On the Road

Last weekend, traveling through New England, I had a chance to sample a few new malts – not brand new out of the cask, but new in the sense that I’d never tasted them before. First, on Sunday with John, I went to Rendezvous in Central Square, which has an unusual list of malts – pretty much everything off the beaten path. In fact, their entire selection consists of independent bottlings, so even if the malt isn’t totally new, the particular selection is, and the novelty of the drink makes the experience that much more interesting. We led off with a glass of Ledaig, from the Isle of Mull. According to Jackson, this malt actually comes from the Tobermory distillery. Ledaig apparently was once the name of the village where the distillery is found. Ledaig is their peated malt, and the peat flavoring is apparent, but I found the taste more peppery than peated, shades of Talisker, although less flavorful. Nothing special really, but sufficiently distinctive that I’ll be able to remember it, if I can ever find it again.

After dinner we had Bunnahabhain 12 (again a private bottling), which was my favorite of the entire trip. This is the one Islay malt I had not previously tasted, and I found it most enjoyable. It was lightly peated, more so that Bruichladdich, but not nearly as strong as, for instance, Caol Ila or Lagavulin. And it had none of that briny Bowmore flavor which, although apparently loved by some, is the one scotch characteristic I do not care for. However, Bunnahabhain had a distinctive and unusual flavor that developed slowly on the palate, not as the malt sat on your tongue, but later, in the aftertaste, once it had been swallowed. I could not put my finger on this particular flavor, but it was like some spice in a sauce that one could detect but not identify.

Monday night I found myself in Portland Maine, and after dinner at Street & Co. (more on that in a moment), where I had a Macallan 12 with the meal, I ended up at an Irish pub on Fore Street, name of Bull Feeney’s. I was drinking with Sid Malone from Bangor, who, despite his heritage, had never before tasted Red Breast. After that introduction, we tried a 16 year old McClelland, which I cannot locate anywhere in Jackson. According to maltwhisky.com, McClelland is not a distillery, but instead is a trade name used by the folks who own Bowmore. So sometimes it’s Bowmore (this was not), or Glen Garioch (maybe), or even Auchentoshan (I don’t think so, more body than that lowland malt). In any event, it was unremarkable. And my conclusion, having tasted all these different malts, of which Bunnahabhain was really the only one I’d care to drink again, is that we’ve pretty much exhausted the remarkable labels. In other words, after the likes of Highland Park, and Talisker, and Macallan, and Lagavulin, and Bruichladdich, is there some malt waiting to be tasted that will measure up to these whiskies? I don’t think so. Perhaps some new bottling will make an appearance – for example, I noticed the other day that Aberlour is marketing a 12 that was aged in sherry. I like Aberlour, and think it’s underrated. And I look forward to giving this bottling a try. But I’m just not expecting any more to find some totally new malt – something I haven’t tried before- that will knock my socks off.

Back to Portland. G-Man wanted me to eat at Fore Street, which has an interesting sounding menu, featuring whatever is fresh at the market. Sounded great, but the guy I was with insisted that I try Street & Co., for Maine seafood. And I have to say that I had no complaints with his recommendation. Had a fabulous Portuguese style stew, with clams, mussels, monkfish and chorizo sausage. Washed down of course with Macallan. Fore Street on the next visit. And for good measure, I should also mention that Portland’s Shipyard brewery is most impressive. Sampled a couple of the local brews while sitting at the airport, waiting for my return flight. Really, that’s what I should do – just travel across the country looking for restaurants with great bars, drinking the local beers, and writing about it here on mannymontaigne. Would that be a great job or what?