A Feast For Gentelman – D.T.W.C. April 2013 Wrap Up

Pouring the Bruichladdich Octomore 4.2 Comus

So on Saturday 20th April 2013 another D.T.W.C. has now come and gone and a good showing of club members was in force yet again. The evening was hosted by The Baron, and it was good to see so many faces and of course the special trip made from north of the border by The Diplomat.

It was certainly a night for Islay (not surprising) with Ardbeg 10yo, Laphroaig PX, Lagavulin 16yo and the nights whisky of choice Bruichladdich Octomore 4.2 Comus, followed by a Clynelish, Springbank 15, and a special bottle of Longrow CV.

From what I could tell (in between a tad bit of kitchen prep) was that the Bruichladdich Octomore 4.2 Comus went down quite well even at 61% ABV peated at 167ppm. I will review soon of course but the initial overview is a much more subdued Octomore than usual as the sauternes casks sweetness has greatly mellowed the intense peat. I thoroughly enjoyed it and the bottle went rather quickly considering its cash strength. The Bruichladdich Octomore 4.2 Comus is pretty much out of stock now world wide so if you manage to find a bottle snap it up. I managed to snaffle this baby from The Oak Barrel in Sydney.

The evenings meal was a spanking Italian Ragu with freshly on the spot made pasta (thanks to El Capitan for the assistance in getting it done pronto) followed by a warming Bread and Butter Pudding. A couple of members asked for the evenings recipes which are provided below.

 

Italian Ragu

I find this recipe adaption is perfect for a slow cooker but a slow top pot or oven set to simmer is just as good. Feeds 8 hungry guys when served with pasta.

Ingredients:

3 to 4kg of cheap cut meats sliced into thick chunks. A mixed combination is advised.

• Italian Pork Sausages
• Beef Spare Ribs
• Thick Cut Gravy Beef
• Osso Bucco

x2 400g Tinned tomatoes Diced
1/2 Wine (clean skin or $4 Dan Murphy's label perfect)
2 medium onions
x1 tin tomato paste/puree
x1 large bunch Italian Flat Leaf Parsley
Salt and Pepper (to season)
Pasta
Parmesan Cheese (for topping)

Preparation:

1. Cut all meat into large chunks and season with salt and pepper
2. Brown meat in large pot until almost all suffice pink is gone (you may have to do this in a couple of batches).
3. Remove meat from pot and caramelise onion
4. Add 1/2 bottle red wine to onion then add meat back to pot and bring until boiling then return to a simmer (that is a low heat only minor bubble movement in sauce)
5. Add tomatoes, tomato paste/puree and whole diced parsley to pot and simmer for minimum 2 1/2hrs. May go in oven if you chosen on lowish heat 160º or a bit less. Check regularly for simmering.
6. Check meat is tender and pulling apart easily. If cook pasta and strain of water.
7. Remove pot from heat and extract meat to a separate plate keeping sauce in pot. Add pasta to sauce, mix, then sprinkle with liberal amounts of Parmesan.
8. Serve pasta and meat separate and allow hungry wolves to pick the choice cuts to go with the pasta.

 

Bread And Butter Pudding

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Loves Vienna Bread with crusts cut off (Vienna is light and fluffy and can be cut nice, thick, and ragged)
Butter (give a liberal buttering to both sides of cut bread)
7 to 8 eggs
1 to 1.2 Liters Milk
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 tablespoon Vanilla Essence
Nutmeg
1/2 cup Sultanas/Raisins

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C
2. Grease a large baking dish (you may want to do step 3 first to check size of dish first)
3. Cut/tear the bread into ragged pieces and lay all bread in at 45º to ensure dish is the right size
4. Beat eggs and then add milk
5. Add vanilla essence & sugar then continue to mix until thoroughly mixed
6. Pour mixture over the bread
7. Sprinkle sultanas/raisins and nutmeg on top
8. Place in oven and cook for 60 - 90 minutes (check every now and again.This is a custard but the tips of the bread should be browning)
9. Remove from oven and let stand until at desired temp is reached. Custard will thicken so advised to leave for around 10min.

Thanks again to all who attended and look forward to seeing you all in the coming months at the next D.T.W.C. hosted at El Capitains.

The Baron

D.T.W.C Event Wrap Up – 16th Feb 2012

The evenings lineup

On the eve of our coming D.T.W.C evening it might be worth wrapping up the previous event held on the 16th Feb 2012, now that the evenings host Snape has completed his whisky of choice review.

We saw the evening hosted for the first time at our more recent members abodes, Snape. In attendance we were graced with the faces of El Capitan, The Alchemist, The Baron, The Proxy, and Dog, with The Diplomat dialing in remotely.

On the menu was a delicious meal prepared by Snape being a New Orleans Jambalya and some corn thing he can't remember the name of but tasted ass hot delicious.

Though somewhat short in numbers the selection of whisky was top class:
Highland Park 1994 (Whisky of the evening)
Chivas Regal 18yo
Oban 14yo
Lagavulin 16yo
Glenmorangie Nector D'or
Laphroaig 10yo Cask Strength
Johhnie Walker Green Label (who brought that)
Laphroaig PX Cask (an outstanding addition by the Dog)
Talisker 10yo
K5 from Bhutan (This was an outright travesty)

The Laphroaig PX Cask

 The most outstanding whisky of the night trumped the Highland Park 1994 hands down which was the Laphroaig PX Cask donated by The Dog and consumed by all. I hope to see a review of this soon on the clubs site. You may see the Highland Park 1994 review by Snape here.

It would seem also that The Proxy is showing a bit of a trend to fall asleep at club meetings. Cheers for the entrainment Proxy even if we did have to talk a little louder than usual.

The Diplomat looking as youthful as ever

Thanks again to The Diplomat for dialing in and we will be excited to see you in person for the coming event.

Be seeing you gents soon!

The Baron

I can't compare but... – Highland Park 1994

Highland Park 1994

I'm new to the whole whiskey thing but I had heard good things about Highland Park so I was interested to try one so I asked the wife to grab the Highland Park 1994 during one of her international trips.

Highland Park 1994
Location/Region: Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland
Style: Single Malt
Alcohol: 40%
Available: Global Travel Retail / Duty Free

It came in nice smart packing and smelled great which for me is important sometimes more so than the taste but that's just me I think.

It had a caramel smokey aroma with slight nutty smell in the background like almonds I guess. Some of the other guys in the group commented on a cherry smell as well which upon a second look I would agree with as well.

After all the sniffing and smelling and dancing etc everyone grabbed a glass and most were underwhelmed by the taste. Personally I haven't tried any other Highland Park so I can't compare but I will say that of the small amount of whiskey's I have tried it wasn't my favourite, though I digress, taste or palate wise it had a slight caramel taste wound into a dry fruity taste that some members mentioned also had a cinnamon after taste. One thing I did agree with was that while it was underwhelming to the palate it was a drink you could run through easily as it was very smooth and had a warm smokey finish to it.

Overall if I had to rate it on the Hogworts wizard scale I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 as the type of whiskey to enjoy while zoning out after dealing with Potter and Wheasly all day. In other words something to drink casually not specially occasions a smooth drop you can enjoy without really thinking about it. Don't know if it's worth the price though as you need a place ticket to get it or a magic robe like me that allows you access to the airport.

Oh and a few people myself included thought it tasted better with a drop of water.

Snape

What whisky vendors want from us – Blogging for us or them?

Here is a quick post I will open up to any members, non-members and other whisky bloggers (that may be reading this) about what your experiences have been in recent years with blogging becoming such a integral part of the promotions/advertising/social market.

Over last 12 months in particular our little club blog has been gaining some interest from whisky vendors in one way or another as we keep getting sent press materials for new releases, information about awards and so on from all walks of the whisky industry. This is all well and good and I like to read about it but the big question is "Who are we writing for, what do we get out of it and should we get anything out of it at all?". I am not asking for free bottles of whisky or cash for comments but it certainly seems strange that there is this expectation that we amateurs will do something for nothing while most of this whisky we are sent releases on is financially well out of the general public's reach. Simply they, the vendors, want free marketing and will craftily try to get it. With that comment it draws attention to why our club exists in the first place and that is to experience something we generally cannot afford. Possibly my opinion is skewed because our clubs blog site is specifically for our clubs members but I am sure we do not present ourselves as a free for all promotional website. We as a whisky club are not a magazine, we write not to gain attention or sell subscriptions, we write for ourselves as an extension of our communications with other club members .

At other times we have been offered tastings or have samples sent to us (more often this happens after a press release has been sent), only to find they never arrive with no further communications or at the last minute had the pin pulled. Why does it fall through? From my experience it always appears that it is the size of our club that matters more than anything. A vendor may find our blog site, not research enough to really know about us, but see we rank high enough, and so instigate a communication. We always set our terms though when talking about receiving whisky samples: If we choose to write about it then it will be at our discretion and uncensored while we will always disclose who and why the sample was provided.

Then in other cases whisky vendors have not liked what we have had to say and have puffed out their chests, screamed, shouted and vented in some very unprofessional manners. In the end does it really matter… If your product is bad then we as a consumer have a right to say it just as much as if we love it. Correct? So why do they carry on so. All they do is make themselves look like fools.

So there is 3 primary things that we get approached about by vendors from time to time that can impact what we sometimes blog about:

1. Free advertising – You write about whisky that means you must want to write about us too.

2. Tasting samples – Try before you buy or buy before you try.

3. Having our say – Amateur opinions that can outweigh any professional comment.

So really where am I going with this? Getting a bit lost I think and trudging up mud. In returning to the original question about "Who are we writing for, what do we get out of it and should we get anything out of it at all?", well that can only be answered by you and what you want. From my point of view in answer to the first part of the question, for our clubs site we write for ourselves and the return is our network remains strong and honest. In answer to the second part of the question my opinion (not speaking for any other club member) is a resounding NO we should not get anything out of it because we already control what we say, when we say it, and how we say it. If a vendor would like us to review an article or sample their product and comment our thoughts all well and good, as we will always be happy to accept the challenge on our terms.

In finalising if you would like to share your own experience please comment or even write us an email. For me I thought it something to share especially for those thinking of starting their own club or blog and not sure what comes with the responsibility (something we are still learning about also).

The Baron