Hugh Johnson

I just finished British wine-writer Hugh Johnson's memoir A Life Uncorked (you can get it from Amazon), which was a birthday present from my sister. I've been reading snatches of it for the last few months at bedtime and found it a thoroughly enjoyable read. His passion is obvious, but it's also not pretentious. He is free with his opinion, which is refreshing, not overbearing, and he has certainly opened my eyes to some wines I hadn't heard of before.

I think his writing might be a bit too much, however, if you tried to devour the whole thing in a sitting or two. I found 10-20 pages at a time perfect, especially since so much of it is new and unusual. His discussion of Bordeaux is first-rate, naturally, but then he follows the style to the New World and elsewhere. I've never read a book purely about wine before, but this one was worth it.

Highland Park 12 Year Old

Highland Park is the only single malt from the Orkney Islands (okay, there is also Scapa, but you rarely find it in stores in the States, and the distillery operates only sporadically). Although I am a definite Bowmore man on many occasions, Highland Park is a deeply satisfying dram. One of the oldest distilleries in Scotland (it was established in 1798), Highland Park is not as intimidating as the peaty Islay malts, but still has plenty of character. The color is straw with some hints of gold. Undiluted, the nose is pleasant, not as pungent as others. There's a good dose of sweetness on the nose, but also some smoke. The Malt Whisky File by Robin Tucek and John Lamond gives it high peatiness and low sweetness, but I think it has much more sweetness to it than Talisker, for instance, which has far more pepper. Although only 43% alcohol by volume, I think this whisky needs some water to open it up more. You can drink it straight, but some artesian water or spring water really helps. After water is added, I'm reminded of sweet taffy, or even toffee. Mike Jackson speaks of heather, but quite frankly, I don't know what that's like, so I can't comment.

Shiloh

We spent last week in Nashville, Tennesse, which many of you will know is not the culinary capital of the world, but does boast some good eats of the southern variety. We spent one day touring Shiloh Battlefield, one of the best-preserved and well laid-out battlefields you can find. It is well worth the trip, even for the cheesy 60s-era film in the visitor center with a not-very-convincing Grant. Just outside the battlefield, however, is a small cabin restaurant called Hagy's Catfish Hotel, a family-owned restaurant that has been frying up catfish for more than 60 years. The hush-puppies were amazing, the salad dressings all homemade, and the pie, oh, the pie, was divine. The chocolate pie was rich, fudgy, and very decadent. It was worth the ten pounds I probably gained eating it.

Oops!

For some reason, I have managed to forget my password and username to this blog, create a new one (epiq2.blogspot.com), forget the password to that one, and now rediscover my password to this first attempt. I may figure this out at some point -- but now I have written down my log-in for this page, so keep coming back here for now and if I figure out my other log-in, I will make sure to cross-link. Confusing, I know, but I am not very tech savy.