Summer Rose!

Ok, Quick note as I'm at work trying the

Capercaille 2005 Hunter Valley Rose

Glass: Dark Ruby
Nose: Strawberry, light red fruit
Taste: Smooth, creamy, slightly sweet and delicious!

Overall: Excellent!

Later!

June off of drinkin'

The great D. Rangers in Winnipeg here wrote a song on their last album ('The Paw-Paw Patch') called June Off of Drinkin'. It's awesome! All about a guy who meets a girl at the vendor and they embark on a five-month bender, until he feels his liver start to shut down on 'im. So, he takes June off of drinkin' and she eventually leaves him, goes on more benders of her own and steals all of his shit when he's not home. Sad story really, but it's kinda how I feel. I've been rippin' it up for the last several months and I think it's time to give the old liver a rest. I as well am taking June off of drinkin', for monetary and health reasons. Which can suck because I'm going to go see Fogarty at MTS on Monday. June 1st. Bah! And there's so much good music happening this month that it's hard not to have a beer at. It also dosen't help that I work in a wine store too, so we'll see how that goes.
I do have notes of some wines that at a later date I will post in my non-drinking time so it'll seem like I'm still drinkin', even when I'm not.
I wonder how good O'Doules tastes?

Northward Bound!

Ok, I'm going to be quick about this since it's taken me 20 minutes to get to this since I'm up in Yellowknife and tasting good wine and food and connection is an issue sometimes...
I just fried up some panko-covered cambonzola with some raspberry coulis and it was phenomenal! As we're waiting for the second appetizer to get itself going (we're all in a state of deliciousness here) we are drinking the

Mission Hill S.L.C Chardonnay 2004

Since this has had 5 years to age, it has shown some incerdible promise! The original bottle that I had purchaced in 2008 had unfourtinately been corked, so I had to change the bottle for another one, and I didn't get a chance to try it until I brought it up to visit my friends.

Nose: soft, oily, beeswax, clover and vanilla.
Taste: thick soft toastyness that coats the mouth, creamy oak and light grassyness, rich and honey-like. Long rich and warm aftertaste with the mellow oak standing out.

This is an unbelivable wine! I'd reccomend purchacing this wine if you ever find this vintage as it's drinking really well rigt now!
Mission Hill apparently knows what it's doing with VQA wines. It's base-line Propritior's Selection on the other-hand can be best decribed as something that can be used for hand-to-hand combat.

I'll see if I can make some more notes on this trip for the remainder of the wines that I brought up for tasting. No promises though. We go through the good ones too fast to make a note of...

Only once a year...

Will I only drink that much whiskey in one sitting.
Well, I had a great time on Friday night, trying some good whiskey, seeing good friends, and good music [after I left the King's Head and went to Times Change(d)]. I tried some good stuff and then I tried some great stuff, not out of the glasses that I would have preferred, but they did the trick:

(If you'd like to read more on the making of Scotch Whiskey, go here or here)

Compass Box Oak Cross Single Malt

was the first scotch of the evening. This had some nice golden colour that had a warm, soft beeswax nose with lingering hints of vanilla. This was a nice start to the evening as it was a little soft and spicy with honey and malt flavour with a long finish. This is an excellent scotch for people who want to get into scotch but don't want heady, peaty iodiney punches in the mouth. I'd read more about it here on their unique aging process.

Highland Park 12yr

Highland Park has the process during the malting phase to add heather to the peat as they dry the grain which they say gives it that edge in flavour. I found that pretty interesting, but still didn't make me like this one as much as the Oak Cross.
The nose was pretty astringent to me and it felt like it was just ripe with alcohol and a bit of saltiness. The wicked nose was overshadowed by the flavour though. I'll definitely give it that it was smooth and had a nice creamy mild peatyness to it, but was a little too strong in my opinion. An average drink to have with a short aftertaste.
And yes, to those who are gonna say "Meh, why didn't you put a bit of water in it?" Well I did and sure, that made it a bit nicer, but my point for whiskey is to enjoy straight from the pour without adding anything to it. Water makes anything easier to take. Look what a bath can do for hobos.

Next up:
Glenkinche 12yr

This nice bright gold whiskey was pretty mild on the nose with a bit of honey, cinnamon and a bit of lemon. The pleasant mouthfilling sensation filled me with a light spicyness and a warm creamy note in my gob after I filled it with oatcakes after the Highland Park. I'd buy a bottle of this more often in the winter just for its warming effect. (Yeah, I know most booze gives you that sensation, but this one really had it for me...)

Glencadam 15yr

This highland malt runs at about a hundred buck a bottle here at the local MLCC since I guess the actual distillery had been mothballed in 2000 due to an overproduction but opened up again in 2003 when it was bought by Angus Dundee Distillers Plc which uses most of the production in Ballantine's and Stewart's Cream of the Barley blends, so I was pretty happy that I was able to try this one.
Light astringent nose with smokey tea-like hints that didn't burn the old honker off. I caught some spearmint hints and spice on the very smooth, easy body while I drank this one. What a treat!

Many people at my table when they sniffed the
Talisker 10yr
went bananas.
Such a huge and thick but mild nose (a contradiction, I know) with peat, cinnamon and spice and iodine with a bit of saltiness hung in my honker for a bit. I was expecting to get a kick in the teeth when this one hit my lips, but I was pleasantly surprised with some honeycomb sweetness, soft peat and smokey hints that leveled off into a long and spicy aftertaste. Beautiful, as my taste-buds were quickly dying due to all the whiskey I had been drinking and this sweet, peaty treat saved them from a bland death.

I really enjoyed the way the presenter laid out the tasting. All from geographical regions in Scotland and I really enjoyed the contrast of flavours, so I was really looking forward to trying the

Yamazaki 12yr

by Suntory. When I was in Japan in 2000, I drank a lot of Suntory whiskey and loved it. (Being young and dumb, I cut it with alot of coke. I regret that.) So when there was a Japanese whiskey on the table, I was looking forward to trying this with a vengance. However, trying this right after the Talkisker might have been a bad idea. The nose was still great with caramel and ginger hints that made it a bit sweet, but the pallet was almost obliterated by the previous. Nice smooth hints that were very, very mild, but a short and ghostly aftertaste that was still dominated by Talisker. I would really give this one a shot again, but not after drinking something so strong.

That ended the tasting. Gorged on oat cakes, water, scotch and beer, I headed off to the Pipe Band table where I did many poor choices that night. But that's not for here!

Later!

Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day...

Well, almost 3 years and no postings. Which I guess isn't any surprise since life goes on, and busy schedules get in the way of doing anything. Facebook has certainly occupied more time that I'd like to admit, but it's a far better tool to keep in touch with old friends and post photos of various trips I've been on than this Blogger account and MySpace.
After some consideration, I've decided for the tens of people out there that read my stuff, to continue with some wine and liquor reviews with sporadic updates. First up will be after this weekend after I've gone to the St. Andrew's Society New Members / Whiskey Tasting night on Friday.
Included in the review will be some of the local brew from Half-Pints, And some tasty Scotches.
More later...

Waitin' for the weekend

Ok,
Waitin' for my roomate to pick me up to head out to the cabin and I'm still sittin' at work. But, while I'm doing said sitting, I'm drinking the:

Chumeia Merlot 2004

Oh man, this stuff is good. The nose on it just ebbs cozy and warm merlot feeling. (I know that dosen't make any sence, but I'm sure if you have it you'll have total understanding of what I'm talking about.) Nice fruit and toasty, vanilla-like oak hit the tounge like a velvet waterfall. I know some of my cohorts that have had this didn't really like it that much paired with some food, but I think on it's own it makes for a great mid-heavy bodied light tannic sipper meant for the end of the night. If you did pair this with some food, I'd reccomend actually a nice flame roasted steak or a delicious cut of prime rib with all the trimmings. Ohh man. Now I'm getting hungry for the bison ribs that I'm going to do on the BBQ tomorrow night.
That said and done,

I'M OFF! HUZZA!

More posts on beer later...

Month later, still at work.

Quick tasting note:

Barossa Valley Estate Ebenezer Cabernet Merlot 1999

Had this at a tasting on Monday night. Has a little pepper on the nose with a bit of vegital smell and a little age showing. Normally I don't talk about colour, but this one's a deep, inky purple with a little deep brick red on the edge. Taste: Thick and still tannic with a bunch of earthy fruit and a short finish. The cab really comes through on this one but since it's showing a bit of age it's damaging the rest of the flavour in the glass.
All in all, nice, but drink it now 'cuz in a year or two, it'll be over the edge.

Working on my Massive Flurry of Booze part Two night for November.

If I'm more with it, I might even post some more reviews once I get some time later in the month!

Ciao!