November 22nd, 2011
I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to enjoy this Thanksgiving (I’m still sorting it out), but I can say with a high degree of confidence that it will include wine, beer, and some great American whiskey.
How about you? What will you be enjoying?
And before I forget, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m thankful for so many things in life, including all of you reading this post.
December 1st, 2010
OAK-AGED BEER
Many beers on the market are aged in oak for a spell. (More than you might think!) Here are several interesting ones — many of which were aged in whiskey barrels.
96 The Lost Abbey Angel’s Share “Grand Cru,” 12%, $20
A blend of beers of varying age from brandy and bourbon barrels, and there are also some Cabernet Franc grapes added to one of the barrels. It’s a fascinating beer! Dark russet color. Incredibly complex, with thick toffee, molasses, caramel-coated roasted nuts, vanilla, dark fruit (fig, black cherry), charred oak, tobacco, and suggestions of dark chocolate and black licorice. Good oak grip on its rather warming finish. A classic sipping beer.
92 Nebraska Brewing Co. “Mélange a Trois”, 10%, $20
Aged in French chardonnay wine barrels. Beautiful fluffy white head, and hazy marmalade in color. Complex fruit marries with the malt (green grape, rhubarb pie, plum, caramelized pineapple). Creamy in texture, with a soft toasted oak finish. Curious, distinctive, and very compelling. (Think oak-aged Belgian-style tripel, with some white grape influence.)
89 Samuel Smith Yorkshire Stingo, 9%, $12
Bottle conditioned and aged for over a year in oak barrels that previously contained cask-conditioned beer. A great addition to this legendary brewery’s range of beer. Sweet notes of nutty caramel and toffee meld with raisin and dried apricot, along with a suggestion of tobacco, plum skin, fig, and anise. The oak influence is noticeable throughout, but it is nicely camouflaged until its pleasantly tannic, lightly gripping, dry, warming finish. Nicely done!
82 Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer, 6.6%, $3
Lighter in color, body, and alcohol than the other oak-aged beers I’ve reviewed lately, and the only one where I could use “thirst quenching” as a descriptor. Gently malty, with silky layers of caramel, vanilla and light toffee, peppered with delicate citrus. The textural impact of the oak is more subtle, emerging mid-palate, and imparting a gently dry, tannic (polished leather) finish. A distinctive beer, given that most oak-aged beers are big, brooding, sipping beers.
November 5th, 2010
It’s fair to assume you are all whisky drinkers. But what else are you drinking? Do you drink more whisky than anything else, or does something else come first? And do you think that drinking other alcoholic beverages has made you a better whisky drinker?
I admit that I am what I call an “equal opportunity drinker.” I like nearly all beverages, as long as they taste good. I drink more beer than anything else, but it’s always the good stuff. (Malt Advocate was originally a beer publication many years ago.) I also love wine and maintain a wine cellar of a couple hundred carefully chosen wines. Rum, tequila, Cognac, Armagnac also get thrown into the mix, and my preference is for those that are nicely aged. I’ll even have some white spirits (gin, vodka) on occasion, when I’m in the mood for a martini.
And yes, drinking other beverages has made me a better whisky enthusiasts–especially being a wine drinker, with all the exotic wine-finished whiskies on the market these days.
How about you?
August 4th, 2010
The reason why I initially named the magazine “Malt Advocate” is because the magazine equally covered beer and whisky. (Malt being the common thread.) I was a beer writer before I wrote about whisky.
I still have been reviewing beer, freelance, for America’s longest running beer magazine, All About Beer. (A great magazine, by the way, if you are a beer enthusiast.)
I’ve now decided to focus my beer reviewing efforts back here, under the Malt Advocate umbrella. So, to kick things off, I thought I would write about these two beers I recently received. Both have a whiskey connection: the are beers made with rye and aged in whiskey barrels. Their oak aging is evident but not excessive. They are best enjoyed at cellar temperature. And as you can see from my rating, I like both of them.
HE’BREW “R.I.P.A on Rye”(beer on left) is a rye double IPA aged in rye whiskey barrels. (Six year old Sazerac Rye barrel, in case you were going to ask.) It checks in at 10% ABV. A sipping beer for sure. The bitter hop notes mask some of the rye spice, but there’s still plenty of rye spice to go around. I can really taste the spicy and citrus rye notes in the beer, along with the caramel, vanilla, apricot, dark chocolate, espresso bean, and gritty, dry, rye barrel notes emerging and concentrating on the finish. Very bold and dynamic. ($12)
Malt Advocate magazine rating: 90
RY(e)AN ALE is beer produced by Smuttynose brewery for Julio’s Liquors. It’s simply described as a “rye ale aged in bourbon barrels.” (Buffalo Trace and Four Roses, for the record.) It doesn’t have the hoppy bitterness like the HE’BREW beer (it’s smoother too!), but it sure is full-bodied (as it should be, if it wants to stand up to the wood) and fairly strong, logging in at 7.7% ABV. I can smell and taste the charred oak influence. It’s rich, sweet and malty, with chewy caramel, molasses, malted milk balls, plum skin, black cherry, licorice and pleasant orchard fruit for balance. Liquid Dessert! ($9)
Malt Advocate magazine rating: 91
July 28th, 2010
I was in London, in the Diageo offices on this particular morning. Diageo was introducing several new limited edition whiskies, and a handful of whisky writers were getting a preview. Among the attendees was my good friend Michael Jackson.
We sampled probably close to a dozen whiskies, with the tasting concluding around lunchtime. I hadn’t seen Michael for several months, so I suggested we have lunch together. We weren’t far away from the Fuller’s Brewery and he said he knew of a great Fuller’s pub just down from the brewery along the Thames called The Dove. It was a short stroll away, so that’s where we went.
Well, the Fuller’s Chiswick Bitter was in perfect condition, so we each had a pint before lunch. With lunch, it was a pint each of Fuller’s London Pride. Delicious!
We were finishing up our lunch, having a great time together getting caught up with stories ab0ut our travels, the whisky business, etc. Not wanting the good times to end, I proposed we each have another pint. It was about 2:oo pm, and I didn’t have any plans for the rest of the afternoon.
Michael hesitated for a moment, contemplating the whiskies we tasted in the morning, along with the the two pints of beer we enjoyed with lunch. Then he responded, with a slight grin (like he has in the picture I included of him above):
“Better make mine a half pint, John. I have a Five O’clock deadline for a story I’m doing for the Independent. It’s on vodka. I need to go back to my office, taste 20 vodkas and then write the story.”
I just cracked up laughing! I don’t know if it was exactly 20 vodkas, but it was something like that. And I (unfortunately) never did get to read the vodka story in the Independent, but I sure am glad I wasn’t the Independent’s copy editor that day. 
June 21st, 2010
We enjoyed some great beer on tap (The Lost Abbey Carnivale), delicious wine (Shafer Relentless), and the Glenfarclas 150th Anniversary bottle that I opened up on Friday after our daughter Shannon’s High School graduation. I even finished the evening with one of my favorite cigars (an Arturo Fuente Don Carlos Robusto).
How about you? What were you drinking yesterday?
June 9th, 2010
Well, it was actually my 50th birthday–plus one day. My birthday was this past Monday, June 7th, but I didn’t celebrate until yesterday due to a nasty stomach virus on Monday. I waited 50 years. I figured I could wait one more.
Here’s the line-up. (In order of consumption, left to right, in the picture on the left. Click on the picture to get a larger view.) These were enjoyed over several hours during the evening with friends. I’ll tell you a little bit about what I drank, why I drank them, and how they tasted.
Framboise Boon Lambic (1986 Vintage)
I love Belgian beer and have been to Belgium several times touring their breweries. (I was a beer writer long before I became a whisky writer.) This was our aperitif beer, and what we enjoyed with our cranberry walnut salad. For those of you not familiar with lambic beers, they are spontaneously fermented beers, a Belgian specialty, aged in barrels, often with fruit added (in this case raspberries), traditionally bottled in champagne bottles and corked, and age very well. This one is one of my favorites. I purchased a case when they were brought into the U.S. back in the 1990s. It’s my last bottle, and it was still stunning. It has softened over the years (yes, you read correctly–it’s a 1986 vintage), and the raspberry influence has calmed down, but the balance of flavors and complexity were still there. Belgium’s answer to the finest champagne.
Chateau Lafite Rothschild (2001 Vintage)
Rather than going with the legendary 2000 vintage (which is still too young to drink for this First Growth Bordeaux) I opted for the excellent, yet more approachable, 2001 vintage. And it did not disappoint. After two hours of decanting and breathing, this gem of a wine was bold, yet complex, with great structure, solid tannins, and held up well with the amazing meat loaf (this was not your mother’s meat loaf, mind you), chipotle corn salad, grilled vegetables, and twice baked potato.
Chateau Rieussec Sauternes (2001 Vintage)
I would pay just to smell this outstanding dessert wine. It’s from the classic 2001 vintage, and I understand why the Wine Spectator rated this a perfect 100. Even my wife Amy enjoyed it, and she doesn’t like dessert wines. Sweet? Yes! But very elegant and floral, with complex fruit and just enough acidity to cut through the sweetness. We enjoyed it on its own, and then along with a variety of desserts (creme brulee, Key Lime cheese cake, and Belgian chocolate) just to see how they interacted with the wine. I decided that this lovely Sauternes was just perfect on its own, and needed no accompaniment.
A. H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey (18 years old, 46.5%)
This is a whiskey blog, so I better start talking about whiskey.
And yes, this is not a typo on the age statement. For those of you who thought the legendary A. H. Hirsch (a.k.a. Michter’s) bourbon was only sold at 16 and 20 years old, think again. I purchased this rarity at Park Avenue Liquor in NYC back in the early 1990s. There appears to be a label behind the label that’s showing. From what I remember, I believe Herb Lapchin (who used the be the whiskey guy there at the time) told me that the whiskey was originally labeled as a 17 year old, but by the time the whiskey was finally bottled, it was past its 18th birthday so they slapped an 18 year old label over the original label. That’s what I remember, but I can’t say it is 100% accurate. Maybe someone from Park Ave can chime in here?
This whiskey is mellow, soft, and sweet with plenty of molasses and maple syrup to go around. A soothing whiskey, and very much a digestif. I have bottles of the 16 and 20, but none open right now. Eventually, I would like to compare this 18 year old to its two siblings.
(A side note: the cork fell apart when I opened it. I had to decant it, take out all the cork pieces, and re-cork it with a new cork. Some advice to the newbies here: save some of the corks from the bottles you empty. You might need them down the road.)
Longrow, 19 year old, 46%
We left the dining room and retired to a glowing campfire out back. The sun had just set, the wood thrushes were finishing their songs for the evening, and the stars were beginning to shine brightly.
I purchased this classic peated Springbank back in the early to mid 1990s at Sam’s Wine’s & Spirits in Chicago, from the legendary “Joe C.” (Rest in peace, my good friend. You will never be forgotten.)
Yes, this was a last minute change. You will recall I was contemplating drinking a 1973 vintage Longrow, which didn’t have an age statement. Well, I eventually opted for this one. This one is the opposite of the 1973 vintage. It’s a 19 year old, but there’s no vintage statement. (I’m not sure why some of the whiskies from the legendary 1973 and 1974 vintage Longrow, had age statements but not vintage declaration, why some had the vintage declaration but no age statement, and why some had both. Perhaps someone from Springbank is lurking out there and can answer this question?)
Regardless, I was completely blown away by this whisky. A complete stunner, and my favorite drink of the evening! Complex, dynamic, bursting with peat-infused brine. This is why I fell in love with Springbank’s whiskies, and why I fell in love with the peated Longrow. Indeed, this is why I fell in love with whisky! ‘Nuff said.
Thomas Hardy’s Ale, 150th Anniversary Edition (1987 Vintage)
From the legendary Eldridge Pope Brewery, in Southwest England, which I toured in the early 1990s, to the chagrin of my wife, who was with me for the duration. (Sorry, Amy.) I have a friend (Roger) who used to work at Eldridge Pope (and also at the Eaglesomes shop in Campbeltown where he helped me score the two legendary “Green” Springbanks. It’s a small world, isn’t it?)
Roger is the one who gave me this bottle when he came to visit me in the mid 1990s. He got it when he worked there. In fact, he helped me source many vintages of Thomas Hardy’s Ale, and I still have at least one bottle from most vintages, including the original 1968 vintage.
Unlike standard Hardy’s, this one actually had a cork stopper, not metal. Roger told me that it had a cork when he gave it to me, so I had been aging it on its side to keep it from drying out, but the cork still crumbled to pieces when I opened it up.
I’ll be honest with you. I’ve tasted over 25 different vintages of Hardy’s, and this is the finest one I have ever tasted. An absoluted stunner! The sweetness had softened. There were undertones of delicate sherry, cherry stones, and pit fruit. An alcoholic beverage that transcends category. It is what every Thomas Hardy’s Ale aspires to be, but rarely is.
Finally, we finished the evening, admiring the buring embers of the fire, with a Partagas Series D No. 4 Reserva 200o Vintage cigar, which I purchased on a trip to the Caymans two years ago. I slowly sipped some more Hardy’s, reflecting on 50 years of life.
As Jimmy Buffett sang: “…some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I’ve had a good life, all the way.”
Here’s to the next 50, my friends…
May 24th, 2010
I’m now moving on to something less serious (but no less significant) than my post this past Friday. Yes, it’s true. I’m hitting the big 5-0 on June 7th. I’m going to be pulling out all the stops, drinking great beer, wine, and whisky! (More on the beer and wine at a later date.)
This is a very special occasion, so I’ve dug deep into the Hansell archives and pulled out three special whiskies. (Pictured, and click on the picture for a larger view.) One of them I will open up on my birthday. I need your help picking which one.
The first one: The very first vintage of Longrow, the peated expression of Springbank. It’s a 1973 vintage and it’s bottled at the distillery’s traditional 46%. There is no age statement.
The second one: An old distillation of Ardbeg. It’s a Cadenhead’s bottling, distilled back in October, 1965 and bottled almost 30 years ago in December, 1980. This one is also bottled at 46%.
The last one: An old distillation of Talisker. It’s a Gordon & MacPhail bottling, distilled back in 1973. There is no indication of age or bottling date. It’s bottled at 57%.
One final note: the level of whisky in each bottle looks good, so I don’t think there has been much evaporation in any of them. Therefore, this shouldn’t be a factor in our decision-making process.
So, which bottle do you think I should I open? And why?
(P.S. I have a few bottles of whisky distilled from 1960. I might open one of those up too in addition to one of the three pictured above. Stay tuned for that.)
April 27th, 2010
This is the big news of the day here in the U.S. I’m seeing several news sources reporting it right now, but here’s one from Inc. Magazine. Give it a read.
What does the selling of a brewery have to do with whiskey? For starters, Anchor also makes whiskey (Old Potrero). In fact, Anchor, and its leader Fritz Maytag, pioneered the craft distilling movement here in the U.S., similar to how they lead the craft beer movement a couple decades ago.
The other connection to whiskey is the company buying Anchor: The Griffin Group. A couple years ago they purchased a major position in Preiss Imports. Preiss Imports bring into the U.S. Springbank, Duncan Taylor, BenRiach, GlenDronach, as well as distributing the Hirsch line of American whiskeys.
I’m not sure what all the synergisms are yet, but I am sure they will all play out in due time.
November 24th, 2009
Tonight I’m going to Cigar Aficionado’s “Big Smoke.” It’s the cigar equivalent of a WhiskyFest. In fact, Big Smoke is held in the same room as WhiskyFest New York at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square in New York City. (We comp them a couple tickets to WhiskyFest and they do the same for us with the Big Smoke.)
I know that some of you would never even think of smoking a cigar, let alone smoking one while enjoying a whisky. But, for over 25 years, I have enjoyed an occasional cigar–and something good to drink with it.
Sometimes I’ll have rich, malty full-bodied beer to go with my cigar. Other times, I’ll have a nice vintage port wine. But many times I’ll enjoy a whisky with my cigar.
I don’t have a specific pairing, but I generally DON’T drink smoky whiskies with cigars, because cigars are already smoky. Rather, I look for something to complement my cigar–like a rich sherried Speysider or full-bodied bourbon.
For those of you who enjoy a cigar with your whisky (or whiskey), do you have a favorite pairing? If so, tell us what it is.
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