Rosebank Revisited, Yet Again

The boys were home for Thanksgiving, and what with eating twenty-four seven, and traveling into the Cuse to see the Orange come from behind and beat Virginia, thus earning entry into the national rankings, and dining at the Chophouse, and feasting at Danny’s, where we drank slivovitz from Oregon (Can it really be slivovitz if it doesn’t taste like gasoline?), there was no time to post.

Looking back on the last couple weeks, it’s hard to know exactly where to start. How about that contract the Sox gave Pedroia to lock him up for next six years? Or what about our newest phenom from the land of the rising sun, Tazawa? Well, we have at least three months until spring training starts – plenty of time to catch up on the Sox. So if we’re not talking baseball, let’s take a few minutes to talk whisky.

When John arrived home the night before Thanksgiving, we opened one of the Rosebanks we picked up at Federal last summer. This was a 14 year old, distilled in 1990, and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail as Connoisseurs Choice. Forty percent. A nice representative Rosebank. Beautiful floral nose; soft but flavorful, with just a hint of spice, like there was just one peppercorn in the bottom of the glass, giving the malt a tiny bit of a bite. All these Rosebanks are the same, even if they’re a tiny bit different. It’s hard to believe that this distillery was closed, such a shame that it couldn’t have hung on for another few years, until the single malt craze kicked in. John says we shouldn’t hoard Rosebank, or any of the other disappearing malts for that matter. And so, tonight, even though the boys are not at home, and even though we typically save Rosebank for momentous occasions, like the Celtics’ demolition of the Lakers in Game Six last June, I poured myself a dram, solely to be able to describe this whisky for posterity, here on MannyMontaigne. We’ve got one more Rosebank down in the basement, and we’ll have to think hard about when it might be appropriate to crack that one.

Last night Danny and I, along with a few other whisky lovers, went to a Wild Turkey tasting, at which their master distiller, Jimmy Russell, spoke. Danny and I aren’t really bourbon lovers, but we had to admit that we drank some pretty good bourbon, along with a glass of Wild Turkey Rye. One interesting thing about the bourbon –the prices topped out at the level where the scotch prices start. So for thirty dollars, or even less, you can get a pretty darn good bottle of Kentucky Bourbon, and support the domestic economy while you’re at it. One funny thing about the tasting that we could not figure out. We had six glasses in front of us, and five guys at our table, and when the evening was done, I think there were two glasses that had anything left, about a tablespoon of liquid altogether. But up front, there were two tables where all the glasses looked full at the end of the evening. What the hell were those guys doing all night?

Finally, G-Man wrote to say that he found some kind of a single malt gold mine in Jersey. I won’t steal his thunder too much, but I’d like him to supply the various details in a comment. The only unfortunate thing is that G found this store after I just went to Jersey. I mean, Ballechin? Rosebank? Are you kidding me? Anyway, now that I’m not partying with the boys every night, I’ll try to keep things more up to date.