Pints Pub

I’m not sure why I’m so fortunate, nor am I sure how this keeps happening, but I just found myself at yet another great whisky bar, trying to select malts from a listing that ran on for page after page. Here’s the latest adventure.

I was in Denver on business, and after a long day of meetings, a bunch of the lawyers adjourned to an upscale steakhouse for dinner and drinks. During dinner I discovered that one of our hosts, Miss Nancy, was one of Colorado’s foremost food and beverage mavens. She had once hosted a radio talk show about food for over ten years (How much fun was that?). Nancy ordered a wonderful Carneros Pinot Noir (the family’s favorite) to complement our dinners. It was the Renteria label, unfamiliar to me as a winery, but recognizable as Edgar’s surname. (I still can’t figure out why we got rid of Cabrera for Renteria; what was Theo thinking?) Anyway, most everyone had steaks, but I ordered the Osso Bucco, and was not at all disappointed. And for me Osso Bucco over pasta is done so magnificently at Max that I am not easily impressed.

Now Nancy is a perceptive girl, and she noticed that I had enjoyed a malt before dinner; I think it was the Balvenie Doublewood, nothing special, but certainly a nice enough whisky. And at some point in the evening, I disclosed that I was the author of this very blog, which purportedly began as a means of discussing Montaigne, and quickly degenerated into a series of musings about the virtues of good whisky. So after dinner, we drove to downtown Denver, parking where we had a view of the Courthouse in one direction, and the new art museum in the other direction. (That’s to orient all you readers so you can try to find this place next time you’re in Denver.) And there, somewhere between the Courthouse and the museum sits Pints Pub.

This is a British style pub, apparently best known for its hand-crafted British ales, served from the hand pump. But as we had been eating and drinking for a few hours before reaching Pints, I had to choose between the beer and the whisky, and for reasons that will soon become apparent, I selected the latter. The bar is ringed with hundreds of upside down bottles, in the English style. I have seen bars do this with their regular inventory, the Jameson, the Johnny Walker. But I have never before seen anywhere with over 200 malts hanging upside down. If nothing else, I’d be concerned about those little gizmos breaking, and all the precious malt whisky spilling out all over the floor. Pints has a listing of its whisky that runs on for close to twenty pages. And they take the trouble to give one a little description of the particular whiskies which is nice, considering that the inventory includes scores of odd private bottlings, stuff that’s way off the usual beaten path. At the same time, however, the reviews aren’t necessarily one hundred percent accurate. Take for instance the HP 24 I ordered for starters. The menu says, “honey, toffee, cedar, rare.” All true. However, despite 24 years in the cask, this HP lacked the robust flavor that characterizes one of my all-around favorite malts. The whisky was interesting, and modestly priced (perhaps that was a bit of a clue), but on the thin side. And really, who wants subtle when drinking whisky?

I followed up with an unusual bottling of Ardbeg -- Airigh Nam Beist, 1990. I can’t find reference to this whisky in Jackson, but Ardbeg’s website tells us that the name means, Shelter of the Beast. OK. That’s a great name, what’s that metaphor all about? Is Ardbeg the beast? Is the whisky the shelter? What exactly is going on here? Actually, who cares? This was a terrific whisky. Apparently, Ardbeg has a big inventory of its 1990 stock, which it intends to release slowly, in annual increments. This whisky, like Uiguedail, is tough to find, and not inexpensive, but certainly worth the trouble if any of my loyal readers were ever to run across it in their various travels.

I also liked that many of the malts at Pints were modestly priced. (For example, the Ardbeg, which is tough to find, and according to the web, on the pricey side by the bottle, was very reasonable priced at Pints; unfortunately, as it was my last drink of a long evening, I cannot remember what I paid.) To confirm that, check out Pints’ website, and the whisky price list, all of which is available on-line, except for the ‘specials’. There were a few whiskies listed at well over $100 a glass, which I found incongruous in light of Pints’ unassuming interior décor, and evening clientele, most of whom were jean-clad youngsters, out for an evening’s beer. Nancy claims that the place is wall-to-wall judges and lawyers during the day, so maybe folks order these rare and expensive malts after they close big deals, or settle monster plaintiff’s cases. Or maybe the proprietor just shares these rare whiskies with his friends, or his kids; after all, that’s the way I’d do it.

So that was my cultural introduction to Denver. I think the way to do things right would be to go to Pints for a buffalo burger and a couple of the hand-crafted beers; then go watch the Rockies play; and then return to Pints afterward for a couple of their hard to find malts. Is that a good plan or what?