Enjoy! ’cause I didn’t enjoy it very much.
Brik Red Ale
Maker: Milking It Productions, Royal Oak, Michigan
Style: Irish Red Ale
ABV: ???
Appearance: Big frothy head. The color lives up to its name, deep brick red, slightly cloudy.
Nose: toasty malt, with robust sweetness.
On the palate: Malty and bitter, exquisitely balanced by a rich sweetness.
Finish: delicate sweetness with a pleasant lingering bitterness.
Parting Words: I was skeptical of trying this beer when I saw it in the grocery store. Like many, when I see the words “Irish Red” on a bottle my mind jumps to Killian’s, the allegedly Irish Red beer produced by that great old Irish brewery Coor’s and which was often sold at import prices by the proprietors of Neighborhood restaurants. I now publically apologize to Milking It Productions or my lack of faith. This is a beefy, complex but balanced ale. It is big enough to have with a meal and subtle enough to drink on its own. Or is it the other way around? At any rate, Brik is highly recommended. The fact that it comes in pint cans is a nice bonus.
Chateau Ste. Michelle Vintage Select Riesling
Maker: Chateau Ste. Michelle
Grape: Riesling
Vintage: 2007
Region: Columbia Valley AVA (Washington State)
ABV: 12%
Appearance: golden straw
Nose: light and sweet. Peach and orange.
On the palate: medium bodied. The peach comes through very strongly, a welcome change from the pear flavors that seem to dominate many younger, less complex Rieslings. As the glass warms, the peach stays, but the orange emerges from its shadow and a slight tartness sets in.
Finish: the finish is less complex. A big hit of orange, then peach, then a long, strong sweetness.
Parting words: I had buyer’s remorse almost as soon as I bought this bottle. I’ve been burned by musty, dusty over-aged Rieslings before and I wasn’t sure if my heart could take another disappointment from one of my favorite grapes. I’m very glad I took the plunge. This is a stellar wine. Riesling and Gewutz love the Columbia Valley and it loves them. And I love them all. Chateau Ste. Michelle is a pretty easy to find brand, but the next time you’re at Meijer or your favorite supermarket, do what I do. Look at the bottles on the back of the shelf. Many of the hard-working people who stock wine shelves at supermarkets just put the new bottles at the front of the shelf, pushing the older bottles to the back. A wino can find some great, well-aged bottles that way. This was one of them.
Video Review: Angel’s Envy
Enjoy:
Old Raj Gin
Maker: Cadenhead, Campbelltown, Argyll, Scotland.
Style: Dry
ABV: 55% (cut down to 45% for tasting purposes)
Gin & Tonic, Tom Collins: Old Raj is indistinct in both of these drinks. The Tom Collins is refreshing as always, but the G & T really falls flat, considering the proof and price of Old Raj. It might as well have been Seagram’s or some other bottom shelf brand. Highly disappointing.
Gibson: A slightly dirty Gibson this time instead of the usual martini, just to mix it up. Old Raj fares better here, but only slightly. This tastes like (shudder) a VODKA martini. The aromatics in the gin struggle to distinguish themselves from the vermouth, in this case a Noilly Prat’s Dry (the new formulation). Underwhelming.
Neat, slightly chilled: The color of this gin is a very light gold. What that comes from, I don’t know. The botanicals? A very short time in a barrel? The saffron that allegedly goes into it? Not quite sure, but it certainly makes Old Raj distinctive. The nose is a fairly standard gin nose, but more mild and dry than many in the same category. Juniper and citrus stand out with the citrus being the stronger of the two. All the rest is just alcohol. On the palate it fairly heavy bodied. Some sweetness, then that citrus is back, more specifically as lime. As it fades into the finish, the sweetness predominates with a background of citrus and a whole lotta burn. This must be what it would be like to do a shot of vodka while sucking on a lemonhead.
Parting Words: I found Old Raj to be a disappointment. It really struggles to bring anything to the table when mixed, even in drinks in which gin takes the driver’s seat like martinis (and Gibsons). Neat it holds its own. My only complaint with it neat is that it is unbalanced. Too much citrus and sweetness and not enough spice. If you are one of the few, hep cats out there who enjoy drinking your gin neat, I recommend Old Raj. If you are looking for a distinctive gin for classic gin cocktails, look elsewhere
Video Review: Jim Beam Devil’s Cut
Enjoy!
May Wine
As the merry merry month of May winds down in a hot, sticky fashion, I thought it would be appropriate to share my take on the traditional German punch called May Wine. The following recipe is for a pitcher for home consumption, but could serve for a small party. For a larger party, double the recipe and serve in a large punch bowl with a ball of ice and garnishes.
2 Bottles of dry, white Mosel wine or sweeter if you like. A couple inexpensive Michigan or New York Rieslings would work very well too.
1 cup of powdered sugar or other sugar to taste depending on the sweetness of the wine.
6 sprigs of sweet woodruff
1/2 liter of club soda, seltzer or other sparkling water. An inexpensive dry sparkling wine can also be used.
Additional sprigs and orange slices or sliced strawberries (if in season in your area)
Pour half of one bottle (375 ml) into a large bowl or a pitcher. Add the sugar, 6 sprigs of woodruff and stir. Let sit for 30 minutes. Remove woodruff. Combine with the rest of the wine and stir. Just before serving add the soda or sparkling wine. Serve in glasses of your choice with a sprig and a slice of orange or 2-3 slices of strawberries.
Serving suggestion photo courtesy of O.V. Hightower:
Casillero del Diablo Reserva Shiraz
Maker: Concha y Toro
Grape: Shiraz
Region: Central Valley, Chile
Vintage: 2005
ABV: 14%
Color: Like Richie Blackmore early in his career: Deep Purple. Good legs too.
Nose: Blackberry jam, black currant with a slight mustiness. Oak perhaps?
On the palate: shockingly light. Could there be a touch of Grenache in the mix? That same mustiness detected in the nose comes up in the palate, but takes the form of a pleasant tannic dryness.
Finish: Light, sweet finish. Lingers in the cheeks like a well-made lollipop.
Parting words: Not like a New World Shiraz hardly at all. It’s closer to a fine Rhone wine, maybe a Chateauneuf-de-pape or a more generic
cote-de-rhone. Worth picking up, even if a later vintage.
For Ben
Some of what you were looking for:
My Two Ounces: Public and Private Houses, part 2
When I joined 1789b, I was expecting a sedate and sober (in a manner of speaking) place where serious bourbon lovers could have a civilized discussion about the world’s finest beverage. What I found was different than what I expected.
At first I was surprised at the number of members who really didn’t seem to be all that interested in bourbon at all. Several introductory posts began something like this, “I don’t know much about bourbon but the co-founder of this site invited me to join. We got to know each other through the Cigar forums.” Odd, I thought, that a place that was supposed to be the home of serious boubon-peoplewas being populated by cigar people whose interest in bourbon seemed to be marginal. The opposite was true too. Ed Phalen, a pillar of the bourbon community, was nominated for membership. The public comments about his nomination were overwhelmingly positive. Then one of the founders of the forum posted that some members had sent him private concerns about Ed and that his nomination was under review. Then the whole thread disappeared.
Other aspects of the membership were curious. I was told that certain classes of people were deliberately excluded from membership. There were to be no people associated with “the industry” at all, even those who work at liquor stores were excluded. But one of the most frequent posters while I was there was someone who was for many years (and to my knowledge still is) an employee of Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD). Bloggers (should I have been insulted?) and professional writers on American Whiskey were also excluded to preserve the purity of the
forum.
Another thing that was surprising was that in a forum that was supposed to be for “mature” persons, there was plenty of pettiness. Cheap shots at those excluded critics and bloggers abounded. There was even a thread entitled “John Hansell whining AGAIN” which was a response to this post from Hansell’s blog. Taking shots at someone unable to respond didn’t seem particularly gentlemanly to me.
1789b was most disappointing in how unbelievably BORING it was. One of the most active sub-forums was one devoted to food. Not bourbon & food, just food. Many of the threads were very similar to ones on SB.com, and not the interesting ones either. One of the most potentially exciting sub-forums at 1789b was the “guest of the month” sub-forum. Someone in the American whiskey industry was invited to join 1789b for a month and interact with the membership. The first (and only) month I was there the guest was David Perkins of High West distillers/bottlers. What could have been a very cool experience was nothing but a bunch of softball questions (“How do you find such great whiskeys?”) and more thinly veiled shots at whiskey writers (“What do you think of critics who say things about you?”).
In spite of all this, I stayed. The private bottlings that members of 1789b were getting together for their membership were just too mouth-watering so I decided to stay on to take advantage of those.
I didn’t log on for about a week and a half because I was so bored and annoyed with the forum, and my arthritis had just started to rear its ugly head. When I tried to log on again, I discovered that I couldn’t. I tried again the next day but I still couldn’t get in. So I sent private messages to my friends on SB.com who I knew were 1789b members (including one of the founders) to ask them if they knew what was going on. A few replied but they knew nothing. Neither founder never replied. I replied that I didn’t really have to time to post regularly anyway due to my schedule, which was certainly true. But I was also fed up with the forum and frankly a little miffed that I had not even received an email or message telling me that my account was about to be terminated. As far as I can tell, my account was deleted because I failed to post often enough to fulfill the forum requirements but I have still not received any official explanation.
In the end, I bear no ill-will toward any members of 1789b or the management, although I would like an explanation of why I was booted. I still consider most of the membership of 1789b to be friends and I understand the desire to filter out the “noise” of the internet. I just realized that I am not a gentleman’s club kind of person. I’m a saloon guy. I like the noise, I like the newbies, I like the trolls and most of the time I like the mods. Maybe there’s a place for 1789b in the online whiskey world. They certainly seem to have found their niche, but SB.com is my internet whiskey home and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Sipology 