Let’s continue with the reviews of sherry cask-matured, cask strength Glenallachie. I reviewed Batch 2 of the Glenallachie 10, Cask Strength on Monday. Here now is Batch 3. Batch 2 was released in 2018. Batch 3 was released in 2019 in the Europe and in 2020 in the US. As to whether the 2020 release was the same vatting as the 2019, just released later, or if it was a different vatting, I don’t know. But I’d guess it was the latter since, as per Whiskybase, the US release was bottled a full year later. Or I suppose they might have released an 11 yo as a 10 yo to preserve the branding of the series. At any rate, both releases, like Batch 2, are officially 10 years old. However, while Batch 2 was vatted from spirit matured in oloroso, PX and virgin oak casks, Batch 3 dropped the virgin oak, making it an all-sherry cask whisky. I liked Batch 2 quite a lot and given that this one doesn’t have virgin oak casks in the mix, odds are good I’ll like it even more. Let’s see if that proves to be the case. Continue reading
Restaurant Alma VII, Spring 2023 (Minneapolis)
Our dinners at Alma last spring, summer and fall were among the highlights of our dining out in all of 2022. If we hadn’t been gone in the winter, we would have eaten there again. No surprise then that we showed up again to eat their current spring menu. Of course, in between the dinner last fall and this one came their invitation to me to do an Indian pop-up with them—which went off quite successfully (I’d like to think) at the end of February. I note/remind you of this at the very outset to foreground the fact that whereas until the end of last year I was just a very big fan of their cooking philosophy, I am now a little more entangled with them and my critical detachment is doubtless at least a little strained. There was no special treatment at this dinner, no comps of any kind—but if you choose to view my enthusiasm for this meal as contaminated, I will understand. For yes, we very much enjoyed this dinner as well and I don’t really have any criticisms in what follows. Except maybe that the root vegetable pavé, the picture of which on Instagram spurred me to make this reservation, was no longer on the menu. Them’s the breaks. Continue reading
Glenallachie 10 CS, Batch 2
I’ve reviewed a couple of official Glenallachies in the last six months—see here for the 2021 release of the 12 yo, and here for the 15 yo (release year unknown). Those are two of the only three Glenallachies I’ve reviewed—the third was an older independent release from Whiskybase from before the Billy Walker era. This week I will double my total Glenallachie count. Yes, this is going to be a week of reviews of Glenallachie. They will all be official releases, they will all involve at least some sherry, and they will all be at cask strength. First up: Batch 2 of the Glenallachie 10 CS. This was released in 2018 in the US market (and, for all I know, in other markets as well). I don’t remember seeing it in Minnesota but then again I don’t really spend much time in liquor stores any more—or for that matter on liquor websites. It’s a vatting of spirit matured in oloroso, PX and virgin oak casks. Let’s see what it’s like. Continue reading
Cota Cozinha (Goa, January 2023)
I’d said I’d post my next Goa food report on Saturday and here it is instead on Sunday. Such is life. This lunch takes us back to Betalbatim, but not to Martin’s Corner. The friends who’d recommended Pentagon had also recommended Cota Cozinha as superior to the current incarnation of Martin’s Corner. Now, you may recall from my review of Pentagon that weren’t so very impressed by our meal there (though we did like it); and so, I had my expectations a bit lowered for this meal. I am happy to say, however, that it handily surpassed them. Indeed, it was a very good meal. Continue reading
Bowmore 17, 2004 (SMWS 3.339)
Let’s bring this series of reviews of Bowmore 17, 2004s bottled by the SMWS to a close. The three whiskies reviewed this week were from consecutively numbered casks, all filled on the same day in 2004 and matured in second-fill hogsheads. On Monday, I reviewed cask 3.337; on Wednesday, I reviewed cask 3.338. I liked both very much indeed; and liked 3.338 a bit more than 3.337. If you’re good at math like me, you’ll eventually figure out that today’s review is of cask 3.339. And you might also expect that I will like it a bit more than 3.338. But that’s now how whisky reviewing math works, fool! The SMWS’ tasting panel named this one “So wonderfully close, yet so wonderfully far”. This is, as far as I can make out, a reference to the whisky having conjured up visions of the Caribbean for them. I’ll be happy enough if it’s close enough to cask 3.331—which I reviewed last month, and which I liked the most so far of all these SMWS Bowmore 17, 2004s. Okay, let’s get to it. Continue reading
At Namdaemun Market, Part 1
Back to Seoul, back to Namdaemun Market. My first report from the market was of an excellent lunch in the market’s famous Kalguksu Alley. I ate there on the day of my second visit to the market. I visited the market on three consecutive days and ate lunch there on three consecutive days. Why didn’t I eat at Kalguksu Alley on the first day? Well, I couldn’t find it. On that first visit I was also unable to find the market’s other famous food “alley”: Hairtail Alley; the specialty here is galchi jorim or braised/stewed hairtail fish. The main reason I was unable to find these alleys is that I didn’t know what I was looking for. I’d not really done any research on the market and had lazily assumed that everything would be very visible. Well, the market itself is quite obviously visible but there’s no signage for the food alleys—you kind of have to know where you’re going and what you’re looking for. In my post on that Kalguksu Alley lunch, I told you how to find it; in this post I offer a broader look at the market and finally a look at Hairtail Alley, which I more or less accidentally found myself in while wandering around after lunch in Kalguksu Alley. Continue reading
Bowmore 17, 2004 (SMWS 3.338)
Here is the second of three reviews this week os Bowmore 17, 2004s distilled on the same day, matured in second-fill hogsheads and bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. On Monday I reviewed cask 3.337; here now is cask 3.338. The Society’s panel dubbed it “Smoky ‘spice of the angels'”; spice of the angels is a fancy name for fennel pollen. I would have preferred “Smoky fruit of the tropics” but maybe I’ll get it anyway. Let’s see.
Bowmore 17, 2004 (57.6%; SMWS 3.338; second-fill hogshead; from a bottle split)
Nose: The smoke in this one is more ashy than mineral. There’s also more fruity and custardy notes here from the get-go: peach, a bit of passionfruit, blueberry. More fruit than smoke with time. Three drops of water bring out more of the custardy/creamy sweetness. Continue reading
Meritage III (St. Paul, MN)
It’s been a while since we’ve eaten in St. Paul. In fact, since our first meal out in 2023—at Trieu Chau—we hadn’t eaten there at all till last week. This is not because of some blood feud we have developed with the city. It’s mostly due to the fact that we were gone for most of January and recovering from our trip in February—and then I was gone again for a chunk of March. We’ll be getting back to some of our favourites there again soon. In the meantime, here is a report on a recent dinner at Meritage. We were treated to it by friends and as they’re not strangers to my restaurant reviewing, food photographing ways—indeed they are depraved enough to encourage both activities—I took the opportunity to report on this meal as well. Continue reading
Bowmore 17, 2004 (SMWS 3.337)
Back in the end of March I reviewed a Bowmore 17, 2004 bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. It was full of everything that is typical of the best of modern-era bourbon cask Bowmore: coastal notes, mineral peat, lots of fruit (acidic, sweet, tropical). Not surprisingly, I really liked it. I noted at the time that the SMWS had released a fair number of casks of Bowmore 17, 2004, all of which were distilled on the same day and, like the one I reviewed in March, matured in second-fill bourbon hogsheads. I also noted at the end of that review that I had samples from three more casks in that sequence. This week I’ll be posting reviews of that trio.
First up is cask 3.337 (my previous review was of cask 3.331). With unusual restraint, the Society’s tasting panel gave it the relatively sober name of “Pure Timelessness”. Let’s see if it lives up to the expectations set by 3.331. Continue reading
Joe’s River Cove (Goa, January 2023)
Our base of operations when in Goa is our friends’ house in the village of Velim in South Goa. Our normal order of business after eating breakfast is to head to Cavelossim Beach. We then either spend the whole day there—eating a passable lunch at one of the beach shacks—or taking a break to drive to lunch somewhere else in South Goa (for example, to Pentagon). It’s not that there aren’t places other than the shacks at which we could eat at in that general vicinity. But the choices are either the overpriced Fisherman’s Wharf or places on the Sal river like Star Light, which have a charm of their own but where the food is generally not particularly memorable. Joe’s River Cove is another of these places on the river. We passed it twice a day in January 2020 on the way to and back from the beach. On this trip, we finally made it in, on a day when we took a rare break from the beach to relax at home during the day and when we didn’t want to drive a long distance for dinner. Here’s what we found. Continue reading
Strathmill 12, 2009 (Signatory)
Unheralded Speyside distillery week comes to a close with only my second ever review of a malt from Strathmill, and the first to which I’ll be assigning a score. The only other one I’ve reviewed was a much older malt that I had only 20 ml of (I rarely assign scores to anything I’ve tasted less than 30 ml of). I liked that one but didn’t love the little bit I had of it. Now this 12 yo, I have 60 ml of. I’ve not had very many more Strathmills than I have previously reviewed and so I have very little sense of what to expect from this. I do know that I quite liked Monday’s Dailuaine (review here) and I liked Wednesday’s Inchgower even more (review here). Given that all three were bottled by Signatory, I’m choosing to be optimistic about this one. Well, I guess the suspense is going to be dispelled in just another minute. This entire introduction has been a waste of your time.
Wait, I do have an interesting nugget: this was put together from two first-fill hogsheads and yet the outturn was less than 300 bottles. Were these leaky hogsheads? Or did half of the spirit remain in a cask? If you have any idea or an educated guess, let me know in the comments. Continue reading
Uchon (Seoul)
Back to Seoul, for the first of two reports this week. I arrived on a Tuesday evening and left the following Monday evening. My first and last meals (and a snack in between) were eaten at Bukchon Son Mandu in Insadong, not too far from my hotel (see my report here). My last dinner, on Sunday night, was to once again be at the place where I ate the majority of meals: Gwangjang Market. But I had a bunch of appointments on Sunday afternoon and needed to time lunch accordingly. Looking for places within 20 minutes walk of both my hotel and my first stop, I happened upon references to Uchon. The reviews I saw online referred to them as Uchon Dolsot Seolleongtang, and as it was a damp day, and as sullungtang is one of the world’s great antidotes against damp days, it was an easy call. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
Inchgower 11, 2007 (Signatory)
This week’s whisky reviews, I remind you, are all of malts from unheralded Speyside distilleries; they were also bottled by Signatory. The week began with a Dailuaine 13, 2007 that was bottled for Specs in Texas. It continues today with an 11 yo Inchgower, which I think was just a regular release in Signatory’s Unchillfiltered Collection series. There are actually at least three Inchgower 11, 2007s released in this series that were all bottled in 2019 from proximate casks. I am sorry to inform that I don’t know which of those this sample is from. At the time that I acquired it I did not think to check and at this juncture I no longer remember who the source was and so cannot ask them. But maybe it’ll be representative of at least those casks. As to whether it’ll be representative of the distillery is a more complicated question. Most of Inchgower’s production goes into Bell’s, or at least it used to. Other than the 14 yo in the Flora & Fauna series, Diageo has released very few official Inchgowers in recent years. It is therefore one of many Scottish distilleries known far better through indie releases. Such have been all the other Inchgowers I’ve reviewed—which, oddly, have also all been older whiskies: the youngest before this one was a 20 yo. Anyway, let’s see what this is like. Continue reading
Tenant IX (Minneapolis)
We ate at Tenant thrice last summer (reviews here, here and here). We’d hoped to make it there again at the end of the year before heading off to Los Angeles and India, but it never happened. And so I was happy on return from India to score two seats at the counter for a Saturday at the end of March. As this is my ninth review of a meal at Tenant, you will not be surprised to hear that we are big fans of their playful takes on fine dining, delivered in the form of a “surprise” six-course menu (you find out what each course is when it’s brought out to you). Dinners there have a familiar rhythm at this point—we usually have a good sense of the kinds of dishes we’re likely to get in different seasons. But given how much we like it, familiarity in this case only breeds enjoyment. Continue reading
Dailuaine 13, 2007 (Signatory for Specs)
This will be a week of reviews from unheralded Speyside distilleries; it will also, as it happens, be a week of reviews of whiskies bottled by Signatory. Let’s begin with a 13 yo from what is probably the best-known of the trio: Dailuaine (the other two are Inchgower and Strathmill). This was bottled for Specs in Texas. There’s not too much information about it online. Specs’ listing (it is still available) gives no detail. Whiskybase indicates that it’s been put together from several hogsheads for a total outturn of 1152 bottles (no wonder it’s still available). There’s only one rating on Whiskybase with an accompanying review. The review actually makes the whisky seem quite intriguing to me but the rating is pretty low. I’m curious to see what I make of it—for what it’s worth, I’ve liked all the Dailuaines I’ve reviewed; of course, that’s no guarantee. Anyway, as this whisky is still available, my review is not actually untimely, even though it comes more than two years after it was bottled. There is no need to thank me. Continue reading
Gung (Gurgaon, February 2023)
The Korean restaurant presence in the greater Delhi region has been building for a while. I’m sure the craze for Korean dramas and K-Pop has a lot to do with its growing popularity but it’s also true that there’s a decent Korean population in parts of the capital now, what with a number of large Korean corporations having big offices there. On past trips we’d been curious about trying some of these restaurants, but somehow never got around to it. This January we finally did. A good friend wanted to take us out to dinner and she suggested a Korean place she really likes, out of interest to see what the missus (who is Korean) would make of it. This was the Gurgaon branch of a restaurant named Gung: The Palace. They also have branches in Delhi, Noida and Neemrana. We were not expecting very much and our expectations were handily surpassed. Here are the details. Continue reading
Pentagon (Goa, January 2023)
Now that my Delhi reports are almost done—the last one will probably be posted tomorrow—it’s time to make some headway on my food reports from our side trip to Goa from Delhi. I’ve already documented our first stop on the way from the airport to the house we were staying in in South Goa. That was at the large fish market in Margao. I picked up enough fish and shellfish there to keep us stocked for dinner for almost our entire stay. Lunches, however, were eaten out, as we took breaks from basking on beaches. A few of those lunches were eaten at shacks at Cavelossim Beach—our headquarters by the water—but for a few we drove further out. The first such was this lunch at Pentagon in Majorda. It was a special outing for the older boy’s birthday. Here’s how it went. Continue reading