Watery whisky

Hate charity but love tax deductions? Like charity but hate thirst? Just like whisky? Then perhaps you'll want to check out the Water of Life whisky auction benefiting rainwater harvesting programs in Uganda. The items up for bid are rare whiskies like the Port Ellen portfolio and a set of 20+ year old Taliskers, though most of the brands are so rare I've never heard of them. There's less than two days of bidding left, so get on it.

Independent Bottlings

In this past weekend's Wall Street Journal, Eric Felten discussed independent bottlings of scotch whisky. I always thought independent bottlings were confusing to the consumer (and me), but it makes sense when he put it into historical context:

Scotch distilleries traditionally did not themselves bottle or market their whiskies. They sold it by the barrel to brokers and blenders who mixed them to create blended whiskies such as Chivas Regal, Johnnie Walker and Dewar's. For decades, just about the only way to get a bottle containing whisky from an individual distillery -- that is, a single malt -- was from an independent bottler. Many of these, such as William Cadenhead, were liquor and wine merchants who bought barrels of whisky for their shops and offered them, unblended, to their customers. Savvy Scotch drinkers learned to look for these single malts because they had quirky and compelling character lacking in even the best blends. Were it not for independent bottlers, there might never have been a single-malt revolution. Thanks to the success of the independents, the distillers realized they should start bottling their malts and create marketable brands of their own. "Independents molded the industry," says Euan Shand, managing director of one such firm, Duncan Taylor & Co Ltd. "Multinationals who bought into it are reaping that benefit."

When I saw independent bottlings at whisky festivals I used to skip the table, as they are limited quantity bottlings and I didn't want to try something I could only get once. I wanted a bottling I could find year after year, and you can only ensure that by purchasing it from the brand directly. Now that I've tried so many whiskies, I can skip the tables of the brands I've had several times in the past and see what the independent bottlers are offering. I can see where there is room for both the independents and the brands, but this article shows that during the whisky boom, the independents are getting squeezed out of the business.

News for Thursday

Bourbon is booming. Beer and wine surpass vodka sales by volume in Russia now. Conversely, vodka now outsells scotch in the UK.

Items of Interest for Monday

- Anchor Distilling releases the annual barrel of Hotaling's Whiskey. - Beachbum Berry lists movies featuring tropical cocktails. - Jim Beam's new ad campaign focuses on individuals with "The Stuff Inside." I've been accused of being full of stuff on many occasions, so perhaps I should bring myself to their attention. - DC Drinks has an interview with the dude who makes Vya vermouth. - The Wild Drink blog has a Rum History Timeline. Great idea!

SWA = OPEC?

The scotch whisky world is all a flutter with changing international markets. There's a growing demand for scotch in India and China, without enough scotch available to meet expected demand. Many distilleries are ramping up production and beginning to release single malts without age statements (allowing them to combine younger and older whisky together to make it taste mid-range) . A lot of the industry's stress comes from one guy: Vijay Mallya, the Indian billionaire who bought Whyte & Mackay last year. From what I've read, whisky isn't very regulated in India, with some local producers even making "whisky" out of sugar. Mallya wants the Scotch Whisky Association, the powerful industry group that helps regulate and standardize whisky production from Scotland, to accept changes such as allowing additives and flavorings that will appeal to the growing affluent youth market in India. The idea of the SWA allowing flavored whisky is just laughable. This is not a progressive organization. It's all heritage, heritage, heritage. But some of the comments Mallya made the SWA may like after all. From a story in The Scotsman:

Mallya now controls about 60% of the Indian whisky market following his £595m acquisition of Whyte & Mackay last May. Since that acquisition the price of bulk whisky has risen considerably as the widespread practice of selling whisky for cheap own label blends has stopped. Mallya said he liked the idea of prices staying high and called on the SWA to restrict production, much like the Opec countries do with oil. He said: "Over the last few years we have seen the price of whisky rise. Well, why don't we keep it that way? The SWA could become a value custodian. "In the past we have seen overproduction ruin the profitability of the industry, one way we could prevent this is by restricting production. Opec does it."

I'm heading off to Scotland in May for a big press trip. I can't wait to hear some of the responses the distillers have to this. For further reading, check out the latest issue of Malt Advocate magazine. They address the scotch whisky boom and its consequences.

CHOW booze round-up

CHOW.com is just cranking out the booze stories lately. Currently on the front page there are:

• A take-down of Vodka 360's greenwashing
• A terrific Japanese whisky primer by Aaron Gilbreath that even has taste comparison notes to scotch brands
• An analysis of why nose grease tames beer foam
• And why Champagne's AOC is expanding

Powered by whisky

From the Financial Times, by-products of the scotch whisky production will be used to generate heat and electricity.

The Combination of Rothes Distillers (Cord) would replace its dependence on fossil fuels by taking as fuel the used malted barley known as "draff" and the "pot ale" residue left by the distilleries on Speyside.

The plant would be able to generate 7.2 megawatts of electricity, mostly for export to the national grid - enough to power 9,000 homes. It would also save about 46,642 tonnes of CO 2 being emitted annually, compared with an equivalent level of coal-fired generating capacity.

The plant would also convert the pot ale left after the first distillation of whisky into a concentrated organic fertiliser for use by farmers on crops such as the barley used in the malting process.

My obsession with distillery waste products is no secret, so this is very exciting news to me. I think what they refer to as the "pot ale" is the heads and tails. Some other distilleries, such as 4 Copas tequila, also turn this into (organic) fertilizer when mixed with the discarded leaves of the agave plant. Others sell the heads and tails to industrial alcohol companies. In the US and Canada anyway, much of the solid waste from the spent corn and other grains is used as animal feed.

New at WoW

The annual Whiskies of the World is coming up March 28 and 29th in San Francisco. On Friday the 28th, they'll be holding $30 seminars and $ 60 courses (differentiated by the duration of each) at Le Meridien Hotel. The 2.5 hour courses include "Whisky Wizardry" by John Glaser of Compass Box for those into experimentation with blending, "Grain to Glass" that seems like a large overview of whiskies from around the world, and "A Walk in the Woods" with whisky master Steve Beal of Diageo, which is all about wood maturation. The 50-minute seminars are mostly brand-specific, with tasting lectures by MacKillop's Choice, Yamazaki, Bowmore, and Laphroaig, plus "The Great Whisky/Whiskey Debate" which is about American vs. Scotch whiskies. Information on courses and seminars is here. The big tasting this year returns to the San Francisco Belle, docked at Pier 3. Even though the boat is docked the whole time it can be a little wobbly until your sea legs catch up with your natural rocking motion from the alcohol. The tasting costs $99 and runs from 6PM-10PM. New this year, the Beverage Academy of Bourbon & Branch will host a booth at the event so you can stop by and learn about the programs. The open air top deck allows for a whisky and cigar pairing, and there are live whisky cooking demos from Angel Catering. The list of whisky brands attending is here (scroll down).

Video, audio, paper, and web whisky

I just discovered the many whisky videos- most of them appear to be interviews- on WhiskyGuild.com. Scroll down. Also, if you're not listening to the WhiskyCast podcast, it's time to start. Last week they had an interview with Jonny McCormick, who wrote an article for Malt Advocate magazine about buying your own cask. Malt Advocate's publisher and editor John Hansell also has a great blog, on which Feb 24th's entry says he's boycotting writing about Irish whiskey until after St. Patrick's Day. I'll make no such promises.

Cheap booze from Esquire

Esquire Magazine is putting more of its articles online, and that means that once a month or so we get one from David Wondrich. Today they posted his roundup of a few $30ish whiskies.

Video Bartender: On the Irish Whiskey Trail (2006)

This is part of an ongoing project reviewing every booze DVD on Netflix. Wow! Who knew whiskey could be so boring? On the Irish Whiskey Trail leads us through Irish and Irish whiskey history and production, and takes us to visit the Jameson, Bushmills, Middleton, and Locke's whiskey distilleries. On the way there are three full musical interludes during which we're treated to a traditional Irish song at a much higher volume than the rest of the video, while being shown countryside slides. While the Scotch Whisky Trail DVD was pretty entertaining and got me psyched for my upcoming visit to Scotland, this one was painful to watch and got my psyched for the ending. Going with the theme, I next watched Great Irish Drinks (2003), a DVD that purported to visit the same distilleries as On the Irish Whiskey Trail. As it turns out, it not only visited the same distilleries, it used the same footage, and in some places the same voice-over narration. But either it was a better and more lively edit or I was just in a better mood, because I enjoyed this one more than the first.

Video Bartender: Great Scotch Whisky (2006)

This DVD introduces Scottish and scotch history, then takes a tour of some scotch and Irish whiskey distilleries. The majority of the video is a visual tour of whisky distilleries, yet it's not quite as educational as going on the actual tours. In other words, I didn't learn anything from watching it. The DVD visited the distilleries of Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Glenfarclas, and Bushmills, and maybe a few others that I didn't write down, with lots of countryside scenery images thrown in for good measure. Overall, it's a fine Sunday afternoon PBS-while-cleaning-the-house video, but nothing that will blow your mind. Later I watched Rick Steves' Ireland and Scotland 2000-2007. Steves only visited one distillery, plus the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh. He spent a large amount of time touring Scotland and driving on country roads, as well as hanging in pubs in Edinburgh. While not a whisky video, it was a nice introduction or warm-up for those going on a whisky tour of Scotland. And on that note: I'm going to Scotland!!! I just signed on for a seven distillery tour with DISCUS in May, and I'm very, very happy about it. But the more I look at these video tours, the more it feels like I won't be seeing as much of the country as I want. We're just hitting Highland/Speyside distilleries (Only seven? But there are 40! What about Islay? Can we spend more time in Edinburgh?) and I'm trying to resist the temptation to go nuts and extend the trip for too much longer. Damn that Rick Steves for making it all look so cool.

Whisky oxidation

Oh John Hansell's blog, he discusses how the Sazerac 18-year old rye is different in each of three vintages. The first year's rye was from a different set of barrels, but the second two releases are the same batch of whiskey stored a year in stainless steel. According to the information sent to him, the only difference was that the whiskey sat in the tanks- with a large area exposed to oxygen- for a year. The difference between the two years is due to oxidation. That's all fine and interesting on its own, but should also act as a reminder that whiskey can change even when not in wood if the bottle is empty enough, so I should most likely start finishing the dregs of a 25-year-old Macallan that's been sitting quietly in my cupboard for too long.

Look what's launched

It's Whiskipedia.org!

Lalique- So Chic!

By me, in today's SF Chromicle:

Splurge on a $12,000 bottle of scotch Though the product isn't available until January, the whiskey lover in your life probably won't mind the IOU for this $12,000 Macallan 55-year-old single-malt Scotch packaged in a custom Lalique crystal bottle. The spirit inside is unusual for Macallan as it has more of an earthy, peaty profile than their younger whiskies, and the funky bottle on the outside is unusual in that there are only 420 of them on the market. (To get one, inquire at Macallan55@remyusa.com.)

Genevieve

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

Fritz Maytag and the team at Anchor Distilling are so far ahead of the curve they must get bored waiting for us to catch up. They've just released Genevieve, a genever-style gin they began developing in 1996, which has been sitting in a tank ever since. Genever is an old type of gin (before the modern London dry style came into being) that was used in some of the earliest published cocktail recipes currently in vogue.

New gins (including Anchor's Junipero) are column-distilled into a neutral spirit then infused with botanicals including juniper berries and redistilled. Genevieve, on the other hand, is first distilled from malted grains in a pot still, similar to whiskey, before being flavored and redistilled in another custom-built pot still. The result is a gin with the added flavor and texture of an unaged whiskey.

The first release was only 700 bottles sold mostly to cocktailian bars and a few liquor stores in order to avoid confusion with Anchor's other gin. They're currently producing more of the product for when the rest of us figure it out.

Reading this now I'm uncomfortable with the phrase, "pot still, similar to whiskey." I actually wrote "whisky," meaning scotch, and it was copy-edited to "whiskey," but this could also be incorrect as blended scotch whisky has column distilled whisky mixed in. Bourbon whiskey is mostly column distilled. On the other hand, the phrase "malted grains" does make it similar to (some) whisk(e)y, and it's certainly what people think of when you say "malted grains". So I'm just going to declare that phrase as ambiguously incorrect. I'm also going to declare that writing about whisk(e)y is a big pain in the ass.

Black (Out) Friday

The SF Chronicle's Wine Section comes out with the now-annual gift guide today. To read the intro and all of the items, start here, then follow the links in the box on the right. I listed some suggestions for gift books (Felten, Wondrich, In the Land of Cocktails), Gary Regan tells us must-have bottles of each kind of booze for your liquor cabinet, Jay Brooks tells us his ideal beer imports, I give a list of essential glassware for the home bar, and in this list of miscellany I pick some whiskies and a calendar.

Even over polite whisky conversation, the discussion turns to Britney Spears

Last night I went to Absinthe for a dinner with Mike Miyamoto of Yamazaki Whisky. They brought along David Wondrich, whose new book I reviewed for the Chronicle (review coming out November 9th). We tasted the 12 and 18 year whiskies, as well as a 25-year-old not available in the US. What's unique about these whiskies is the Japanese oak used to age some of it (they use five types of barrels- three American oak new or used bourbon, one Spanish oak sherry casks, and one Japanese oak), which impart an incense-spice flavor to the whisky. Until I could identify the flavor on its own, I thought of it as very fine ground green and red pepper confetti, whereas American oak is a more coarse confetti. This is how my tongue identifies oak until my brain catches up. Somewhere during the dinner the conversation took a turn to Britney Spears ( I blame Wondrich), though it didn't linger there too long after I started mocking them. Miyamoto has worked on different production aspects of whisky in the US, Japan, and Scotland. The company has been making whisky in Japan since 1923, and studying it scientifically to try to achieve the best product. When he went to Scotland (after Suntory purchased a distillery there) to see what the Scots could teach them about making whisky, he says they were just coasting on their laurels and following tradition instead of studying and innovating. Also unique about Yamazaki is that the product is changing. They are trying to make better product so they try to improve the equipment and processes rather than aim for consistency. They reduced the size of their stills to make a better whisky a couple of years ago, so we won't see how that tastes for another ten years. Miyamoto said, "If there is something you don't like about the whisky let us know and we'll change it." They sure don't talk like that in Scotland.

WhiskyFest listing

Okay, last post about WhiskyFest until I go there: Here is the mention of the event in Friday's SF Chronicle:

Lessons in whisky Malt Advocate magazine's WhiskyFest, which has been running annually for years in New York and Chicago, makes its debut in San Francisco on Tuesday. It's a one-stop whisk(e)y workshop, with lectures, tastings of more than 250 Scotch, Irish, Canadian, Japanese, and American whiskeys, and food to keep you from getting overwhelmed by it all. Some of the special guests and/or speakers this year are Jimmy Bedford, master distiller at Jack Daniel's, Fred Noe, Jim Beam's great grandson, and John Campbell, distillery manager at Laphroaig. New whiskeys available for tasting include Benromach Organic Scotch, additional Glenmorangie finishes, and the Buffalo Trace 2007 Antique Collection. The event runs from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency, 5 Embarcadero Center, in San Francisco. Tickets cost $105; to register in advance and for information, call (800) 610-6258 or visit maltadvocate.com.

Where's the after-hours at?

I just got word that Swig and Bourbon & Branch will be holding discounted after-parties for WhiskyFest San Francisco Oct 23. You know, just in case you haven't had enough with the 200+ at the tasting.

Bourbon & Branch After Party

501 Jones St.

San Francisco,

415-673-1921

20% discount on all whiskies in our 150 bottle (mostly Bourbon) list. Just show your WhiskyFest ticket stub to receive the discount. The event would be held in the Library room and a secret password is required for entry at the front door. To get the password, send an email to RSVP to dahi (put at sign here) bourbonandbranch.com. Admittance will be limited. Try their new Buffalo Trace cask; they will also be making new whisky cocktails such as the Revolver (Bulleit, Tia Maria, Orange Bitters), Black Manhattan (Buffalo Trace, Averna, Cherry Coffee bitters), as well as classics such as Blood & Sand, Manhattan and Old Fashioned. Swig After Party

561 Geary St. (between Taylor and Jones)

San Francisco

415- 931-7292

20% discount on 175 (mostly Scotch) whisky list.

WhiskyFest To-Do List

Amy Westlake from WhiskyFest (October 23 in SF, October 30 NY, Chicago April 4, 2008) sent me an email with the new bottlings available for tasting at the event this year. So take it as what's new in whisky or an ad for WhiskyFest. Whatevs-I wish every industry would list the new launches for each season.

Aberlour 16yr. Benromach Organic Bowmore 18 yr. Several new Bruichladdichs The New Buffalo Trace 2007 Antique Collection Compass Box Flaming Heart Deanston 30 year old New release of Evan Williams Single Barrel, not going into circulation until 2008 New Glenmorangie finishes Hazelburn Lagavulin and Oban Distillers edition New 2007 release of Old Forester Birthday bourbon Springbank 16 year Rum Cask

Note: How many more finishes can Glenmorangie do?

What to get me for Christmas this year

Anything on this list would do just fine. Also, I'm not Christian so there's no need to wait.

We've got spirits fests, yes we do

Here is my comparative round-up in San Francisco Magazine of the three upcoming spirits festivals in San Francisco: the Independent Spirits Festival, Malt Advocate's WhiskyFest, and the Scotch Malt Whisky Society's Extravaganza. I just found out I'll be out of town for the Independent Spirits Festival, which is too bad because they'll have all sorts of weird stuff there. But hopefully I can still hit the other two.

One less single-barrel program

Via the Scotch Blog via Malt Advocate, we learn that Highland Park will be discontinuing their single-barrel whisky program that I just wrote about as of April 2008. Get one while you still can!

The value of overcharging

Here's a fun article on why Balvenie can charge $30,000 for a bottle of 50-year-old scotch. The best part:

Few consumer product purveyors dare to trumpet the exorbitance of their prices as an actual virtue. But this is the spirits world, where flavour nuances are as subtle as they are subjective, and where bragging rights can be more of a draw than the fleeting liquid in the bottle.

The past few years have seen a parade of "rare," bottles proudly promoted at stratospheric prices. In 2005, a bottle of The Macallan 1926 single malt was ceremoniously sold for $75,000 (U.S.) at a liquor store in Seoul, while a bottle of The Dalmore 62 Years recently changed hands for $51,000. And various spirit companies routinely stage similar publicity events with precious bottles from supposedly long-lost casks that are miraculously uncovered in a corner of the distillery by accident.

Curiously, most Scotches, if left in cask for 50 years, wouldn't be worth blending into a Rusty Nail. By that age, the wood tends to impart too much of a lumber flavour, turning the spirit into a syrupy goop with an aroma of stale church pew.

Popular Singles

Roll out the single-barrel Bay Area watering holes snap up bottlings of exclusive whiskeys Camper English, Special to The Chronicle Friday, September 7, 2007 The Cigar Bar & Grill in Jackson Square in San Francisco serves a Manhattan you can't get anywhere else, as it's made with the restaurant's exclusive 10-year-old bourbon. Harris' Restaurant and Nopa have exclusive bourbon, too, as does T-Rex Barbecue in Berkeley. None of these watering holes have stills in their backyards to produce their own spirits, but they each serve a different barrel of whiskey.

Most whiskeys are blends of dozens of different barrels, sometimes fewer if they're "small batch" whiskeys. The distillery's master blender mixes barrels together to achieve the desired flavor profile consistent with previous batches.

In the past few years, the master blender has had slightly less work to do, as single-barrel bottlings have become popular. In these bottlings, a barrel of exceptionally high quality (or an exceptionally old one) is put into bottles and labeled on its own. The resultant bottles are usually sold to multiple liquor stores, bars and restaurants, but increasingly, distilleries have begun promoting single-barrel bottlings to individual customers.

Read the rest of my story in today's Chronicle here.

Mixin' Whiskies

On Friday I will have a story in the San Francisco Chronicle on single-barrel whiskies. It is one of those stories that has a simple theme- single-barrel programs are getting more popular- but the research for it lead me down a rabbit hole trying to find out which distillers were doing which programs and which venues in San Francisco participated in them. And everyone was on vacation so I had make about 4 calls for every one callback. In the end I probably spent half a month working on a story that won't pay for 1/5 of my monthly expenses. Oops, I'm dumb! Anyway, the point of writing this blog entry is to share a thought that didn't make it into the article. I think most people think of whiskey as something that is finished once it hits the barrel, then a few years later you open up the barrel and mix it with some other similar barrels and bottle it. If this were true, you could buy a single barrel of any whiskey. Unless I'm thinking hard about it, I particularly think of bourbon as a finished product in the barrel- probably because without the single-malt labels of scotch and with the small-batch labels of bourbons it's easy to picture it that way. But if an American whiskey is not available in single-barrel form, there's a good chance that it's a mixture of different types of whiskies from the warehouse- some with more corn, some with more rye, etc. So all the multitudes of brands that come out of the very few distilleries in Kentucky are just different combinations of barrels at different price points. When you think of barrels of whiskey as ingredients, rather than finished products, I think it takes away some of the magic. It doesn't change how they taste, of course, but increasingly it's important to remind ourselves what's reality and what's marketing.

If it ain't broke...

...why rebrand it? Glenmorangie is rebranding much of its line of whiskies, changing the bottle style, and renaming the wood-finished lines.

The company is also replacing its Wood Finish expressions with the Glenmorangie Extra Matured range of three single malts with Gaelic-inspired names -- Lasanta, Quinta Ruban and Nectar d'Or -- aged for 10 years in Bourbon casks and then additionally matured in either Sherry, Port or French Sauternes barrels. The Glenmorangie 18-year-old and 25-year-old whiskies will also be re-launched with their own bespoke identities, the company said.

Apparently Quinta Ruban is easier to remember than "port" (or whichever one it is). For continuing updates on this, check in with The Scotch Blog, which always has the news as it happens. I was just speaking with a bartender yesterday about how obfusicating product information really turns off bartenders and consumers. In particular he was annoyed with US bourbon and French vodka companies who try to hide where, when, and from what the products were distilled. He said he's now trying to avoid a certain corporation's products because he thinks their being ultra-tight-lipped is akin to dishonesty. There is an increasing trend toward consumer education in the booze industry, with brand tasting parties, bar education programs, and advanced coursework and training for bartenders. People are really curious about what they're drinking and always want to know more. I know I am (note the domain name) and I've made a career out of finding out stuff about booze and sharing it. On the other hand, look at vodka. Sales continue to rise despite increasing negative attitudes from media, bartenders, and amazingly even brand people. Three times over the past month I've heard well-known bartenders, consultants, and even a vodka marketing bigwig say "There's no real difference in vodkas." The media barely reports on it, bartenders in better cocktail lounges have dropped it from the menu or limited their selection to just a few brands, and at industry events vodka is openly mocked as a product for suckers. And we've all been chanting "gin will be big" for years and it just hasn't happened. So who knows, perhaps the Glenmorangie marketing people are making a smart decision, and those of us who care about what's in the bottle are too dumb to see it.

The problem with moonshine...

...is that you get the Dukes of Hazzard theme song stuck in your head when you write about it. You'll have to wait until next week for the story, but I invite you to join me in my personal hell:

Good Ol' Boys by Waylon Jennings - Dukes of Hazzard Lyrics Just the good ol' boys, Never meanin' no harm, Beats all you've ever saw, been in trouble with the law since the day they was born. Straight'nin' the curve, Flat'nin' the hills. Someday the moutain might get 'em, but the law never will. Makin' their way, The only way they know how, That's just a little bit more than the law will allow. Just good ol' boys, Wouldn't change if they could, Fightin' the system like a true modern day Robin Hood.

If you have a $35,000 bottle of whisky, make sure to keep it safe from angry teenagers

Fate of $40,000 bottle of whisky hard to swallow Les Kennedy August 10, 2007

IT WAS an act of drunken spite against his former stepfather that led Daniel Alex D'Souza to break open a bottle of rare Scotch whisky purported to have dated back to the time of the First Fleet.

By his own account to police in a recorded interview, the 19-year-old from Cootamundra, in southern NSW, said he did not stop to savour the drop, but "poured it into the ground".

Police allege the whisky would have been worth $40,000 (Australian = $34,368 US) if sold at auction to a collector.

Its owner, Dr Frank Perera, said he believes his former stepson drank it with his mates.

More malty goodness in San Francisco and shameless people to drink it

Yesterday I met with John Hansell (publisher/editor) and Amy Westlake (event director) of Malt Advocate Magazine and Whiskyfest. This year they're expanding Whiskyfest to San Francisco and are in town for a week of drinking and eating with local boozers in an effort to spread the word. (The event is October 23rd.) It occurred to me after our conversation that whiskey drinkers, for all the fluff and pomp and price points of whiskey culture, have very little shame. It's a lot of begging to get your hands on the good stuff, and then bragging about how low you sunk afterwards. Whiskey drinkers will smuggle contraband booze across borders and into parties, lie through their teeth to get a distillery sample not on the market, and brownnose brand reps to get at the bottle they just know is hidden under the table at the tasting event. If the whiskey world weren't mostly 50-year-old men we'd all be hookers. John brought a special treat- a 50-year old whisky sample. In his position, he gets access to the really, really good stuff. So he went to a tasting of a few 50+ year-old casks that were blended into a final product. At the end of the tasting, he collected all the leftover dregs of whisky and put them in a bottle. He kept this tiny bottle and probably smuggled it out of Scotland and put it in his secret hiding place for years. And just a taste from this bottle was his special treat for us. Shameless. And so very, very tasty. And all you wine drinkers out there- you know you'd do it too if you didn't have to worry about oxidation.

Wine-Finished Bourbon

Another piece by me in today's Chronicle:

Bourbon with a Chardonnay chaser

Over in Scotland, wood-finished whiskies are all the rage. Most Scotch ages for years in barrels that previously held bourbon or sherry, and recently several distillers have been transferring the whisky in its final years to barrels that held Port, Madeira or Burgundy, where it picks up additional flavors. Now American whiskey producers are giving it a try.

Jim Beam released Port and Cognac-finished whiskies several years ago as part of their Distillers' Masterpiece collection. This month, Woodford Reserve bourbon is rolling out a limited-edition Master's Collection Sonoma-Cutrer finished whiskey that first aged for five years in new charred American oak barrels, then four more months in used Sonoma-Cutrer French oak Chardonnay wine barrels from which it picks up more fruit and citrus notes. It's available in California stores for $89.99.

-- Camper English

Storing Whiskey

Here is something I learned yesterday from Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Chris Morris: whiskey can go bad once the bottle is opened. Before the bottle is opened, it will last indefinitely. Keep it stored upright, but tip it over once a year so the cork gets a touch of wetness. If you're planning on storing it for many years, you should seal the top better by dipping it in wax. (This is specific to Woodford, which is capped with a cork and wood, which are breathable. Some whiskies already have a wax seal.) After the bottle is opened, it will still last indefinitely until the bottle is roughly a third emptied. Until that point enough spirit evaporates into the empty air that the environment is right. But once you've had more than a third or so of the bottle, the air/whiskey balance can throw off the spirit and you may see it turn cloudy and the flavor will go off. Here's the good news- this won't happen for about two years, so you've got plenty of time to finish that bottle.

Thoughts on Wood

Here's a general article about the Blue Grass Cooperage, the barrel-making company that produces all the barrels for Jack Daniels and other Brown-Forman brands.

Each week, 191 production workers make 10,000 to 11,000 barrels, each holding 53 gallons - amounting to anywhere from 240 to 280 bottles of whiskey. Huge columns of oak strips are stacked in pallets outside the plant. Inside, chugging machinery noisily shapes the wood.

Some 90 percent of barrels are filled with Jack Daniel's, reflecting the brand's robust market share. Case sales of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey rose 6.6 percent last year to 8.9 million cases, and the brand is sold in 135 countries. The rest of the barrels will hold Brown-Forman's Old Forester and Woodford Reserve bourbons. Case sales for Woodford Reserve, the company's premium, small-batch bourbon, reached 100,000 last year, up 23 percent over 2005.

Dang! That's a lot of barrels. But as we all know, there is much barrel recycling in the world before they become planters and ashtrays outside of old-timey theme restaurants. One thing I learned when I visited the Canadian Mist distillery earlier this year is that a company like B-F that owns its own cooperage and a lot of brands can save a lot of money. Canadian whisky is aged at least partially in used barrels that previously held Jack Daniels. (It's also flavored with various other spirits from their other brands.) I'll bet their tequila and rum brands use these same barrels too, saving money on that part of the process. I think wood aging is the most fascinating part of the booze-making for me (though I'm also very interested in distillery waste products for some reason). I hope one of these days to scam a press trip to visit the cooperage- for me that would the equivalent of a kid getting to ride a firetruck. I'd also like to research one of those long, writerly articles where I track a barrel throughout its creation and life and use and travels oversea and to its final resting place as a trash can outside of Stucky's. It would be all, "It was another damp August morning in the wettest summer anyone around these parts could remember when Bob Jenkins shook the water off the windbreaker his father gave him 30 years ago and fired up the barrel-smoker in Shed B." After winning the Pulitzer, I'd get started on my great book about fuselage recycling.

Malted Millionaires

Forbes.com has a new one of their slideshows up: The World's Most Expensive Whiskies. Their slideshows are always the world's most expensive somethings: penthouses, cars, hotel rooms, etc. But you can't drink any of those.

Non-Threatening Chatter

Are you a gay or just want to surf the internet like one? Then you should really join my groups on the website GLEE.com. It's a social networking site that's an acronym for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone Else. I'm working with them to bring more people to the site and am in charge of the Cocktail Chatter and Wine, Beer, and Sake groups. So go sign up and say howdy (it's free, of course) and then not only will I look better to the boss-man, I won't be having conversations with myself on the bulletin boards anymore. I hate to be (typing about) drinking alone.

Whiskey is Out