Keen's - Round Three - The Knockout

It was late in the evening. The food, the good fellowship, and the many malts we had shared for the past few hours had so dispersed the hate, that there could be no more arguing with Rico. To paraphrase Joe Garigiola, the love was off the Richter Scale. And what better way to enjoy a few more minutes of that good feeling than with the After Dinner Flight. We've all had Keen's After Dinner Flight before; but this group of whiskies is so outstanding, and Keen's prices this flight so accessibly, that it's almost sinful to visit there without partaking of these whiskies to end the evening.

We added one wrinkle, however, because we were uncertain about which Edradour Ballechin appeared on the flight, and even uncertain as to the precise difference between the two malts. So we asked our server to add a fifth glass to the flight, so we could taste the two Edradours side by side. Keen's not only obliged, but when the flight was served, the bar manager came by and spent a few moments with us, to explain the difference, to answer our questions, and really to let us know that he appreciated our extensive sampling of Keen's fine whisky.

Anyway the flight opens with Macallan Cask, which is a big flavored malt, and one of the best values in the Macallan line. But on this night, after the remarkable malts we had already tasted, and next to the other members of the After Dinner Flight, I'm sorry to inform the folks at Macallan, whose whiskies I love, notwithstanding the fact that many of their prices have passed through the stratosphere, and into freakin outer space, that this dram was really the weak sister of the flight. Let's not dwell on that fact.

Instead, let's start with the Laddie. Last time I had the After Dinner Flight, it included Bruichladdich 20, but Keen's has scaled back to the 17, which is understandable, as Bruichladdich is racing along with Macallan to price their whiskies for millionaires. That's too bad really, because Laddie has always been a favorite. And on this night, among all those other fabulous malts, Danny proclaimed the 17 his favorite of the night. "It's the best of the bunch. It has a full, rich flavor; its loaded with fats and oils; but the peat does not take over." I can't quarrel with any part of that review. Bruichladdich is a great label; the 17 is fabulous; and on any other night, it would be the perfect whisky with which to end an evening. But not on this night. And as good as the 17 was, it wasn't my favorite.

So next we had the Talisker 25. Here's the review: "Oh my God!" This Talisker has a forever taste - a finish that never never quits. You could take a sip of Talisker; walk a couple blocks over to Madison Square Garden; watch the Celtics beat the Knicks; and just so long as you didn't have a hot dog, return to Keen's after the game with the taste of the Talisker still in your mouth. And did I mention that it's smooth? So smooth going down, so luxurious in the mouth, that if the Puritans ever tasted this malt, they'd make it illegal. It's that good.

But it still wasn't the favorite of the night - at least not for me. For me the most fun of the night was drinking the two Ballechins side by side. And just for the record here, even though we've already posted about this whisky - Edradour makes a highly peated Highland malt, which it then ages in wine casks. We had No. 1, aged in Burgundy, and No. 2, aged in Madeira. The number one starts out with peat - actually with peat, peat and more peat. I'm talking smoky peaty whisky here, the equal of anything from the islands, minus the brine. But then, after all that peat, the Burgundy finish took over, softening and sweetening the dram. The number two, however, worked backwards. First, we tasted the Madeira finish, a sweet sugar cane character to the whisky that stayed sweet in the mouth, as the peat began to come out. Now how does that happen? How is it that one of these malts starts smoky and ends sweet, and the other one works exactly backwards? It's a mystery. But regardless of how that mysterious phenomenon occurred, my impression remained that the Ballechin No. 2 was as good as anything we tasted that night. I just loved the complex flavors that evolved on my palate as I savored this unique malt. Maybe I'm making too much of a big deal about this, and maybe by the time I tasted the Ballechins, my judgment had been impaired by the dozen or so malts we had already drunk. Who knows? And really, who cares?

All I want to know is this - when do we get to go back for more?