Keepers of the Quaich

Full lineup of 13Q2 Meeting

At our 13Q2 meeting last night at Delilah’s in Chicago Brother B Funk designed a terrific Speyside themed lineup. We started with the classic: Glen Grant 16. The star of the show, Glendronach 15 “Revival” was next. Benromach Peat Smoke was a big favorite as well. The fourth malt was Strathisla 12 which was followed by the surprise of the evening which was a private bottling by the very bar we were in: Delilah’s.

Delilah’s 14 was the celebration of Delilah’s 14 anniversary in operation. Mike, the proprietor, creates a private whiskey bottling for the bar’s customers to enjoy. 2006 was the 14th year and Mike chose single malt for that year’s private bottle expression. The identity of the source malt is a closely kept secret but the malt had strong Speyside characteristics and likely came from either Macallan, Glenfarclas, or Aberlour or similar. Mike is of Scottish descent and the bottle label features his family’s tartan.

Delilah’s (Chicago’s rock & roll whisky emporium) bar’s single malt private bottling

Back label – Chicago’s rock & roll whisky emporium in a bottle.

As was reported at our 10Q2 meeting by Brother Bluff, on-line retailer and store of tremendous single malt knowledge Master of Malt is now offering single dram ordering options for several spirits including some single malts. Although their aim is to eventually offer a dram size (“Try before you Buy”) ordering option for all spirits in production they are not limiting the “Drinks by the Dram” offering to spirits which are in production.

Although this does allow us access to silent and even dismantled distilleries not all rare and “out of production” runs like Springbank 21 will available. Yes, I will spoil the fun right off and let everyone know that Springbank 21 is NOT available as of this posting as a Master of Malt “Drink by the Dram”.

I went through the list of what is available and, although I won’t tell you how to spend your money and that I have no idea what the shipping costs to the US might be, here are some drams that I would recommend:

• Imperial 18 Chieftain’s Choice (Ian McLeod) £4.95 ; a mothballed Speyside
• Kinclaith 35 1969 (Signatory) £34.35 ; a very rare dismantled Lowland
• Port Ellen 27 1983 Cask Strength Collection (Signatory) £9.15 ; famed dismantled Islay
• Port Ellen 30 1979 Old & Rare Platinum (Douglas Laing) £13.85 ; famed dismantled Islay
• Rare Ayrshire 34 1975 Cask Strength Collection (Signatory) £7.75 ; a very rare, dismantled Lowland (Ladyburn distillery)

A link to the “Drinks by the Dram” section of Master of Malt has specifically been added to the right-hand menu for your convenience.

For those of you who missed it here’s the Forge Club menu that was enjoyed at our 09Q4 meeting. For those who were there enjoy the reminder!

Here is our lineup for 10Q1:

Port Charlotte 7
Glencadam 15
Fettercairn 26
The Macallan 17 Private Edition
Linkwood 17 1990 Cask Strength

On Jun 14, 1825 John McMurray (b. 1765), his wife Jane, and three of their children: sons Henry and Hutchinson and daughter Esther landed in New York harbor having emigrated to the United States from county Armagh, Ulster, Ireland. From there begins the story of the McMurray family which begat KOTQers Bob, Jay, Chas (Mary), Mark, and John.

The names are known to 1765 with John to Henry to Peter to John Albert to John Kenneth but the story of the broad McMurray clan goes back much further…into their native land: Scotland.

The McMurrays are originally from Moray a village in the Speyside district meaning ‘seafarer‘. The McMurrays were the ‘sons of the seafarer’ and our tasting lineup will follow their historical migration from the failed rebellion of 1160, and the impact its aftermath had on the McMurrays, to the plantation of Ulster in 1608 and the Scottish famine of 1695-1699. All of these events would combine to bring the McMurrays to Ulster, Ireland from where John and Jane would embark to their new world.

We’ll start our journey at the beginning in the village of Moray,

* Glen Moray 12 (Distillery bottling)

explore the general Morayshire area a bit,

* Glen Elgin 12 (Duncan Taylor Whisky Galore bottling)
* Longmorn 16 (Distillery bottling)
* Glen Grant 21 (Gordon MacPhail)

we’ll then move down to the remote district of Galloway deep in the Scottish Lowlands for,

* Bladnoch 12 (Signatory bottling)

whose owner, Raymond Armstong, fittingly comes to Galloway from Northern Ireland.

Given the relationship of the local peoples to their distillery histories and output it is not a stretch to say that Glen Moray (pronounced “Murray” in Gaelic), is the spirit distilled to relect the local peoples of Moray and clan Murray making this the “McMurray family single malt scotch”. Likewise Glen Grant and clan Grant which has a direct connection to our McMurray family tree as, in fact, Peter Kilpatrick McMurray’s (1850-1930) maternal grandmother was a Grant (Mary Grant). So, two single malts in this tasting have a direct, personal connection to the McMurrays.

As an additional tasting element bonus, two of the five single malts are un-chillfiltered (the Bladnoch and the Longmorn) giving the group an opportunity to explore the effect this technique may have on the finished product.

Further recommended ‘reading’ for those seeking to see this journey to its completion (to be completed on individual’s time):

- Northern Ireland’s single malt whiskey ‘Bushmills’
- Kentucky’s ‘Maker’s Mark’ (Pennsylvania’s Whiskey Rebellion, which was quite near where Henry eventuallys settles albeit 45 years later, led directly to the formation of the present-day bourbon industry in Kentucky)

Kudos to Brother Bluff who threw a great meeting on Saturday, October 28th. Definitely one to remember…

The topic was essentially marrying sushi and single malt whisky. I have a number of notes piecing many things together from the meeting, so Brothers, please feel free to edit anything I have written here.

Bluff’s Theorem – Pair a like whisky with a like sushi – (e.g. a whisky with iodine characteristics may pair well with an iodine nigiri)

Bop’s Law – Pairings will differ along the color spectrum of sushi – from mollusk (translucent) to tuna (red)

Irving/Lakeview Thesis – Balancing the strengths of the whisky/sushi with opposing strengths of the sushi/whisky leads to an excellent marriage

Some pairing findings:

Mollusk paired well with Lowland- in this case Linlithgow 28 (Blackadder bottling)
Balvenie and Balblair tested well within the group across the entire sushi color spectrum
Moon River roll (shrimp tempura with jalapeño) paired very well with Balblair 16 (which was deemed to be a great whisky by the majority)
Inside – Out Dragon Roll = Ardbeg 1977
Irving just didn’t like the rainbow roll so didn’t really pair it.
The scallop nigiri was the bomb!!!

Lineup:

Balblair 16
Balvenie 12 – Doublewood
Ardbeg 1977
Linlithgow 28 – Blackadder bottling
Ledaig 20
Glen Elgin – Cask Strength
other?

Sushi:

Scallop nigiri
Toro nigiri
red snapper nigiri
clam nigiri
inside out dragon roll
moon river roll
spicy tuna roll
other?

Other considerations from the group:

More discussion / homework needed around the boon years of the 1890′s from a whisky perspective
OFFICIALLY – What are the 3 oldest distilleries?
When cutting a cask strength whisky, is there an official cut %? If so, what is the source?
Group needs to further define Islay more granularly given its broad acceptance.
Group needs to do a bar tour to determine which establishments have the best whisky selections in town

Have we determined who will be hosting 2006, 1st Qtr meeting yet? Any dates work best? March is quickly coming upon us. If we are unable to set the date this week, I suggest we cancel the 1Q06 meeting and get back on track with an early 2Q06 meeting.

I regret that I will not be able to attend the Feb 25th 4Q make-up meeting due to long-standing plans for that date. Maybe the host, Brother Lakeview, will be so kind as to invite me over for a private tasting some other time.

Brother Tao hosted yet another great tasting. As always, the dinner spread was excessive including the now-famous grilled muscles. The toast of the night was the new recreation room including, shall I call it, the Tasting Salon. Brother Tao pulled together a great blind tasting. The photos.

So how about that kick ass tasting!!! Nice going brother Bluff–over the top. I’m sure this will be the beginning of many postings about the evening, what we learned, what it inspired in each one of us. To begin, here are some photos of the night. (Chancellor, we may need a new categoty here for our tastings). The photos.

…let me lobby for a couple of single malts to be included in our next tasting.

First though, I’m acting on some assumptions/rumors. Namely, that we will be having our next tasting at the private club up north where they have some ungodly huge single malt selection and that our tasting will be themed around the Northern Highlands.

Anyway, given the above, please let me lobby for:

BRORA, BRORA, BRORA!!!

Brora is the silent still sister distillery to Clynelish. It is the heavier peated of the two. So, since it’s silent and heavily peated, if it’s available at this private club I say go for it even above and beyond Clynelish. Think of Brora as the Port Ellen of the Northern Highlands. If they only have Clynelish go with that.

My final lobbying effort is:

Balblair!

Ironically, for the opposite reasons of Brora. Balblair is an active distillery, actively marketing it’s single malts and not just being a ho to the blenders. Just because we don’t see it on the shelves on Sam’s doesn’t mean we should overlook distilleries like this. If this private club has such a great selection of single malts then Balblair should be on it and we should seize the opportunity to taste it ahead of other Northern Highlands such as Dalmore and Glenmorangie.

Ok…one more while we’re at it.

Old Pulteney

This one is available at Sam’s but it’s retail price point scares off us snobs in the KOTQ – too low, must not be good. Well I say let’s find out!

In summary, if we are doing a Northern Highlands at a place with a great selection I would love to see:

Brora
Balblair
Old Pulteney

Thanks Brothers Bluff and Irving for listening