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Giving whisky a go

Single malt or blend, there is plenty of artistry and taste to admire.

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published December 13, 2006

Michael Ring, a former chef, is now a Master of Whisky who tours to promote Diageo brands, including Johnnie Walker, J&B and a dozen single malts, and to recruit new scotch fans. For younger drinkers, he pitches cocktails. Red Label and Red Bull, anyone?
	[Times photo: Lara Cerri]

Who knew that the water of life, melting in the high peaks, tumbling over cold rocks, slipping through highland meadows and moors over the millennia of petrified peat and on to the roughest seas, could taste so good. And so different.

Yet usquebaugh, or as we now say, Scotch whisky, distills all of Scotland, its earth, waters and even the air - the salt spray, fresh heather and crofter's smoke. The interplay of salt, smoke, caramel, vanilla, minerals, fire and ice weave together in whiskies as different as tartans.

There were times when the easy gift for Dad was scotch. That was also a time before liquor went colorless, and mixers went cranberry red and Cloret green.

Liquor was brown, and the classy choice was scotch. Scotch of any kind was more expensive and seemed upper class, and very British, with images of marching pipers, kings and sailing ships.

Then we learned of Johnnie Walker, Black Label, not just Red, and then about single malt whiskies, starting with Glens Livet and Fiddich.

Scotch isn't simple anymore. There are more than 100 single malts distilled in Scotland, and even more blends. Even Johnnie Walker now parades in Green, Gold and Blue.

Bringing scotch back

The glorious diversity of scotch has charmed decades of fanciers, although knowledge and enjoyment in the United States has wavered.

"The art of good scotch and good cognac is vanishing," bartender R.J. Nicholson says wistfully as he polishes glasses in the Lobby Bar at the Don CeSar Beach Resort on St. Pete Beach. He has tended bar for 25 years and is proud that there are 80 fine whiskies on the bar back behind him and in the locked case nearby. Some can cost $45 a drink, more than many bottles at retail.

He's delighted that he has a few older couples he can educate, yet fancies for single malts or clubby cigar drinking have passed.

To bring that back or tempt Americans to reconsider scotch is a crucial task for businesses such as Diageo, which owns Johnnie Walker, J&B and a dozen single malts. It has trained and dispatched more than a dozen young agents, like Michael Ring of St. Petersburg, to recruit new scotch fans.

A chef who worked in high-end Dallas kitchens before he moved to the wine and spirits business, Ring works as what Diageo calls a "Master of Whisky."

That's not as formal as a Master of Wine, but it does require tasting and touring, plus a similar passion for vast differentiation. "At home I have about 150 whiskies," Ring says.

And ultimately whisky is very much like wine, despite the higher proof and lack of vintage: It's cured in oak barrels and has a clear expression of terroir, the land from which it came.

A Scottish tradition

Although much of Scotland is cold and rocky, whiskymaking traditions vary from place to place.

Speyside, where the Spey, the Livet and the Fiddich rivers run through deep valleys that the Scots call glens, is the home of the most polished and balanced whiskies. They capture more heather, honey and peat, as do a few whiskies made in the tamer, agrarian Lowlands.

Distilleries on the rugged islands, steep coasts and other rough corners of Scotland in the northern and western Highlands are exposed to harsher elements. Their whiskies are not delicate but stout-hearted: They display their smoke, seaweed and salty air unmistakably and with pride.

Though single malts have found new fans in recent years, they are a small portion of the country's whisky output. Most are blends, which often use single malts for backbone or spice in mixes of bulk grain whiskies.

Blending whiskies is a grand art too, wrongly ignored by many single malt connoisseurs. Blends, especially the reserves and super premiums, made with rarer, older whiskies, longer aging and special bottlings, are as diverse as single malts and can cost hundreds of dollars.

Taste the difference

The careful whisky lover may examine the differences in any blend or single malt best by drinking it neat in short glasses or snifters. Or in a favorite tasting trick, rub the liquor in your hands and smell it like a perfume.

Yet what about cocktails? To pitch to the younger drinker, Ring touts Red Label and Red Bull, and even mixed Cragganmore single malt with Dr Pepper which might set poet Robert Burns' coffin spinning.

Scotch with Coke does work and plays off the smoke; ginger ale picks up the salt breezes and woody aromas. The natural flavors of orange and pineapple go well with scotch, too.

Scotch and soda? Better make that water, distilled but not mineral water, if you want to really enjoy the whisky.

Add a few drops of water; it takes only a few to quench the fire, smooth the flavors and make the aromas bloom. Then try a single ice cube.

Enjoy slowly, a fine spirit for the ages - and the holidays.

Chris Sherman can be reached at (727) 893-8585 or csherman@sptimes.com

About Scotch

Scotch whisky is either a single-malt or a blend of single malts and other grains.

Blends: Chivas Regal, Dewar's, J&B, Johnnie Walker, Pinch, White Horse.

Wood: Whiskies are often aged in oak barrels used for other products such as bourbon.

Age: Eight, 10 or 25 years aging on a bottle refers to the minimum age of whiskies used in the blend. Some may be older, none younger.

Alcohol: Whisky is distilled and aged at 130 to 140 proof (65 to 70 percent alcohol) and diluted to approximately 80 proof.

Chris Sherman

[Last modified December 12, 2006, 12:11:19]