Clynelish 14 year old

No less an authority than Jim McEwan of Bruichladdich has stated his opinion that Clynelish is a fantastic malt that too many people overlook. Clynelish is part of Diageo's line of Classic Malts (so is Talisker and the surprisingly good Glenkinchie). The standard bottling at the moment is the 14 year old, which is 46% alcohol by volume. The color is deep gold, almost orange it seems to me. The nose is rich, with tangerine rind, some smoke as water is added, and light sherry notes. The texture is oily, thick and coating on the tongue. With water I get some pears too and a little bit of woodiness. A very good malt.

The distillery has an interesting history (check out the Malt Maniacs link on the right side of my blog or the link above), but perhaps the most intriguing is that for a period of time it went by the name Brora (from 1969-1983 according to Diageo). The two distilleries were side-by-side for a period of time, actually, and my one experience of Brora (a 31 year old, I think) was of a much smokier, peatier malt than Clynelish. Untypical of a highland malt, I guess, but as I have learned, regions of Scotland do not doom a malt to taste a particular way or meet a specific profile. Peaty, smoky malts can come from anywhere.

Alt-a-Bhainne vs Glenfarclas

This is not an exact head-to-head of Alt-a-Bhainne versus Glenfarclas, but it is close. I tasted the Alt-a-Bhainne (which is predominantly used in Chivas blends, not bottled as a single malt) on two consecutive nights and then transitioned to the Glenfarclas on the second night for a comparison.

The Alt-a-Bhainne is a Duncan Taylor bottling from their NC2 (non-chill filltered, non-colored) line of single malts. It was distilled in 1992 and bottled as a 14 year old in 2007 at 46% ABV. (The distillery was closed from 2002 to 2005, but after an ownership change production restarted and was ramped up). The color is quite light, almost straw colored. It has a slight medicinal smell before any water is added, but otherwise it was difficult to detect anything. The taste is full, coating the tongue, and not overly strong. Once I added water I smelled a little bit of apple, but not much else. Despite my long time spent over this one, it left me disappointed. The nose doesn't develop very well and the taste, though full, doesn't evoke much.

The Glenfarclas is the distillery official bottling at 12 years old and 43% ABV. The first thing I noticed was the rich, gold color. The nose (un-diluted) has honey, toffee, maybe burnt sugar, and some peat. It tastes full bodied and coats the tongue well, though feels stronger than 43%. After water is added the nose develops more. Still honey and sherry (it is sherry-cask aged, after all), but now some flowers come out and what seemed like fondant/wedding cake. The nose is rich and full; the sherry rounds it out without overwhelming.

From my description I'm sure you've guessed that the Glenfarclas is the winner. Well worth the time to enjoy this malt. I've heard good things about Glenfarclas 105 (the cask-strength release), but haven't found a bottle yet.

Aberlour A'bunadh

The A'bunadh from Aberlour, whose 10 year old is a fantastic malt, is a cask strength whisky in a 19th century style bottle (basically shorter, squatter, with a wider mouth). My bottle came from batch 18 bottled in 2006 at a strength of 59.7% ABV. The color is quite dark, almost a deep rich crimson. It seemed to smell like a bourbon at first (which is funny, because I believe it is only aged in sherry casks). The nose is quite sweet --- like a port, but not quite. It's got a cough-drop smell, maybe some eucalyptus.

After adding water it gets softer, but the sherry still comes through strong. There's a slight bit of smoke. It's very rough going down, even with water. I added more, but you need to go a long way with the water to keep it from dragging the grappling hooks the entire way down your throat. This is powerful stuff that makes you gasp if you're not careful. I added more water and got a slight bit of mint.

This is not a subtle drink. Supposedly distilled to be closer to the 19th century standard, it makes me worry a bit about the Macallan 1851 Inspiration I bought in Seoul airport -- that's also supposed to be a 19th century-like whisky. Since the Inspiration is only available in duty frees, though, I plan to hold onto it.

Bowmore Legend

Bowmore Legend is sold in most markets without an age statement, but is supposedly an eight year old. Its youth shows. This is a light, straw-colored whisky that needs a lot of time to develop in the glass. My first impressions were of new sneaker and rubber bands or latex. The legend was very closed the first night I tried it. Adding water didn't add much to the nose. A first taste revealed light smoke and a sharp finish. I could tell it would eventually become a Bowmore like the 12 year old, but more time in a barrel is definitely needed.

The second night I poured a dram and let it be for more than an hour before I even attempted to try it. In fact, I was closer to 90 minutes before I took my first whiff, which yielded much more of the traditional Bowmore nose. Some fruit came through, green vegetation and maybe sherry. Still some plastic. Finally some faint peat and smoke, but not a lot.

An interesting dram, particularly to see what a Scotch is like early in its career, but I would not choose this as a regular drink.

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.