Wednesday, November 21, 2007

8000 pounds?!!

I forgot to mention that the Scottish restaurant in London had a 50 yo bottle of Glenfiddich for 8000 pounds (more than $16,000) on the menu. Can you believe any scotch, let alone a Glenfiddich, would be worth anywhere near that much? I can't.

Port Ellen -- 1979/2002 Signatory

Either my dog has been sneaking some of my scotch, or I am getting dangerously low on the Port Ellen I bought at Sam's World of Wine in Chicago. Given that I don't have a dog, I guess I am the culprit.

Here are the particulars: 1979 vintage, distilled 28 Aug 79, aged in a refill sherry butt, bottle on 25 Jun 2002 from butt no 5537, bottle number 670 of 768, 43 ABV or 86 US proof.

The color is quite light, almost like a sauvignon blanc in color. Quite pleasant and light on the nose. It tastes unlike any other Islay malt -- not especially smoky or peaty, light in fact. A little sweetness. Adding water opens up the oils, coating the tongue nicely. Becomes quite smooth. I'm having a tough time isolating the flavors, but they are pleasant. I'm reminded of the old Bowmore I had -- over 20 years of age, the Islay's seem to abate quite a bit and become very different creatures. Not better or worse, just different.

Italian Wines


I haven't told you about our September vacation to Italy yet -- and I won't do that just yet, but I will share with you a photo of some of the great wine we had. The Antinori in the picture is fantastic, but unfortunately extremely difficult to find in the US.


Badia a Passignano is about twenty minutes drive south of Florence at the top of a small hill. We ran into one of the Antinori tasting rooms there and tried this wine, along with the Tiagnello (also excellent, but sells for $80 a bottle for the 2004 vintage in the US) and a reserve chianti. This bottle of Badia cost, I think, about 30 Euro, or $38 dollars.

Carpineto was the only winery we actually visited and tasted their wines. We did stop in at Casa Emma, but they couldn't accomodate us because of the harvest. Carpineto has a huge german shepard guarding the door that bellows as you walk in. This bottle was our favorite of the lot, and at 8 Euro ($10 or so), a bargain to boot. Leslie was sick for the last portion of the trip, so I ended up having to drink most of the wine myself -- poverino!

The Pacchia we picked up in a small grocery store one night, while the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano I bought in a wine shop near the Ponte Vecchio after we had an excellent dinner and series of wine tastings at the Frescobaldi wine bar. Of the Frescobaldi wines, I liked the Nippozanno (available state-side for about $17 a bottle) and the Mormoreto ($40 or so).

Froo-froo Scottish Cuisine

As part of the grand adventure in London last week, we had dinner at Albannach Scottish Bar and Restaurant, which does indeed have haggis (quite good haggis, in fact), but it is not your run of the mill pub. This place becomes a dance-hall apparently on some nights. Luckily we were there on a Tuesday night. The waiters and waitresses are appropriately dressed in kilts (very short kilts for the lasses) and t-shirts. The service is good and pretty attentive (including not one, but two offers for coffee at the end of the meal!) and the food quite good. Besides the haggis, which comes as though from a ring mold, not a sheep's stomach, on a bed of potatoes and parsnips (sorry, neeps and tatties) in a whisky sauce, I had the wild bird terrine. Everyone enjoyed the food immensely. I also topped up with two whiskies:

The 20 year old Brora from the Rare Malts collection. Quite a nice dram, definitely a highland malt, with nice fruit and nose. Of course, at 20 pounds a dram, we're not talking a cheap indulgence.

Then I had the Ardbeg Uigeadail -- wow! After the Brora, which is indeed a nice dram, the Ardbeg's smoke and peat hit you like a freight train. It was incredibly smokey -- like being around a campfire on a crisp fall day. The sweetness comes forth after a bit -- I guess it is the sherry, but perhaps the bourbon cask has a moderating affect on it.

I skipped the desserts, though they looked good. In the end my dinner cost almost $130 at current exchange rates, but remember that nearly half that was for the whisky. But then, why would you eat scottish food without whisky. Seems a bit daft, don't you know!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

$2.10 to the pound

Yep, $2.10 to the pound means that my recent trip to London was not going to be an excessive one. Or at least I thought I would be good. When I studied in London in 1996, you could get a pound for about $1.40. Sigh...

That said, it was a good trip. I ventured over to Berry Bros to check out their current supply of scotch. I was being quite careful given the exchange rate -- which means generally I ignore the distillery bottlings. Even in the best of times, the prices in the States are much better. The only bottle that caught my eye was a 25 yo Caol Ila under the Berry Bros bottling. At 50 pounds, it was a little pricey, but not overly so for such an age. I regret actually not buying it.

I didn't buy the Caol Ila because I next headed over to Milroy's of Soho, fully expecting to find much more to my liking there. It was not to be. The selection of non-distillery bottlings was disappointing, in fact. I spent about ten minutes looking up and down the bottlings, but nothing caught my eye (well, there was something -- but at 160 pounds, or nearly $330, I wasn't going to bother).

I ended up at Cadenhead's in Covent Garden, which I had not visited before. I am told they will open up a newer, larger store in the coming months, but I rather liked the small shop with its blackboard listings of bottlings. I ended up buying a bottle of 11 yo Arran. They were out of a number of bottlings of interest. I ended up spending 40 pounds for the Arran, which may be a bit on the pricey side, but I am looking forward to trying it. I've never had an Arran before.