What Wee Dram are you enjoying now?

[PAspirit1]

For the second week in a row I've had a single malt with dinner on Friday nights. This last time I had Highland Park 12 with enchiladas and loved it. I don't seem to choose beer at home lately and I have never drank much wine.

[ILLfarmboy]

For the second week in a row I've had a single malt with dinner on Friday nights. This last time I had Highland Park 12 with enchiladas and loved it. I don't seem to choose beer at home lately and I have never drank much wine.

I often like whiskey/whisky with a meal. With Scotch I realy like anything garlicky, things like shrimp scampi. I've had Tequila with Mexican dishes but I cant recall having had whiskey/whisky.

[boss302]

I often like whiskey/whisky with a meal. With Scotch I realy like anything garlicky, things like shrimp scampi. I've had Tequila with Mexican dishes but I cant recall having had whiskey/whisky.

I find it rather odd that Scotch seems to go remarkably well with Italian food, especially pasta dishes. A dram of Glenfiddich 12 somehow compliments baked penne at a local restaurant I eat at from time to time...

It's also interesting that I know many old Italian men who love scotch.

In fact, Giacomo Justerini emigrated from Italy to the UK for his love of scotch, hence his company Justerini & Brooks, or "J&B", for short!

[PAspirit1]

I often like whiskey/whisky with a meal. With Scotch I realy like anything garlicky, things like shrimp scampi. I've had Tequila with Mexican dishes but I cant recall having had whiskey/whisky.

My current theory is that different scotches go with different meals. The more powerful foods and scotches would go together and a speysider would go with a lighter flavoured meal.

[ILLfarmboy]

I find it rather odd that Scotch seems to go remarkably well with Italian food, especially pasta dishes...

Indeed.

I like my wife's Seafood Portofino (a copycat of that found at The Olive Garden) with a nice glass of JW Green.

[JamesW]

Started with Canadian Club SR 12 yr, moved on to Macallan 12 and now Chivas 12. The Chivas was the best of the night... not much competition though, just trying to kill a few bottles and lay off the good stuff for a night.

[LeoDLion]

I have a glass of scotch before dinner and another one after dinner. Everyday. Sometimes, I would drink wine instead but seldom. Last night I opened a bottle of A'bunadh batch #21. I still have a bottle of batch #14 opened and this one is very good, much better than the #21 so I try to keep it as long as I can.

[boss302]

Started with Canadian Club SR 12 yr, moved on to Macallan 12 and now Chivas 12. The Chivas was the best of the night... not much competition though, just trying to kill a few bottles and lay off the good stuff for a night.

I am one of the few who find Johnnie Walker to be overrated and Chivas severely underrated. The Chivas 12-year has a touch of pleasant smokiness. There is definitely some island and coastal malts in there, according to my palette...

[Gillman]

It's a good point about scotch whiskies going well with Italian and (I suggest) other Mediterranean foods. Scotch (all types) are very popular in Italy and Spain, for example, and in the Southern and other parts of France. Part of the reason may be an affinity with certain of its foods.

I think the lightly smoky and briny taste some scotch has may account for this since a good part of the countries mentioned have a coastal character and a cuisine that results from it. Most of the scotch consumed there would be blended, which tends to exhibit (some of it, the better brands) some coastal qualities such as sea spray, light smoke or a certain astringency one might say.

Sherry, for its part, refects the coast or its influence, I would say.

Arak and its analogues seems popular in the Mediterranean basin and of course beyond - its origins may be mountainous from what I have read, though.

A drink such as grappa, or Cognac, strikes me as more of an interior drink. So is gin, except it characterises some estuary cities such as London famously, Bristol and others (New York is a similar case).

As for rum, its coastal connections are historical and undoubted.

Gary

[callmeox]

I attended a single malt tasting at my favorite watering hole this evening and I had generous pours of Singleton 12, and a quartet of Glenmorangie exprssions: Lasanta 12, Quinta Ruban 12, Nectar D'or 12 and Glenmorangie 18. The Lasanta was my favorite pour of the night as there was some very pronounced vanilla on the nose and the kind of mouth feel that you would expect from a non chill filtered spirit.

After it was all over, a friend surprised me with a dram of Ardbeg 10 and the peat was nearly overwhelming. Interesting, but in a "keep your distance" sort of way.