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.