Make Valentine’s Day Special for Your Whisky Lover
Whisky pairs well with just about any food and you can create a delicious and fun whisky pairing experience to share with your date for Valentine’s Day this year. Start with a classic Old Fashioned cocktail but give it a little twist. Take a small wedge of a blood orange, including the peel, and place it in the bottom of each Old Fashioned glass. Add 1 tsp of sugar and give 3 shakes of orange bitters to each glass. Muddle well and add 1.5 oz. of Redemption Rye to each glass. Take a garnishing pick and add a small wedge of blood orange and cherry and place pick in the drink, repeating for each drink. Enjoy your appetizers with your Old Fashioneds, especially something like small baguette slices with an artichoke tapenade, or even a bruschetta. If you are not the cocktail type, but do enjoy smoky whisky, another delicious combination to start off your night is raw oysters with peated Scotch, like Kilchoman Sanaig. Serve them on the half shell and pour a teaspoon or so of the whisky on top and drink the whole oyster and Scotch right out of the shell! The flavors of the oyster compliment the Scotch in ways that you have to taste to believe. If you enjoy cheese, you are in for a treat. In fact, you could just skip the entree and just luxuriate in cheese and whisky. Smoky whiskies and blue cheese are a match made in heaven and soft cheeses like brie like a lighter touch like Speyburn 10. Cheddar and parmesan pair well with Old Forester 1870, and Old Pulteney 12 likes any cheese with salt crystals! With a salad or crudité course, a light and tasty whiskey like Eagan’s Irish is just the thing. Just have 1/4 oz. of whisky, enough to nose and taste, with each course. If you enjoy steak, Balcones Blue Corn Bourbon is just the whisky to pair with your main course, but if you prefer salmon or chicken, try a Napa wine finished American whisky from Savage and Cooke like The Burning Chair. Vegetarian entrees also pair well with these. Chocolate is a must for Valentine’s day for most people, and sherried Scotches are simply divine paired with chocolates or chocolate cake or anything chocolate! Try Tamdhu 10 with dark chocolate hearts or The Macallan 12 with a chocolate dessert. To finish the evening, a nice slow sipper like Lagavulin 16 is hard to beat.
Early Bird Tickets for Austin, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta are now on sale!
San Francisco VIP is sold out. General Admission is still available for San Francisco, but will sell out soon. There are still a few VIP tickets for San Jose, but they are just about sold out.
San Jose (#WOWSJ) happens Thursday, March 22, 2108 at the San Jose Marriott. Tickets are available here.
San Francisco (#WOWSF) happens Saturday, March 24, 2018 at the San Francisco Belle Yacht. Tickets are available here.
Austin (#WOWAUS) happens Thursday, September 20, 2018 at the Vault Space. Early Bird Tickets are available here.
Dallas (#WOWDAL) happens Friday, September 21, 2018 at Frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field. Early Bird Tickets are available here.
Houston (#WOWHOU) happens Saturday, September 22, 2018 at Silver Street Studio. Early Bird Tickets are available here.
Atlanta (#WOWATL) happens Friday, November 2, 2018 at The Intercontinental Buckhead. Early Bird tickets are available here.
Lets talk about it! Be sure to use the hash tags when talking about the all the WOW shows on social media!
The Art of Cigars with Honor Cigars
Whiskies of the World is delighted to announce our cigar partner in San Jose and San Francisco for 2018 is Honor Cigars. Honor Cigars founder and owner Troy Lawrence is a cigar connoisseur and entrepreneur dedicated to promoting the art, culture, and enjoyment of fine cigars. Honor Cigars specializes in custom cigar rolling events. They offer a unique combination of craftsmanship and art that transforms the raw tobacco product into something that can provide sublime pleasure when blended properly and smoked in the right setting.
Whiskies to Talk About
We have so many great whiskies for you to sample at our shows. Every newsletter we like to highlight a few that you can taste at some of our events.
The Macallan
The Macallan 12 year old Single Malt Scotch is arguably the best known and most popular Single Malt, available at most any bar who offers Single Malts. Aged for its entire 12 years in seasoned sherry casks, it is just the tip of the iceberg of amazing whiskies from one of the biggest and most popular distillers in Scotland! Macallan has been making whisky since 1824, being one of the original Speyside distilleries to obtain a license after the excise act of 1823 and has been owned by the Edrington Group since 1999, who also owns Highland Park, Cutty Sark, Glenturret, The Famous Grouse and Glenrothes. In 2004 The Macallan started offering their fine oak series which included whisky aged in both bourbon and sherry casks. The Macallan is highly collectable and older bottlings are avidly sought out both for collecting and drinking! The recently completed 100 million pound subterranean new Macallan distillery was commissioned in November of 2017. Once they have made sure that the new distillery makes whisky as good as the old one, the production will move over to the new facility! Of course it will be at least 10 years before we get to try any of this whisky made at the new facility! In the meantime, we will keep on drinking and loving The Macallan and you can try many expressions at our shows!
Frank-Lin Distillers American Whiskey
Frank-Lin Distillers is a large beverage group who has many premium brands under their umbrella. Some of the perennial favorites at Whiskies of the World include whiskeys from this group. J. Seeds Apple Cider whiskey is a blend of whiskey and Apple cider. They market this as an accidental mixing that had a happy ending – like Reece’s Peanut Butter cups – two great tastes that taste great together! The actual distillers of their whiskies are kept a secret, but many seasoned Bourbon drinkers have their opinions about the origins of these brands. That is part of the fun of whiskey like this; it is quite delicious, a good value and you can drink it with your friends and try to guess who made it! Black Saddle 12 year old Bourbon is an award winning bourbon that is often requested for our Whisky dinners! Buck Bourbon celebrates the spirit of the rodeo and is well reviewed and regarded. Wathen’s and Medley Bros. are both from the Medley Bros. Kentucky company, and are made to the Medley Bros. specifications. The Medley Bros. were Kentucky distillers for 8 generations and the newest version of their Bourbon is made specifically to compliment Bourbon cocktails! Wathen’s is a single barrel Bourbon whose barrels are chosen at their peak and bottled at 94 proof! All of these wonderful whiskeys are available to try at Whiskies of the World.
The English Whisky Company
Photo Credit Whisky_Donna from Instagram
St. George Distillery is the home of The English Whisky Company. When the The English Whisky Company first started distilling in 2006, it was the first Single Malt whisky being made in England for over 100 years! They laid down 26 casks in December of 2006 and now have over 3000 casks resting and waiting for their perfect maturation to be bottled and shared with the world! This is a family owned and operated distillery, and though the current operation is only 12 yeas old, the Nelstrop family has been farming and living in this part of England for over 100 years. St. George’s Distillery is in Roudham, Norfolk. Superb barley is grown in Norfolk and would traditionally be shipped to Scotland for whisky production there. The Breckland aquifer has excellent water, and runs right under the distillery! James Nelstrop had a keen interest in distilling whisky and it seemed like his part of England was perfectly made for this purpose. They are proud of the fact they make whisky in small batches by hand, with no computers, no added color, non-chill filtered and aged in American ex-Bourbon barrels, as well as a selection of other wine barrels including sherry. They call each release of their whisky a chapter, and usually the odd numbered chapters are peated, and the even chapters are unpeated. Though other English distilleries are now open and running, The English Whisky Company was the first in England in over 100 years, and continues to be a fabulous tourist attraction in addition to making great whisky. A new restaurant is open at the distillery, The Kitchen at St. George’s, and with the picturesque river walks and gardens, is a must see destination for any whisky lover!
Glengoyne Single Malt Scotch
The name Glengoyne is derived from Glen Guin – the valley of the wild geese. This is appropriate because Glengoyne, founded in 1833, is probably the most environmentally conscious distillery in Scotland these days. One large scale way they prove this is by sending their spent lees into their own wetlands so that they will naturally filter through, using gravity and plants to cleanse the water before it joins the local stream and eventually flows to Loch Lomond. They also have two beehives on their property, to help support declining bee populations. The wetlands and the bees both support a diverse and healthy environment at the distillery, making it also one of the most beautiful distilleries in Scotland. They are also an active partner with Wetlands and Wildfowl Trust, and 100% of their electricity comes form renewable energy. Glengoyne is never peated and matured exclusively in Sherry casks. This started as a way to save money, by using local fuel instead of importing peat, and buying cheap sherry casks that were readily available back in the 1870’s when the distillery was young. Sherry casks are now the most expensive casks to use, but they are an integral part of the profile of Glengoyne. The core range includes a 10, 12, 15, 18, 21 and 25 year old, but they also have many special releases including a rare 35 year old with only 500 bottles made. They also have a non age statement Cask Strength whisky available, which is also non chill filtered. Glengoyne Scotch whisky remains a popular and sought after dram – not only for its green ways but also for its delicious, sherried whiskies accessible to everyone. Try some this year at Whiskies of the World!
Corsair American Whiskey
Corsair likes to say “If it has been done before, they don’t want to do it!” They have unique offerings like quinoa whiskey and oat whiskey! Their first and best selling is the Triple Smoke, using imported malted, peated barley from Scotland, as well as barley peated with cherry wood and beach wood smoke. Originally they started distilling in Bowling Green Kentucky. They then distilled in Nashville Tennesee. They have added a third location in Nashville where they now make their whisky. The Bowling Green location distills gin, vodka, rum and absinthe. At the original Nashville location they are now brewing beer! Corsair is co-founded by Darek Bell and Andrew Webber, and Amy Lee Bell is also co-owner. Darek Bell is considered a pioneering distiller across the industry. Andrew Webber is known for his love of distilling unusual grains. Their “mad-scientist” genius comes together in the delicious whiskies made from unexpected cereals! Other whiskeys include Ryemageddon, Wildfire American Malt, and Buck Yeah Buckwheat whiskey!
This is just a small sample of the hundreds of whiskies from which you can choose to try at a Whiskies of the World event. There is something for every taste, and it all comes together in one great evening! Don your kilts, your dinner jackets and party dresses and come on out for an unforgettable night of whisky! Tickets are now on sale for all of our 2018 shows!
Cheers,
Douglas Smith
Event Director
Whiskies of the World
