I will be hosting my traditional Whiskymas single malt tasting again on Dec 25th.
DETAILS:
At the moment, I have no idea how many people are going to show up. It
could be 4, or it could be 14. This makes planning pretty tough.
If you think you may show up, please send me an email. I prefer email to phone calls, because I'm way behind in my cleaning and cooking, and having to stop to answer the phone interrupts what I'm doing. If you need an answer to a question right away, then go ahead and call.
If you think you know what you'll be bringing, please let me know, and I'll try to post it here so others will know what to bring that'll complement what we've already got planned.
Saturday was supposed to be my big cleanup day. It started off with the interesting discovery that my fridge was at the perfect temperature, for beer or wine. Not, however, the perfect temperature for things like milk, sourcream etc. The problem turned out to be that the cold air vent for the fridge portion got frosted up and was no longer blowing cold air into the fridge. Yes, the fridge is self defrosting, but, I guess it just wasn't quite perfect.
I got the fridge fixed, and cleaned, but some of the things I planned on having on hand had gone bad. By the time I got to the store, it had closed. If you can bring any of the items on my "missing" list, that would be awesome. If so, please let me know, and I'll post the info here, so others can find out what we have, or don't have.
I don't have:
Ice (but I've got two fridges plugged in and running)
Milk (if anyone wants milkshakes or milk in tea or coffee)
Cream (see milk for folks who live large)
Sour Cream (/dev/topping)
It occurs to me that one whiskey I don't have, but which would be good
to compare against is Tullamore Dew. If anyone has some to bring, that
would be awesome.
I currently have:
About fifty varieties of single malt scotch
split pea and corned beef soup
chicken soup
a way too big prime rib roast
Alfarro's 4-seed sourdough bread
Some crackers
Bubbies pickles
horseradish
pita bread
I'm planning on making hummus, I cooked up a bunch of garbanzos for
it. I'll make a few varieties:
plain
chipotle
wasabi
octane boost?
Leo Jed will be bringing a plate of shrimp.
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I have a mailing list set up for this and other whisky tastings, so sign up go to: http://www.red4est.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/whisky
History:
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.
What to bring:
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
Whisky notes:
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.
The mailing lists on red4est are listed at: http://www.red4est.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ and include:
announce: general announcements from me, about what is going on.
dancers: dance related announcements
parties: Party announcements. If you want to find out about future
parties, you should sign up here.
rwac05: logistics list for the upcoming party.
slv: Local events for the San Lorenzo Valley (or Santa Cruz)
whisky: Whisky tastings, including the traditional Whiskymas celebration
Last modified 051225 0019