Take your mind off – Post 4
Take your mind off – Post 4
Tales of Krishna (Now this is not mythological though it may seem so at some parts of the story). It is a long post and will take 30 minutes, but as the previous post suggested there is a lot more to Single Malt whisky than the spirit itself. This post is very much “The Story” part of things
Starring Krishna Nukala , Mark Adams & Johannes Van Den Heuvel, Serge Valentin Lagavulin and many others.
Key highlights: Tasting of the legendary Talisker 20 Year Old, Opera singing of ‘Pagliacci’ paired with Assamese version of ‘Old man river’ at Venlo, Krishna stealing gulps of wine when tasting. And a 1000 point Lagavulin.
Imagination is key, there will never be a time like what has been described, there will never be a situation like the one described in Venlo, there will never be a tasting like the one described at “Domaine Zind Humbrecht”. For sure there may never be a whisky tasting like the one described at Johannes! Imagine the cold, the village in Turckheim & Colmar.
Produced in the original form that it was written by Krishna with his permission. Thank you Krishna
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A Malty Trilogy
Aqua Vitae Impedenta (In pursuit of ultimate whisky)
Malt maniacs is a global recherché group of about sixteen maniacs and a maniacette who are devoted to the serious cause of drinking single malt scotch whisky. The maniacs in the group extend from Adelaide to Los Angeles across the planet and yours truly happens to be the proud representative from India. Besides drinking whisky they are occupied (to make money to buy whisky) individually in activities such as dentistry, whole time whisky writing, producing finest wines in France, opera singing, teaching etc. It is the sacred duty of the maniacs to taste whisky, discuss and write about it and criticize when ever it is found to be bad. In short they are the missionaries of SMWs. Towards this cause the maniacs maintain a website which is rated as the best whisky website in the world. I assure, the reader won’t regret if he visits maltmadness.com website. Time permitted (of course the purse too) the maniacs gather whenever they can in Scotland or any common place in Europe for serious dramming. In recognition of their services to the industry, the Scotch whisky producers and independent bottlers in Scotland keep them happy by inviting them to their distilleries for private and exclusive visits and also send some of their best selections for tasting. The maniacs in return offer their unbiased criticism and give them awards once in a year which are proudly posted on their website. The following is the personal account of the author about last year’s awards ceremony in Amsterdam followed by visit to Domain Zind Humbrecht, the finest of the wineries in Alsace region of France.
I The Awards
Another maniacal venture originated when Johannes (the CEO of the website based in Amsterdam) announced that the Malt Maniacs would be awarding medals to the best malt whiskies in the industry and Serge (one of the French guys from Turckheim) was working on it silently towards the logistics. Serge had obtained 62 best bottles from various distilleries and independent bottlers and his plan was to distribute these between the 12 maniacs scattered over the globe for ratings. He asked each maniac how the consignment to be sent. Unknowingly Serge drove me into depression. Because the last time Johannes sent me 6 samples, I received a show cause notice from the Indian Customs as to how I had illegally and without proper import license imported some liquid chemical samples from Amsterdam. I told the customs that they were urine samples of some of the weird human specimens from Europe who are habitual whisky drinkers and I was on to some experiment relating to their genetic disorders. The consignment was cleared immediately. Since I thought that a repeat lie could be ineffective, I was in a dilemma as to how I should receive those 62 specimens. I could never allow 62 gems to end up in some lousy Indian customs warehouses unclaimed. Then Serge declared that that there would be some festivities in Turckheim like distilling Alsatian gewürztraminer in the back yard of his home, visit to Olivier’s winery and that Davin from Montreal, Mark from L.A and Klaus along with his friends from Hamburg would be joining the party. Johannes informed that the awards tasting could be done at his apartment in Amsterdam followed by a drive down to Turckheim. That means tasting the finest whiskies of the industry in Amsterdam, followed by a drive down through the heart of Europe to enter France and tasting some of the finest French wines crafted and served by the producers themselves. It was too irresistible an offer to refuse.
Obtaining a Visa to Europe is a painful procedure. One has to appear in person in Mumbai or New Delhi for a Dutch or French Visa. I did not want to go Mumbai or to New Delhi for a personal interview, as it would have involved travel for at least 3-4 days and absence from work. A clever travel agent came out with a brilliant idea that Austria issues Schengen Visa without personal appearance and that after you enter Vienna you are free to go any where in Europe. So I applied for a Schengen Visa through Austrian Consulate in New Delhi and obtained it within 4 days. The route was Hyderabad- Dubai-Amsterdam-Vienna-Amsterdam and back to home. So far so good.
By now most of the European maniacs received the samples and all ready done with tastings; so did Craig in Australia, Roman in Israel and Davin in Canada. There was no news from the three other US Maniacs about the arrival of their samples in USA. One of the Glenfiddich samples was a Havana finish wood and probably the US customs must have detained the whole consignment mistaking for any Cuban connection. I presume it is customary that the Customs has work with same efficiency anywhere in the world. So why blame our friends in Indian Customs? My dead line was to finish 62 samples in three days at Johannes place. Owing to my Charlie Chaplin like built I requested Johannes to show some pity on my liver and asked for some extension of time. But he (like head master) firmly refused. Johannes and Serge promised to Industry that the Malt Maniacs would declare the awards by evening of December 1, 2003 and the dead line has to be met.
I learnt my first lesson. Tasting malt whisky is no fun. It is a serious business.
Never visit any place if you have to leave it in a hurry. A short bus journey from airport to the center of Vienna brought me to the imposing structure of the 13th century St. Stephens Cathedral. The whole place looked as though entire city’s growth took place as the Cathedral as epicenter. The construction of the Cathedral commenced in 12th century in Romanesque style and by the end of 15th century, after so many variations and individual tastes of intervening rulers, ended up in Gothic style. Despite bitter winter cold, tourists thronged everywhere. Visited the nearby Shoenbrunn palace where Amadeus displayed his first musical talents as a child prodigy. I had heard so much about that An der Blauen Donau and when I approached the river expecting all romance and bluish hues, I was disappointed to find it as a smallish murky river no different than our Mahim creek. Perhaps during Strauss’s times it was blue and beautiful. Vienna is a musical city. Music flows everywhere. The cab drivers or even the beggars hum classical music. After buying a copy of a classical guitar music CD from a road-side performer (who happened to be Doctorate in Music), I hurriedly left for airport to catch my flight to Amsterdam.
The flight landed at Schiphol airport around 6.30 in the evening on 29th November. My plan was to meet Johannes and Mark at Amsterdam Central railway station at Burger King on platform no.1. But due to some mix up I missed them at Amsterdam Central and managed to find my way to Johannes apartment (courtesy – a good Samaritan at Bullewijk railway station). Johannes and Mark arrived some time later.
After some warm greetings, usual backslapping and driving the Good Samaritan out of apartment (who would have otherwise become Johannes’s permanent guest) Johannes ordered a Chinese rice plate for dinner. We were down to serious business. It was already 11 pm and I was dead tired. But Johannes is a tough taskmaster. Before the final assault, Johannes declared the strategy- he would pour about 20 ml in his large goblets and the tasting would be blind. He had already tasted and rated all the malts and he would act as a master of ceremonies. With plenty of water and food around, the tastings started on a quite note.
The night of Nov. 29, 2003 saw us tasting 14 malts in the competition:
Highland Park 12 y.o 43% OB, Highland park 19 y.o 50% OMC, Macallan 10 y.o 40% OB, Speyside, 43% Celtic Connection, Glenfiddich 12 y.o 40% OB, Glenfiddich 15 y.0 Solera 40% OB, Balvenie 10 yo 40% OB, Balvenie 12 yo Double wood, 43% OB, Glenrothes 1990/02 46% Wilson & Morgan sherry cask, Glenrothes 1989/00 43% OB, Glenfiddich 18 yo, Ancient Reserve 40% OB, Glenfiddich 21 yo Havana Reserve, 40% Rum Finish OB, Talisker 10 yo 45.8% OB and Talisker Double matured 1989/02 45.8% OB
(OB means Original Bottling)
Although none of the samples could be identified, both Mark and I guessed all the Speyside malts correctly and in case of Talisker we placed it in Islay. None of the notes and points was declared till the drams were finished. Surprisingly, the scorings were uniform barring some exceptions.
November 30, 2003.
A quick brunch and tastings commenced at 10 am. Johannes suggested H 2 H tastings. I said, “I never had any heart to heart tastings before”. Mark and Johannes fell out of their seats. Silly me, I don’t know how many times I was going to make an — hole out of myself. Any way, having known what H2H means (Head to Head) we embarked upon our noble mission. As Johannes had tasted all the samples before, he came out with an ingenious way of pouring similar kind of blinds. Johannes, who was playing master of ceremonies, in fact is now toying with two helpless victims. But he made up for his pranks by playing some of the finest music all along. Bellini, Puccini, Wagner, Mozart, Rachmoninov, Carl Orff and so on – the music brings magic in your drink.
Balvenie 1989/00 Portwood 40% OB with Balvenie 15 yo 50.4% OB
Glenrothes 1979/02 43% OB with Glenrothes 1973/00 43% OB
Lochside 1991/03 43% G&M with Brechin 26 yo 50% DL
St. Magdalene 24 yo DL , OMC 50% with Inverleven 1989/03 45% G&M
Aberlour 12 yo 58.8% OB with Aberlour13 yo 58.7 % OB (both from Warehouse no.1)
Springbank 10 yo 46% OB with Springbank 15 yo 46% OB
Laphroig 16 yo 50% DL with Ardbeg Committee 21 yo 56.3%
Clynelish 14 yo Rum finish 50% DL with Clynelish 1989/03 46% W&M
Macallan 12 yo 57.2% W&M with Brora 30 yo 52.4% OB
Caol Ila 1992/02 50% W&M barrel Selection with Lagavulin 42% W&M House Malt
Rosebank 10 yo 46% Murray McDavid with Rosebank 14 yo 46% Whisky Galore
Benromach 18 yo 40% OB with Glenlivet 18 yo 43% OB
Glenlivet 20 yo French Oak finish 46% OB with Glenlivet 26 59.7% Signatory Vintage
Talisker 20 yo Sherry 62% Ob with Talisker 20 yo 58.8% OB
I had never tasted such thoroughbreds in my life. Each one is masterpiece and it was becoming increasingly difficult to award points. I think selecting long legged beauties in a pageantry would have been an easier task. The tastings went on again till 4 am. It was another marathon session.
December 1, 2003, The Finale
20 Malts to go and the tastings started very early after a hurried breakfast of bread and omelettes.
The Head to Head tastings went on like this:
Longrow 10 yo 1993 46% Ob with Glenkinchie 1989/02 43% OB
(Both Mark and myself thought they were Islay malts )
Glenfarclas 33 yo 46% OB with Convalmore Glenlivet 26 yo 46% Cadenhead
Lagavulin 16 yo 43% OB with Lagavulin 1986/02 43% OB
(Both Mark and myself thought they were Speyside malts!)
Aberlour 10 yo 40% OB with Mortlach 12 yo 1990/02 46% MMM
Lagvulin 12 yo Spl Reserve 58% OB with Caol Ila 1990/03 46% Whisky Galore
Cragganmore 12 yo 1990/02 46% MM with Cragganmore 14 yo 46% Cadenheads
Bruichladdich 32 yo 1970/02 44.2% OB with Bruichladdich 15 yo 46% OB
Aberlour 15 yo 1988/03 50% DL with Aberlour 16 yo Double Cask 43% OB
Cragganmore 12 yo 40% Ob with Cragganmore 1988/02 Double Matured 40% OB
Longmorn 13 yo 46% MM with Vatting of all 61 malts
The tastings ended at around 4 pm and Johannes had to feed the data into the computer. He had to declare the results in consultation with Serge who by now was eagerly awaiting for our scores in Turckheim. No prizes for guessing the winner. It was no surprise:
The unanimous Over all Winner – Talisker 20 yo Sherry, 62% OB
(Talisker is one among the six Classic Malts range belonging to Diageo. It is distilled in Skye with the typical local hard waters. The winner was distilled in 1981 and bottled in 2002 at original cask strength of 62% alcohol. Only 9,000 bottles came out of the casks for distribution. The casks must have been first fill sherry casks, which imparted the deep red sherry colour. It has a very fruity and smoky nose with faint hints of fresh oak wood. The Fruitiness is fully blown on the palate and the spices come out oily texture on the tongue. Sweet and full bodied with a long, long finish. A big winner.)
All the maniacs scored it in 90s and I was very happy to fall in line with the guys, having scored 92 for this exceptional malt.
Since we had lot of time left for the day and also for next two days, Johannes let us have several other malts from his whisky collection to increase our malt mileage. “A big Thank you, Johannes”, for all those wonderful malts.
II The Journey
December 4, 2003
Johannes hired a car for the long journey from Amsterdam to Turckheim. Since we had to reach Serge’s place same evening to join the Brorathon (tasting various Broras), we started early at 9 a.m. From Amsterdam we headed towards Arnhem to enter the German border. Remembering the heroes of “A Bridge Too Far”, the iconic examples of human bravery, we moved forward. Halted for a short brunch at Bocholt, a small town at the beginning of Ruhrgebeit. I had no idea that Germans eat such huge quantities for breakfast. I ordered something in German and a huge pig hoof landed on my plate with a mound of potatoe paste and my plate was overflowing with food. The journey continued after the breakfast and Johannes, by now was using the gas at 180 Kmph. The German Autobahns are really fast. At around 12noon we crossed Cologne and after half an hour I had a doubt that we were actually traveling backwards on the same road we crossed at Cologne. I didn’t dare to express my doubt to the head master, who by now has all ready missed a couple of right exits. Before the journey had started he boasted that he had traveled extensively in Europe. He didn’t say at that time that he traveled only on bicycle. Anyhow, at around 2 p.m we knew, we were on a wild goose chase and despite our best efforts to follow a general southerly direction towards either Bonn or Koblenz, were actually heading north towards Duesseldorf. Finally, we managed to take an easterly direction towards Holland and stopped at Venlo to take stock of the situation. By now, it was 4 p.m. Since Serge and other Maniacs would be eagerly waiting for our arrival, we made a call to Serge to explain the situation. It was decided to abandon the plan of reaching Turckheim by car and instead try a different plan. So we decided to go back home and take either an aerial or a train route. Finally at around 9 pm we were back to pavilion in Johannes’s apartment. After a short and quick dinner we were drawing plans for another assault towards Turckheim. A few quick telephone calls to Amsterdam Central revealed that a train was starting at 11 p.m towards Strasbourg. If everything goes right we should be in Colmar by midday next day. The journey involved changing trains at least at 5 stations.
11 pm Amsterdam – Utrecht. Change train to Eindhoven
12 p.m Eindhoven – Venlo, arrive at 1 a. m. Change train to Duesseldorf
4.30 a.m Venlo – Duesseldorf. Change train to Cologne
6.30 am Duesseldorf – Cologne. Change train to Mannheim
8.30 a.m Cologne – Mannheim
10.30 a.m Mannheim –Karlsruhe – Strasbourg, change to local train
12.00 noon Strasbourg – Colmar
As Johannes was totally exhausted and was not in a position to take any more journeys, he excused himself from joining the train trip to Turckheim. However, he was very gracious in accompanying us to Amsterdam Central and load us into our first train to Utrecht. Undaunted and unfazed by what has happened, the two missionaries proceeded on their mission. It was freezing cold.
Opera at Venlo
The train reached Venlo at 1 am and the next train to Duesseldorf was at 4.30 am. We decided to spend the night inside the station that was found to be relatively warm. It came as rude shock to know that the Dutch Railway stations close in the night and no body is allowed to stay inside. A policeman was all ready on his way to drive us out of the station. There we were, in the middle of a freezing night, on the road, without a place even to rest our bottoms. A statue in front of the station said it all. Four men frozen to death at Venlo waiting for a train. Perhaps they didn’t carry a bottle of Lagavulin. Just before leaving his apartment, Johannes stuffed half a bottle of 16 y.o old Lagavulin into Mark’s bag and said “just in case it is needed….”. It was the most sensible act done by any of us during the day. “Was it needed, Johannes? You bet”.
Lagavulin straight form the bottle, John Wayne style in a Western Movie. After a few gulps, the tenor came out of Mark. For those who don’t know, Mark is professional Opera singer in Los Angeles. It was the highest form of natural adult male voice I had ever heard. The town reverberated with the voice of Mark, singing Pagliacci with such an emotion that I stood spellbound. He sang different pieces of the opera explaining the meaning of each piece and tears rolled out of my eyes. Pagliacci could not have been staged at a better place ever before!
The European Union Anthem was adopted at Strasbourg and how could Mark miss the Ode to Joy? The fourth movement of the 9th Symphony is always a joy to hear and Mark
sang it so well. Then Mark forced me to sing. I was a bit shy at first. Since no body was around to hear my dreadful voice and with fire in my belly with Lagavulin, I burst into singing one of my old favourite songs – a revolutionary song written by Wolfgang Bierman during his days in erstwhile East Germany.
Soldat, Soldat in Grauer Norm
Soldat, Soldat in Uniform
Soldat, Soldat ihr seid zu viel
Soldat, Soldat das ist kein spiel
The song goes on…
Then the Assamese version of Old Man River of Paul Robeson. How strange! Two mad men singing at odd hours of night at the top of their voices, in some foreign soil and in all languages except their mother tongues! How crazy?
The singing went on until we realized that it was time to catch train to Duesseldorf.
Time just flew by.
It was the first 1000-point Lagavulin ever tasted by any one.
III The Festivities
We arrived late noon at Colmar station and were greeted by Davin, Serge, Klaus and his girl friend, Michael and Olivier. With Christmas round the corner Colmar looked like a fairy tale town straight out of medieval period. We had a little stroll in the town before settling for lunch at a typical French restaurant. The restaurant was adjacent to the house where Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of Statue of Liberty was born. The restaurant it self must have been a cellar in its olden days going back to a couple of centuries. Everything about Colmar is historical. After a hearty lunch, Serge and Olivier drove us to Turckheim, a half hour drive from Colmar. Serge arranged the stay for me and Mark in a small hotel situated about 7 minutes walk from his house. Serge knew we were tired and permitted us to take rest till evening. Around 8 pm he knocked on my door announcing that it was time to head for DOMAINE ZIND HUMBRECHT.
Olivier, the first Master of Wines in France was already waiting with the rest of the Maniacs in the cellar of Domaine Zind Humbrecht. Under subdued lighting, in the bowels of his cellar Olivier lined up the best wines that Domain Zind Humbrecht produces not only in the province of Alsace but also in entire France. I would be fooling myself if I comment upon the tasting notes of the wines that Olivier produced in our honour during the evening. Even without possessing much knowledge on wines, I could vouch that the wines were of exceptional taste and quality and in pure malt-maniacal terms, they all scored above 90s. Although tasters do not swallow the wine in wine tasting sessions, I did go to corners to steal some full gulps. The stuff was too precious to spit.
The wine tasting was followed by a sumptuous dinner at Olivier’s house. The Master Wine Maker is also a Master Chef. He cooked an Alsace speciality direct from his grandmother’s recipe, a delicious stew of beef, lamb and pork cooked in wine with potatoes, onions and lots of herbs. With such good wines and food, it was ambrosia. After dinner we all gathered in the study for the final round of tasting of Olivier’s collection of Malts. Olivier has an amazing collection of malts I had ever come across and he placed in front of us the following to taste:
Linlithgow 26 yo 1975/01 51.5% Signatory Vintage 86
Ben Nevis 30 yo 1971/00 55.6% OB 84
Ardbeg 30 yo 40% Black Label OB 90
Ardbeg 25 yo 1975/00 50% OMC 94
Bruichladdich 18 yo 1983/01 58.8% OB 82
Laphroig 30 yo 43% OB 92
Laphroig 40 yo 42.4% OB 90
Highland Park 17 yo 1984/01 50% OMC 82
Highland Park 23 yo 1978/01 50% OMC 89
Mcduff 36 yo 1965/02 49.2% DL 80
Glenfarclas 21 yo 1978/99 60.3% OB 86
Glenfarclas 11 yo June 1990/ May 2001 46% Plain Oak cask 78
Glenfarclas 11 yo April 1990/ May 2001 46% Olorosso cask 80
Glenfarclas 11 yo Feb 1990/ May 2000 46% Fino Sherry cask 82
Brora 29 yo 59.5% DL Platinum Collection 96
The best malt whisky I had ever tasted
Glenlochy 49 yo 1952/01 43% OMC 85
The oldest whisky on the Matrix
It was almost 3 am and it was decided to call it a day (or night). Had it not been for early morning gathering at Serge’s place the next day, the session would have gone forever. It was one of the most amazing days in my life.
The Moonshiners
The self-contained distillation plant was brought to Serge’s house the day before. Serge’s friends arrived well in time and already the white wine was flowing by eight in the morning. All the friends of Serge who came were connected with wine industry some way or the other. So, you are having special wines brought from the private cellars of master wine makers themselves. Someone ordered fresh oysters from Brittany and the party started with oysters with white wine and a dash of lemon. Could there be any other better way to start the day? After some greedy grabbing of oysters, one of the inquisitive friends of Serge asked me, “Do you eat raw oysters in India?” I did not know how to react or answer immediately. Having known that some varieties of oysters, clams and mussels are available so cheap in India and form a normal part of diet of some coastal people, I blurted out, “Yes, but only poor people India eat them”. Having spent a fortune for bringing the fresh oysters from Brittany, this guy did not know how to react to my reply. He said “but we are poor people in Alsace”. By now the flame steadied and the machine was charged with gewürztraminer, out of which the final product would evolve.
(For detailed account of the process, click on Serge’s report)
During the entire day there was a steady stream of guests and it was very heartening to see such strong family ties. Everybody knew each other in Turckheim. Since there were so many guests, help came from every family. Serge’s wife was constantly at work in the kitchen helped by his dear daughter and friends. Variety of red wines was brought specially for the occasion and the festivities continued till late in the evening. By seven in the evening the second distillation was over and the distillate was brought for tasting. It looked like arrack with a fruity nose. The palate was better than the nose and at more than 50% abv, it was a bomber on the tongue. May be with some aging it could mellow down. Serge had already prepared the labels for the bottles with an apt name. WMD from Alsace!
In the evening some one mentioned that there was an opera singer in the group and Serge had to request Mark to sing for his friends. And so I had the honour of hearing Mark again and his Pagliacci. I thought the rendering of Pagliacci at Venlo was far more enjoyable.
Next day after a sober breakfast at Serge’s house Mark and I bid farewell to his friends and especially his wife and children. Serge and his daughter dropped Mark and I at the station for our journey back to Amsterdam. I cannot re call any occasion when I had so much fun in my life.
Thus ended the festivities of Turckheim with fantastic food, fabulous wines, and fantabulous whiskies and above all, fanatical friends.
