I didn't get enough sleep. Wednesday and Thursday nights I got seven of eight hours, but I still didn't feel like I was caught up. I had been fighting illness all week, and I wasn't sure how well I'd make it through the whisky tasting Friday night. Turns out I made it through just fine. Then I got eight hours of sleep again.

This afternoon Cindy and I went for a walk in the woods. When I got back I felt a little queasy, late afternoon. After supper I got the chills and got achy and had to spend a while on the toilet. Then I couldn't find a position that didn't hurt so I just went to bed for four hours.

I'm still achy. I'm drinking watered down ginger beer, in hopes that it helps my queasiness, and re-hydrates me.

It was a good tasting. Kinda laid back. Mostly beginners who had a lot to learn. It was up on the third floor of an old house overloooking Lake Michigan.

Saturday morning we saw The Shape of Water. I liked it.

Then I drove to Chicago. I stopped at four stores and bought $1600 of whisky. That sounds like a lot, but I had a 15%-off coupon... so it's actually more than that. It was all for whisky tastings I'm doing, or for some friends. I hadn't planned on getting any for myself, but I saw a cute half-bottle, so I picked it up.

It was precipitating, so that made of kind of a long drive. There was snow before I left. Then mist, and as the temperature dropped it became snow, before quitting. In Chicago the sidewalks were covered with icy slush which turned to just plain ice.

Down there, I met Brenda. I picked her up and took her with me to a couple of whisky stores, then we had dinner, followed by whisky. There are some good whisky bars down there, and I always like to visit one. Usually Delilah's, but this time I decided to visit The Duke of Perth. Nice place. Cozy pub, good Scotch selection.

I got home at 1:00 am.

Today I spent a while totaling up my whisky purchases and letting people know how much they owe me. Then visited the Fermentorium for a beer before gaming.

I like alcoholic beverages. Scotch whisky, of course. Whisky cocktails. Other cocktails. Margaritas. Wine. I'm not a big fan of beer, but I kinda like some of them.

I like they way they taste, but I also appreciate them on an aesthetic and academic level. The whole craft beer movement is great. Craft cocktails, as well. I admire the art. And Scotch whisky is a hobby of mine. I'm a total whisky geek. I'm into Scotch like some people are into Star Wars.

But I don't like getting drunk. This is a problem at tastings, where we have a lot of whiskies. Some of my friends like to get drunk. They like to have a good time. I don't need alcohol to have a good time.

Unfortunately, with my throat the way it is, I've had to cut back on the whisky. Sometimes I'd like to pull back from the whisky activities, but I have a lot of people depending on me. I drink because of the peer pressure!

It was sunny and 70 on Saturday. It was chilly and rainy today, and it will only get worse from here on out. I really wish I could have enjoyed it, but I had prior plans. I would like to have gone out into the woods to see the fall colors. Also, I really needed to mow the lawn. It gets dark so early now, that I can't mow it on a weekday unless I take time off work.

There was a whisky tasting in Wausau, about a three hour drive away. We had some ostensibly fabulous whiskies. This probably won't mean much to most of you, but we had
Speyside 43y
Craigellachie 21-year
Glenburgie 21y
Highland Park 25y
Talisker 20y
Glendronach 24y
Ardbeg 1978 (~21y)

I didn't think all of them were fabulous, but some were. Most people didn't agree on which were their favorites, either.

After the tasting I went for a walk around the small downtown Wausau and took some photos. I witnessed an altercation and made a brief statement to the police. I went to bed pretty late that night, so I was really tired today. Hopefully I can get to sleep easily tonight.

I went to gaming tonight. I didn't really want to go, after being gone, but I didn't want to miss gaming, either.

I've been trying to cut down on the whisky.

Last Wednesday I went to Chicago to pick up a bottle for an upcoming tasting. As long as I was down there, I stopped at my favorite whisky bar to have a few.

Thursday, I happened to be in the area of The Palm Tavern, so I stopped in to say hi and have a wee dram.

Friday I was out at my dad's, and we had a couple.

Last night I visited Doug, and had more than a couple.

Last week was Kilby's birthday, and he got a really nice bottle (Bruichladdich 34-year), so he invited me over tonight. (He didn't tell me that he also invited Chris, Collin and Bryson.) So we had a few.

Maybe I won't have any more whisky between now and next Wednesday's club meeting.

Did I mention I've been trying to cut down on the whisky?

Yesterday, my dad and I drove down to the Chicago Highland Games. I didn't see as much of the games as I would have liked, since we spent most of our time at the whisky tent. But I did see a couple of events at the heavy games, we wandered through the sellers' area, and I had some haggis. Missed the dancing (I stopped by between events, apparently) and piping. Had way too much whisky, since after so many I don't really get a good impression of what it tastes like. But I had a few good conversations with some other guests there. After that, I saw some guys throwing heavy things to great height. Then watched a band for a few minutes. Then had haggis. Then the rains came and they told everyone to get out.

On the way home we stopped by two different stores in the Chicago area, to pick up whisky for our November tasting.

Today Cindy and I cleaned out the shed in preparation for its demolition. I got everything into my half of the garage. The lawn tractor, lumber, gardening implements and supplies, stupid crap I can't convince myself to get rid of, etc. I'm glad it wasn't hot - low 70's and windy - but I still sweated my ass off. I was drinking tons of water all afternoon, and I'm still really thirsty. And my back hurts.

I planned on taking tomorrow afternoon off to finish up, but there was no gaming due to Father's Day, so I finished it this evening.

Last night was whisky club. We had four 18-year Scotch whiskies. It was quite good. Oh, and we also had a 25-year Ardbeg. Amazing!

I know most of the people in the club pretty well. Some of us are making plans to get together next week. But I sat next to a new guy. He happened to mention he was going to a bourbon tasting in West Bend the next night. Funny enough, my dad and I were going to it as well.

So this insurance company in nearby West Bend (fun fact: people from West Bend are known as Benders. I did not know this.) was holding a fundraiser for the MACC Fund. Milwaukee Athletes against Childhood Cancer, I think it stands for. They were having a bourbon tasting, presented by Fred Noe, the great grandson of Jim Beam himself. In addition to that, they had a bunch of restaurants out presenting smoked meats. And items for sale and auction. My stepsister and I chipped in to buy a ticket for my dad for Father's Day. And since he was going, I had to go.

It was a rather exclusive event. You kinda had to know somebody, or work for the company. It was really expensive, being a fundraiser... put on by an insurance company. So everyone there seemed rich. There were a few young, tattooed people, casually dressed, apparently with disposable income, but most seemed to be older people, with good-paying jobs. The guy I met the previous night was invited by his friend the CEO.

The weather was amazing for this time of year. It really couldn't have been any better. 76° and sunny. Only a slight breeze. I got there a little after 5:00. All the meat companies were set up with their smokers. Brisket, pork tips, pulled pork, smoked salmon, smoked trout, smoke cheese, pork belly, you name it. So that was good, but the sign indicated dinner would be served later.

So then we had the tasting. Fred Noe put on a good show. He's kind of an old-timer, who grew up around the distillery. His dad was Booker Noe, if that name means anything to you. He had a lot of entertaining stories. And he used a lot of cuss words. :-) But he was able to work in a lot of good whisky info. And the whisky was... good. I'm not a huge bourbon fan, but it was good to taste them side-by-each (as they say in the south). There were over 300 people there, but nobody wanted to sit at the table right up front, because it looked like the VIP table, I guess, so my dad and I sat there. We weren't joined by anybody until a family arrived late and it was the only place left.

So then we went outside for dinner. We had a double-thick pork chop with roasted Brussels sprouts and red potatoes. There were little jars of barbecue sauce on the table, of which I took one home, even though I had to fight one of the servers for it. She was like, "well, I don't know!" and I was like, "yeah, I'm keeping this." And then miniature bourbon chocolate pecan pies for dessert. I'm glad they were very small. I still feel stuffed. Man, those pork chops were like 2-1/2 inches thick!

They had a band playing - Copper Box, who I've seen a couple of times. They're always fun.

And there was my new friend Tom. It was good that I actually (sorta) knew someone besides my dad. We talked with him a little bit. He's this totally type-A personality, really friendly.

I was in so much pain last night, I hardly slept. I didn't get to sleep until after 2:30, and I woke up before 7:30. It was my shoulder and the part of my back and neck that surrounds my shoulder that hurt so much. I think moving around loosened things up, so it improved over the day. Even shoveling a couple of inches of snow. Then I went to Drammit (whisky club) in the evening, so I feel fine now.

We had our whisky club "meeting" tonight. My dad hosted at his place. Tonight's theme was pairings. Bring a whisky and something that pairs well with it.

Sheep Dip blended malt with shepherd's pie
Dalmore 15y with venison and beef meatballs in a Merlot and juniper sauce
Benromach Hermitage Cask with raspberry truffles
Benromach Chateaux Cissac Cask with S'mores
Laphroaig Select and Dewar's 12y in a cocktail with honey ginger syrup, called Penicillin
Ardbeg 2009 Supernova with smoked beef brisket

I must say that all of those foods (or drinks) paired very will with their whiskeys. Mine was the Laphroaig and cocktail. We always do food pairings, so I got a little outside the box with a cocktail. There were cigars and pipes there as well, but (fortunately) nobody had those as their pairings. I recruited Austin to help me with the cocktail, because he's the mixologist.

Last year when we did this, my dad and Jack stayed up, drinking by the fire until almost 10:00 the next morning. I think my dad was disappointed everybody left by 1:00, so he couldn't demonstrate this feat again. I left at 1:00 with my designated driver. I think only one person stayed the night (Collin had set up his tent, though two more stayed the night last year).

So here I am, 2:00, at the computer. I don't like going to bed drunk.

A guy we know invited some people over for whisky. St. Andrew's members. He travels a lot (and makes good money), so he had some interesting stuff. A good Irish single malt (Teeling). Another (Bushmill's 21-year). An expensive Macallan. A Glendronach I'd never had (14-year Virgin oak finish). Ardbeg Supernova (extremely peaty). Two Cuban rums, a Turkish Raki (like liquid liquorice), and a real Russian Vodka (not bad).

Also lots of food. Brie, blue cheese, ham and lots of fancy cookies.

I go out with friends for whisky a lot. I try to keep it to once a week, but for the most part, it really is a social event.

I went to a Scotch whisky tasting tonight. Two of my LJ friend posted about the whisky they were drinking tonight (on Facebook), and included pictures. I didn't. :-(

I have two whisky clubs. One is a real club with a membership fee. The other is more of a social group. One meets quarterly, the other meets every other month except during the summer. Then there's St. Andrew's, where we hold two tastings per year. All three of these groups met within the last week and a half. Shortly after the St. Andrew's tasting last Monday, my dad and I started working on the next one. That took a lot of time to put together. Then I had to do the tasting notes for Saturday's Drammit tasting. That took about a whole evening. Sunday was recovery day (and then gaming night). Last night was Whisky Head. Add to that all the other things that go on (we went to a play on Tuesday), it's been pretty busy. It looks like it calms down a bit, for the next couple of weeks at least.

Teaser:

We woke in our B&B, to a view of cows and the ocean. The place was toasty warm - the only time in Scotland that really felt warm. My dad overestimated how early we'd have to leave, so was dressed and packed, and then got overheated and had to wait in the car while I got finished with my morning (finished dressing, packing, arranging, paying). We got to the ferry dock in plenty of time on the windy, grey morning. Two days earlier, we had trouble with the gale, coming back from Islay. There were similar problems on the northern tip of Scotland. The B&B owner told us not to worry about the ferry. They still sail in really bad weather, and this was merely bad. It was bad enough that they routed us through the more sheltered Scapa Flow, rather than going up the exposed west coast of the island of Hoy. It was still rather rough, especially before we made it into Scapa Flow. My dad had some trouble with seasickness, but he made it through.

( +47, Ferry, lighthouses, Stromness, Standing Stones, Kirkwall, Cathedral, distillery, etc. )

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Entries tagged with scotch

upcoming whisky tasting

whisky raffle

busy week

whisky and dinner

Chicago trip

whisky night

whisky tasting

now sick

the weekend

alcohol

the last hurrah

the whisky

weekend

whisky club and more whisky

pain

teh whisky

it's all about the whisky