I am a man on a mission. Lately, all the scotch and other whiskies of the world I have been reviewing have been quite unexceptional, middle-of-the-road, take-no-chances, snore fest, white Oxford button-down shirt kinda stuff.
I need some tire screeching, Ferrari engine red-lining, acid flashback memories of a shouting match with an ex-girlfriend in a French, white table cloth, restaurant in front of all those nice diners in their hushed conversations, Brooks Brothers navy blazers and Prada dresses, while I wear a fine barolo tossed in my face by some screaming harpie that I thought was normal and turned out to be about as well adjusted as Sybil! (all the while I am thinking we're gonna make up and in her fury she is nevertheless beautiful!) Yeah, gimme some of that excitement and tension! What scotch can deliver that kind of roller coaster ride of the palate? I need some plaid jacket style whisky with a wild paisley lining!
I know what you are thinking. Highland Park 12, 18, Macallan 18, Hibiki 17 and a few others deliver that excitement. Yes, I agree! Wholeheartedly, but I want a new discovery. Those aforementioned nobility of the spirits world are obvious. I need to find a single malt or other world whisky that is not so obvious. Kinda like my discovery of Jim Beam Black. I still marvel at how damn good that bourbon is even though it costs $19 a bottle!
I am not looking for a bargain. I figure that one day I will be dead a long time, so damn the cost! I am desperate for an explosion of flavour that leaves me speechless, stuttering and totally stunned. So, to that end I will attend this year's New Brunswick Spirits Festival held in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. There will be a 'master class' where they pour twelve of the most expensive whiskies featured at the festival. By the way, I am not affiliated with the festival in anyway. I just find this festival and others as a good starting point in this most difficult of quests that I now undertake. The festival main event takes place on Friday, November 18th, and between now and then I will continue to review whiskies, as I search for the truly good amongst the bad and the ugly.
Cheers!
Jason Debly
Copyright © Jason Debly, 2009-2011. All rights reserved. Any and all use is prohibited without permission except for images above taken from the film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" as they belong to Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. I do not own any rights to this film which is posted for the purposes of nostalgia and entertainment.
