Much like how Champagne is sparkling white wine from Champagne, France, scotch is whisky produced in Scotland. When it’s produced anywhere else, it’s known as whisky (or whiskey in the United States). Since whisky is distilled fermented mash (like beer) aged in barrels, it’s not surprising to learn that many geographies produce whisky. Much like how the varied Scotches have different characteristics based on geography, from the water they use to the barrles, from the way the wheat is dried to how much the barrels are roasted, geography plays a big role in the final flavor.

That’s why I’m eager to dry a Japanese whisky. They’ve grown in popularity to give sake, the country’s best known alcoholic beverage, a run for its money. I’ve seen Suntory’s Yamazaki brand in stores lately but I was surprised to learn they’ve been in business for over a hundred years! In fact, the founder of Suntory, Shinjiro Torii, hired a distiller, Masataka Taketsuru, who studied in Scotland (Taketsuru later went on to found Nikka, another major producer).

I’m eager to give it a try!

Consumers pushing beyond sake to Japanese whiskies

I received an email from Laphroaig about two weeks explaining a new Scotch Whisky Association rule that requires all cask strength single malt Scotch whiskies to display a bottling date and batch number on each bottle. Laphroaig used to bottle all their cask strengths at 55.5% ABV but with the new rules, they’ll be bottling each batch individually with varying strengths and expressions. Since the cask strengths will no longer be blends of several casks, each will have slightly more distinction from bottling to bottling.

I’m not entirely sure why the rules were changed but it’ll certainly add a small little twist to each, here are the stats of Batch #1 of Laphroaig’s Cask Strength:
Batch 1 Facts
ABV: 57.8%/115.6 proof
Batch Date: February 2007
Tasting Notes: A full blast of massive peat smoke and seashore salt leads to a fading sweetness at the finish.
Batch Quantity: 5,100 bottles

Glenfiddich produced 61 bottles of a whisky that has been maturing in a cask (casks?) for 64 years and this past week they auctioned one of those bottles off. The bottle fetched 25,200 pounds, or $37,245, from an unknown purchaser over the telephone. It’s not the most anyone has ever paid for a bottle, by a long shot, but it’s a sign that Scotch whisky is still selling strong.

The whisky in the bottle was distilled on July 17th, 1937 and bottled on October 24, 2001. Quit a long period of time!

The math of this is quite simple – there are 7 calories per gram of alcohol. To find out how many calories are in a shot of whisky, we simply need to convert that into grams, then calculate the grams of alcohol based on it’s proof, and multiply by seven. Simple right? A shot of anything is generally 1.50 fluid ounces, which is 41.7 grams.

Whisky can range in proof, starting at 80 proof, but we’ll stick with some simple math. Let’s go with 80 proof, or 40% alcohol, which gives us 16.68 grams of alcohol. If each gram has 7 calories, we know now that a shot of whisky has about 116.76 calories.

If you have a 43% ABV whisky, that’s 125.517 calories.

And if you drink a cask strength whisky at 60% ABV, then you’re talking a whopping 175.14 calories.

What Does John Know? that Glenfarclas has released a 40 year old whisky to their offerings. Glenfarclas will now have two 40 year old offerings, the new 46% ABV and the existing limited edition 43% Scottish Classic that was limited to 600 bottles.

Here are the tasting notes from the Glenfarclas website:

Colour: Rich dark mysterious Gold

Nose: Reminiscent of relaxing in an old leather armchair while eating walnuts and chocolate covered raisins.

Flavour: A sweet initial taste, orange segments dipped in liquid chocolate. Then a lovely flavour of burnt brown sugar at the back of the mouth

Finish: The dry finish oozes big tannins and more rich dark cocoa beans. Let the whisky breathe a little or add a drop or two of water to fully open up the dram

It seems fairly priced at £350.

Last week, I had the chance to visit Birds of a Feather in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland as part of a bachelor party. I know what you’re thinking, a Scotch bar for a bachelor party? It’s not typical but then again, neither was the bachelor. I, for one, wasn’t complaining. I’d heard about Birds of a Feather but never had the chance to visit and was glad we had it on our list of places to go that night.

I didn’t bring a camera but if you can imagine an upscale pub setting, put in an area of a Baltimore rowhome, you can imagine what it looks like inside. When you walk in, the bar, and it’s imposing wall of single malt and blended Scotch bottles, is to your right. To your left, along the wall, are some tall stools and tables. About twenty feet or so, there is a small hallway that leads to a back room area with large comfortable seats and tables. It’s a room that looks like it was designed for cigars and Scotch, though smoking indoors was banned a short time ago.

They have a wide selection of Scotches at very affordable prices. I don’t remember what they were but their list is available here and I can assure you that you will not be disappointed. We didn’t try anything on their menu but I imagine I wouldn’t have been disappointed there either.

If you want to learn more, here’s a glowing 2007 Baltimore Sun article.

Very friendly, not stuffy and certainly not snobby, and definitely a fun stop if you’re a fan of Scotch.

(Photo: flickr4jazz)

When people refer to Scotch whisky, they spell whisky without an ‘e.’ When they refer to the same golden or amber elixir produced in the United States, they spell whiskey with an ‘e.’ What gives?

As it turns out, the original spelling of the spirit is whisky without the ‘e.’ However, sometime in the 1800s, American distilleries wanted to differentiate their product, produced in similar fashion, from the Scottish version. In general, Scotch Whisky is spelled without an ‘e’ and any other whiskey (Canadian, Irish, etc.) is spelled with an ‘e.’ It’s unclear where the Japanese single malts fit in as they go without the ‘e.’ (Yamazaki for example)

Of course, this is not a rule followed universally and there’s no way to enforce it. In fact, a Boozin’ Blog they looked at the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms guidelines, to see if they required any nomenclature rules, and saw no consistency either.

In the end, tradition and ceremony dictates that Scotch is whisky without an ‘e’ and everything else has an ‘e.’

When I first started enjoying scotch, I was like every novice, I thought that more was better. The older the bottling, the better the scotch, right? The higher the alcohol by volume, the better the scotch, right? But like many things, older doesn’t mean better and neither does more.

When whisky is made, it’s stored in casks, or barrels, for many years. This new make whisky, as it’s called, can have an alcohol content anywhere from 60%-75%, depending on distillation. It’s potent stuff. As it matures, it loses some of its potency, known as the angel’s share. When it’s removed, depending on how old it is, it can still have a fairly high percentage of alcohol.

Normally distilled water is added to normalize the alcohol content to the standard bottling levels, however sometimes they normalize it at a might higher alcohol content for cask strength bottlings. For example, The Macallan Cask Strength, which has no age statement, has an alcohol by volume of 58.5%.

Is cask strength better? That’s debatable. At 58.5%, the burn of alcohol overpowers many of the subtle flavors in scotch. However, some people like the idea that you can get a taste of what it’s like straight out of the barrel, before water is added to bring it down to more pedestrian alcohol by volume levels. You can adjust it to your liking, instead of accepting the more standard levels of 43% or 40%.

I think it’s worth a try but unless you like your nose hairs singed off, I’d avoid getting a whole bottle.

It’s mostly for looks.

When you decant red wine, you are trying to do two things: separate the sediment from the wine and allow the wine to breathe. Over time, sediment in the wine will separate and settle at the bottle of the bottle. By decanting, you are pouring the wine into another container, the decanter, so that you may leave that sediment behind in the bottle

As for letting the wine breathe, it releases some of the wine’s aromas, which have been trapped in a bottle for however many years. By letting it breathe, the flavors are released and the wine tastes much different than straight out of the bottle. You want as much surface area as possible, the more wine that touches the air, the better. It’s recommended that you let it breathe for half an hour to an hour and never more than eight.

How does that apply to scotch? I don’t believe it does. While it’s nice for the scotch to breathe, the reality is that you will likely not finish a decanter of scotch within eight hours. If you do, well then the added subtlety produced by decanting would likely be wasted on you.

While it’s good to let scotch breathe a little in your glass, with or without the addition of water, putting it in a decanter is mostly for looks (and there’s nothing wrong with that!).

(Photo: experiment33)

You’ll most often hear people talk about how they’re going to enjoy a dram of Scotch or pour themselves a wee dram, which is a unit of measure not often used in the United States. It usually refers to a “small amount” but it actually has a definition according to the U.S. Customary System. A US fluid dram is an eighth of a fluid ounce, 60 min (minim, about a drop) or around 3.7 mL of liquid. It is actually smaller than a teaspoon, which is measured as 80 min, so chances are someone is pouring themselves several drams of whisky.