Scotch Addict

Now that you’re familiar with the differences between blended and single malt scotches, let me introduce a “third” type – vatted malt (or pure malt). Despite my calling it a third type (see the quotes?), vatted malt is really a blended whiskey without the grain whiskey component. Vatted malts, like blends, mix a variety of single malts together in an attempt to get a totally new flavor. With blends, grain whiskey is used to thin out the flavors a little in order to achieve some balance, though many enthusiasts consider it to be cheapening the flavors.

The term is somewhat misleading. Malt refers to the the mixture that will be fermented and vatted just means put into a big pot or container. Vatted malt would lead you to believe that malt from a variety of sources is put into a container and fermented together, but that’s not the case. While much of the flavor is determined by the malt itself, there are flavors, mouthfeel, and other characteristics that develop in the cask while it matures in the warehouse. If you mix the malts and mature in the same warehouse, you lose a lot of that. In reality, the vat refers to the blending process after the individual whiskeys have matured and would otherwise be consumed.

The Scotch Whisky Association recently renamed this category from vatted malts to “Blended Malt Scotch Whisky.”

Johnnie Walker Green Label, Eleuthera by Compass Box (vatted from Caol Ila and Clynelish), and Famous Grouse 10 yr. are among the few well-known vatted malts.

(Photo: reutc)

Reference Caol Ila, Clynelish, Eleuthera, Famous Grouse, Johnnie Walker, Johnnie Walker Green Label, Vatted Malts

If you’ve ever tried to buy alcohol online, such as wine, you’ve probably run into the myriad of alcohol shipping laws that govern how much, if any at all, alcohol an individual can get shipped to their home. USA Today published a great recap in 2005 looking at each of the fifty states and how the laws governed direct shipments of alcohol from sellers to consumers. Wine Spectator has a more descriptive article on the subject, also from 2005, and the New York Times has one dated 2008.

Here is the listing for my fair state of Maryland:

Out-of-state wineries can purchase a permit to ship wines that are not available through an alcohol distributor in Maryland. The wine must be shipped to a licensed Maryland retailer.

So for me to receive wine from California, it has to first be sent to a liquor store!

What about New York, where I grew up?

In-state wineries may ship or deliver directly to consumers. In February, a federal appeals court upheld the state’s ban on direct shipping from out of state. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider an appeal.

Finally, there’s Virginia…

After a court struck down Virginia’s ban on direct shipping, the state legislature rewrote the law. Out-of-state sellers with a wine shipper’s license now may ship up to two cases to a Virginia resident per month. Sellers must pay excise taxes.

… and the loosest local law, DC:

Direct shipments of up to one quart a month are allowed.

If you happen to live in a state with loose laws, consider yourself lucky!

Legal Liquor Laws, Shipping Laws

I mentioned last week that having a Scotch Night was a great way to sample a wide variety of scotches without spending a wide variety of dollars. I must admit, the idea to write the article come from the fact that my friends and I would be having one of these Scotch Nights the very next day! (1/16/09)

So, the roster was:

• Jura 18
• Laphroiag 10 & a quarter casks version
• Glenmorangie 10
• Chivas Regal 18 (our only blend)
• Macallan 15
• Highland Park 12

The Jura 18 was a bottle I picked up coming back from England last Thanksgiving and I was eager to try it because it wasn’t available here in the United States. The Isle of Jura 18 Year Old is a 40% abv scotch and the only scotch from that island. My memory of the Jura is that it’s sweet and very soft, no doubt a product of its age, and it definitely captures the mood Jura tries to invoke, which is a celebration of the island life.

The Isle of Jura itself is 16 miles off the coast of Scotland, near Islay, and measures only 30 miles long by 7 miles wide, a population of only 185. The main settlement on Jura is a village known as Craighouse where they distill Isle of Jura. What’s most interesting is that there is no ferry connection to mainland Scotland, travel must be done through Islay, though that connection, or its heavy peat, doesn’t come through in the whiskey!

The Chivas Regal 18 was the only blend of the bunch and headquartered in Speyside. My novice palate had trouble with the Chivas Regal 18 because the spiciness tripped up the fruity flavors, having both really threw me for a loop. I could definitely taste both but I couldn’t get past the spiciness to really enjoy the fruit (I love spicy food) and spiciness isn’t something I typically taste in scotch, further confusing me a little.

A little bit of history, Chivas Regal is produced in the oldest working distillery in the Highlands of Scotland, the Strathisla Distillery.

Those were some notes I had from our Scotch Night. With each night, I’m slowly developing a better palate and a better sense of the scotches that I enjoy. In prior scotch nights, I discovered I enjoyed peatiness and smokiness in moderation (Laphroaig and Lagavulin!) but liked the fruitier and more vanilla-y scotches for longer stretches.

Oh, one other thing we did during scotch night, besides eat and drink, was watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly… which was a lot longer than we thought it was.

Events Chivas Regal, Glenmorangie, Highland Park, Jura, Laphroaig, Macallan

When you read the tasting notes for a particular whiskey or scotch, you’ll probably see a lot of references you won’t recognize. You may know what a vanilla is but it may be difficult for you to pick out its flavor profile from within the complexities of the whiskey itself. You may know what oak smells like and tastes like but you won’t know how that note plays in the symphony of other flavors.

How do you train and expand your palate? Hard work. What you need to do is just taste and smell different things and train your brain to remember the subtleties of the flavors and scents you pick up. As you are eating these different flavors, it’s important to really taste them, which may be different than how you normally eat. Let the jams and jellies, which heighten a fruit’s flavors, spread across your tongue so all your taste buds get a strong sense of what makes up its flavor.

It was the topic of an older Wine Library TV episode I’ve embedded below:

I wouldn’t taste your sock though… unless you really want to!

Tasting Nose, Palate

Every once and a while, my friends and I get together for a Scotch Night. The premise is simple. Each participant brings a bottle, or chips in for a bottle, and everyone gets to try a bottle they’ve never tried before without having to shell out $40 – $80 for 750ml of something they may not like. Having participated in several of these Scotch Nights, I have discovered what I enjoy without having to spend big bucks doing it.

Here are a few tips for Scotch Night:

• Research: Bone up on the tasting notes for the whiskeys you’re going to try. It’s good to get a general idea of what to expect (no, it’s not about impressing your friends, it’s about getting maximum enjoyment) and what you may or may not like.
• Pour a little at first: If you’ve never had something, don’t go pouring yourself a full glass. Give yourself a little more than a few sips. Enough that you can get a nose of it but not enough that you regret having poured so much if you don’t like it. You can always pour yourself more if you discover you love it.
• Good company can overcome bad whiskey: It’s all about who you invite. Invite people you enjoy hanging out with because good company can always overcome bad whiskey (it can’t overcome terrible whiskey though, unless they’re awesome friends). That’s why I always have fond memories of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
• Try something new: If you can, try to be the guy who brings the whiskey no one else can pronounce. The Glenlivet is great but you can get that anywhere, try getting yourself something you can have fun trying to say.
• Take notes: Whiskeys will come in all shapes, sizes, and names; you will forget what you enjoyed unless you write it down. Write down notes for the flavors you smelled and tasted, the color you saw, and anything else worth noting. You won’t be able to remember what was what by the end of the night. At a bare minimum, scratch down the ones you enjoyed so you can buy them later.
• Have fun! Most importantly, have fun!

Tonight a few friends of mine will be getting together to eat some good food, drink some good scotch, and watch The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly with Clint Eastwood. We saw Gran Torino last weekend so we thought we’d follow that up with some Eastwood classics!

Events Scotch Night

One of the things you’ll learn about Scotch is that two people can describe one dram in two completely different ways. However, would you ever have considered that the Glen Garoich 15 year, which retails for ~$45 a 750ml, is a “pungent, intense mix of fresh ginger, fabric conditioner and leather car upholstery?”

Is that good or bad?

As seen on Dubber & Clutch.

General Glen Garioch, Humor

What is the difference between blended and single malt scotches? Technically, the difference is in production. A blended scotch or whiskey is one in which several, anywhere from a dozen to a hundred, different whiskeys are blended together. A single malt scotch is one in which only one whiskey, from start to finish, is used. From a labeling perspective, blended whiskeys must have been aged at least three years and the age on the bottle must be that of the youngest whiskey in the blend. This isn’t an issue for single malts because there is only one age in the bottle.

As for the part of whiskey that matters, the enjoyment, there is no reason why a blended whiskey would be inferior or superior to a single malt. The difference is only in that single malts from one region will have the region’s characteristics come through in the scotch. This is difficult with blends because you have a lot of different whiskeys blended together. It’s like listening to a violin versus listening to an orchestra, to use the orchestra analogy once again.

So, when choosing what you’ll be having, it’s more important to be familiar with the whiskey rather than look to see whether it’s a blend or a single malt. Like age, whether the scotch is blended or a single malt is a poor indicator of whether you’ll enjoy it.

General Blended Whiskey, Single Malt Whiskey