Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA

This is a great beer. IPAs tend to be lighter and Belhaven is no exception. It has a rich, hoppy smell, some bitterness on the tongue, but it is mild and drinks easily. I would not drink this straight from the fridge, though. Let these beers sit out for 20 minutes or so to release their flavors. Like most British ales, they should be cool, but not cold. If you enjoy your Coors Light ice cold, don't bother drinking this beer. The Scottish Ale is a delight as well.

Miltonduff

Now that I have cleared down some of the "open-stock" of whiskies (currently only the Bowmore 12 yo and Talisker Distillers Edition), I have allowed myself to open a new bottle. Unfortunately, next on the list is a Gordon & McPhail bottling of Miltonduff 10 year old. Miltonduff is quite a large distillery with three pairs of stills and 16 washbacks , but the majority of the production goes into blends such as Ballantine's and Teacher's. G&M claim this is a light, floral malt with some cereal (wheat?) notes. I got flat wood and that's about it. It smelt like the inside of a new oak barrel before any charring or aging. It opens up and gets sweeter with water, diluting its copper color a bit, but I didn't get much out of this one. The finish is flat and thin. If you want a second (more expert) opinion, try Serge Valentin. I'm starting to doubt the wisdom of trying all the active Scotch distilleries...

I should have bought a whole case

A few weeks ago I finished up my bottle of Bruichladdich's 3D3 Norrie Campbell Edition. From my first taste last spring, I knew this was a special bottle. It is a much more heavily peated whisky than Bruichladdich's normal line, something like 40 parts per million, but the use of three different vintages, from three different warehouses and three different peating levels yielded an exceptionally complex and layered scotch. I would put it ahead of JW's Blue Label, myself, and at about $65 a bottle at the time, it was a steal. I really should have bought a case, or at least a few more bottles, but alas it seems to be out of stock at my usual store. I hope Bruichladdich continues to bring out 3D3. I think their current project in the peating realm, though, is the Octomore and new sherry bottlings.

Rare Malts

The Classic Malts collection has released some new rare malts, including a 29 year old Port Ellen and the 30 year old Talisker which I got to smell in cask last summer. Details on the malts is available on the Malts website. The prices, I expect, will be pretty hideous. The Whiskey Exchange has the 2008 bottling of the Talisker for about 200 GBP a bottle on their website, which is not as bad as you might expect, but I expect once the 2009 bottling hits the shelves, it will be more expensive, recession notwithstanding. The eighth edition of the Port Ellen, which I think is last year's bottling, sells for upwards of $400, so this is not for the faint of heart.

A small comment on pricing for these bottles. I do not begrudge the companies for charging high prices for them. There is a lot of risk inherent, as well as cost, in holding stocks for thirty years or more. Not all those whiskies will be worth selling at the end of that time, some may drop below the legal level of 40% ABV and therefore cannot be sold as whiskey unless you have similar stocks that can bring it above that price. I also look to the wine world, where a bottle of a First Growth Bordeaux from 2005 now goes for $500-$1000 a bottle, and is not going to last more than one night. Compare that to a bottle of scotch, which will last a (sane) drinker many weeks if not months. Which is not to say that splashing out on a $400 bottle of scotch is not a big deal. It is. But it is also a relative bargain and if it is truly worth it (which I doubt is the case for a first growth, but then I have never had one) from a taste and enjoyment perspective, then why not.

Now, a $12,000 bottle of 50 year old Macallan or the $15,000 Ardbeg Double Barrel is a bit extreme and I will never play in such a league, but I could see myself one day buying a 34 year old Bowmore as a special treat.

Glendronach 12 Year Old

Some folks (such as Jim Murray) think relatively highly of Glendronach, which is owned by Pernod Richard. It is a strikingly colored whisky with rich crimson color, most likely from the sherry ageing. Like its Speyside co-habitant Abelour (also in the Pernod empire), it is a double cask matured whisky, meaning it spends time aging in both sherry wood and traditional oak barrels. The bottle gives no information about the amount of time spent in each, and unfortunately Pernod Richard seems to be spending most of its time and effort promoting Chivas (its blended whisky) and the Glenlivet (referred to as a "premium malt", though I don't know what makes it supposedly better than others in their portfolio). You'll have to turn to independent websites such as MaltMadness for distillery information, because there doesn't appear to be an independent website for the whisky. The nose has tons of sherry notes and some woodiness, perhaps sawdust. Mouthfeel without water is hot, but round. Once I added water it softens and becomes richer, more lush, but not really more complex. It is pleasant, but I wouldn't call it a knock-out.

Rogue Brutal Bitter

I've written about Rogue before, though in the guise of Morimoto beers. This time I am writing about one of their beers bottled under their own label -- Brutal Bitter. Naturally, the name is going to tell you something about what to expect in the bottle. American brewers have taken Bitter to all-new heights from their British namesakes, and some of them truly are bitter affairs, with lots of bite that can often overwhelm the rest of the flavor. This beer is an off-amber color -- not quite fully red, but not quite a traditional ale color. It has great hops on the nose and you can tell it will have some bitterness, but when you take that first sip, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, particularly if you serve it cold (not too cold, mind you). It has some bite, to be sure, but this is no bitter beast. The bitter sits at the back of the tongue in a cloying way. I've had some bitter beers that leave you wanting to scrape your tongue clean, but this one just has me reaching for more.

Lange Freedom Hill Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is not for the faint of heart. I don't mean stoutness is required to drink it, but a fat wallet helps to enjoy truly great pinot noirs, whether from Burgundy, New Zealand, or Oregon, the trio of great producing areas. New Zealand has some reasonably priced Pinots, but the truly complex ones will still cost a pretty penny.

Burgundies, particularly the Nuit-St-Georges and Cote de Beaunes, are the holy grails of pinot. Oregon is another great source, and for the money, probably one of the better "bargains." I put that in quotation marks because "bargains" in Pinot Noir are relative. Which brings me to the subject of this post -- Lange's 2004 Freedom Hill Pinot Noir, which we bought on a trip to Oregon's beautiful Willamette Valley a few years ago. At $60 a bottle (we only bought one), this is not for the faint of heart, but it is truly a fantastic wine. I think it is better than some of the stuff coming out of Archery Summit and Domaine Serene, two of the more well known Pinot producers in the area. The Freedom Hill is one of Lange's cuvees, which is a fancy way of saying not your ordinary plonk (which sells for about $25 a bottle on their website, but you can get for $20 at places like Corridor Wine). It is rich, some cedary notes, and has beautiful, but less brash fruit. It aged quite well for the four years in the bottle and no doubt could have gone longer, but it went well with our Christmas lamb. A quick search on two of the more popular wine search engines (www.wineaccess.com and www.wine-searcher.com) revealed that the Freedom Hill is not really available in the DC area, but you lucky residents of states (such as Virginia) that allow direct shipping can order it through the vineyard or another site. Happy hunting!