Review of our meeting in July. Mehul is portrayed as the "hero" of this piece, the real heroes of course, were the Partagas Luisitanias, Romoe Y Julieta Churchills and Caol Ila.
Move over blended whisky. Single Malt scotch is here, and to stay.
“Single Malt is not just any old whisky. It IS the water of life, “ explains Mehul Patel, a member of Mumbai’s newly formed Single Malt and Cigar Club. Mehul is a first generation, tech entrepreneur and an art collector and represents a growing worldwide trend of Single Malt Whisky enthusiasts—one that has begun to take India by storm. A quantum leap from the era of whisky or Scotch with soda, water and ice.
The recently concluded sale of distillery, The Macallan’s Fine and Rare limited edition series saw bottles of their oldest and finest 1926 vintage being offered at $ 38,000. It was a complete sell-out.
Whisky is the English corruption for the Scottish-Gaelic slang “uishgi” meaning “water of life”. Scotch literally means “from Scotland”. Much like Champagne refers to the Sparkling wine that is produced in the Champagne region of France, Scotch refers to the whisky that is produced in Scotland.
Originally whisky was made in Scotland by turning barley into malt, adding water, fermenting the mixture and distilling it using copper vessels or stills. Malt Whisky is still made this way. In the 1800s, the blends of malt whiskies began to be leavened with a lighter, and less expensive, style from a variety of grains, not all malted, in a continuous process, using a column-shaped patent still. These unspecified grains could include unmalted barley, wheat or maize. Hence, blended whisky is sometimes referred to as “grain” whisky, unlike malt whisky which necessarily consists of malted barley only.
Single Malt refers to malt whisky that is produced in a single distillery. This is distinguished from “Pure Malt” which may include malted barley from more than one distillery.
Replete with snifters (nosing glasses for the uninitiated), a meeting of the Single Malt and Cigar Club is akin to taking a distillery tour in Scotland, without having to deal with the hardy Scottish weather, while still keeping your date with Fidel Castro.
“Each meeting of ours has a unique theme akin to the individualistic character of the Malt itself. Today’s theme is regional and we are going to broadly explore some of the different regions of Scotland: The Lowlands, The Highlands, Speyside and Islay. We are sporting a Glenkinchie for the Lowlands, Longmorn for the Highlands, Knockando for Speyside and Caol Ila is our Islay of the day.” explains Mehul.
Bottles are opened one at a time. A few drams of the golden-coloured liquor poured into each snifter. The whisky is “nosed”, tasted neat and then a few drops of room temperature water added to “release the bouquet”. Tasting notes are meticulously kept and compared. Cigars are carefully chosen to match the tipple and heighten the pleasure.
“The Glenkinchie has a sweetly aromatic nose, while the Longmorn is complex and firm, the Knockando, is soft and fragrant, almost like perfume and the Caol Ila is lightly peaty. It is a good introduction to the hearty Islay region. Nothing like the Islay powerhouse, Laphroaig, which is our unanimous favourite.”
“We use a number of different criteria to determine the theme of the meeting. For example, age. We did the entire Glenfiddich series starting from one of their most basic, and quite awful, 8 years, all the way to the exalted, vintage 40 years. Another criteria could be finishes, where we compared different casks, sherry, madeira, port and burgundy. But our all time favourite was the non-chill filtered series.”
As Single Malt aficionado, Michael Jackson, explains, “A malt in its natural state throws an unattractive haze if refrigerated. This is why, commercially available malt whisky is filtered at cold temperatures. This chill-filtration removes solids that might otherwise precipitate—but also strips out some texture and taste.”
Non-chill filtered malt whisky is more full-bodied and flavourful, a delight for the cultivated palate. Unfortunately, it is not available commercially and needs to be sourced or even custom-ordered.”
Admission to the Club is by invitation only and highly selective. “We only want members who love Single Malts and cigars, who are eager to learn and passionate about sharing.”
In the meantime, there are a couple of websites worth checking out, “www.maltmadness.com” and “www.cigaraficionado.com”.
Move over blended whisky. Single Malt scotch is here, and to stay.
“Single Malt is not just any old whisky. It IS the water of life, “ explains Mehul Patel, a member of Mumbai’s newly formed Single Malt and Cigar Club. Mehul is a first generation, tech entrepreneur and an art collector and represents a growing worldwide trend of Single Malt Whisky enthusiasts—one that has begun to take India by storm. A quantum leap from the era of whisky or Scotch with soda, water and ice.
The recently concluded sale of distillery, The Macallan’s Fine and Rare limited edition series saw bottles of their oldest and finest 1926 vintage being offered at $ 38,000. It was a complete sell-out.
Whisky is the English corruption for the Scottish-Gaelic slang “uishgi” meaning “water of life”. Scotch literally means “from Scotland”. Much like Champagne refers to the Sparkling wine that is produced in the Champagne region of France, Scotch refers to the whisky that is produced in Scotland.
Originally whisky was made in Scotland by turning barley into malt, adding water, fermenting the mixture and distilling it using copper vessels or stills. Malt Whisky is still made this way. In the 1800s, the blends of malt whiskies began to be leavened with a lighter, and less expensive, style from a variety of grains, not all malted, in a continuous process, using a column-shaped patent still. These unspecified grains could include unmalted barley, wheat or maize. Hence, blended whisky is sometimes referred to as “grain” whisky, unlike malt whisky which necessarily consists of malted barley only.
Single Malt refers to malt whisky that is produced in a single distillery. This is distinguished from “Pure Malt” which may include malted barley from more than one distillery.
Replete with snifters (nosing glasses for the uninitiated), a meeting of the Single Malt and Cigar Club is akin to taking a distillery tour in Scotland, without having to deal with the hardy Scottish weather, while still keeping your date with Fidel Castro.
“Each meeting of ours has a unique theme akin to the individualistic character of the Malt itself. Today’s theme is regional and we are going to broadly explore some of the different regions of Scotland: The Lowlands, The Highlands, Speyside and Islay. We are sporting a Glenkinchie for the Lowlands, Longmorn for the Highlands, Knockando for Speyside and Caol Ila is our Islay of the day.” explains Mehul.
Bottles are opened one at a time. A few drams of the golden-coloured liquor poured into each snifter. The whisky is “nosed”, tasted neat and then a few drops of room temperature water added to “release the bouquet”. Tasting notes are meticulously kept and compared. Cigars are carefully chosen to match the tipple and heighten the pleasure.
“The Glenkinchie has a sweetly aromatic nose, while the Longmorn is complex and firm, the Knockando, is soft and fragrant, almost like perfume and the Caol Ila is lightly peaty. It is a good introduction to the hearty Islay region. Nothing like the Islay powerhouse, Laphroaig, which is our unanimous favourite.”
“We use a number of different criteria to determine the theme of the meeting. For example, age. We did the entire Glenfiddich series starting from one of their most basic, and quite awful, 8 years, all the way to the exalted, vintage 40 years. Another criteria could be finishes, where we compared different casks, sherry, madeira, port and burgundy. But our all time favourite was the non-chill filtered series.”
As Single Malt aficionado, Michael Jackson, explains, “A malt in its natural state throws an unattractive haze if refrigerated. This is why, commercially available malt whisky is filtered at cold temperatures. This chill-filtration removes solids that might otherwise precipitate—but also strips out some texture and taste.”
Non-chill filtered malt whisky is more full-bodied and flavourful, a delight for the cultivated palate. Unfortunately, it is not available commercially and needs to be sourced or even custom-ordered.”
Admission to the Club is by invitation only and highly selective. “We only want members who love Single Malts and cigars, who are eager to learn and passionate about sharing.”
In the meantime, there are a couple of websites worth checking out, “www.maltmadness.com” and “www.cigaraficionado.com”.
posted by Cigar Single Malt Society | 9:56 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home