I've been bad. I haven't been updating... at least not here. I've contributed a few entries over at Geeks of Doom. I just can't seem to find the words.
So what have I been up to? I've had some good I had a very interesting experience shopping for American whiskey at a nearby high end gourmet market. I've long associated this market with with EXCELLENT food and wine (their meat, deli, and wine deparments are great for a supermarket-type store). I knew that they also sold some distilled spirits, but never particularly looked at them for that... until recently.
I made a trip to this market to pick up some gourmet ingredients for a small dinner party we were having on Sunday night. I was initially visited the distilled spirits aisle without any firm intentions -- just to see if they perhaps had any Bourbons that I had not tried. One thing immediately caught my eye: a store-specific single barrel bottle of Eagle Rare 10 year old Bourbon. I also tried to see if they had any rye whiskey... but
did not immediately see anything and gave up. Fast forward about 15
minutes, and I was trying to find a checkout line to leave. I saw a guy in
line with a bottle of Jim Beam 10 year old rye, and I know I'd missed
something. I decided to head back to the distilled spirit aisle. I find the
Jim Beam and the Old Overholt 10 year old rye. I happen to say "Aaah... the
Old Overholt" within earshot of a store employee. He turns to me and says
"if you like that, I have a couple other things you might want to know about".
He talked about two ryes, and these proved to be upscale stuff. I'd seen one rye before, but knew of a few other places I could get it. The other turned out to be really special: a Sazerac 18 year old rye that he keeps upstairs, away from the shelves... because he only gets about six bottles a year, and he knows that if he put it out that someone would buy his whole stock all at once. This stuff (as I later discovered) gets 96 points Jim Murray's 2005 Whiskey Bible... and he has it for only $57 a bottle!
Needless to say, I opened the Sazerac up for our dinner party and it was amazing... some of the best American whiskey I've ever had. I also managed to finally turn on some of my friends to rye... they'd tried some stuff I'd bought previously... but these were young ryes... very potent, herbal, and a little rough. The Sazerac pointed out rye's more refined qualities, and we tasted a couple other ryes of similar age. In all, it was a very pleasant way to wrap up the evening.
said drgeek
on 2007-04-03 at 10:04 p.m.
|
The Wayback Machine - To Infinity And Beyond
|