Talisker Distillery

On our recent trip to Scotland, we spent a couple of days on the Isle of Skye, the largest of the western islands. Yes, it rained, but in fact the locals told us they had had virtually no rain the previous ten weeks. Besides hiking in the Cuillens, we spent an afternoon on a Connoisseur's Tour at Talisker Distillery (tour info is here), which provides a more in depth look at the distillery and a tasting of their core range of malts. Fiona, our guide, provided us a great overview of the workings of the distillery, including the standard explanation of the distilling process one would expect on the tour. We couldn't go into the room where the wash-backs (where fermentation takes place), because the CO2 levels were elevated. But we did see the wooden cooling tanks out back where the spirit is cooled after it goes through the wash stills and spirit stills (Talisker has two of the former and three of the latter). Fiona told us that the warm period coincided with their maintenance period this year, so by the time they restarted the distilling process, the cooling tanks had dried out and sprung leaks. The dry spell on the island meant that their dammed water used for cooling had run low and they were down to two distilling runs a week, as opposed to their normal average of 16 runs a week.

We then were taken to the warehouse they have on site. This is a little unusual, because all Talisker spirit is tankered to the mainland for cask filling and bottling, so bringing casks back to the island for aging and then back to the mainland for bottling is frightfully inefficient, but then you might not get that island spirit. Fiona pulled the bungs from two 1979 casks to allow us a whiff (that's me above filling the olfactories). The one on the left had a sweet, port-like smell, while the one on the right of the picture was more like a dry sherry. Both were distilled in 1979, but had completely different smells. Amazing to experience first-hand.

I was surprised to hear that Talisker adds caramel coloring to their whisky given the vociferous chorus of connoisseurs railing against the practise. I'll admit that I don't believe I have such a sophisticated palate to tell when color has been added.

We closed out our tour with a guided nosing and tasting of six drams:

• New spirit (74% ABV)
• The ten year old
• The distiller's edition (which is double matured, the last three years, I believe, in sherry casks)
• The 18 year old
• The 25 year old
• Cask strength edition (no age statement) that's only available at the distillery.

It was really fun to compare the drinks side-by-side and see how they evolved in the glass over the course of nearly an hour. The new spirit is not for drinking, of course, but that trade-mark pepper and sea salt is present from the beginning. The distiller's is great for the softening the sherry brings. Fiona swooned over the 25 year old, but I admit that it took so much water to reduce the nose prickle and bring some smell out, that the flavor was too muted. Thankfully I was not bowled over by the 25 year old -- though I secretly hoped I would be -- because it sells for 105 pounds a bottle (more than $200 at present exchange rates). I was not going to buy the 10, distiller's edition, or the 18 year old, because they are all available in the US, and are much cheaper here than in the UK. I liked the cask strength once it opened up, and at 50 pounds a bottle (minus 5 pounds discount for the tour) it was a much better deal. Plus, it is only available at the distillery.

I'm glad we made it to a distillery this time. I don't think I could do a series of distillery tours, but a couple of others definitely interest me (Bowmore and Highland Park as two of my favorites, and Aberlour because it has purportedly a great distillery tour experience, besides producing a great whisky).

Slainte!

Cafe Asia (no stars)

Cafe Asia in Rosslyn, Virgina, is a large restaurant that offers many kinds of Asian cuisine, though predominantly Chinese, Southeast Asian, Japanese, and Sushi. I stopped in here last week for lunch. I had been here before a few years ago and had competently executed pad thai, but details escape me. This time I started with crab fried wonton. If there was crab in there, I couldn't detect it. I mainly got a gummy interior and a flavorless exterior. Next I had some sushi -- my favorite unagi (eel), which was also lacking in flavor and had a slight film on it. The crab in the crab roll had not been well picked over (some cartilage made it through) and the yellow-fin tuna roll had such tiny pieces of tuna in it, most of the flavor came from the seaweed wrap. Not worth $20 for lunch.

Bebo Trattoria da Roberto Donna *

Chef Roberto Donna's more casual trattoria -- Bebo Trattoria -- in Crystal City, Virginia is a bit disappointing. The space is impressive -- high, high, high ceilings (probably close to thirty feet) and the decor minimal, but not spare. The restaurant's focus is pizza from the wood-fired oven, so my impressions are somewhat biased in that I didn't try the pizza. The service was also a bit off, but perhaps Monday lunch-time is when the new staff gets broken in. The menu makes a point of stating that olive oil is only provided with bread on request, otherwise a bread basket appears unaccompanied. I didn't mind in fact that my waiter poured a small plate of olive oil (sweet and simple, not deeply flavored) unasked. I started off with a carne crudo, essentially steak tartare, with some pecorino cheese on top and frisee on the side. This was actually quite good. The steak was not over-seasoned, and the cheese had a slight crust to it.

The problems came with my second course -- spaghetti bolognese, except it wasn't. What showed up was spaghetti with tomato and basil. My waiter confirmed the error, and then had to go back to the kitchen at least two times when the table next to mine asked (relatively simple) questions he couldn't answer. This table ordered prosciutto and melon, only to be told they had none. They were offered prosciutto and mozzarella, which they didn't want, but appeared a few minutes later anyway.

Finally my bolognese showed up and it was, well, okay. Nothing stood out about the dish. It had some flavor, though I wasn't sure any real veal made it into the dish. The noodles were just a little over al dente. A decently executed dish, but not the richness I have experienced in le trattorie in Italia.

Don't get me wrong. The food was good, but it wasn't anything more than competently executed. It is extremely rare, in fact, to find good Italian food in most American cities. I don't mean this in the snooty "it's not like in Tuscany way" (though I can see why my previous paragraph might have led you to believe that); rather, it's clear to me that people think that because Italian food is simple, it is easy. The two are not the same. Like his other restaurant, Galileo, I expected more from Donna's kitchen.

Oakville Grille and Wine Bar **

The Oakville Grille and Wine Bar (WaPo review is here) was a lunch-time choice recently as the clouds threatened a torrential down-pour and I had time to kill before my hair cut at nearby Salon Nader in Bethesda on Old Georgetown Road. The first thing I noticed as I was the first customer is the music -- an eclectic mix of music I cannot begin to describe. I could have been an old fart and asked them to turn it down, but it wasn't THAT bad.

In any case, my one visit to Oakville was not disappointing at all. The wine list has many wines by the glass, though given its supposed homage to the Oakville section of Napa Valley, many of the bottles standing around as ambience were pretty standard $10 bottles, but the list of wines by the glass was actually quite pleasing -- many choices, from $8 to more than $20. I chose a Vino Verde from Spain that was pleasant, fruity without being noxious, and paired well with my tilapia BLT, though the BLT came on what looked like store-bought wheat bread. The bread provided on your side plate is served hot, though the crust is set, so I suspect it was heated in an oven. It is good, though, don't get me wrong.

A pleasant experience overall. Worth stopping in if you find yourself a bit peckish in the area.