Hasta La Ideas

Exceptionally rare forty-two-year-old whisky in an ultra-luxe case

Berry Bros. & Rudd has unveiled 179 bottles of the aptly titled Glenrothes Extraordinary Cask, with 50 bottles imported to the US by Anchor Distilling Company. Bottled in a hand-blown lead crystal decanter created at Atlantis Crystal in Portugal, mounted on a Scottish Oak plinth and housed in a…

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Touring and tasting at the NYC distillery’s new Brooklyn Navy Yard locale

“People are often expecting something more intense from the moonshine,” said Kings County Distillery co-owner Colin Spoelman as he passed out samples of the signature clear, unaged white corn whiskey made at his Brooklyn-based micro-distillery. The tasting took place at the end of a recent tour of the distillery’s…

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A limited edition single-varietal vintage release shakes up the vodka scene

Prized for its silky mouth feel and distinct flavor, Karlssons began in 2001 when a group of Swedish potato farmers sought a way to improve their business. At the behest of Peter Ekelund—well-known as an entrepreneur who had helped launch Absolut in the 1970s—the group began working together as a collective and immediately saw an uptick in demand for their Swedish-grown spuds.

This success spurred another idea—to make a vodka from the many varieties of local virgin potatoes. Ekelund brought on Börje Karlsson, a former colleague and master vodka blender (he’s the guy who created the original recipe for Absolut vodka), to create a vodka from the crops of these local farmers. From this was born Karlsson’s Gold, a blend of potato spirits that lend the small-batch vodka its signature taste. Master Blender Börje Karlsson blends the individual spirits and vintages from seven different potatoes, all of which are grown in Sweden’s Cape Bjäre region. Karlsson finds that these potatoes are much like grapes, with noticeable variances from season to season. When sampling the spirits he realized that some of them were exceptional on their own, and the idea for Karlsson’s Batch was born.

The first single varietals worthy of Mr. Karlsson’s small batch mission were distilled in 2004, but this limited-edition Karlsson’s Batch 2008 marks the brand’s first major single-varietal vodka expression commercial release, made exclusively from Gammel Svensk Röd (Old Swedish Red) new potatoes harvested in 2008. The label bears the name of the farmer, Bertil Gunnarsson, along with the property from which it was harvested and the bottle’s number in the edition. The vodka is very distinctive, and unlike blended vodkas that aim for even palate, has a sharp and complex flavor profile.

This deconstructionist concept is a bold move in a market dominated by expansion almost exclusively from flavored vodkas; it’s more often seen in the domaines of champagne and whiskey. Karlssons may be the first spirit brand to embrace this approach.

Karlsson’s Batch 2008 is restricted to 1,980 bottles, the majority of which are headed for select retailers, bars and restaurants in the U.S. market, including New York’s PDT, Del Posto, Craft and Astor Center, among others.

If you miss out on this edition stay on the lookout for the second Batch release in Fall 2012, featuring the Solist varietal from 2009.

Behind the scenes at the Jameson Distillery with Master Distiller Barry Crockett

John Jameson’s Dublin distillery was founded in 1780, guided by the family motto “Sine Metu”, meaning without fear. To this day, those words appear on every bottle of Irish whisky. At the original distillery, located next to Smithfield Market, Jameson used well water, searched for superior strains of barley, sought out high quality casks and believed the whisky should be matured in cool, damp cellars. Eventually, he built larger warehouses that captured rainwater to recreate such conditions, and by 1890 Irish whiskey had become one of the most popular whiskeys in the world.

Later, because of Prohibition in the U.S. and the consequentially insurmountable tariff barriers in England, there was decline in the market which led to the demise of many Irish whiskey companies and, eventually, to the formation of the Irish Distillers Group. In 1971, Jameson’s Bow Street distillery stopped operations and all production was moved to the Midleton Distillery in Cork.

Back in Dublin, tours of the Bow Street Distillery in Smithfield Village continue today, recounting the legacy and proud heritage of Irish whiskey. Visitors can watch a short documentary film, take the tour and enjoy the tasting room and restaurant. The distillery building is also the setting for special events including the Jameson Global Party on St. Patrick’s Day.

We went behind the scenes of the public tasting tours at the Jameson Experience in Cork to meet the core team. The steps behind the sourcing and repairing of casks was presented inside the coopers’ workshop, revealing a process of connecting flawless pieces of oak cut precisely according to the wood’s rings, that has remained relatively unchanged throughout the years.

We met the current master distiller Barry Crockett, who apprenticed under his father, master distiller Max Crockett, to learn the age-old trade. During lunch with the junior Crockett in his childhood home, we learned about the triple distillation process Jameson has perfected since 1790, and the five-year aging period for the single-pot still and grain whiskey blends.

Since the beginning, “Jameson has been made using same type of equipment and methods, but the product made today is cleaner more refined and sweeter that would have been possible with the old equipment in the late 1700s,” says Crockett. “With the higher level of control with the modern equipment and controls we can achieve a finer quality of spirit.”

“Irish whiskey has always been different to Scottish and American whiskeys,” says Crockett. “The fact that makes it different is the production technique, which is part of what we do. The use of high proportions of barley, harvested locally which gives it a very unique flavor and taste to the whiskey. The barley in my view offers a type of apple, pear or peach type aroma. You will find that very much in all of the Irish whiskies. It also gives a smooth even mouthy effect that lends to a more soft and sweet aftertaste.”

There’s a section of the cottage being transformed to better showcase the history of the brand. “Jameson has a strong story in term of its heritage, imagery, and we are advancing that imagery by getting our archives together to display,” says Crockett. “We know when people are coming here. The principal thing is to understand why it is a popular whiskey in the first place.”

While the company focuses primarily on filling orders, Crockett’s main responsibility lies in developing single-origin pot still expressions. “These certainly show the consumer public that Irish whiskey is not just Jameson, but is also able to present a range of different flavor characteristics,” he explains. “We believe the single-origin pot still range will do for Irish whiskey what the concept of single malt did for Scotland.” Crockett says that their goal is to launch one to two new single pot still whiskeys each year.

Our tour concluded at the Jameson warehouses, where up to 36,000 barrels are stored upright on rows of palettes. When asked what he’d want to drink if he were stranded on a desert island, Crockett answered, “Jameson 18-year-old, or the Legacy.”

The master perfumer creates an olfactory experience as a unique educational tool for understanding the flavors of Scotch whisky

Whisky is a complex spirit with a range of flavors; often, people have an experience with one variety and dismiss the whole spirit. The Macallan recognizes that introducing whisky to some people requires a bit of eduction, and happened upon an idea that is really quite clever. Knowing that smell is such an important element in taste, they thought it would be an interesting experiment to teach people about the flavors of whisky. The Macallan’s partnership with celebrated British perfumer Roja Dove created an olfactory experience to do just that, and the result is a Scottish take on the Japanese Kōdō ceremony, which celebrates the art and customs of incense.

Roja is a master perfumer who creates his own line of perfumes as well as creating bespoke fragrances for people and places (like shops and hotels). He also has a well known shop, Roja Dove Haute Perfumerie at Harrods in London, which sells a range of “Roja approved” scents. Ironically, Roja had an unpleasant teenage encounter with Scotch that prevented him from ever trying it again. In his first meeting with The Macallan, he had to confess to his whisky-making partners, “I absolutely hate whisky. I don’t like it, I can’t drink it. I don’t like it whatsoever.” Since the project was about creating an experience to introduce the unexperienced to whisky, they were actually encouraged by Dove’s opposition to the spirit, relying on him to create an experience to make the characteristics of whisky more approachable.

The Macallan and Roja Dove Sensory Experience takes people through the spectrum of scent, educating the nose in common whisky notes. It’s meant to help people approach the whisky palate without the immediate—and often overpowering—alcoholic sensation so that later on, tasting the whiskey may bring out characteristics that may otherwise have been missed. “Everybody so far has said that they are shocked that they are able to smell things in the whisky that they have never, ever noticed before,” explains Dove. I was lucky enough to spend an hour going through the Experience with Dove and David Cox, director of The Macallan’s Fine and Rare whiskies and indeed learned to distinguish the various components that give whisky its flavor.

Dove selected 12 pure essences that he felt were representative of different whiskey traits. The first six introduce scent pairs that help distinguish between things like stillness versus volatility, fruitiness versus spiciness, and maturity versus immaturity. Dove’s experience goes back and forth between scents in an opposite way from traditional whisky-tasting, bringing out base notes after the high notes and the sweet before the dry. The kit provides a certain education that a tasting alone cannot. The second set of six scents creates two aromatic blends that imitate whiskies from The Macallan range, which are later used in combination with the whisky during tasting. By the end, the nose has been properly trained and participants leave equipped with the vocabulary to go forward and taste whiskey on their own. It’s perhaps not a surprise that through his own methods Dove has come to appreciate and enjoy whisky.

The “aroma station” comes in an exquisitely detailed oak box constructed by Scottish cabinet-maker Duke Christie with bottles arranged like a perfumer’s desk—a set-up that Dove playfully likens to a church organ. The box contains scent strips for testing and glasses to combine the scents into a “bouquet,” which mirrors the whiskey-tasting experience. Armed with this educational tool, The Macallan’s brand ambassadors are set to spread the essence of their spirit through scent, hoping to convert non-believers to the fascinating world of scotch whisky and provide connoisseurs with an additional tool for appreciation. While the Ambassadors’ are currently making the rounds with the press, they promise that small, intimate consumer events will follow. Until then, check out the video to hear Dove himself explain the unique process.