On adultery, of the smoky variety

November 30, 2015

On adultery, of the smoky variety

When you meet someone who's passionate, the passion is often contagious. Such was the case when we met Jake Cahill, whose passion for life and spirits is obvious to everyone around him. Jake currently works at Natural Wine Company and also moonlights at Van Brunt Stillhouse. He's taking on spirits with an awesome combination of seriousness, hard work, and enjoyment.

The danger with passion is that it often knows no limits. Freud described the Id as "a cauldron of seething excitations." After three years of monogamous devotion to whiskey (aside from the occasional flirtation with rum) Mr. & Mrs. Beast were starting to consider committing some adultery and venturing out into other smoky spirits. That's when we received a copy of this drunken missive addressed from Jake to Mezcal. We had found a kindred spirit.

Dear Mezcal,
The truth is, I've loved you since the moment we met three years ago. I saw you at a party and was immediately intrigued. You were so wild and exotic and smelled like perfection. And that accent of yours! But I was deeply involved with someone else. So I hid my feelings and remained loyal to Whiskey. I won’t lie, Whiskey has been true to me and taught me much about the world. I can’t imagine my life without Whiskey and will continue to be with her, but nonetheless you remained on my mind. The brief time we'd spend together, here or there at an industry event, turned into wonderful forbidden tastes of your fresh outlook on life. Your little spicy secrets hinted at a deep, lush culture to be explored.
Since our affair this summer, these last months have been an absolute joyride. I count the days until I see you again. You transport me to another place. You take me to another time. A simpler time. It's become impossible to deny my feelings for you. I want to know everything about you. I want to see you in all of your forms. Your natural beauty when you first wake up. Your polished subtle sweeter side after taking obnoxiously long to get ready. I want to know all of your secrets. I want to stay at home and keep you all to myself. I want to go out and show you off to the world. I want to smell you as I swing open the door leading to my unfortunately peach-walled apartment. I want to post pictures of us together on the internet and take selfies with you. I want to make us official on Facebook. I want to #netflixandchill with you.
Yes, it's true, I'm still in bed with Whiskey. And, yes, yes, you may still see me out to dinner with wine and rum and beer. If loving too much is my crime I plead guilty! So, although it’s true that I am asking you to be a part of my Utahnian Polygamist relationship with wine and spirits, I can promise you that you will be my main squeeze! For the foreseeable future at least...

Drunkenly but Sincerely, -Jake

Well what could we do after reading this but ask Jake if he would join up with SmokyBeast to be our official Mezcal writer??  Please help us in welcoming Jake as our official ambassador to Mezcal! And without further ado, his first post.

Mezcal 101

All mezcal comes from Mexico. Specifically, most of the mezcal I will be reviewing comes from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, which lies on the Pacific coast about five hundred miles east of Acapulco and six hundred miles northwest of Guatemala City. These Oaxacan mezcal producers use traditional methods that have been in place since the 16th Century.

Maguey

Mezcal is made from the heart (Pina) of a cactus like plant called agave (Maguey), which when unearthed looks like a really big pineapple. Similar to wine grapes there are many different species of maguey and mezcals can be a blend of different agaves. About 85-90% of mezcal on the American market today is made from a variety called Espadin. 

Production

Traditional Palenque - piña roasting pit (image from Rachel Alexander)

Once the maguey is unearthed, the pina is cooked in pits dug into the ground (called palenques). These vary in size but are on average about 10 feet wide and 6-8 feet deep. The pit is lined with stone to retain heat. A wood fire is started in the pit and then everything is covered with pieces of agave plant and dirt. The pinas will cook in these pits for 2-4 days. The process caramelizes the sugars in the piña and imparts its famous smoky flavor. 

Crushing the roasted piña

Roasted pinas are removed and crushed using a stone wheel which turns the pinas into a pulp like consistency. This pulp is put into a fermentation vat with water and left to ferment naturally or using native yeasts. Fermentation can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks and is usually in large wood or clay vats. This mixture (Wash) is then distilled twice on a copper or clay pot/alembic still. 

Mezcal still

Aging

There are three classifications of mezcal according to the length of barrel aging:

• Joven means it sees no time in oak or a max of 2 months.
• Reposado is between 2 months to a year in oak. 
• Anejo means between 1-3 years in oak.

Stay tuned for a whole series of mezcal reviews from Jake coming soon to SmokyBeast!

Lagavulin Jazz Fest 2013!!!

November 21, 2015

Lagavulin Jazz Fest 2013!!!

Continuing our mouth-watering build up to the holidays, today we're featuring one of those bottles that's been sitting in our collection for a long time waiting for a special occasion. As you know, Lagavulin is our first and still favorite distillery. Ever since your faithful narrators, husband and wife, fell in love over a bottle of Lagavulin 16 Year, this wonderful smoky Islay malt has held a special place in our hearts. Our bar is never without one or two bottle of the might Lag open, and whenever someone asks our favorite whiskey, there's little hesitation.  Granted, big smoky malts aren't for everyone, but since you're reading SmokyBeast, well enough said...

We're not alone though, and seeking out hard-to-find Lagavulin is not an easy task.  We did get to taste the Lagavulin 21-Year, which was phenomenal. Lag 25 and 30 Year have so far escaped our grasp, and the astronomical price of last year's 37 year only made us cry ourselves to sleep.  There have been some great Lagavulin Distiller's Editions as well, which are a little more attainable if not quite as special.

Even more difficult to come by are the distillery only releases, which come out once or twice a year to celebrate special occasions. In our book, this is the stuff of dreams: hand-picked casks (usually chosen by Ian McArthur himself), served up at cask strength, uncolored. Basically these are pure and uncut unicorn barrels that have waited their entire whisky lives to be bottled at their prime and only available to the locals. You have to be on Islay, at the distillery, on one given day, and they usually sell out in a matter of hours.  The beauty we're cracking today was released in honor of the 2013 Islay Jazz Fest.

1995/2013 Lagavulin 
"Bottled Especially to Celebrate Islay Jazz Fest 2013"

This is the third Lagavulin Jazz Fest release, coming in at cask strength 51.9%, 103.8 proof. It's from Sherry Butts. It was distilled on the 19th of January, 1995, bottled in 2013, and released in September on Friday the 13th. 1,500 total bottles were available.  It's even dressed up with a special piano-roll tax strip outfit for the occasion. And here we go (cue cork popping sound effect)...

Tasting Notes

Nose: Really huge peat balanced with healthy dollop of sherry. Not quite the sherry bomb that is the 21-year, a little more on the peaty side.  Man does this smell amazing!  "Bread pudding!" shouts Mrs. Beast.  It's there in spades. Big fruity, spicy, citrus, candied lemons, little hints of raisins, cinnamon, key lime pie, all wrapped in smoke.  Layers upon layers of smoke, both peat smoke and maybe hints of pipe tobacco.

Palate: Oh damn, it's a winner!  Lovely oak, white chocolate, peat for miles. Extremely balanced with the smoke completely eating up the alcohol burn (which is 1,000% perfect right here at 103+ proof!). You almost forget about the smoke with all these wonderful mid-palate fruits, candies, and spice coming at you, but then it keeps coming back across the back of the mouth to round out the taste.  Can we drink this every day?  Pretty please?

Finish: It's peaty in a way that's different from other Lagavulins, the peat is very present on the nose but then the palate is so smooth that it hits you almost as an afterthought in the finish, but man does it come back and hit you!  There's a ton of sweet here, chocolate and citrus and ripe cantaloupe, some beautiful saddle leather & tobacco, big red grapes, and then miles more peat.  What an amazing dram.

Review

Since we had both sitting around, we poured this next to one of absolute all time favorites, the 1980/2005 Talisker 25-Year. They're both absolutely magical bottles, but we have to say that the Lagavulin is in another world. The Talisker is lovely, overflowing with salty sea air, certainly more refined and arguably more balanced. But as smoke lovers, the Lag has a taste that's in a completely different league. We almost hate to compare the two since they're apples and oranges for sure, but since we love both so much, we couldn't resist.  They're both "A" whiskies, but the Lag is an "A+". If you're lucky enough to sample this mighty dram, take it slow and enjoy the ride.

Cheers/SB

Smooth Ambler Limited Edition Single Barrel 10 Year Rye!!!

November 13, 2015

Smooth Ambler Limited Edition Single Barrel 10 Year Rye!!!

Ok, spoiler alert, this is the start of several seriously drool-worthy weeks of whiskey reviews.  Come on, we're getting into holiday season here, what else would you expect from your faithful beasts??  Getting right into the fun, we want to start things off with something that we're totally out of our seat bonkers to taste.

So if you've been following along, you'll know that we bought a barrel of rye from Smooth Ambler this year.  And it was awesome.  Seriously not to toot our own horn (trigger massive hip-hop DJ-style air horn) since we had nothing to do with the whiskey except tasting and buying it, but it really rocked.  We were thrilled.

Then there was some bad news.  Smooth Ambler was discontinuing the single barrel rye program (bourbons are still on the truck) and from now on single barrel ryes would only be available as very limited releases from the gift shop at the distillery.  The first bottle dropped last month and was sold out in a matter of hours.  Really sad news, considering how awesome some of these rye barrels tasted.

Then we got a call from one of SmokyBeast's most incredible patron saints (we'll leave his name out to prevent the maelstrom of texts and Facebook messages he would no doubt receive asking for similar treatment).  He had a friend who'd been in line at Smooth Ambler and had scored us a bottle!  To quote Bruno Mars "Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)! Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)!!!"

So without further ado, the first release of Smooth Ambler Limited Edition 10-Year Single Barrel Rye!

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Holy piny mint forest. This is a really interesting crisp spicy mint.  It's not a rich, back of the throat vanilla / baking spice smell, it's more of an upfront snappy wood, mint, and orange peels type of thing.

Palate: Wow very balanced, so light for the monster 124.4 proof, with some real complexity here that you don't often get from an MGP(i) whiskey.  There's a ton more orange / citrus going on, moving from the mint in the nose to some black pepper and cinnamon.

Review

Clearly a barrel pick from someone (John Little) who's tasted his share of barrels.  Make that his share, your share, my share, and then some.  It's a really nice bottle with a great mix of lightness, spice, mint, wood, and sweets.  Bravo for the first gift shop bottle.  Hoping to get our chance to taste future releases!

Stay tuned next week for a serious hum-dinger in the single malt department (think Islay, think our favorite living distillery, think extremely limited release, think gettin' funky!).

Cheers/SB

Threats, Blackmail, and Rhum Agricole

November 6, 2015

Threats, Blackmail, and Rhum Agricole

"We're going to throw out all your candy."

It was our hail Mary pass, our last ditch effort, our final desperate attempt to get our four year old to take off her Halloween costume, put on pajamas, brush her teeth and go to bed.  It's so easy to hate those parents that are always hurling around threats and punishments.  But sometimes you've tried ebullient and happy, you've tried quiet and sincere, you've tried seeking loyalty, empathy, concern, pity, but nothing's worked. Short of screaming at them or breaking your vow never to administer an old fashioned spanking, blackmail is your only option.

It's the inhumanity of it that gets you. She waited weeks to put on that ridiculously cute Minion costume, practicing her best impression of Pixar's unintelligible, slightly psychopathic, but oh-so-adorable yellow creatures. She walked from door to door trick-or-treating for hours, collecting the greatest treasure she'd ever seen: a huge plastic bucket full of mini candy bars, lollipops, and Pixie Sticks. And there we are, standing on the foot switch that opens the kitchen garbage can, poised with her treasured candy bucket ready to do the unthinkable. Her eyebrows go up, top lip goes down, and a single tear trickles from the corner of her eye.  Stay strong...  There's a silent standoff that lasts a full minute.  And then the clouds part, the angels blow their trumpets, heaven opens its gates, and she puts on the fucking pajamas and goes to sleep.  Hallelujah.

"To the BeastCave!"

B-line to the liquor cabinet. We want something special, something different. We're not in the mood for our typical smoky Islay scotch. Not really feeling like a bourbon or a rye either.  Then, browsing the collection, we remember that our friend Jim at Xavier recommended we try some Rhum Agricole.  "The Cognac of rum" he'd said.  Perfect, let's give it a go.

Rhum Clément 10-Year and 125th Anniversary

Rhum Agricole

Rhum Agricole is a very special animal.  It comes from the french Caribbean colonies, Clement is from Martinique. We've had some great rums before. We've come to expect sweet slightly syrupy and very rich treats.  Some of our favorites have been Costa Rica's Centenario, Cuba's Havana Club, and Venezuela's Pompero Anniersario.  They all very affordable, and delicious dessert or summer sipping drinks.

Pampero Aniversario Venezuelan Rum

Ron Centenario - Costa Rica

But all of these rums that we've had previously are made from molasses. The interesting thing about rhum agricole is that it's made from fresh sugar cane juice. This is a production technique that more closely mirrors brandy and results in a purer, less sweet, and more refined end product. It's aged in oak barrels, and the selections we're tasting are 7 and 10 years old.

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Striking nose with lots of dry wood, sweet but not syrupy, like a dry stalk of sugarcane. Then there are waves of complexity starting with some serious spiciness - cardamon, paprika, pink peppercorns, you could almost be fooled into thinking this was an American rye. Then we get into some vegetal stuff like okra or eggplant. It closes off again with more wood.  Like freshly cut sawdust, very dry cracking wood and heat.  It's a really deep nose that's full of surprises.

Palate: This is quite unlike any other rum in recent memory. Most sipping rums are sweet and lush, perfect for dessert, sipping alongside chocolate and berries.  This is much more like a cognac with subtle dry barrel aged tastes going on. The sugar is there but much more refined and it's all wrapped up in the oak, spice, and grassy / vegetal goodness.

Finish:  Well, it has one!  Which is sort of unusual for a rum. Usually it's a bit of sweetness left on the tongue, but this has a full-bodied woody and crisp finish. Granted it's not nearly as long as a peaty scotch, but it definitely gives you a lasting memorable finish.

7-Year: We're not doing separate tasting notes on the 7-year since it's really more of the same, if perhaps a bit less smooth. Maybe we're just not sufficient rhum agricole buffs in order to pick out the intricacies of the two. What is really cool about this bottle is that they released a limited edition bottle to honor the 125th anniversary of the distillery.  Check it out!

We're not usually suckers for wacky bottle design, but you have to give them this one, it's super cool.

Review

This is really interesting stuff.  At around $70-$80, the ten year is not cheap, but it's definitely worth checking out.  If you're only going to stock a small home bar, this is certainly not a staple, but if you are reaching out a little further, this is a very interesting sipper to keep around and will certainly surprise (and maybe delight) your guests.  We'd recommend stopping in at Xavier if you're in NYC (full disclosure Jim's daughter and ours are best friends!) or seeing if you can find it online. It's somewhere between cognac, rye whiskey, and rum, you can really tell the quality that's gone into it, and when you want a change of pace from scotch or bourbon, it can be just the ticket!

Cheers/SB


AAAAAAAND now....   Hotline Bling Cat.  'Cause you know you need some HBC!