Mike's blog

Mark and I trace the genesis of our whiskey adventures back to a science fiction convention in March of last year, but perhaps the biggest watershed for us was attending WhiskeyFest San Francisco in 2007. WhiskeyFest is an annual event hosted by Malt Advocate Magazine in Chicago, New York and as of last year, San Francisco. They rent the ballroom of a major hotel and fill it with whiskey exhibitors to the tune of about 250 different bottles from all over the world. I wrote about one of our more colorful experiences there in The Teacher's Pet, but there were many more important moments from that night. Really, we went from drinking almost exclusively Irish whiskey to finding some of the most exceptional Bourbon, Scotch and world whiskies we've seen to this day.

Every field and venture has it's dangers. Being a whisky afficianado is no exception, and while some are well known (having a dram too many of the Laphroig and drunk-dialing an ex) some are a bit more...exotic. As a for instance, last October my esteemed WhiskeyBro Mark and I were perusing the plethora of possible pours at WhiskeyFest SF. If there was a bit of stagger to our step, well, it had been a long night. We encountered the Dalmore table with gusto, but not quite as much as the fiery Scot who walked us through the tasting. In fact, "fiery" and "gusto" don't quite do justice to the force we reckoned with. Suffice to say that we did not treat the Scotch in front of us with sufficient gravity, which resulted in, well....ice chucking. That's right ladies and gentlemen, Richard Paterson himself, award-winning, third generation, master blender for Whyte & Mackay threw ice at my brother-in-law.

Last weekend the WhiskyBros were faced with the difficult and dirty task of attending the Whiskies of the World expo in San Francisco. To make matters worse Mark was working the Johnnie Walker table which left me alone, in a room full of whiskey. As you can imagine, this put me in a quite an onerous situation.

 I managed.

While we will certainly write more about the event, the whisky, and the brilliant seminars the day before, I wanted to spend a minute on a new friend. High West Rendezvous Rye is a real treat, and while  Ryes tend not to be my prefered dram, I've said before and will say again that good whiskey is good whiskey, whatever it is.

 High West is a new micro-distillery started by a Californian named David Perkins, in Utah (of all places). Take whatever time (or drinks) you need to stifle your disbelief, that's where it is, and apparently, it's not a big deal to the locals. Even if it is funny.

Back in November down at WhiskeyBros HQ, Mark and I were enjoying some old favorites and discussing what exactly belonged on the list of whiskey to bring to the upcoming tasting. It was an extremely interesting and elucidating discussion for both of us, in that it gave us an opportunity to discuss what our favorites were, and why, as well as trying to find the perfect mix to fit a western themed event. Another important factor we took in to account was the actual experience of our tasters; are these people who can tell a Highland Scotch from an Islay by the nose? Or are these people who have enjoyed the occasional Jack Daniel's or Johnny Walker when it was around, but haven't explored much? With all this in mind, and a budget besides, we set to work building and cutting a list of whiskey that would be accessible to novices while still providing something special for the aficionados.

Two bottles that I always have in my cabinet, and replace when necessary are the Bushmills Malt 10 and Red Breast 12 year, made by the Jameson distillery.  The Red Breast was my introduction to better than run-of-the-mill whiskey and so it holds a special place in my heart, but the Bushmills has quite a bit to offer, and I frequently enjoy contrasting the two.

The Box has a new king waiting coronation. I just purchased a bottle of Jameson's Middleton Very Rare, a superb spirit I had the pleasure of tasting at this year's Whiskeyfest. Once I get his majesty down to HQ and his rightful throne, tasting notes will be prolific.

There is a small but select group of brave and foolhardy gentlemen with whom I have forayed into the land whiskey. We're kinda like the guys who came after Lewis and Clark, we're blazing our own trails in charted territory, but I'll drink nothing but Crown for a year if it ain't been a good ride yet. Join us my brothers as we stagger our way up the ladder of whiskey and ramble inchoherently into the blogosphere.