Post by ♥ COVID-19♥ on Nov 2, 2009 0:09:26 GMT -6
Friday night, I had a rockin’ good start to my weekend with a whisky tasting at Union Square Wines & Spirits.
Although most of the participants were new to me, the Scotch representative was particularly familiar – Compass Box Whisky had their full array of offerings:
Compass Box Whisky Company
Asyla $45
Oak Cross $50
Hedonism $100
Peat Monster Reserve $175
Peat Monster $65
Orangerie $50
Hedonism Maximus $325
All of those were reviewed in my posting from a year ago about the Scotch tasting, with the exception of Orangerie. Unfortunately, Friday night’s tasting was so packed, the only Compass Box product I was able to sample was Peat Monster Reserve, which I chose based on the fact that I already have a half – finished bottle of Peat Monster at home and wanted to try the Reserve for the sake of comparison … and besides, at that price, it was way beyond my budget, so this would be the only way I’d ever taste such an expensive dram.
Penderyn Single Malt Welsh Whisky ($75)
www.welsh-whisky.co.uk
This is supposedly the only whisky made in Wales, although the company’s Web site indicates they make other spirits. The whisky contains all Irish ingredients and is made in a similar way as Irish whisky with one difference: they use Welsh water. It starts out being aged in American oak barrels that were formerly used to hold bourbon, then finished in casks that were previously used to hold wine. To be honest, I couldn’t really taste too much of a difference between this whisky and a less expensive Irish whisky; as a result, at this particular price point, I couldn’t really recommend it that strongly – it’s not bad, just not something I’d rush out to buy over and over again like some of my favorites.
Forty Creek Canadian Whisky Premium Barrel Select ($30)
Without a doubt, this one was the nicest surprise of all of the whiskies I was able to taste that evening. From the same distributor as the Welsh whisky, it had a distinctly different taste in that it was much smoother than Penderyn. If you are familiar with Crown Royal, the distributor says that tastes like water comparty to Forty Creek. That may be overstating things a bit, because I do like Crown Royal quite a good deal. By contrast, Forty Creek is much different from – but not necessarily better than – Crown Royal. It has a creamy taste to it, which almost brings to mind something like a Bailey’s, except that there is no cream in this Canadian whisky. Made from rye, corn and barley, its manufacturer takes something of a mad scientist approach by actually making three separate whiskies from each of those ingredients and aging them from six to ten years before mixing them together in various degrees to attain a perfect blend and aging for an additional six months in sherry casks. Given the unique taste and attractive price, I definitely recommend this one.
Reisetbauer Single Malt Whisky 7yr ($100)
Moving on to a different distributor, I can’t provide too much information about them as sadly, they didn’t come with much in the way of marketing materials, so you’ll have to Google it yourself. What little this guy could tell me he had to read from some spec sheets he was provided; clearly, he didn’t know too much about this stuff himself – I almost felt like saying, “Don’t trouble yourself – just hand me the papers and *I’ll* read it myself!” The small bit I did discover was the fact that this company makes whisky as a side project since they mostly manufacture brandy. The whisky is aged for seven years in Austrian wine barrels that are made of French oak. Given the fact that its taste isn’t very distinctive and it’s a bit pricey, I can’t really recommend this one very much.
Maker’s Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky ($50)
The well known Maker’s Mark was one of the familiar brands that appeared at this tasting. Aside from the requirement that it be made in Kentucky, one of the other things that differentiates bourbon from other types of whisky is the fact that it is aged in new barrels only, which are charred before the whisky is stored inside. Also, by comparison, something like sour mash (e.g., Jack Daniels, made in Tennessee) is coal filtered to give it a very different taste; this is not done with bourbon. Contrasted against rye, bourbon has a sweeter taste while rye tends to be spicy. Many cocktails that use rye can be substituted with bourbon – and vice versa – depending on what your tastes and preferences are. The bourbon was tried neat (best) and in cocktails: one with ginger beer and the other with peach nectar – of the two, I preferred the one with the ginger beer, but neat was probably best of them all.
Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt Whisky 12 yr ($55)
Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt Whisky 18 yr ($150)
For quite some time now, I have heard many positive reviews of Japanese whiskies, but have never had the opportunity to try any of them. Tonight would be my first and I was in no way disappointed at all. The 12 year old had a big nose and was very strong, so if you’re looking for something that’s smooth, this would definitely not be the best selection.By contrast, the 18 year old had an extremely smoky taste, although I’m told it contains only 2% peat. It is aged in mostly Spanish oak casks. I wish I could’ve gleaned more information from the distributor, unfortunately, he was hitting on some chick that a lot of other guys were talking to, so sadly, I couldn’t get too much out of him.
Highland Park Single Malt Scotch Whisky 12yr ($55)
15 yr ($75)
18yr ($125)
Finally, I wound up the evening with a classic scotch. Having never tried Highland Park before – although I’d certainly heard of it – I was somewhat surprised to learn that it was something of a misnomer because it is not made in the Highlands of Scotland, a region in the northeastern part of the country, as I’m certain Gordon could attest. Instead, it is actually from an island just off of Scotland called Orkney; because this island is just off the northeastern portion of Scotland, it is therefore called Highland, but more for marketing reasons than anything else.
Scotch being my favorite type of whisky (whiskey?), I inquired immediately as to what the differences would be as I ranged from the 12, 15 and 18 year old varieties and was told by the distributor that the 12 year old would be the sweetest, the 18 year old would be the spiciest and the 15 year old would be a blend of the two, falling somewhere in between – I would say that the 15 year old is definitely cleaner in taste than the 12, neither extremely spicy nor extremely sweet. While the 18 year old has a distinctively spicy nose, it is most definitely not overwhelming. It absolutely resonates as what scotch drinkers might consider a “real” scotch, but given its price, I would only purchase it if it were on sale.
Highland Park is aged in sherry barrels, which adds considerably to the color, sweetness and viscosity. Unfortunately, this is also reflected in the price of the scotch as the sherry barrels are very expensive.
So, after tasting all of these, which ones did I purchase, given the 20% discount on all of the spirits in this tasting? Well, given that Peat Monster is something of a favorite of mine – and one which I already had at home – that was a no – brainer, so I grabbed a bottle; Maker’s Mark, although familiar, was something I’d never owned before, so I charged a liter of that on my credit card as well. But the one thing I paid for in cash – and was a delightful surprise, as mentioned earlier, was the Canadian contribution, Forty Creek. Upon a subsequent tasting at home, I found it considerably spicier than what I experienced at Union Square, but no matter – it’s a good whisky and one that I definitely recommend for your collection.
Although most of the participants were new to me, the Scotch representative was particularly familiar – Compass Box Whisky had their full array of offerings:
Compass Box Whisky Company
Asyla $45
Oak Cross $50
Hedonism $100
Peat Monster Reserve $175
Peat Monster $65
Orangerie $50
Hedonism Maximus $325
All of those were reviewed in my posting from a year ago about the Scotch tasting, with the exception of Orangerie. Unfortunately, Friday night’s tasting was so packed, the only Compass Box product I was able to sample was Peat Monster Reserve, which I chose based on the fact that I already have a half – finished bottle of Peat Monster at home and wanted to try the Reserve for the sake of comparison … and besides, at that price, it was way beyond my budget, so this would be the only way I’d ever taste such an expensive dram.
Penderyn Single Malt Welsh Whisky ($75)
www.welsh-whisky.co.uk
This is supposedly the only whisky made in Wales, although the company’s Web site indicates they make other spirits. The whisky contains all Irish ingredients and is made in a similar way as Irish whisky with one difference: they use Welsh water. It starts out being aged in American oak barrels that were formerly used to hold bourbon, then finished in casks that were previously used to hold wine. To be honest, I couldn’t really taste too much of a difference between this whisky and a less expensive Irish whisky; as a result, at this particular price point, I couldn’t really recommend it that strongly – it’s not bad, just not something I’d rush out to buy over and over again like some of my favorites.
Forty Creek Canadian Whisky Premium Barrel Select ($30)
Without a doubt, this one was the nicest surprise of all of the whiskies I was able to taste that evening. From the same distributor as the Welsh whisky, it had a distinctly different taste in that it was much smoother than Penderyn. If you are familiar with Crown Royal, the distributor says that tastes like water comparty to Forty Creek. That may be overstating things a bit, because I do like Crown Royal quite a good deal. By contrast, Forty Creek is much different from – but not necessarily better than – Crown Royal. It has a creamy taste to it, which almost brings to mind something like a Bailey’s, except that there is no cream in this Canadian whisky. Made from rye, corn and barley, its manufacturer takes something of a mad scientist approach by actually making three separate whiskies from each of those ingredients and aging them from six to ten years before mixing them together in various degrees to attain a perfect blend and aging for an additional six months in sherry casks. Given the unique taste and attractive price, I definitely recommend this one.
Reisetbauer Single Malt Whisky 7yr ($100)
Moving on to a different distributor, I can’t provide too much information about them as sadly, they didn’t come with much in the way of marketing materials, so you’ll have to Google it yourself. What little this guy could tell me he had to read from some spec sheets he was provided; clearly, he didn’t know too much about this stuff himself – I almost felt like saying, “Don’t trouble yourself – just hand me the papers and *I’ll* read it myself!” The small bit I did discover was the fact that this company makes whisky as a side project since they mostly manufacture brandy. The whisky is aged for seven years in Austrian wine barrels that are made of French oak. Given the fact that its taste isn’t very distinctive and it’s a bit pricey, I can’t really recommend this one very much.
Maker’s Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky ($50)
The well known Maker’s Mark was one of the familiar brands that appeared at this tasting. Aside from the requirement that it be made in Kentucky, one of the other things that differentiates bourbon from other types of whisky is the fact that it is aged in new barrels only, which are charred before the whisky is stored inside. Also, by comparison, something like sour mash (e.g., Jack Daniels, made in Tennessee) is coal filtered to give it a very different taste; this is not done with bourbon. Contrasted against rye, bourbon has a sweeter taste while rye tends to be spicy. Many cocktails that use rye can be substituted with bourbon – and vice versa – depending on what your tastes and preferences are. The bourbon was tried neat (best) and in cocktails: one with ginger beer and the other with peach nectar – of the two, I preferred the one with the ginger beer, but neat was probably best of them all.
Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt Whisky 12 yr ($55)
Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt Whisky 18 yr ($150)
For quite some time now, I have heard many positive reviews of Japanese whiskies, but have never had the opportunity to try any of them. Tonight would be my first and I was in no way disappointed at all. The 12 year old had a big nose and was very strong, so if you’re looking for something that’s smooth, this would definitely not be the best selection.By contrast, the 18 year old had an extremely smoky taste, although I’m told it contains only 2% peat. It is aged in mostly Spanish oak casks. I wish I could’ve gleaned more information from the distributor, unfortunately, he was hitting on some chick that a lot of other guys were talking to, so sadly, I couldn’t get too much out of him.
Highland Park Single Malt Scotch Whisky 12yr ($55)
15 yr ($75)
18yr ($125)
Finally, I wound up the evening with a classic scotch. Having never tried Highland Park before – although I’d certainly heard of it – I was somewhat surprised to learn that it was something of a misnomer because it is not made in the Highlands of Scotland, a region in the northeastern part of the country, as I’m certain Gordon could attest. Instead, it is actually from an island just off of Scotland called Orkney; because this island is just off the northeastern portion of Scotland, it is therefore called Highland, but more for marketing reasons than anything else.
Scotch being my favorite type of whisky (whiskey?), I inquired immediately as to what the differences would be as I ranged from the 12, 15 and 18 year old varieties and was told by the distributor that the 12 year old would be the sweetest, the 18 year old would be the spiciest and the 15 year old would be a blend of the two, falling somewhere in between – I would say that the 15 year old is definitely cleaner in taste than the 12, neither extremely spicy nor extremely sweet. While the 18 year old has a distinctively spicy nose, it is most definitely not overwhelming. It absolutely resonates as what scotch drinkers might consider a “real” scotch, but given its price, I would only purchase it if it were on sale.
Highland Park is aged in sherry barrels, which adds considerably to the color, sweetness and viscosity. Unfortunately, this is also reflected in the price of the scotch as the sherry barrels are very expensive.
So, after tasting all of these, which ones did I purchase, given the 20% discount on all of the spirits in this tasting? Well, given that Peat Monster is something of a favorite of mine – and one which I already had at home – that was a no – brainer, so I grabbed a bottle; Maker’s Mark, although familiar, was something I’d never owned before, so I charged a liter of that on my credit card as well. But the one thing I paid for in cash – and was a delightful surprise, as mentioned earlier, was the Canadian contribution, Forty Creek. Upon a subsequent tasting at home, I found it considerably spicier than what I experienced at Union Square, but no matter – it’s a good whisky and one that I definitely recommend for your collection.
