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  • Scotland Day Five: Glenmorangie and the fancy hotel

    Pipercount: 3!

    On the fifth day of our trip, we headed to the Glenmorangie distillery. They use the tallest stills in Scotland, as the original one was a former gin still. The taller the stills, the lighter the particles have to be to reach the top during distillation, and the resulting scotch has a lighter, more floral character than the heavier, oilier ones from lower stills.

    We had a lovely barrel tasting of some Glenmorangie that was first aged ten years in an ex-bourbon cask, then an additional seven in a sherry cask. (The finished whisky line by Glenmorangie is ten years in bourbon plus two extra in a sherry, port, etc. cask.) The stuff came out a dark vermouth color, and tastes like pecan walnut maple ice cream-yummers.

    After that we headed to the Culloden Battlefield Visitor’s Center, a new museum on the site of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s last stand. It was built in the modern museum style, with high-tech displays interspersed with historical photographs, maps, and artifacts from the time. Cool stuff.

    Then it was off to the Culloden House Hotel, where I am currently typing this. They have a bag pipe player wander around the front lawn of the estate before dinner time, so that brings our Pipercount up to three! As you can see from the picture, the place is incredible. I tried to convince the trip’s sponsors that I “didn’t get the right material for my story” so I’d need to stay on a few extra days here, but it didn’t work.

    Usually when people say that their hotel room is bigger than their apartment they’re exaggerating, but in this case it’s true. Walking back and forth between the rooms to pack is wearing me out. But then again, I’m still tired from the midnight croquet game on the front lawn of the estate. Ahh, country life.

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  • Scotland Day Four: Pipercount- Two!


    I started the morning at 5AM catching up on live blogging Scotland. Then I had a walk past Huntly castle and the adorable town of Huntly. It reminded me of towns in Napa and Sonoma in a way, in that it’s all cute all-too clean small-town goodness, except in this case it’s 400 or so years old and not created by some entrepreneurial developer.

    We drove to the Ardmore distillery, which has a relatively new single malt on the market despite folks distilling whisky there for many years. It’s one of the primary single-malts in Teacher’s Highland Cream, which is a blended whisky once popular in the US and still popular in the UK and other markets. The distillery isn’t open to the public for tours, yet is all shiny and new-looking despite its age. They do a good job keeping things clean.

    We then headed off to a local estate now owned by the Scottish trust, had a tour, then a great tasting session of Ardmore and Laphroaig (also owned by Jim Beam). We were lucky enough to sample a Laphroaig 27-year-old whisky that was just terrific. I highly recommend buying a bottle if you’ve got a thousand bucks laying around.

    We hopped back onto the bus, our second home, and drive for a few hours to the Glenmorangie House, an incredible hotel on the sea owned by the distillery. For dinner that night we were greeted by a bagpiper (Hooray! Finally!) who announced the meal, then later recited the traditional Robert Burns haggis poem. The cook even made veggie haggis for little old me so I could finally try some.

    While I passed out early, the rest of the crew stayed up to three in the morning. I’m uncomfortable in my new role of party pooper.

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  • Scotland photos

    By the way, the photos from my trip can be seen on my Flickr page here, organized by day and distillery. I’ll be adding more pictures as I go along.

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  • Scotland Day Three: Death defying

    This morning I feel much better after having suffered from near-fatal jetlag the whole trip. I was averaging four hours of sleep or less since the day before the trip began, but last night I finally caught up and had nearly ten hours’ worth. It was easier here, as we’re staying in the hotel adjacent to a castle in Huntly.

    Yesterday we rushed out of the not-as-fancy hotel to drive across the mountain towards the Spey river and the famous Speyside whisky region. Most of the group then had their own death-defying experience canoeing down the Spey river. Almost all of them tipped over, up to three times, in the freezing water. One writer said, “Just minutes ago I was curled up in fetal position on the riverbank.” When the four of us smarter folks who declined the experience showed up at the end point, everyone else was shaking like wet chihuahuas and had in their eyes the crazed stares of people who just survived something awful and had a new appreciation for life.

    What I was doing instead was visiting Ballindalloch castle, where we were greeted by the family who lives there and owns it. They had the affected accents and mannerisms of the moneyed gentry that you couldn’t pay a character actor to imitate better. They were awesome.

    Afterwards, the river people dried off and we went to the Speyburn distillery. The place doesn’t have a visitor’s center, so we were given the close-up tour. What I never realized about scotch production is that there are two different steps to prepare the barley. First you soak it so that the barley germinates, then you dry it out at just the right moment. This is now mostly done at centralized malting houses rather than onsite at distilleries as it was in the past. (The pagoda shaped buildings many scotch distilleries have are the old roofs of the drying rooms.)

    After you (now) buy your malted and dried barley, you have to grind it up, then soak it again several times to release the sugars. Only then does it go to the fermentation tanks, then on to be distilled twice. We tasted the products of the distillation in the barrel room, sampling the entire range of Speyburn and Old Pulteney.

    We headed off afterwards to Dufftown where we were given a cooking lesson by the chef at A Taste of Speyside restaurant. It was tasty stuff -even my veggie version was delightful. Then we checked into our lovely hotel where I skipped dinner and slept through the night. Ahh. I”m up at 5AM but after 10 hours of sleep that doesn’t bother me at all.

    That’s right folks- two days in a row without bagpipes! My whole theory about this trip has so far proven wrong.

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  • Scotland Day Two: Pipe-free

    Yesterday we visited the Royal Lochnagar distillery, a very small, pristine place located next to the summer residence of the Queen of England. (The distillery was there first.) On the drive here the landscape turned from lush and green to tall rocky hills covered in heather- which looks like an ugly brown bush when it’s not blooming.

    Also on the way here, the back door of the shuttle bus popped open and someone’s luggage fell out onto the street. We turned around and went back a few miles to find a lady holding it by the side of the street waving us down. Nice people, the Scots.

    But here’s what’s not nice: no bagpipes all day! Can I get a piper up in here?

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  • Piperwatch

    Scotland Day One- Bagpipe count: 1

    I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of bagpipes involved on this press trip. When I went to Mexico on a tequila trip we had one to three different mariachi groups per day. I think it’s gonna be like that with bagpipes, which are just as loud, but at least there’s no singing.

    Whoops- scratch that. We had a singing Scotch harpist at dinner. But she was soft and gentle, like the rolling heathered hills of Dunkeld.

    The folks at the Aberfeldy distillery (Aberfeldy single malt is the main flavor component of Dewar’s blended scotch whisky) claim that the soft and gentle countryside is reflected in their spirit, which has a heather-honey aspect to it, no real burn to speak of, and a dry, sandalwood with a touch of peat finish. Does whisky reflect terroir, or is this just convenient? We’ll see.

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  • SF Represent!

    I picked up a copy of Food & Wine Cocktails 2008 to see what the representation of bars and cocktails around the country was. West Coast drinks have been getting more attention in the past year and it’s great to see this reflected in the book.

    The cocktails from the Bay Area are:

    Grapefruit Flamingo from Kieran Walsh at Solstice
    Green with Envy from the Poleng Lounge
    Amberjack from Le Colonial
    Bergamont Shandy from NOPA
    Zydeco Cocktail from Tres Agaves
    Vanilla-Cucumber Limey from Jay Crabb at Martini Monkey in San Jose
    Fog Cutter from Forbidden Island
    Puerto de Cuba from Dominic Venegas (formerly of) Bourbon & Branch
    Alsatian Daiquiri from Duggan McDonnell at Cantina
    Thai Boxer from Scott Beattie at Cyrus in Healdsburg
    Green Lantern from Range
    Mi-So-Pretty from Elizabeth Falkner and Angie Heeney-Tunstall of Orson
    Tommy Gun from Jacques Bezuidenhout of Bar Drake
    Filibuster Cockatail from Erik Adkins of Flora in Oakland
    Jose McGregor from Jimmy Patrick at Lion & Compass in Sunnyvale
    Northern Spy from Josey Packard The Alembic
    Off Kilter from Elixir
    Babylon Sister from Jonny Raglin of Absinthe
    Blackberry and Cabernet Caipirinha from Cantina
    Strawberry and Ginger Cooler from Jeff Hollinger Absinthe
    plus
    Dark and Stormy Ribs from Presidio Social Club

    That makes 17 SF and San Jose venues represented compared to 24 New York. Not bad for a city 5-10 times as small.

    Other cities represented and their number of venues were:
    Atlanta 4
    Boston 7
    Boulder 3
    Chicago 8
    Dallas 5
    Houston 5
    Las Vegas 5
    Los Angeles 9
    Louisville, KY 3
    Madison, WI 4
    Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale 5
    New Jersey 4
    New Orleans 5
    Philadelphia 5
    Phoenix/Tuscon 4
    Portland, ME 3
    Portland, OR 8
    Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC 5
    San Diego 4
    Seattle 4
    St. Louis 3
    Washington, DC area 4

    Note: Go Portland, Oregon! That place has had a great selection of local beer, wine, sake, and micro-distillers for a while now. The new cocktail bars like Beaker and Flask and TearDrop Lounge are taking it to the next level. And with Imbibe Magazine based out of Portland, it may soon be the most important drinking city in the nation. Props.

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  • Grappa in the SF Chronicle

    By me, in today’s SF Chronicle

    Italy’s Fiery Grappa the Latest Spirit to Go Upscale
    by Camper English

    Several spirits have overhauled their previously negative reputations in recent years. Tequila lovers now pay up to several hundred dollars per bottle, and consumers who wouldn’t touch gin three years ago now shake it with egg whites into frothy cocktails at home.

    But upon hearing the word “grappa,” many drinkers still wince. A beverage program built around the fiery spirit is thus a risky proposition, but that’s what you’ll find at Bar 888, the lobby bar that also serves the Italian restaurant Luce on the ground floor of the new Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco’s SoMa area.

    “In San Francisco, we think people are interested in learning something new,” says Rene Van Camp, corporate food and beverage director for the Intercontinental Hotels Group. “People are educated here about food and beverage, so we needed to find something that they don’t know about already.”

    keep reading.

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  • Dry Drunk: The Cocktails of Thad Vogler at Beretta

    What’s up with my iPhone-tography skills? Do I have to be good at everything?

    Anyway, Beretta. I was only thinking about the cocktails when I went there, but it turns out that with inexpensive food and lots of communal seating, this may be the one cocktail restaurant in which I can actually afford to eat. (Small plates priced as small plates- what a concept!)

    But back to the important stuff: the drinks. Thad Vogler’s drinks, unlike many in San Francisco, eschew the farmer’s market fruit, flowers, and herbs in favor of the basics- lime, lemon, grapefruit, and pineapple. The flavor profile of most could be considered classic for that reason, but as opposed to classic derivative drinks that go wild with brown spirits and amaros or other unusual modifiers, these cocktails are more like simple drinks reconsidered.

    What sticks out is the types of sweetening agents used in each drink- honey, gomme syrup (made by Slanted Door’s Jennifer Colliau), sugar cane syrup, agave syrup, etc. I don’t know if they use plain old simple syrup at all. But when you drink them, “sweet” isn’t a word that comes to mind. Vogler makes the driest drinks in town. He uses a lot of gin, rhum agricole, and maraschino liqueur, and even the Pisco Sour isn’t sweet (or all that sour- it’s almost earthy).

    Of the drinks I tried, the Nuestra Paloma is the most pleasing and probably the safest bet for the less adventurous drinker (It’s delicious- don’t get me wrong). The Dolores Park Swizzle looks great with a few drops of bitters atop the crushed ice of the drink like a happy red treat, but packs a wallop of flavor. I like it more as the ice melts starts and dilutes it. The same is true of the Rangoon Gin Cobbler, my favorite drink on the menu so far that has a nice orange aspect to it from the Cointreau. I also liked the Single Village Fix, making this the second time I’ve ever enjoyed a drink with mescal in it.

    Is anyone else bored of my typing? I am. Long story short: tasty dry drinks, go good with food, it’s in my neighborhood, I’ll be back lots.

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  • At Beretta, less is more

    When Beretta opens (currently scheduled for April 1), cocktail fans will recognize many familiar faces behind the bar. Thad Vogler (Slanted Door, Jardiniere, Bourbon & Branch) is leading the bar program, and some of the people taking shifts there will be Jon Santer (Bruno’s, Range, Tres Agaves, B&B), Todd Smith (Cortez, B&B), Ryan Fitzgerald (Tres Agaves, B&B, Brick), and Eric Johnson (Eastside West, B&B). Vogler says it’s coincidence that they were all looking to pick up a shift or two, but I’m already nicknaming the venue the Valencia Street All-Star Bar.

    Though not finalized at this point, Vogler gave me the gist of his bar program: a paired-down spirits selection, quality valued more than quantity, and execution over innovation. They’ll be carrying only two brands of vodka (one local, the other organic), but a good selection of gins, rums, aperitifs, and liqueurs. The cocktail list looks like it will include a lot of classic profile drinks emphasizing the American, Latin, and Caribbean base spirits.

    I think it’s going to be an interesting place, especially because this bar program is running in a pizzeria restaurant.

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