Life changes, the blog continues. Unasked questions answered.

I used to fill my posts with personal news and photos. This practice decreased gradually as each of my children arrived, as I realized that most of my readers were people I don't know. While I'm sure that the vast majority of my readers are awesome folks, you know as well as I do that there are a lot of very strange individuals on the Internet. And they all drink whisky.

I'm kidding. Some drink brandy.

But I'm going to get into a little bit of personal stuff now because it affects the way I experience whisky and this blog.

The past four years have been very full. Mathilda arrived in 2014. I traveled alone to Japan in 2015. My wife and I traveled to Scotland in 2016. We sold our house and moved across the USA in 2016. I traveled alone to Japan, again, in 2017. Beatrice arrived in 2017.

2018 has been the year of sickness. Some ailments have been quickly curable, some have not. This has resulted in an abrupt dietary change in our home, as well as a significant decrease in the consumption of alcoholic products.

These changes have been shifting the way I experience drinking and buying whisky. Four years ago it was probably already clear that I was no longer interested in The Chase for the newest whisky thingamabob. That philosophy has only deepened since then. Some of you are more informed of the whisky scene than I am, but I promise I always do my best to make sure my whisky scribblings are informed.

Meanwhile, with two beautiful children and the most stressful desk job I've ever had, I've been rethinking about how I want to spend my recreational time and money. I no longer have two consecutive hours to myself, so the film world has passed me by. Reading puts me to sleep almost instantly thanks to constant eye strain. And every time I fall down an internet rabbit hole, I get angry that I let myself die for an hour like that.

My free time is better spent with something more interactive, more compelling. That's why this blog is so important to me. I hope to do more in-depth studies of brands or distilleries in 2019 to keep things interesting for you and me. I've already made some recent changes to add variety to the Diving for Pearls experience. I brought in two guest reviewers for brandy and rum. And I started the Killing Whisky History monthly video series.

Killing Whisky History also emerged because it was time to start opening up my older stuff. Those bottles do no good collecting additional dust. I'm also having a Kill Bottle event for my birthday because all my open whiskies need to be shared and emptied. Those half-finished bottles are doing no one any favors, either. It's time for a refresh.

Where does that leave that whole casual drinking thing? Well, I do much less of it than I used to. When I do drink casually, I want to it be casual. And I don't see the logic of spending $100 for a casual sipper, let alone $200. When I do shop, I'm looking for a bottle that's under $70. Six years ago, my casual bottles were $40 or less. Add that in as one more reason why I've made only four whisky purchases this year. The inhuman emotionless force of the market has failed to change. But I have. At some point along this timeline I'll leave the market to its fate, as I abandon whisky purchases altogether, and just open the bottles I already have.

But samples, though...

Birthday Booze will continue next week

From last night:

For my #birthday I had 11yo CS Foursquare rum, 1978 Armagnac and Nikka from the Barrel. Nikka blew them both away. #HotTake

— Michael Kravitz (@kravitz_hubris) August 25, 2017

This enlightening tasting experience has me thinking about a lot of things. That trio requires further study. To be continued next week...

This February: Taliskravaganza 2017 and the return of BARD Friday!

Taliskravaganza 2014 was a delight to write, so I've been threatening to do a sequel ever since. And like any proper sequel, Taliskravaganza 2017 is going to be bigger and louder and more bloated than the original. It's going on ALL MONTH LONG. That's right. You're just lucky February is the shortest month of the year.

"Will there be relevant Talisker reviews?" you ask. "Ha!" I reply.

If you could not care less about Taliskravaganza (for shame), be comforted knowing that Bourbon and Rye Day Friday returns for perpetuity (or until I run out of samples) starting this coming......Friday. There will be old stuff, new stuff. Red stuff, blue stuff. Odds and ends. Dusties and musties.

Technically tomorrow isn't February, so I'll begin the week with a review of a current(!) whisky. And not from a sample, but from my own bottle. Amazing!

Diving for Pearls in 2017

Hi. I am the creator.

Of Diving for Pearls. I write the posts and attempt to keep The Big Whisk(e)y list up to date. Sometimes I add things to the right side of the page. Sadly, if you're reading this on a mobile device, you can't see the right side of the page, which is a shame because it's amazing.

I live in Ohio. I used to live in Los Angeles County. My wife supports this blog and represents 25% of my readership. My daughter just graduated into pull-up diapers and threenager-dom. I'm doing some freelance work that's keeping me very busy right now, but will likely dry up just when it's getting good. Is this the face of an optimist?

This Blog

When I started this blog in 2007, I wrote about film, music and my personal life. In 2011, I went from being a whisky enthusiast to a full-on fanatic. Gradually, whisky-themed posts took over the entire blog. By 2013, my natural cynical tendency, which had slipped into the occasional post, had spread like a little drop of ink in a glass of water until it tinted every whisky thing I wrote.

In January 2015, I posted a three-part series entitled What Was the Scotch Boom, using public data supplied by the Scotch Whisky Association to illustrate the industry's financial reality and expose some of the myths in their narratives. Those posts garnered more reads in five days than I usually get in two months. In January 2016, I wrote a three-part follow-up called Scotch Ain't Dead Yet, updating the previous year's stats and charts, and re-examining the narratives. Again, readers seem to have enjoyed it.

My plan was to continue these studies, but the Scotch Whisky Association still hasn't released the data for 2015. If they do, then I will happily write another set of posts studying scotch whisky sales, volumes and prices. If they don't, well, I'll figure out something.

2017

So what about now? I spend an increasing percentage of my casual (read: note-free) alcoholic beverage indulgence sipping on drinks other than whisky. Taking beer and wine into consideration, non-whisk(e)y things make up almost half of my alcoholic drinks.

You will have noticed that an increasing contingent of excellent whisky bloggers have begun to mix in reviews of other aged spirits with their whisky posts. That's awesome, and I hope more whisky bloggers follow in their footsteps. As of this moment, I will not be joining them. I'm not prepared to pontificate on things I don't thoroughly know about. Yes, that puts me at odds with the raison d'être of the Internet.

But I'm having fun learning about non-whisky drinks and enjoying not having to consider their purpose in the cosmos. I also feel like I have a different palate than other whisky-bloggers-who-write-about-brandies-and-rums when it comes to other drinks. And I'm figuring out where to go with that.

My apologies for bombarding this site with Ardbeg reviews for the past two weeks. I had cleared my calendar space to write about the industry's financial condition. When the numbers didn't come out, I found inspiration in the Ardbeg Ten I'd just bought on sale. It was not particularly great whisky and my accumulation of Ardbeg samples had begun to get out of control. Thus all those reviews.

Bourbon and Rye Day Friday will start up again in a couple weeks. If I do choose to review non-whisky drinks, they will get their own day of the week as well so that you, the reader, will know which day to skip. I hope to do larger thinkpieces once a month (or two) about capital 'W' Whisky and small 'e' enthusiasts. And I look forward to visiting a number of American distilleries and then sharing with you what I've learned.

Not Booze

I have started and abandoned dozens of album reviews as if they were novels. Not so much with film reviews. In fact, I don't know how parents of young children get to watch any films at all. I don't watch television, and I think American politics is doing well enough publicly commenting on itself without the need for me to add to it.

My daughter and my work are the center of my life. The latter I complete anonymously, so I can't really get into it here, yet. I've chosen to tone down the frequency of posts about the former, for privacy purposes. When I do write about parenthood, it's a spur of the moment illustration of my failures (manifold!) and my successes (exiguous!). I've also reduced the amount of photos I've shared because she is her own person now (is she ever) and I'd like to protect her right to privacy. Parents who pummel social media with photos of their kids every day give me a weird feeling inside. I ponder the real purpose behind those posts, and I wonder who looks at those pictures outside of the intended audience.

Today, I'll just include this image of Emily Prime,
the star of The World of Tomorrow

Still, I will celebrate my daughter here on her birthday. And I should probably laud my young wife on hers. And goodness knows, this blog is a party on my birthday week.

To conclude

I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2017. If you're an American, please be careful about the quantity of alcohol you consume over the next four years. If you're from China, welcome! Drink single grain whisky! It's so much better than single malt whisky! If you're from another excellent country, thank you for reading my blog posts. How easy is it for a family of three to get citizenship?

As the kids in China say, 886.

Taste Off Reboot! Chivas Regal 12 year old (2015) versus Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 year old (2015)

As you read this right now, I am driving across the country, going as far as I can from my old home in Long Beach.  The destination is a one month respite in Upstate New York, with a 9 day Scottish excursion hidden within that month, and then an arrival in my new home of Columbus, Ohio.  And so, in honor of Los Angeles County and the film industry which I have left behind, I am doing something that I have already done before.  It worked so well the first time that I definitely had to do it again.

Welcome to The Johnnie Walker Black Label versus Chivas Regal 12yo Taste Off!!!  49 months ago, I posted a Johnnie Walker Black Label versus Chivas Regal 12yo Taste Off and it became my most popular review ever.  I'm not saying it's my best, I'm saying it's my most viewed, thus my development executives say I need to reboot it.  To my long time readers, I'm sorry, I know I promised never to review Johnnie Walker Black again, but I need to bury some ghosts, if ghosts can be buried.  Perhaps they can be buried in the commas I've used in this paragraph.,

I come to this Taste Off with mixed feelings.  Over the past couple years I've had a number of disappointing bar pours of Chivas and Black Label.  And, with so many of Pernod's and Diageo's brands going NAS, I've been wondering if more 12 year old malt whisky is going into these two blends than in all of the 12 year old single malt scotch bottlings put together.  Maybe I should just try these blends, then comment.

Note: Both of these whiskies were bottled November 2015.

CHIVAS REGAL 12 YEAR OLD

Brand: Chivas Regal

Ownership: Pernod Ricard (via Chivas Bros. Ltd.)

Type: Scotch Blended Whisky

Age: minimum 12 years

Alcohol by Volume: 40%

Bottling: November 23, 2015
(200mL purchased at a local liquor store)

versus

JOHNNIE WALKER BLACK LABEL 12 YEAR OLD

Brand: Johnnie Walker

Ownership: Diageo

Type: Scotch Blended Whisky

Age: minimum 12 years

Alcohol by Volume: 40%

Bottling: November 4, 2015
(200mL purchased at a local liquor store)

NEAT TASTE OFF

Chivas 12yo
Its color is a somewhat subdued medium gold.  The nose starts with vanilla and caramel, never shaking those off.  Smaller notes of orange and lemon and apple peels, salty corn chips, mint candy, and coconut appear in the mid- to background.  Caramel and brown sugar lead the palate.  Some tangy orange meets sea salt, cassia cinnamon, and spearmint leaves.  But WOW mostly caramel.  It finishes on cinnamon, sugar, mint, caramel, and......vodka.

JWBL 12yo
Its color is DiageoDoublePlusOrangeGold™.  The nose starts off with the caramel too, adding in overoaked buttery chardonnay.  But then that's met with mild pepper and smoke, roasted almonds, hint of flower blossoms, and a slight raisiny cheap cream sherry thing.  Toffee and nondescript underripe citrus lead off the palate.  The mash-up of the supposed 43 different single malts leaves a bit of a Brown character, like a mush-up of 43 different colors.  There's a slight spicy zing and Sugar Daddies.  The "smoke" note isn't really smoke, rather a combination of mild earthiness, cracked pepper, and road dust.  Its mouthfeel is thinner than that of the Chivas.  It finishes with vanilla, the aforementioned "smoke" (quotes included) note.  Caramel, a mild bitterness, and more vanilla.

WITH WATER (~30%abv) TASTE OFF

Chivas 12yo
The nose leads with orange Smarties and Pixy Stix.  Then caramel and vanilla.  Then celery and parsley.  The palate has somehow picked up more raw heat.  There's caramel, lots of sugar, and a weird bitter note that's neither woody nor herbal.  It finishes identically to the palate.

JWBL 12yo
Much louder raisins on the nose.  A hint of hot tar and moss.  More of that buttery chardonnay thing.  The palate moves closer to the neat version of Chivas.  Very sweet with caramel, mellow sherry, and a woody bitterness.  In the finish there's sherry, caramel, butter, a bleh sweetness, and a dingy smoky aftertaste.

---

THOUGHTS, COMMENTS, OPINIONS, ETC...

Black Label wins again, though both of their scores are much lower than last time.  I'll do some pros and cons here...

Chivas Pros: It's much better when served neatly.  It has a respectable mouthfeel considering how much it has been filtered and watered down.  The neat palate doesn't completely suck.  Likely has less added colorant than Black Label.

JWBL Pros: Every element has more complexity than the Chivas, making for a more engaging drink.  It too is better when neat.  Holds up better on the rocks.

Chivas Cons: There can't be more than 20% malt content in this thing.  It's almost grain whisky.  It finishes poorly.  It sucks with water.  It vanishes on the rocks (maybe not totally a bad thing in some cases, which in turn is a bad thing).

JWBL Cons: Though its more complex than the Chivas, that's not saying much.  The finish is uninspiring and the palate is only one step above that.  Don't add water.

Overall Pros: I didn't buy 750mL bottles of either of these.  The Black Label was better than the recent bar pours I've had of it.

Overall Cons: I'm probably done with Chivas Regal 12.  Though these were 200mL, I had little interest in going past the 120mL mark of either of these.

I feel somewhat better now, since I doubt that much 12 year old malt whisky actually goes into either of these.  As I referenced above, you could have told me the Chivas was all grain and I would've believed it.  Black Label probably has more malt in it......or it is just some Caol Ila and Talisker livening it up a bit more than the Glenallachie and Tormore do for the Chivas?  I feel like I should be bummed about how far the Black Label's quality has fallen, but I don't.  Keep up the great work, Diageo!

I'm having a sip of Glenfiddich 12yo right now and it beats the pants off of both of these whiskies.  If 'Fiddich 12 is only $5-$10 more than the Chivas and Black Label in your market, it's worth paying up for it (or, even better, Tomatin 12).  Hell, Buffalo Trace, Elijah Craig 12yo, and Old Grand Dad 114 bourbons are about the same price as Chivas and JWBL and they are so much more fun than either scotch.  Just something to consider...

Chivas Regal 12 year old (2015)
Availability - Wherever scotch is sold
Pricing - $20-$40(!)
Rating - 74

Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 year old (2015)
Availability - Like Trump's face on CNN, it's everywhere
Pricing - $25-$45(!)
Rating - 79

Thank You!

Tomorrow I will publish my 500th officially graded whisky.  Yes, there have been an additional two dozen whiskies (or so) that I've given only letter grades to.  And yes, there have been fewer than five hundred single malt reports.  But still, 500.  That's a very round number.

This is still my best drawing ever.

These whisky reviews would not exist without you.  My content exists thanks to my friends with whom I do sample swaps.  My content exists thanks to those friends who randomly send me goodies from their collections.  My content exists thanks to local whisky groups and the good people I meet at events.  But most of all, my content exists because I have readers.  Stories do not exist without an audience, so the simple fact that you voluntarily come to my site to read about my ongoing whisky journey means that it exists on a more significant plane than just notes in my eleven whisky notebooks stacked in the corner of my desk.

While I would love to write more deeply considered meditations on the whisky industry (and/or anything other than whisky), being a stay-at-home father has made that more challenging than before.  I don't drink during the day, I don't blog during the day, and I rarely tweet or facebook during the day.  My recreation in the evening is to plop down in my whisky chair -- it's not made of whisky, yet -- with an ounce (or two?) of whisky, put on some jazz, avant-garde, or classical music that hopefully matches the drink and then attempt to document my discoveries on paper.  On the weekends I type up my scribbles, add in the terrible humor, a few photos, and use a random number generator for the final rating.

Next year will bring some changes, all good, some of which I hope to share here.  I have most of my reviews already scheduled for the next four months, though I'm still sorting out the extent to which I'll review non-whisky spirits.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, a full sequel to What Was the Scotch Boom is on the docket for the new year, unless the SWA chickens out and doesn't release their full report.

In the meantime, welcome to the new divingforpearlsblog.com!  Look for Whisky 500 to be published tomorrow, and Whisky 1000 by 2019...

Beginning a Whisky Buying Freeze and Ending the Dusty Hunt

Man, did you make it all the way through that What Was the Whisky Boom series?  "It's half as long as Das Kapital and only twice as funny."  Thank you for sticking through it and stopping by for more words.  Whisky reviews (and shorter posts) resume next week!

Every year I go on at least one whisky buying freeze, during which time I purchase nary a bottle of whisky.  Each time, I write up a list of rules and regulations then post it on the fridge.  The freeze lasts usually a month or so.  Last year's freeze was technically for 120 days, but there were so many asterisks (due to previous commitments) attached to that one that it wasn't too difficult.  Plus my daughter arrived right in the middle of it so my attention was just slightly diverted away from whisky.

Here he goes again with "The Freeze".

I engage in these buying freezes for a number of reasons:

1. Storage limits. In 2013, we bought a whisky cabinet. It was actually Kristen's idea. After measuring everything, told her with much confidence that I'd never fill it.  I filled it.  Quickly.  We have very limited closet space and the aforementioned baby, so I have no place to put my bottles other than in the cabinet.  Despite much rearranging, the cabinet is at maximum capacity.
2. Finances.  If you haven't noticed, whisky prices are higher than they used to be (another plug!).  With less money and more obligations, I have less to spend.  I'm a picky buyer, but I still buy more than I need.
3. There's not much out there that I find worth buying.  In 2014, I purchased a total of 3 recent (bottled in 2012-2014) officially bottled Scotches.  My preferences lead me to the indie companies and recently discontinued or revised single malts.  Those are the items that excite.  And as the rest of my fellow hoarders buy up those goodies, there are fewer left for me.  Oh well.
4. Happiness. Buying a bottle is a momentary pleasure.  Even if one stretches out the bottle research for months, like I do, once one obtains the bottle and stashes it away in the hoard, that glee is spent.  If life's stress and anxiety are playing havoc in one's blood, the search for the next bottle(s) begins again soon.  One can keep buying to keep the rush going but I believe that strikes closer to addiction than sustained happiness.  I have more than I need and I would like to enjoy what I have without having to have more.

If you have both the means and room, and you love the chase, then that's great!  Enjoy!  (Though please actually drink some of your stash.  You're not going to live forever.)  But when I'm short on those elements then it's time for a freeze.

This year, my purchase fast will last until at least April 1.  The only exception is the commitment I made to a friend (on this site actually) on the purchase of a bottle of rye.  Otherwise I'm still working out the regulations, ordinances, and bylaws of the freeze.  Usually they look something like this:

1.    The Buying Freeze begins at 00:00 January XX, 20XX.  It continues for XX days, ending at 23:59 on April XX, 20XX.

2.    No whisky of any sort will be purchased during this period. That includes Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 bottles.

3.    No samples or minis will be purchased.  No bottle splits allowed.

4.    Whisky trades are allowed.

5.    Whisky gifts are allowed from and to other people.  Examples are: etc. etc. etc.

6.    Social whisky events are allowed.

7.    The following are exceptions to the rules as they were commitments made before The Freeze began, and will be carried out during The Freeze: etc., etc., etc.

Punishment for violation includes reseting the freeze entirely and feeling like a sad sack of sh*t.  Anyway, if you're ever interested in doing a buying freeze, I highly recommend that you nail down the particulars before it starts.

Once the first of April arrives, I may choose to extend the freeze longer.  What I am suspending indefinitely is The Dusty Hunt.  Much of 2014 was spent on the hunt.  I found stuff.  I found awful stuff.  In California the good dusties have been picked over and over and over.  I'm getting sloppy sevenths, at best.

Though most of the dusty bottles I've opened have been crap, the disappointment has helped me see
more clearly that all whisk(e)y wasn't necessarily better in the old days.  I've had much better luck with bourbons since they usually stay nice and sweet, especially the National Distillers stuff.  I've found only two palatable Scotch blends (which I'll review this year).  There was a bottle of (tainted?) Teacher's from 1981 that was so bad that I started reading about stomach pumping immediately after swallowing.  That was such a heartbreaker because of my love for its main ingredient, Ardmore.  Damn thing had a perfect fill level and the liquor store had at least a dozen bottles.  Now I know why.  Good thing I bought only one.

Connecting this back to the buying freeze......Dusties are usually cheap and when ya find a bunch ya buy a bunch.  So then ya have a lot of bottles.  That leaves me (changing pronouns) with two problems: I've spent a chunk of money on a bunch of bottles I can't store.  $200 on 10 questionable dusties would have been better spent on a pair (or more, once upon a time) of excellent single malts that I actually want.  So the hunt is done.  But if I were to just happen to step into a store that had a dusty single malt at its original price?  I'll welcome that dilemma if ever arises.

I'm not usually one for New Year's resolutions, but those are my 2015 whisky resolutions.  Have you made any?  What motivated them?  Do you feel good about them or do you give them until, like, March until you crumble?

Rating system under construction

Happy New Year, y'alls!  I hope everyone got that handle of Clan MacGregor that was on his wish list.  I don't know if I'll be posting any Best Of lists, but I do intended to post one or two thoughts on The State of Things (aka whisky stuff in 2014) next week.

Also for this new year, I will be changing my rating system.  So if you see some inconsistencies -- or more than there usually are -- it may be due to the updating of 250+ posts and a few other pages and a big spreadsheet.  I hope to have this finished in a week's time, after which I will explain further in a larger post.

Cheers!

Talkin' Diageo Boycott Blues

Monday: The Diageo non-whisky brands
Tuesday: The Diageo whisky brands
Wednesday: A summary of my larger Diageo conflicts

I used to write whisky industry-related posts almost once a week.  But then I stopped.  Writing about corporate actions and rising prices made me angry.  But writing about actual whisky made me happy.  So I focused on my single malt reports instead.

Each time I've found something enjoyable to obsess about -- baseball, music, movies, whisky -- I get to the point where I discover how business and finance shapes or limits those pleasures.  Then the fun drains out.  So here I am, left index finger in a splint, typing very slowly (a total martyr, right?!), brain running very quickly, writing about how the business is ruining my joy.  I'm already grumpy (I mean, you try washing your right arm with your right hand), so maybe this was the perfect week for Done With Diageo.

Yep.

For this week's series, I wanted to air out my issues with Diageo in one place rather than gripe and snark about them here and there.  I also wanted folks to think about what they drink before they drink it.  But don't think too much while you're drinking.  Seriously, or not so seriously, I don't want to ruin people's enjoyment of everything.  I'm also not a complete communist.  Not all businesses are bad.  Just most of them.  ;-)

I don't take back anything I've written this week, though I may have overstated my pricing issue.  As of today, the regular "Classic Malts" are priced well and if you have the coin to buy 25yo single malt then Diageo's are comparable to the rest of the market.  Because I do agree with many of the counterpoints presented this week, I'll clarify where I stand.

To begin with, I'm in the camp that thinks when it comes to whisky prices, we are in the new market reality.  Yes, whisky is getting more expensive at a rate that far exceeds discretionary income growth.  When those price increases are no longer tenable, then assets will be liquidated, overhead will be reduced, and prices may plateau.  But they will not go down.  For those of you in my boat who wish prices would go back to where they were even three years ago, get used to disappointment.

And it's not just Diageo and LVMH at fault here.  Beam, William Grant, Edrington, Inver House, Suntory, Burn Stewart, and Pernod Ricard are all actively raising prices -- mostly because they know we will continue to pay them.  The independents will raise their own as well, especially as they get fewer and fewer casks to sell.

The auctions are at fault as well, from the fools (the politest term I can manage) who are grossly overpaying for items, to the houses themselves (like Bonhams and McTears) providing misleading information and selling easily identifiable fakes.  As the secondary market prices go up, so will the primary market's prices.

How about my gripe about dwindling indie casks?  Diageo is far from alone on that one.  Glenfiddich has let maybe a handful of casks go since I've been born.  Balvenie and Glenfarclas indies are either teaspooned or have to go by another name.  Meanwhile non-OB Macallans are getting rarer.  The Big D isn't the only one hoarding malt.  This was also demonstrated when most of the major owners pulled their own vatted malts from the market at the same time Johnnie Walker did so.

And my qualm with Diageo barely bottling any of their distilleries' single malts?  Pernod releases single malts from less than half of their distilleries.  Bacardi doesn't release any [Correction! They do regularly release a 12yo and 21yo from Aberfeldy. Thanks, Eric!].

But just because everyone else is guilty of some of the issues, doesn't mean that Diageo is in the right.  In fact with their size and influence, their choices carry much more power.

I also don't care what the reasoning was behind Diageo killing off Green Label.  It was a brand I liked, and they took it away, so it's a personal frustration.  Their pricing on Talisker 18 essentially killed off another of my favorite whiskies.  Another personal frustration.  And I don't take back anything I said about the goofy Diageo PR machine.  Nor how I feel about the crappy presentation of what is some of the most glorious whisky in the world, before it is tampered with.  Nor will I stop questioning how Scottish their Scotch actually is.  Nor am I comfortable with a single international conglomerate controlling such a considerable part of the liquid.  Nor do I forgive them for some very ugly corporate actions.

But is it enough for a boycott?

Well, I'm 97% there already.  I've purchased one Diageo product all year.  (I had to get that Talisker 10, didn't I!)  In the bigger picture, I'm making an conscious effort to slow (or stop) my whisky buying in general because: 1.) prices are higher; 2.) I have less discretionary income than I used to; and 3.) my whisky cabinet is almost packed tight.

One of my biggest frustrations about the whisky community is that no one (aside from Mr. Scotch and Ice Cream, Tim Read) seems to be satisfied with that what he already has.  And by "satisfied" I do not mean the obsessive narcissistic posting of bottle pics on the Malt Maniacs and Friends Facebook page.  The drive is to buy more, more, more or (worse) buy/flip, buy/flip, buy/flip.  Because retail therapy can turn into an addiction, and because the real pleasure of whisky is in the drinking and sharing -- not the hoarding -- I'm trying very hard to learn how to be happy with what I've got.  It's not easy, and I fail often, but I'm going to keep focusing on that pursuit.

With all of that in mind and with a reduced whisky budget, I need to be selective about my purchases.  And the question goes back to, who do I want to support?  Not Diageo, directly.

I will continue to support small malt producers.  Distilleries like Arran and Kilchoman must bring a great product to the market in order to survive, then keep it great in order to stay open.  Having grown up with small businesses in my family, I want to support the little guys because I know how difficult it is to turn a profit when resources are small and how much the human aspect is needed in order to succeed.

Many of my purchases will be from independent bottlers.  And if one of those bottlers get its hands on a Diageo cask, then I may just avail myself of one of those bottles.  Since Diageo malt and grain whiskies are inside almost every single blend out there, I will continue to buy (tasty) blends.  There's no way I would stop supporting Compass Box; Glaser è il maestro.

I won't can't stop my wife from buying Diageo products.  Do not get between that woman and a pint of Guinness.  And speaking of Guinness, when I am back in Ireland and Scotland (oh, that will be the day), I won't resist buying Diageo stuff because at least some of my money will go directly to Irish and Scottish publicans and retailers.

With Diageo owning 34% of their drinks segment, there's a real dearth of LVMH whisky I desire to buy, especially with Glenmorangie putting the kibosh on Astar.  I've never found an officially bottled United Spirits (now owned by Diageo) malt that made me yearn for a second sip.  But I'm in trouble if Diageo ever does buy Beam Inc.

For the time being, you will find more Diageo single malt reports here because I have a bunch of goodies in the stash.  After those goodies are gone, I'll have to consider how I'll treat samples.  Inside my brain, arguments rage about both sides.

I worry that this week's series came across holier-than-thou.  I don't want to be the guy standing in front of the store, holding the sign that says "EVERY TIME YOU SHOP AT WALMART, GOD KILLS A KITTEN", because we all know that God only kills a kitten every time you masturbate.

Not the reason behind my hand injury

What was my point?

Thank you for your comments, tweets, and facebookages.  I actually agree with most of your challenges, and they all made me think about what I wrote.  And my intent wasn't to be a bummer, so I'm sorry if I pissed in your whisky.  Industry leaders piss in my whisky all the time.  Diageo, with their big D, is the preeminent perpetual pissing perpetrator, and I'm tired of it.  So, I won't give them my money.

Next week, I'll go back to reporting on the fun stuff.

Dusty Hunting on Vacation and a Preview of Things to Come

Happy Monday!

I'm back home after two great vacation weeks.  I haven't had many opportunities to vacate during the summer over the past ten years; in fact there were only two: moving across the country and my honeymoon.  And like any proper whisky degenerate student, I scoured every liquor store along the way on a continuous dusty treasure hunt.

I go into these hunts with realistic expectations.  I'm not expecting to find a bottle of Stitzel-Weller Old Fitz or mis-priced Stagg.  And there really isn't much in the way of dusty Scotch in The States, except for some old blends.  So the best dusties I expect to find would be the stuff no longer in circulation or previous batches or old weirdness.  If those things are considered successes, then the success rate is still usually below 10%.  But I'm always open to the potential of small miracles.  Or great prices.

Here were my stops:

Manhattan - The big city still has some curios in its 100s (or 1000s?) of corner liquor stores.  I picked up a totally random single cask single malt that was bottled sixteen years ago for probably half of its price had it been retailing in LA.

Upstate New York - There ain't nothin' dusty around Keuka and Seneca Lake aside from some weird blends.  Dew of Ben Nevis 12, anyone?  Either that place was FoaFed a long time ago, or everyone has consumed everything interesting, or there was never the income level in those areas that would have inspired distributors to put their fancy stuff on those shelves.

Prescott, Arizona - If you're heading to Prescott (for whatever reason) there are a few interesting bottles to be found.  When I left, there were two Thomas Handy Ryes (2012), a few older-labelled single malts, some oddball blends, and (very randomly) a dozen total bottles of five older Scott's Selection single malts.  The Scott's Selection stuff was of interest, but out of my current price range.  I did take home a bottle desired booze that was really discounted, along with a pair of old minis.

---

I drank a lot of American whiskies during my break.  That's partially because I find bourbon suits a hot summer better than do most single malts.  But also, I had a bunch of American whiskey on my report schedule.  So this week I'm going to drop 6 Americans on you in 4 days.

As fun as that all is and as well as bourbon may "suit" this weather, I was SERIOUSLY craving some proper Scotch when I got home.  So we can say good-bye to any more non-Scotch posts until after the equinox.  Next week, I'll write about the birthday whisky.  The following week?  Here's a heavy-handed hint:

Screw the heat, we're going to end this summer with some big Scotch.

2012 and 2013, My whisky year that was and is

2012 was a damned good year in whisky exploration.  Though as the year wore on, I became busier and busier.  Drinking less and less.  As a result of decreased consumption, my sample (and bottle) collection grew.  Woo hoo!

Life doesn't change abruptly when the calendar year increases.  The seeds of one's joys and troubles in one year were planted earlier.  2012 is 2013 and 2013 is 2012.  Some things I hope will continue.  Some things I hope will end.

The Splendid

I attended some tremendous, expansive tastings last year.  From the educational whisk(e)y voyage at the Freakin' Frog in February, to Peatin' Meetin' in July, to the Laphroaig Vertical in December, to around a dozen official or unofficial group tastings, my whisky horizons have expanded exponentially.

Plus I've had a chance to talk to some of you all.  Before this year, much of my whisky education happened alone.  That was fun, but it cannot compare to how important and lovely it has been to share and discuss with other whisky nuts.  It feels like a little community and we've been doing great work expanding the social whisky universe.  Thank you all!

There have been a number of whiskies I've tried but haven't reviewed, largely because I was just enjoying the stuff and not analyzing it further.  Some examples:

Balvenie Tun 1401 Batch 6 -- This one left me speechless twice.  All I kept doing was mumbling to strangers, "The nose on this. The nose on this."  Yeah.  The nose on this.  A lot of folks in the know have been saying Batch 3 is the best.  But as Batch 6 has fewer sherry casks and more bourbon casks, I would be happy to go with a bottle of this first.  The nose on this.
Laphroaig 21yr Cask Strength -- From that grandiose Laphroaig vertical, this limited edition official casker from Laphroaig was by leaps and bounds better than most already-great Laphroaigs.  It was somehow both silky and powerful.  I kept thinking "peated-cognac" but, again, I get silly when enthralled.
Abraham Bowman Pioneer Spirit Virginia Rye -- Big, bold, and beautiful, this is likely the best American whiskey I've yet tried.  I believe (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) this is a 10 year old triple-distilled rye made from the Thomas H. Handy recipe/mash.  Sour Mash and SKU have reviewed it.  I look forward to the next batch!
Ardmore 19yr 1992 (Whisky Doris) -- A surprising favorite from the Peatin' Meetin'.  And it wasn't just me.  Two bottles were on hand at the start; they were empty long before the Meetin' was over.  I may or may not have had something to do with that.  This was a whisky that left me with such a vivid sense memory that it haunted me as I desperately tried to track down a bottle of my own...

There will be an official review of some of these this year.  :-)

Then there were my favorite new discoveries that were reported:

The Ardbegs Uigeadail and Corryvreckan - I've already spoken volumes about these shadowy siblings, these marvels of modern whisky creation.  So, I'll keep this short.  These are awesome.  I've tried a couple Octomores and Port Charlottes; I've tried the Supernova; I've had a couple cask strength Lagavulins.  They may all pack massive cask strength peat punches, but none of them have the complexity (oh that word) or provide such a joyous drinking experience as Oog and Corry.

The Willet Ryes -- My first barrel-strength rye and still my favorite by some distance.  Having now tried the three, four, five, and six year olds (yeah, I'm kinda sold on it), I'm trying to sort through which I like best.  Part of me likes the three year best since the spirit is enormous.  The oak is great but beginning to get a bit large on the six year.  Perhaps the four and five are the best of both worlds?  Further research is currently being conducted.

Yamazaki 18yr -- Remarkably gorgeous whisky #1.  Silky, rich, luxurious.  One of the few whiskys I'd be happy to pay $100+ for.  Though it's been absent from the major LA stores since August, I heard fourth-hand that it may make a return in a couple months.  I sincerely hope that's true.

Glen Spey 21yr 1989 -- Remarkably gorgeous whisky #2.  I was/am quite in love with this one.  All sorts of lovely fruit, rye, custard and cake batter, and floral notes.  It ain't cheap, but there are one or two good deals to be found on the webs.

And then the old favorite, Macallan 17yr Fine Oak.  Likely soon to vanish once Macallan brings their NAS bottlings to The States, this is one reliable whisky that I treasure.  I will buy one more bottle before it's gone.

Then there's...

The Not-So-Splendid

I drank some sh***y whisky this year too.  I had hoped that I could find some surprising delicious bargains.  Though I tried and tried and tried, it was mostly not to be.  In fact there were a number of crummy drams that I couldn't even review.

This came to a head during last month's JW Red Label / Dewars White Label tasting.  Something was left scarred after the experience.  I have since found a number of cheapie whisky minis that I would have previously scooped up and reviewed.  But instead, now, each time I see a 99 cent plastic mini of whisk(e)y, I feel an awful weight pulling down inside of me, physically turning me away, reminding me to seek out good whisky or drink nothing at all.  So in 2013, there will be fewer reviews of the swampy dregs sitting within plastic bottles.

The two worst whiskies I'd reported on in 2012 actually come in glass bottles:

Cutty Sark blended whisky -- That was terrible.  By the time I was done, I felt bad for the brand, wondering what had happened that would have forced them to bottle this liquid.  The good news is that Cutty has gotten a new Master Blender, Kirsteen Campbell.  I wish her all the best and look forward to a revival of a classic.

Dewar's White Label blended whisky -- For many years the DWL and I have not gotten along.  My mind and liver equates it with Popov Vodka, on many levels.  I sort of regret making the attempt to taste it in a controlled setting and dissecting its palate.  I only learned what I already knew, to stay away from this stuff.

A final thought on Connoisseurship

Recently, I've been meditating a bit on what it means to be a connoisseur.

It's one thing to be able to identify and savor the beauty of the pinnacle examples of a craft or art form.  But, perhaps, it's even more profound to be able to enjoy the failures as well.  Finding the magic within a mess and being able to embrace it, un-ironically, is something worth aspiring to.

I'm nowhere near that point.  I thought I was, but I'm still a beginner.  There's a long journey ahead of me.  There are so many beautiful drams to be spoken of this year.  So for now, for 2013, perhaps I'll stay away from Duggan's Dew.

Best wishes to you all.  May you be blessed with happy surprises on every journey.

The Honey-Do List for the Holidays

Happy Holidays, folks!  I hope that everyone's vacations begin soon.  The Industry began its holidays on Friday; as a result much of the machine has slowed down.  But there's no rest for the creatives, though maybe a brief break from development emails.

I just returned from Arizona and am now prepping to leave for New York and Ohio.  I have some entries lined up, so as long as I have the interwebs I strive for blog diligence.

Whiskies - I have a tremendous Taste Off lined up while I'm in New York.  A lot of the classics will be involved.  If I live to tell about it, then you'll see it posted here.  I also have a very exciting whisky situation that may present itself in Ohio.  I dare not say anymore about it.

Once I finish some further research, I'd like to continue posting some Whiskey 101 posts.  You know, some (borrowed) wit and (stolen) wisdom about the sauce.

I happily found a bottle of Black & White, an old-school dirt-under-the-fingernails whisky blend.  Why so happy?  Well, this is the stuff I cut my whisky teeth on when I wandered the British Isles nine years ago.  When one's a broke backpacker, one drinks the whisky one gets.  Black & White is what I gots.  Seeing the (liter!) bottle on the shelf at Pasadena's Mission Liquor was genuinely surreal.  I'm waiting to open it in 2012, after which you may see me do an about-face on highballs and whisky & ice.

Movies & Music - In doing all of these whisky posts, I haven't had a chance to finish Chapter 5 of the George Herman Hitchcock Project.  Regrettably, my general film flow (terrible word choice) has been at a trickle for months.

But I've been listening to tons of new (though, actually old) music.  Back in this blog's youth, there were music posts every week.  I would like to do at least a couple per month.

The Condo - January will bring some new projects.  I will provide before-and-after pics when it's all good.

Politics - Just saw the Kim Jong Il news.  2011 continues to be The Year It Sucks to Be A Dictator.  And for that I am thankful.

I'll be back on Wednesday!

Happy birthday to Diving for Pearls!

I must drop a quick post to announce that as of last week, this blog is now 1 year old! Just a baby. He's a little hairy, has small feet, and is beginning to grow some teeth. Thanks to everyone's support!

I did break one of my rules in the previous let's-blame-Bush-for-my-faulty-dishwasher post. I do not want to bring politickin' into this blog and will do my best to resist it in the future. Some things that you can look forward to in the near future: more whine, more wine, finishing the Lubitsch reviews that I'd started 4 months ago, a review of the so-called Star Wars prequel trilogy, a meditation on Fassbinder's BRD trilogy, some thoughts on food, and $10 for every person you refer. There was a lie in there somewhere.

Thanks again for every one of the 1130 hits! We're 25.6% of the way to Pete Rose's career record.

Whoa, totally slackin'

The pause between posts has been much too long. My apologies! Last night I wrote a post so massive and without pictures, that I'm going to have to hack it in two and fix it up today. So there should be two posts -- Sports & Food and Music & Movies -- coming up soon.

It begins with Lubitsch

Last night (Sunday) I finally opened the Lubitsch Musicals box set from Criterion/Eclipse. It’s been sitting there, impatiently waiting to be sprung from its shrinkwrap.

I am an Ernst Lubitsch fan. As many filmies have noted, he’s The Forgotten Great American Director. Much of this is due to the paucity of available Lubitsch titles on VHS. An entire generation, or two, have not had the opportunity to watch more than one or two of his films, such as Ninotchka or To Be or Not Be, from the ‘40s. As fine as those titles are, Lubitsch’s style and charm is largely straightjacketed by the Hays Code that governed American cinema’s morality after 1934. Before the Code was enforced, Lubitsch was best known for his audaciously adult comedies. Characters slept around, broke hearts, mended hearts, flirted, then slept around again. And they were never punished by the movie morality gods for it. As a result, many of his early romantic comedies are much more mature and thought-provoking than their present day counterparts.

And despite all of the serious plaudits laid out above, these comedies are thoroughly goofy. Not stupid and childish, but more like a tipsy flirt.

LOVE PARADE (1929)

The first narrative American musical. And what a way to begin.

The first moments of the film: The credits are superimposed over someone flipping through a lingerie magazine, full of women in various states of undress. This cuts to a shot bursting with visual delights. In the center of the screen, dancing girls can-can. At the top of the screen blinking lights spell out “PARIS” in the night sky. And in every corner of the screen jut long erect necks of champagne bottles, framing the great French phallus of the Eiffel Tower. God bless, Ernst Lubitsch.

As a film, Love Parade is a fizzy bottle of champagne. Not a glass, but the whole bottle. It’s bubbly and sweet. Everyone moves about as if there’s a bottle open off-screen. And if the viewer just drinks it all in enough, she won’t notice how silly the story really is.

Let’s get this out of the way. Maurice Chevallier is a cad and a ham. The American female lust that chased him must have largely been due to the fact that he is tall and has a thick Gallic accent. He has only one emotion, goofy smile. Not necessarily happy, just goofy smile. This causes his acting to range from irritating to giddy. When I’d read that he had several asides to the camera/audience, I anticipated the worst. But in fact, his asides to the camera are very funny and work very well, like punctuation to a comic sentence. In Parade, he plays an attaché from Sylvania (Lubitsch loves to create fictional European countries) who gets kicked out of France from bedding too many broads.

Jeanne MacDonald is a treasure. Though her clothes stay on for the entirety of the film, she is maddeningly sexy as a randy Queen who desperately desires a mate. It’s a good thing that Chevallier, ever the male tart, shows up just in time to serve her royal needs.

Their first sequence together is the highlight of the film. He’s been ordered to see the Queen for punishment. And once the Queen looks up from the report of his exploits, she looks like she’s ready to eat this lanky Frenchman alive. The banter that follows between the two of them is intoxicating. Not necessary because of the dialogue, but because of the actors’ performances. Watch their faces. There is so much devilish fun in her eyes. His showy attempts to act coy fail spectacularly. Both appear ready to burst into laughter. The flirting works so well, that the viewer may just forget what the characters have actually said having been seduced by the dance they’ve done.

The supporting characters have a lot of fun as well. Chevallier’s Parisian servant (Lupino Lane) returns with him to Sylvania. (The fact that Chevallier’s character is not French, but does have a French accent, while the servant is French and does not have the accent is quite funny. Though this happened out of technical necessity, the film does address this in a joke that is, of course, of a sexual nature.) Once in Sylvania, Lane falls head over heels (literally) for Lilian Roth’s Lulu, a six-foot busty brunette in a French maid’s uniform…………

………wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, so though they engage in a playful shoving match, this is fight he’ll lose.

As far as the actual music goes, there’s a great joke at the end of the first full song. There’s some quality banter to “Anything to Please the Queen”. But other than that the other tunes neither offend nor astound. Characters burst into song because that’s what seems to happen when the little bubbles start to make people giddy.

And yes, the women are luminous and the men are ridiculous. The ending doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but really, to a point, who cares?

MONTE CARLO (1930)

To today’s audiences Maurice Chevallier may appear…how shall I put this?...to have a certain lack of testosterone. But compared to the gentlemen of Monte Carlo, he’s Bruce Willis.

Jack Buchanan is completely miscast as a male lead, especially next to the feminine fountain of Ms. MacDonald. Part of it has to do with his face: a joker’s smile with no lips, protruding cheekbones, and beady eyes. Additionally, it’s in his voice. There’s an unusual emphasis on his S’s that aren’t so much the stereotypical sibilance that some equate with homosexuality. Rather the hiss is elongated and held, so that he sounds like Sterling Holloway’s snake Kaa from The Jungle Book.

Basically, he’s unintentionally unsettling. And he has no chemistry with MacDonald. As a result her mojo is lessened without an acceptable sounding board. Sexy sometimes takes two.

The scenario itself is ridiculous without being comically so. Buchanan poses as her hairdresser to……well, I don’t know….touch her? There’s a surreal song called “Trimmin’ the Women” sung by Buchanan and two other exceedingly feminine men about the joys of touching women while cutting their hair.

On top of the fact that the story doesn’t work, the lack of chemistry, the sparse and forgettable songs, the film is also limp in the humor department. It’s rare to see a film do so much to accomplish so little. 90 minutes of not much.

There are small positives. There’s some fun wordplay during a song at the beginning of the film. There’s also an inventive train/music montage that’s surprisingly artistic and effective. And MacDonald works hard to achieve her groove and her lovely face is expressive as always. Lubitsch plants some little clever visuals here and there, but, for the most part, Monte Carlo is a losing hand.

29 Weeks?!

For twenty-nine weeks that previous post sat lonely at the top of page. But no longer.

In an attempt to resurrect this blog, I have decided to largely focus on film (and occasional music) discussion/thoughts/reviews. The goal is to make these entries snack-sized yet filling. A few sips of scotch rather than a barrel of malt liquor.

This works better for you and for me, since this darned job-thing keeps my writing time limited. And I like scotch.

The site will also remain PG-rated, as far as language goes. This is a challenge for me since I love dialing up colorful metaphors when I have specific passions about film. This approach will be even more difficult since the films I’m currently watching are brazenly adult.

Note: I finally saw No Country for Old Men on Friday night, but I’m not ready to discuss. At first blush it was a lot better than I thought it would be. That may or may not change as it stews.