I finished the last of my mushrooms while talking to Sean. As you can see, the butter is more of a paste being mixed with the butter. It is very savory and rich and salty enough to cleanse the palette and free it to my next whiskey, which I was prepared to default to a recommendatin to Sean's discretionary palette.
Our conversation began with Sean giving me a breakdown of American Whiskeys, mainly Bourbon. To be legally called bourbon, it must be made of a grain mixture that is at least 51 percent corn. The flavored grains are going to be wheat or rye. Bourbon must be aged in new charred-oak barrels. It must be aged a minimum of 4 years and if not, that must be labeled on the bottle. He did this breakdown for me as he is pointing things out on the drink menu.
In the process, he echoed his distaste which he shares with me, over Canadian whiskeys (luckily a short list on the Izakaya Meiji menu), and his love of rye over wheat whiskeys. He ordered the Early Times 354, a whiskey he had never tried, but had been recommended to him. Over his first glass, he shared with me the whiskey tasting technique he learned in Vegas, when partaking in a $100 shot of Rittenhouse 21 year. It goes as follows. Take in the aroma. Take a small sip. Hold in the front of your mouth for a few minutes. Your tongue may start to burn, get prickly. Your eyes may water. Little by little let a bit of the whiskey draw back to your throat and swallow. A tiny bit at time. Also over the course of a couple of minutes, until all the whiskey is gone. Then take the next sip, no longer sniffing the whiskey. This will open up all sorts of new flavors and sensation. I watched him demonstrate and then tried it was well with the ET354.
The main thing I noticed how much my tongue began stinging. I took the whiskey back a little bit of a time. As I took the second sip and swallowed could sense the cinnamon and the caramel tones mixed with the oak as I swallowed. A great taste and a nice lesson learned. For my second true whiskey of the night, I tried the Rittenhouse 100, recommended by Sean and ordered one last skewer before happy hour ended.
The Rittenhouse was incredibly smooth, and had a much greater viscosity than most whiskey's I have tried. Reading about it, it says it is a Pennsylvania styled Rye. It was truly amazing. Spicy. Not even a hint bitter. Sweet. More sweet than most Americans, I have had, which completely separates it from European whiskeys altogether. Truly a splendid recommendations and a highlight so far in 2012. I tried the tasting technique again. The Rittenhouse, truly, truly phenomenal.
I moved onto the Dry Fly Wheat. The Dryfly distellery is from Spokane, WA, and is probably better known for its Vodka and Gin. Having recently visited the Puget sound to visit my best friend and see Brian Setzer in concert, I saw Dry Fly spirits sprinkled through out one of the liquor stores. I decided to leave the state of Kentucky and come home for my next selection and I was very pleasantly surprised. I ordered the Dry Fly over a cube of ice, to hopefully draw some of the flavors from the whiskey and it was amazingly smooth, some hints of cinnamon, citrus, I believe orange. Just a very nice new whiskey. I think would be great for an old-fashioned, which is kind of ironic.
We continued to talk life, whiskey, work and music over our drinks. Sean also tried the snapper. He ordered his second drink, the Henry McKenna Single Batch. He took a sip as I was finishing my dry wheat and continued talking. Being responsible, he stopped after one sip and I finished it off over ice. Nice, but nothing compared to the Rittenhouse. We talked, I got a ride home away from the cold and he left me with a CD by Lydia Loveless, which will be my last recommendation from this Blog. Country music with rock-infused guitars. Lydia's voice is reminiscent of Mia Zapata's. Honest, slightly dark country music with a rock edge. Great CD.
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