Tasting Teaninich

This is an unusual dram in that it does not appear on store shelves in an official bottling. The good folks at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society have bottled quite few of this neighbor to Glenmorangie and Dalmore over the years. Bottling 39 from Teaninich is given the playful name "Gateway to Narnia," though for the life of me I can't figure out why. This 16 year old from a refill ex-bourbon hogshead is pretty robust, weighing in at 59.7% alcohol by volume. The color is copper gold and it has a strong, but light alcohol smell. The alcohol is hot, hot, hot on the tongue when undiluted, but the nose is less powerful. The nose brings paint thinner, some green vegetal smells, perhaps lighter herbs. With water it gets old cardboard boxes, light charcoal, Skor bars and a bit of a Canadian whiskey lightness. On the tongue the water turns it to a chewy, tannic dram with filberts and maltiness. An interesting dram, but not a stunner.

Stop being an ass

I don't use this forum to make a lot of grand pronouncements, but something I was listening to the other day really set me off, so I thought I would share it with you, my thousands (er, tens?) of loyal readers. I was listening to a re-run of the podcast of the Splendid Table, where a certain wine expert (I won't name him here, but you can listen to the episode here) was going on about syrah versus shiraz. His basic point was that the Australian style shiraz is a sweet confection barely worthy of the name "wine" and that people of real taste should only drink the "real thing" -- syrah from France. He contended that shiraz and other wines dumb down the drink, and expressed skepticism that it even serves as an easy entree into the wonderful world of wine drinking that leads to further exploration. He talked about shiraz in a derisive, scornful manner, pronouncing the name with spittle on his lips.

This set me off, because it is simply one more example of critics being asses and perpetuating a form of class snobbery. This is the equivalent of a Wagner fan looking down on people who listen to Britney Spears as uncultured. My response is that wine is a beverage that we drink to enjoy its taste, its pairing with food and friends, and, yes, even for its effect on our bodies from the alcohol. If I choose to do that with shiraz, or cheap likker, or Klug champagne, it's really none of the critic's business. It is no more right or wrong to be captivated by a complex, austere, and difficult to fathom great wine, than it is to enjoy a bottle of 2009 Yellow Tail. These are the same people who look down on folks who read so-called mass market fiction and claim "I only read the greats, such as Dickens." Um, Dickens was the James Patterson of his day, bub. Get over yourself.

I like to drink whiskies, especially single malt scotches. I prefer to drink them with just a little water, but some people enjoy them on the rocks, or even mixed with coke. I wouldn't do that, but if it's your drink, you should drink it how you like it.

And by the way, not all of us can afford $50 bottles of syrah -- sometimes the $10 bottle of shiraz is a splurge. You ass.

I feel like chicken tonight

Tonight's dinner was good old-fashioned comfort food. Roast chicken with potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots. I tried a new recipe for the chicken from James Peterson's new cookbook called "Meat." This is a high-temperature chicken -- oven at 500 degrees the whole time. Despite the smoke (and a few roots that got a bit of a char on one side), this was a very good recipe. The chicken was flavorful, well-browned, and cooked through. The breast meat spends the first 15 minutes covered with aluminum foil to protect it, which seems to work well. I used a kosher chicken from Whole Foods, so that may help with moisture (kosher chickens are handled in a way that is less abusive than others and usually require no brining).

Struan

Today's bread-baking was a multi-grain bread called Struan. It has pre-cooked brown rice, wheat bran, corn meal, and some sweeteners (brown sugar and honey) to give this a light, sweet texture. I used Peter Reinhart's overnight cold fermentation technique.

The picture says it all

You have to see this picture in the New York Times today that talks about the potential for a sugar shortage if genetically-modified sugar beets are not allowed to be planted. That's one heck of a pile!

The New Food Safety Bill

There has been quite a bit of discussion of the new food safety bill, particularly about the requirements' potential impacts on small-scale food producers. Jon Stewart covered the bill in his inimitable way, though he did not mention this issue. See the clip here.