November 4-10, 2004

food

Meeting of the Malts

by A.D. Amorosi

When some people stop drinking, everything about liquor makes them sick—the smell of it on another's breath, the scent of it seeping through another's pores. But for me, a year into nonswilling, the aromatic quality of booze is a waft to behold; the remembered potential behind its taste, divine. Why, last week alone, I noticed the aroma of a sturdy Glenfarclas, attracting me like a falcon to pigeon blood. Yummy.

I'll have no nervous sweats or delirium tremens then, as Philly Mag brings its Whiskey Festival and its promised gathering of the international playboys of bourbon, cognac, scotch and rum to the Crystal Tea Room this Wednesday. Both Mark Brown (of Buffalo Trace Distillery) and Bill Bergius (of Allied Domecq) will discuss in seminar form how each of their particular distilleries hunt and peck for perfection where both the right bourbon and the right malts are concerned.

If you don't know about the strains of malt—single, double and triple—that form a fine whiskey, these men can help. But surely, men and women with whiskey on their minds won't want to sit through mere discussions on what a good liquor should be. These people have their fever for the flavor. They want to get up close and personal with the men behind Irish whiskies like Jameson and Bushmills. They want to know who David Sherman is. That means that, along with the traditional distillers most know and love—the Glenfiddich scotches, the Canadian Club whiskeys, the Makers Mark bourbons and the Courvoisier cognacs—more esoteric brands of whiskey and the distilleries that represent them will be present, giving us the inside track on the finest of malts.

While this includes tastings from age-old distilleries like Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey and Bruichladdich Scotch, it also means meeting up with some of the new jacks in whiskey-dom like the Isle of Jura and Heaven Hill brands. Yet, the highlight of the evening comes from seeing Macallan whiskey-maker Bob Dalgarno's Macallan Fine and Rare Collection. To some bartenders and purveyors, just being near the drink that Easter Elchies House produced between 1926 through 1972 is like standing next to Dylan or Vonnegut. But to be able to sip the nectar, perhaps, of Macallan's 1953 scotch—bottled in a short run of only 100—is like drinking mother's milk from Marilyn Monroe. Hmmm. Maybe I still like this stuff too much?

Philadelphia Whiskey Festival, Wed., Nov. 10, 6-9:30 p.m., $85 ($50 for designated drivers), Crystal Tea Room, 100 Penn Square (enter on Juniper St.), 215-979-7499.