A Glenfiddich Trifecta

My wife surprised me a few years back with a couple 375ml bottles of single malt Scotch whisky.  One was Glenlivet, the other Glenfiddich (pronounced with a hard "ick" I soon found out).  I had avoided drinking for years for reasons detailed in an earlier post, but had finally started.  I had also come to find that I enjoyed single malts, and this was a fine introduction.  I liked the Glenlivet.  I loved the Glenfiddich.  Indeed, it became the first single malt that was "mine."

Since I was new to the single malt game at this point, I went on to trying more single malts, and fell away from Glenfiddich.  It wasn't that I didn't still like it so much as there are just a wealth of other whiskies out there to try.  Recently, however, I came to back to it.

I was on the road not too long ago and ordered a Glenfiddich from the hotel bar.  I was chatting with the bartender, who was an amazingly cool person, and we were talking about whiskey.  She was not, "A whiskey girl," but was thinking of trying some.  Well, she got distracted whilst pouring and almost overpoured the glass.  She apologized and said that it was all mine for no extra.  So I invited her to try a sip: after all, if you're going to be sampling whiskey, why not start with a whisky?

Well she poured some off into a separate glass took a sip and... just about died.  She coughed, sputtered, ran out of the bar and I could see her downing water.  She was absolutely mortified, and was apologizing profusely for, "insulting my drink."  I was laughing and told her there were no worries, and its all about taste; I even got to share some Latin with her, "De Gustibus non est Disputandem. (Of taste there is no argument.)"  I also told her that if she didn't like Glenfiddich, her foray into whiskey was probably not going to go very well.

Regardless of her reaction, however, I still ended up with a double, if not a triple of my old friend to enjoy the game with!

During the Super Bowl I was at a friend's house and they asked if I wanted the usual beer or wine.  I'm not a fan of beer at all, and wine is OK, but it is not a football drink.  Sorry 49er fans.  Then they looked at each other and said, "Hey, you, like whisky, right?  Because we have this whisky sampler..."  It was the Glenfiddich 12, 15, and 18 year sampler, with a single shot of each.  "Oh yeah, I could help you out with that."  The little Glenfiddich bottles each have their own canister, too.  So cool!

I had the 18 and the 12, with another friend of their's having the 15.  It was like enjoying my good old friend and his hot, exotic cousin.  Fun for an afternoon, but still out of my league.  So far.

Finally, the third of the trifecta (introductions don't count).  We had an office ger together after work at a local brew pub.  They have a decent bar so I tried asking about a few more whiskies I could try.  No luck.  After the third I just asked if they had Glenfiddich.  Success. Finally!  I shared a sip with a co-worker who really liked it, and then just enjoyed the Hell out of it myself.

Like any good, old friend I know I can rely on Glenfiddich for a pleasant time.  Sure there've been other times shared with other whiskies inbetween, and even, yes, blends; but I always like coming back to my oldest friend.

Quick Review: Bunnahabhain 12

Living in a state with stringent liquor sale laws is usually a pain.  It means limited hours, and no competition, so every store in Oregon has the same price regardless of location.  Sometimes, however, it works out well.  In this case they put Bunnahabhain 12 on clearance for only $30!

Although there isn't anything about it that is particularly distinct, it is one of those whiskies that does everything extremely well.  It has a great, rich flavor, is nice and smooth, and has a good, solid finish.  I would highly recommend it as a nice enjoyable sippin' whisky.

It does come in both 80 proof and 86 proof varieties, and I went ahead and picked up the 86 proof since, hey, same price, more proof!  As it turns out, if I were to do it again, I'd get the 80 proof.  The extra alcohol flavor takes a way a bit of the smoothness and some of the subtler flavors, but still a win!

Aqua Vitae

My father is a recovering alcoholic.  I am proud to say he has been sober for close to 25 years now, and many are the AA meeting I've attended with him.  He entered recovery when I was still in Middle School.  In fact, as coincidence would have it, he started going to AA at roughly the same time I decided to start drinking.

See, there was this girl I liked, and she was a the partying type.  So, if I wanted to go out with her I needed to be able to drink.  (Did I mention this was Middle School?)  So here I am, ready to start drinking the way all good kids do, by stealing alcohol from my parents; when my parents announce they are going to start a "Date Night" every Wednesday.  How perfect is that?  I'm needing to steal their alcohol, and they're going to be gone one night a week!  Ah the egocentricity of the teen, eh?

Well, the plan ran into a snag the very first night.  A pretty sizable one, too, in that there was no alcohol in the house.  Not a drop.  I remembered there being bottles of stuff above the stove, beer and wine in the fridge, and even liquors in the dining room.  All of which have simply dissapeared.

I wait, not knowing what else to do, and soon come to find out that my parents "Date Night" is really a weekly AA meeting.  My how things did change.  My quest for drinking glory ceased almost overnight.  This was a new, scary thing, and it required more thought.  What happened, was that all of the sudden I had a Dad back in my life.  He had snuck out so slowly, so quietly, that i hadn't even noticed. 

He was never a loud or violent drunk, he'd just fall asleep early and never want to play catch.  Now we talked again, watched football together, and played catch.  My dad, as it was, had returned.  And the obvious culprit to his absence was none other than alcohol.  So, in my mind, I made alcohol evil.  That meant, by association, that anyone who drank anything, was also therefore, more or less, evil.

This attitude led to some difficulties in college.

As I grew older, being a teetotaler was both easier and harder.  I did, finally, disassociate alcohol from the drinker, and I was finally able to go to bars with friends or co-workers and not bristle.  Indeed at one of these a friend ordered a single malt, and I decided to give it a taste.

Holy crap I liked it!

Even though i had come to revile alcohol, I still wanted to be, "open-minded."  So I would try it.  Now most people start down the alcohol road with a progression.  Moving from the bear and wine neighborhood first, and only then hanging out in Hard Liquorsville.  Turns out I'm the opposite.  So I'd try beer, and I still do, and it still tastes awful.  I can drink a nicer beer if it's expected or the polite route to take, but I never have found a beer that I actually liked.  So why go to the trouble of drinking if the introductory level tastes like crap?

Even though I liked the taste of that single malt (I don't honestly remember what it was either), it was years before I actively considered drinking.  This sound awful but, I didn't start drinking until I met my wife;-)  Just not for the reason you're thinking.  I watched her drink.  I saw her have a drink with her friends and, get this... not become an alcoholic.

So I talked to her about drinking and how I had basically committed to not drinking because fo the experience with my Dad.  Everyone else had always listened to that story and accepted it.  She actually made me think about it, and as noble as following through on a committment was all those long years, was it actually a well thought out committment?

So I took up drinking.  I've come to find that I really enjoy the multitudes of flavors afforded by hard alcohols even though I honestly don't care for the effects.  So I limit myself for that reason, and also because I do want to learn from my dad.  I drink socially and in moderation; and I absolutely will not drink if I am down or in a bad place.

So far it has opened up a fascinating but terribly expensive world.  Especially since my absolute favorite remains what I first started with:  single malt Scotch whisky;-)

Quick Review: Oban 14

At a work function today one of my co-workers was kind enough to buy me an Oban 14.  I had never tried it before, but it is a fine, smooth whisky.  I've come to find that I don't like smokiness in my whisky, and Oban is nicely flavored without any of the smoke.  Of the whiskies I've tried, Oban definitely rates twoards the top, call it 3 out of 4 stars.