Wild Whiskey Wednesdays #1

(Yes, my whiskey bottle FLOATS IN MID-AIR! The experiments with PhotoBooth continue!)

Kids, I promised you something new and exciting and here it is: Wild Whiskey Wednesdays. I don't know why I picked Wednesday- except maybe the alliterative aspect of the title, but I can tell you about whiskey. In my case, it ain't nothin' but a family thing. My Dad likes a good Single Malt, his Dad (my Grandad) liked a good single malt and there's enough Scottish blood floating around in my gene pool to make me as comfortable with whiskey as a duck is on water.

The first bottle of booze I ever purchased was a bottle of whiskey- a McCallan of some kind which was probably single malt and which I probably committed all kinds of crimes against by dumping Drambuie in it to make a Rusty Nail. I had a brief, strange love affair with Cutty Sark and Whiskey Sour Mix when I was an undergrad in college that flowered briefly and died- probably after overindulging one particular night in the Apartment with The Quiet Man and Mervgotti. (That happened a lot that year actually. One memorable night I got absolutely blasted and managed to down an entire sixer of Rolling Rock. And that shit, kids, did not taste good coming back up.)

I drifted away from whiskey for a bit, but came back to it in grad school- (don't we all) and actually wanted to learn something and appreciate what I was drinking. Several (whiskey can be an expensive vice to have) bottles later I've come to enjoy it greatly and just want to share some thoughts on my delicious vice. So without further ado, I give you April's offering:

The Glenmorangie Lasanta
Single Malt
Non-Chill Filtered (what the hell does this mean? Well chill filtering is used to remove excess residue from the whiskey mainly in the form of fatty acids, proteins and esters- proponents of the practice say that it improves consistency and flavor of the whiskey- opponents, the Sixteen Men of Tain amongst them say that it diminishes flavor.)
Extra Matured- In this case, the initial maturation was in bourbon casks and then a second round happened in Oloroso Sherry Casks- to 'create the rich, nutty flavor of the Lasanta. Why does maturation matter? Really and truly- flavor. If you get a whiskey that matured in port casks, it will have absorbed the sweetness of the port and so on and so forth.

Nose: well, kids I need a better nose. All I smell is a burning sensation in my nostrils. This shit is strong.
Brown sugar, vanilla, emerges on further sniffs. There's not a lot of fruit that I can smell, but I do agree that there's a certain dark nuttiness to it. I wanted to say almonds, but think, for some reason I'm going to have to go with walnuts.

Color: Honey (not really light enough to be what I would call gold, but not dark enough to be amber either.)

Taste: The initial taste sits very nicely on the tongue- it's smooth and goes down nicely- the afterburn follows in its wake.

AfterBurn: I think the best part of the Lasanta is the afterburn. A lot of Highland Single Malts have peat included in the water that's used in the distillation process, so their afterburns are pure smoke, sometimes. That can be delicious in the right circumstances- but the Lasanta is really perfect for a cold night- like this one. It hits the back of the throat and then works its way down, the warmth just spreading throughout what I believe the Scottish call 'the cockles of your heart.' Give this lovely thing credit: it does warm you right up.

Overall: B+ this is a very good Single Malt- but although it doesn't burn like a Highland Malt, it sits on your tongue smoothly and goes down in a rush of heat- perhaps a little too much heat for my liking. Therein lies the inherent contradiction of the Lasanta: I love the afterburn, yet I dislike it as well.