Whiskymas 2004

I will be hosting my traditional Whiskymas single malt tasting again on Dec 25th.

I have an evite set up at: http://www.evite.com/whiskymas@red4est.com/whiskeymas with details. If you may be coming, I'd appreciate your signing up there so that I know how many are coming.

The short form is that in December 1988 a friend and I decided that since neither of us were Christian, and therefore neither had anything to do on Christmas day, we would come up with something fun to do. We decided to hold a single malt (scotch) tasting.

Over the years the event has become a lot more about getting together and sharing good company, and less about being a serious scotch tasting. Sure, 40-50 single malts will get tasted, but many of the folks there have never tasted single malt before, and quite a few don't even drink any at the tasting.

Everybody is encouraged to bring wonderful, decadent food to taste between the flights. The party is held at my house in the Santa Cruz mountains, and people are welcome, even encouraged, to be prepared to spend the night. It happens over the course of the afternoon, and the pace of the drinking is such that hardly anyone actually achieves drunkeness, though the CHP may argue that point. The day is about comraderie, not getting drunk.

I'll post more details to my party list later, though this advance warning is going out to a couple of other lists. I can't guarantee that I'll send invitations out to them later, so if you want to make sure you get an invitation, drop me a note at lrcparty@red4est.com

I am asking folks, whether they'll be showing up or not, to email me about some of your favorite single malts, or your thoughts on single malts in general. I'll collect them and link to them off of http://www.red4est.com/lrc/whisky.html

Chris Kantarjiev sent this note about whiskies:

About favorite whiskies: My absolute favorite is Laphroaig 15 yo. The 10 yo is nowhere near as good - it has a solvent taste and nose that the extra 5 years seems to adsorb away.

Close second of easily attainable is Lagavulin 16. Used to be really cheap at Trader Joe's so I'd buy it instead, but I prefer the Laphroaig.

I have a special bottling of Laphroaig from Murray McDavid, received as a gift. It's called "Leapfrog" - the story is that they bought some barrels and got into a legal tussle about naming the bottle. Yummy. Really yummy. But I really can't justify $80/bottle.

Bowmore is an acceptable Islay when I'm feeling cheap.

I've grown fond of Dalwhinnie as a lighter sip...

... and for something completely different, the version of Bushmills that's been aged in Sherry casks.