The time during which the Edinburgh fringe festival is on – just under a month, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, of non-stop madness (there are some 2,500 different shows, most of which run 6 days a week, and an endless number of visitors) – is both knackering and invigorating, fun and soul-destroying, not to mention ridden with borderline alcohol abuse for the vast majority of its visitors; residents included. Indeed, I have only experienced sleep paralysis (where you become ‘aware’ before your REM cycle has finished, thus you’re paralysed and hallucinate) twice and both times were during the festival – it can be caused by sleep deprivation and excessive alcohol consumption, you see, the two hallmarks of a good fringe festival.
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If you’re looking for a bargain price bourbon, you may be interested in Heaven Hill Old Style. Heaven Hill is very cheap at just $9.00 a bottle, but you’ll notice something which stands out about it right from the off, which is that it’s bottled in glass and not plastic, despite the low price. Heaven Hill Distilleries is based in Kentucky and is family owned and operated since 1935. They have created a number of different bourbons but this is perhaps one of their best-known concoctions.
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I was invited to my friends in Denmark over the New Year, Aarhus to be precise, and decided to go for it – I’m growing a bit tired of the Edinburgh Hogmanay, anyway. Thanks to our Irish friends I managed to get there quite cheaply, which is always a bonus. That said, I think I’ll stay away from Ryan Air from now on – but don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details of my travel arrangements.
There is, to my knowledge, only one Danish distillery, and unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to visit it nor try their produce while I was there. My hosts are not the biggest of whisky drinkers – I don’t hold this against them, though, as they make up for it with a passion for beer. I’ve always been under the impression that not too many breweries existed in Scandinavia, and that the ones they do have largely produce standard lager (bleh!). Obviously there are some well known and noteworthy exceptions to this rule such as Nils Oscar, Mikkeller and Haandbryggeriet, to name one from each country, but on large… Well, I didn’t think they had much to offer.
As it turns out, though, I was wrong. Beer is apparently a growing trend in Scandinavia, and microbreweries are – or so I’ve been told – thriving. During my visit I had the opportunity to try several Danish beers, and I may come to write reviews of them all, but the most noteworthy experience was our visit to Sct. Clemens brewery. Sct. Clemens in situated right in the middle of Aarhus and offers a selection of 4 beers at any given time, all of which are brewed in the very room you drink them in. Seeing the massive mash tuns, coppers, and fermenters that your beer has been brewed in as you drink it adds a fantastic atmospheric quality to the experience, I loved it.
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One bourbon I’d been reading about repeatedly all over the web is the Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel, named after the Master Distiller by the same name who joined the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky in the mid 20th century. Since what I’d been reading was praise on every account, my curiosity was naturally stoked, and I finally caved in and bought a bottle. $28 isn’t cheap, so needless to say my expectations going in were high.
How did my investment pay off? The Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel was a lovely deep reddish amber color in the bottle, consistent with 14 years of aging. It was immediately clear to me when I picked up the bottle that the consistency was smooth and thick.
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If you’re looking for a Christmassy whisky but don’t quite fancy Glenfarclas 15 – which is arguably the most Christmassy dram you will find – I’d recommend you keep reading, because Dailuaine 27 from Master of Malt is a good contender for the honourable title of Christmas Dram of the Year 2011 – which I just made up now, and for which, if I’m honest, there are currently no other runners. Don’t let the admittedly thin starting field fool you, though – Dailuaine 27 would put up one heck of a fight if it had to.
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Johnnie Walker is without doubt one of the most well-known whisky blends in the world, and for good reason; their whiskies never fail to offer not only good value for money, but indeed high quality regardless of price. For those of you who like to read a bit of distillery history with your review, I would recommend that you check out my review of the Johnnie Walker Black Label as I have presented what I could find there.
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