Text 5385, 137 rader
Skriven 2008-04-13 06:30:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: tastings 142
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Went to a Dewar's tasting at Vinalia, a chic-ish restaurant
in Boston, with my friend Joel.

The evening started off not too well, with the wrong address
listed on the printed confirmation of our reservation, so we
wandered up and down Arch St. looking for the place. Called
the number on the confirmation, and it was wrong. As a last
resort, I found a copy of one of the weekly entertainment
magazines, which listed another phone number, which finally
yielded someone who knew what was up: the restaurant was
actually on Summer St., a block away, and the phone number
on the confirmation was that of the company that did the
bookings for the event. Nonetheless, we showed up within a
few minutes of the scheduled start (7 pm) only to find that
the tasting room hadn't been set up yet! We waited a good
half hour at the bar before we were led into a pleasant but
very dimly lit function room that had two tables, one for
those who were participating just in the tasting and one
for those who had paid the gigantic premium for a dinner
that supposedly went well with Scotch. We were at the latter
table, which ended up having only 6 people. We were the two
oldest attendees by a decade or so - it was definitely an
urban yuppie (whatever became of that term) sort of event.

The tasting was led by Karen Fullerton, marketing rep for
Dewar's, who had formerly worked for one of the Glens, I
forget which. She seemed to know her stuff and wasn't too
hard on the eyes.

Aberfeldy 12
color - full, golden yellow
nose - almost incense-like, heather honey with a fruity
 softness, notes of pineapple, toast and cereal
palate - syrupy, lingering on the tongue like a liqueur
body - full bodied
finish - full flavour, the perfume characteristics becomes
 more spicy, with a bitter hint of Seville oranges in a
 decidedly dry finish

My note: almond on nose, honey, cherries, wax on palate;
good legs, nice finish. Liked. Benefited from a glugg of
water.

Aberfeldy 21
color - deep gold with yellow highlights
nose - a pleasing aroma of heathery honey
palate - full flavoured with touches of Seville oranges
 lingering on the tongue like a good liqueur
body - full bodied
finish - long, spicy with a decidedly dry finish

My note: caramel, bit harsh, smoky, vanilla, a bit green
and woody on the palate, sheets rather than legs, creme
brulee finish. Liked in a different way. Benefited from a
few drops of water.

Dewar's White Label
color - golden, light
nose - sweet, heathery, slightly smoky
palate - sweet, malty and faintly spicy
body - medium to full
finish - clean, dry

My note: A little harsh but quite sweet, chocolate, rather
neutral and almondy on the palate (lots of water helped
balance the harshness out).

Dewar's 12
color - rich, warm, amber color
nose - sweet, hint of heathery, floral notes
palate - balanced and well-rounded flavour
body - rounded, medium-full bodied
finish - long, clean and pleasant

My note: creamier, a bit mustier than the White; almonds
less prominent. Much better I thought. Flowers, nice legs,
some tannin. Few drops water brought out a bit of honey.
Liked a lot.

Dewar's Signature
color - deep golden amber
nose - sweet and balanced with rich, fruity mellow tones
 of sultanas, raisins, apples and honey with vanilla and
 toffee overtones
palate - sweet and smooth with a full bodied creamy texture
 and mouth warming effect
finish - long and pleasant with a slightly dry finish

My note: quite nondescript! very smooth, honey, raisins,
caramel. Sweeter nose than palate, thank goodness. Water
diluted the flavors excessively.

Samples of single malts passed around for background:
Cragganmore 10 - kind of aggressive and wimpy at the same time
Macallan 12 - smooth, suave, rather sweet, not good to
drink in the company of more assertive whiskies, but as we
all know quite lovely in its own context
Ardbeg 10 - way smoky, palate numbing; interesting;
and a very iodiney one, probably Laphroaig.

Dinner was underwhelming - a set menu of salad and steak,
though I arranged for Joel to get a vegetarian meal, as he
doesn't eat meat unless it's certified Kosher. The salad was
your mesclun stuff, not bad, somewhat overdressed with a
rather too sour vinaigrette with stuff in it, and sided by
goat-cheese-topped toasts, which Joel pronounced excellent.
When my steak came, it was cooked medium-rare, perfectly,
a lovely piece of meat, but not at all what I had ordered.
Huge baked potato and some steamed squashy medley on the
side. The server assigned to this event put down the six
steaks and then ran off, so by the time I figured out that
the meat was cooked twice as long as I'd wanted, I had to
leave the tasting to find her. Failure, but I did get another
server to come and take away my plate (by this time I'd eaten
the potato and whatever I could salvage from the veggies -
some onions and carrots as I recall. Meanwhile, Joel's
vegetarian main course - some timbale thing wrapped in red
bell pepper slices - was pronounced excellent.

Why does it take so long to redo a steak? All I need is a
piece of meat tossed on the fire for a minute or two a side.
My order took another 20 or 25 to come out, and it was
definitely a revenge steak - a big piece of somewhat less
attractive meat, hardly any discernible browning on the
outside, the fat raw and inedible on the edges. Cold and
raw in the middle. I don't mind steaks done this way (beef
sashimi or tartare is quite fine with me), so whatever
unpleasantness the kitchen had hoped to cause me didn't
happen. It wasn't the greatest beef, though, the texture
sort of mushy and the flavor sort of fugitive; it was in
fact the twin of a piece of meat I got a couple weeks later
at the mediocre Texas Land & Cattle Co. in Arkansas under
the same circumstances. Made me wonder if one orders
troublemaker steaks separately from the wholesaler.
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