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Kitchen Chat and more…
Kitchen Chat and more…
29 August was a night of rare whiskies, or what we would expect from whisky distilleries long gone if they had survived. The Wall SG invited Flora and Choc to the tasting session, and of course, we just had to go! Tasting seven expressions of whiskies were the first for us, and we were prepared to get tippy!
We arrived at The Wall SG shortly after 6.30pm and were pleasantly surprised to see that Chris Marshall, co-owner of Distilled (they import The Lost Distillery bottles) were already there. After a short introduction, we made ourselves comfortable and began chatting with Chris.
We understood that Distilled was established just a short 12 months ago, and will be reaching the first milestone soon. Chris was an engineer in his previous life and enjoyed his work very much. However, he got into spirits and began to explore the idea of setting up something of his own. The time came when Chris decided that it is time for him to pursue his passion and his wife supported him. Hence, with his co-founder, Stephanie, Distilled was born.
Distilled represented many brands, but only two whisky brands. One of them is none other than The Lost Distillery.
The Lost Distillery Company (TLDC) believes that it is a pity that many distilleries of the past were gone and buried. Many of these distilleries do not even get a mention in current times. To bring back the memories of these long-gone distilleries, the research team at TLDC worked hard to understand these lost distilleries to find the style of whisky they might have produced. With the knowledge, they re-build the flavour profiles by blending single malt whiskies to create what these lost distilleries might have produced if they are alive and distilling today.
The research includes the barley type, water source, type of stills and yeast. They also used black bottles to replicate the black bottles used during the 18th and 19th century.
TLDC creates three different ranges – from the Classic Selection to the Archivist Collection and finally the Vintage Selection. The classic selection holds expressions generally aged around 12 years old, and bottled at 43%. The Archivist Collection showcased expressions around 18 years old and bottled at 46%. The Vintage Selection is the most expensive and feature expressions about 30 years years old and also bottled at 46%. Do note that all of them are blended malts made by the talented master blenders of TLDC.
Currently, only the Classic Selection is available in Singapore as they are more approachable and offers an excellent choice for many drinkers.
There are seven whiskies in the series which represent Scotland’s five whisky regions.
Highland: Auchnagie, Jericho and Gerston
Lowland: Stratheden
Speyside: Towiemore
Campbeltown: Dalaruan
Islay: Lossit
As there are too many expressions to share our tasting notes, we will share two of our favourite.
Details: 12 Years Old, 43%, Highland, remote area with no access to other parts of Scotland, one of the first to use sherry cask for maturation
Nose: Dark raisins, chocolate and hints of spice all the way
Palate: Dark raisins, cherry at the forefront before milk chocolate appears in mid-palate before dried prunes turn up at the back of the throat.
Finish: Medium to long, with raisins and dried prunes. It turns oaky after a few seconds.
Both of us like this expression because it reminds us of a sherry bomb that is not overly sherried. The beauty of this dram is the sherry influence without the sulphur that tends to be associated with sherry bombs.
Details: 12 Years Old, 43%, Islay, a rough area with pirates and dangerous thugs, was isolated due to bad association.
Nose: Lemon peels, sweet fruits, some spice and very light peat.
Palate: Lemon, sweet fruits, some peppery spice, oily and some light peat.
Finish: Short to medium with smoke, lemon and oakiness.
We love this expression because it is peaty. It is also an easy to approach dram for new potential peatheads.
If there is anyone who wishes to try these drams, you can find them easily at The Wall SG. You know that you can find rare whiskies, affordable drams and fantastic service there!
Ask me which part of the USA I have been to, and the answer will be none. My globe-trotting adventures stopped in the United Kingdom, and I have yet to visit the USA. Frankly, the one thing that indeed puts me off from the USA is the long flight. Flying 12 hours to London had been an absolute nightmare to me and all the flight attendants onboard the particular A380 I was on, and trust me, flying to the USA was such a daunting thought that I have not yet considered a trip there – even with three connecting flights perhaps?
Nonetheless, I think I might be enticed to do that soon, what with my small victory in loving my first ever bourbon! Yay! If you know me well, I am not a bourbon lover. I cannot accept the sweetness that comes with corn distillation, even though I had come close to liking one from Westland Distillery.
State 38 Distilling stays at one of the western states of the USA – Golden, Colorado. As Colorado is the 38th state to be recognised in the USA, the owner decided to name his distillery State 38 Distilling. Part of being patriotic, the owner also wants to associate his distillery with the land that it sits on.
Golden nestled between Denver and the Rocky Mountains and is well-known to be a gold rush town in the 19th century. Gold once flowed in its river, and the town is filled with rich history. It is also home to the Lookout Mountains and the Red Rocks Park.
State 38 Distilling opened its doors in March 2013. The owner, Sean Smiley, hand-built all the distillery equipment by hand and also the old western style tasting room that you can find at the distillery. Sean comes from a long lineage of patriotic and loyal men and women, with roots all the way from Scotland.
Sean’s ancestor first crossed the continents from London to the USA in 1850. D.C. Loveday was a Londoner who went to the USA looking for more than just a job. The allure of entrepreneurship guided him forward as he settled in the small town of East Jordan, MI. Loveday became a legendary and honourable statesman in his life, and his independent character became the cornerstone for his descendant, Sean Smiley, owner of State 38 Distilling.
Sean’s great-grandfather, W.I. McKenzie served as a war crimes prosecutor during World War II and received letters from the FDR for his services. He drew strength from the Scottish blood flowing through his veins and ploughed on even in the face of ultimate challenges.
The man behind State 38 is none other than Sean, the great-grandson of W.I McKenzie. He gained his passion for distilling at a young age. With the encouragement from his family, he built his first home still from various part found at the local hardware stores. After graduation, Sean worked in the oil and gas industry. From Global Sales Managing roles to Director of a small engineering company, Sean sees the world through the lens of the good, old oil and gas industry.
Five years ago, Sean decided to change his fate and his life. After ten years of home distilling, he believes that it is time to do something about it. Hence, Sean built his distillery by hand and opened its door in March 2013. With his roots firmly planted in the USA, he commits himself to use local ingredients to produce tasty spirits using his customised copper pot stills.
As we know, whisky is made from only three ingredients – barley, yeast and water. For bourbons, it is a little more complicated, but the main theory still holds. Producers made bourbons from three main ingredients too – grains, yeast and water. The only difference is that they are allowed to use different grains for their mash.
Sean wanted to create unique spirits when he decided to open a distillery. With his roots in Scotland, he was determined to make spirits that are reminiscent of Scotch but yet, wholly American. Therefore, he embarked on a journey to make his whiskeys special.
State 38 uses different grains for their bourbon. While the main ingredient is still corn, the distillery also uses 5% rye, 5% wheat and 20% heavily malted barley. The different grains help to create a unique flavour profile for the DC Loveday bourbon, differentiating it from the others.
Sean also made a peated whisky in which he imported 100% peat-smoked barley from Scotland. Using the barley from Scotland, he combines yeast and water from the melted snow on the Rocky Mountains to create a new and special whisky – one that is not found anywhere else in the world.
Distillation in State 38 follows a strict rule – all raw ingredients are processed onsite. The distillery buys local grains and hand milled them with a small roller mill. Once done, the grains mixed with approximately 500 gallons of fresh Rocky Mountain water in a mash tun. The mash is heated to convert the starch to sugar before turning the heat up to caramelised some of the sugars. The process helps to produce a creamy caramel, chocolatey and coffeey note to the finish spirit. They cool the mash after the caramelisation before transferring it to the fermentation tanks.
The fermentation process is extra long at State 38. They use a specialised, proprietary yeast to convert the sugars to ethyl alcohol. The entire process takes 14 days per tank, which is extremely slow, even by Scottish standards. At the end of the fermentation period, clean, sweet alcohol materialises.
The wash then transfers to a 250-gallon copper still hand-built by Sean. They distilled the liquid twice, once to create a low wine and twice to get the heart at around 77.5% abv. Now, here’s where things differ. The completed white whiskey is cut to 62.5% abv using fresh Rocky Mountain water before getting barreled in brand new 52.8-gallon American oak barrels, charred to level 3. These barrels are independently staved, which makes them premium barrels to begin with.
After maturing for two years, the whiskey is cut down to bottling abv at 45% using the same Rocky Mountain fresh water before bottling.
Each small batch made at the distillery is labelled with bottle number clearly shown on the bottles.
We wanted to understand Sean’s beliefs in whiskey making, so we asked him how whiskey should be made. “I believe that whiskey should be made with great attention to details in all the processes and with respect for the time in maturation in barrels.” He also shared that he spent time studying and testing for the best methods to create the end products he wanted. The intention to caramelise sugar during the mashing process and the extra-long fermentation period are both results from his study.
Sean also shared that he created the Scottish Peat-Smoke Whisky to honour his roots in Scotland. He aimed to bring about an Islay-style whisky, but not overwhelming in smoke. Thus, he decided to go for a peaty whisky that falls somewhere between a Highland and Islay peated whisky.
With his innovative mind, Sean creates stunning whisk(e)ys expressions to rival the booming American whiskey companies. Being a boutique distillery, the small batches of whiskey made are often sold out quickly too!
State 38 products range from bourbon to rye to peaty whisky. The distillery also makes 100% organic agave tequila, vodka and gin. Each product carries the State 38 logo proudly. Currently, the products are slowly making their way out of Colorado and into other countries.
In Singapore and its South East Asia neighbours, the distillery is starting with the DC Loveday Bourbon and the WI McKenzie Peat-Smoke Whisky. It has plans to import its gin, vodka and tequila to Singapore in future.
With its 5th anniversary celebration over, State 38 is expanding its production equipment, storage and bottling plant. The 5-year milestone is a testimony to its great-tasting spirits and Sean’s enduring dedication to creating only quality products. Sean is now looking at expansion into the Asian market, with Singapore as its first stop and the rest of South East Asia should follow soon after.
During a recent BYOB (bring your own bottle) event at a friend’s place, one of his friends got to chatting with me about the length of our whisky adventures. “I am a whisky noob,” she said. “I only started drinking whisky about three to four years ago.” When she knew that I have been drinking whisky for the past ten years, she exclaimed, “Wow! Then you must know a lot about whisky!” I said no, for there are still way too many things that I do not know. We soon moved on to other topics, but her comments stayed with me. It makes me uncomfortable because I believe that nobody is truly a whisky noob.
I do not know what all of you think, but for me, drinking whisky is a learning journey. It is almost like a new friendship that I forge with someone whom I do not know. When a complete beginner starts the journey, it is likely that the person does not know what she is drinking and follows what her friends are drinking. The exploration begins that way for most of us, and we slowly but steadily move forward on our journey.
If we are lucky, we meet someone who is far advanced in his or her journey with whisky, and this person can guide us in our learning journey as a beginner. While we may not know as many things about whisky as the other person, both of us are on a trip of discovery. We are just on a different level.
It is hard to tell how long a person has been drinking, even if he or she is spouting tasting notes like an expert. As whisky drinkers, all of us learn at a different pace because we start at varying levels. A person could learn a lot about whisky in less than a year and improve his or her knowledge at an alarming pace while another person could be drinking whisky for ten years and still be clueless about many things.
I think being open to trying the various type of whiskies is one key factor in our learning journey. When we want to discover new things, the best way to do so is to try it. Therefore, a person who is willing to try different whiskies all the time walks along the whisky path faster than someone who is always drinking the same thing. Of course, the openness to try should be coupled with the willingness to learn from others, as well as the diligence to read some excellent whisky books.
If you wonder why some people move faster than the others in their whisky adventures, it could also be the fact that they are more passionate about whisky. I know of someone who hates whisky for a large part of her life and then gets introduced to a whisky which suits her palate. The hate melts instantly into love, and the passion she has for whisky develops into an almost intense relationship. Her desire to learn more, the willingness to keep trying made her practically geeky to some extent. Sometimes, she scares me with the tons of questions she has. I am inspired though because her passion for the liquid gold makes me ever so keen to drink with her. We explore whiskies and discover new things together. Her enthusiasm was contagious!
Most of us think that time measures our knowledge of whisky. To some extent, it is true for some people as they explore different whiskies all through their lives. However, it is not for some of us. A person drinking the same few brands of whiskies for the past 30 years will not know much beyond what they drink. Their knowledge is similar to someone who just started drinking whisky and sharing the love for the same few brands. Conversely, a person who is drinking whisky for five years, but have been trying different brands of whiskies, and exploring independent bottlings, will probably know more about whiskies in general. Therefore, time may measure the depth of your knowledge for one brand of whisky but does not measure the general understanding that you may have for whisky as a drink category.
Just as how we should mix with the “right” people for our career, our profession and even our moral characters, exposure to the “right” group of people when drinking whisky is also a factor. It sounds slightly weird, but when we are exposed to people who know more than us about whisky in general, these people inspire us to learn more. At the same time, they guide us with their knowledge as they are more advanced in their whisky journey than us. We shorten our journey because of these beautiful people whom we call friends and learn faster because they bring us up to their advanced level by journeying with us.
There is not one person in this world who knows everything about whisky. There is too much to learn for one person, and everyone is an expert at some subject matter of sorts. Even the master distillers at the various distilleries have something new to learn about whisky; sometimes, they learn something new from a beginner too!
Therefore, if you are just starting out on your journey, be happy that you have someone who drinks with you. It is a beautiful journey, so enjoy it and ignore people who may call you a noob. Nobody is a noob. We are each on our journey to learn more about whisky.
11311 Harry Hines Blvd
Dallas, TX, United States
(555) 389 976
dallas@enfold-restaurant.com