Alcolog

One of the pitfalls of all forms of alcohol is that its primary ingredients (water and alcohol) evaporate. This can happen either in a cask or in a bottle, though the former is more likely because of the porous nature of oak. When casked, both distilled and fermented alcohols will lose approximately 1-6% of their volume to evaporation. Depending on the environment around the cask, this evaporation may be more water than alcohol. So the evaporation lost in Scotland is mostly alcohol whereas in Kentucky it's roughly equal parts alcohol and water.

As with any longstanding tradition, there is a myth that the volume lost to evaporation was "The Angel's Share" and was their payment to protect the stocks. The Irish myth of the Clurichauns were similar, though the Irish were more likely to see them than an angel.

Bottle loss is a bit stickier and has more to do with improper closures and/or improper storage conditions. The two bottles pictured above suffered both of those fates, mostly from being stored in unfavorable conditions for a number of years. These bottles are from a defunct importing company known as All Saints Brands. Their stocks of Loch Morar and Highland blends sat in a warehouse during bankruptcy proceedings for at least three years. Only recently (within the last 18 months) were the stocks released to the public and you can find some of their dwindling supplies in various liquor stores in Minneapolis.

The company itself has its own level of modern lore, mainly because it was a popular importer of rare European beers. Searches on the Internet come up with a number of websites talking about the company, but no information about what happened. I even tried to reach the principals of the company but they din't return my calls. So this mini-liquor legend continues for now.

Whereas Prohibition did a serious number on the American Bourbon and imported spirits market, the same could be said for the Cuban Revolution's impact on the rum trade. Sure, the sugar and tobacco trade were more directly affected, but rum was also a casualty in the centralization of the economy following the ascendancy of Castro in the early 1960s. The Arechabala family fled Cuba during this time, taking up residence in Florida. When they fled, they took the recipe for Havana Club with them. However, the Cuban government repatriated the stills and began selling Havana Club through a joint venture with Pernod Ricard. Most people who have had Havana Club lately are tasting the results of this state-owned enterprise.
That is with the exception of people who buy Havana Club in Florida. There you will find a rum made in Puerto Rico by Bacardi. This is apparently from the Arechabala family, and has recently been available because the US Patent and Trademark Office vacated Cuba's claim to the Havana Club copyright. Long story shortened: There are now two Havana Clubs.

If this sounds familiar, you may be thinking of the schizophrenia associated with the Budweiser name. There are two companies who produce beer under the Budweiser label: Anheuser-Busch and Budejovicky Budvar. These two beer companies have been battling in court for the last half century to try and claim ownership of the name. The results have been varied with each company getting sole ownership of the name within a country. There are a few execptions like the UK where the courts decided that both companies have right to the name, but these countries are rare. One thing rings true for all of these, and that's the lawyers are making a killing in legal fees as both companies battle each other in court.
So the tiny Czech town of Budejovicke and the capital city of Havana meet as sister cities in the courts as two huge drinks companies sit on opposite sides of the gavel, hoping to make money off the spirit of a place name. Will the courts come to a consensus on common sense? The indications from the Budweiser cases are that they won't, and so drinkers in various jurisdictions will need to look at the backs of their bottles to figure out who won the battle in their part of the woods.

Do I have an opinion? Sure, but it's not driven by taste. Personally, I think that creating a product connected with a place name intends for the consumer to connect with that place. If I saw a bottle of "Havana Club" I would presume it was produced in, well, Havana. Budweiser, regardless of its American connection, refers to a beer produced in Budweis (the German equivalent of Budejovicke)... or at least the style of beer produced in that region. Ultimately I side with Pernod and Budvar on this for linguistic grounds, and leads into a further tangent as it relates to whisky.... something I'm calling "Still Ventriloquism".

A small preface: This is not a rant. Some of my favorite whiskies are part of this trend to consolidate distilling multiple expressions of whiskies off of a single still. It allows a diverse selection while still keeping prices down for the consumer. It's more that consumers should be aware that just because a bottle has a place name on the label doesn't necessarily mean that it was made in that place.

Because whiskies are aged, it's possible for a closed distillery's product to keep surfacing for decades. These "silent stills" are revered for their scarcity and romance. Locations such as Caol Ila or Bruichladdich became so popular after they closed that the stills came back to life. But then you've got stills such as Longrow that can't really be brought back to life - so what's an owner supposed to do? Well, you can re-jigger your already existing stills and make something that tastes a lot like the stuff from the old place. Thus a silent still's voice comes back from the dead and throws its voice through someone else's still. In short - "Still Ventriloquism"

The boldest example of this is in Ireland. There's about fifteen brands of whiskey produced out of three (soon to be four) distilleries. Kentucky Bourbon has more stills, but about the same average of brands per still. The most diverse would be the Buffalo Trace still that's cranking out at least ten different spirits including Rain vodka.
Scotch is a bit less likely to have its stills throw their voices, but the trend appears to be coming to Scotland. Springbank's multiple brands are the first that springs to mind. There's also Bruichladdich going on a buying spree of closed Islay distilleries; potentially to produce three different Scotches from one primary still.
Then there's Diageo's announcement to build a huge new distillery in Roseisle and you're left wondering what its primary purpose will be. Diageo would have an uphill battle trying to market a new name. Heck, they opened Auchroisk over thirty years ago and they still market it under "The Singleton" name.

Wouldn't it make more sense for this still to produce all of those brands everyone is asking for? Rosebank - back on the shelf. Maybe satisfy those Coleburn diehards that are still out there. It's amazing what you can do with a high-tech still, ample raw materials, and a few juicy trademarks.

Yes, I'll be posting about WhiskyFest eventually. However, I was struck by what I actually brought back from Chicago: Three gins, two Scotches, a rye, a Bourbon, an American whiskey, and a rum. This might be from the under-representation of gin in Minneapolis, but really it's an appreciation that a good gin is worth the effort.

Curiously enough, I did quip during the return that, "it's not like there'd be a 'GinFest'." But really gin and vodka are an underpinning that contributed to the diversity of WhiskyFest.

These days it's popular to finance a new distillery by first bottling a vodka or a gin while the whiskies of the future rest in casks. Two of the three gins I bought fall within that class: Junipero from Anchor Distilling and Blackwood's. Anchor is really stretched thin on their stocks, so a certain percentage of the raw spirit is being bottled as a gin. Blackwood's, the future spoiler to Highland Park's claim of the northernmost Scotch distillery, hasn't even built any stills but is using an unspecified distillery to sell vodka and gin even before they have a still of their own.
Other distilleries who have stocks of aged whiskies will still sell vodka and/or gin to subsidize their current expenses. Examples of this would be Penderyn, Buffalo Trace, and Cooley (Clontarf).

Sadly, most newer stills are sticking with vodka rather than dipping a toe into the botanical bathtub of gin. For those that do put forth the effort, they can be rewarded handsomely for their efforts. A good vodka is revered for its lack of taste, while a good gin is revered for its taste's complexity. Care to guess which of those attributes is prized in the aged spirits?

It's been a week since WhiskyFest, which gave me enough time to digest the evening's experiences and reflect on a few high notes from the evening.

Local law in Chicago limited the amount of alcohol that can be poured per taste to one quarter of a shot (about 11ml). This meant that, for the five hours of WhiskyFest, one could consume twenty tastes and stay within the oft-quoted limit of one drink per hour. Those twenty prized tastes had to be drawn from over 250 different options. Tough choices, too. Some stuck to expensive Scotches, while others tried the obscure domestic options. Some threw the twenty-drink rule to the wind and got kicked out. My rule? Drink what I can't get back home. This ranged from a Suntory only available in Japan, a blended Scotch only available in the eastern time zone, a Colorado whiskey, and a few IB Scotches. Throw in a few ryes and Bourbons and I'm pretty sure I stayed under the limit.

The notable winners were the ryes, numerous and popular at the show. Templeton made their out-of-Iowa debut at the show and drew an amazing crowd. Kentucky Bourbon Distiller's offered up some very spicy and aged ryes that caught the eye of a few. WhiskyFest even gave its first speaking engagement to Craig Beam to talk about rye's upsurge.

Diageo's presence at the show was unmistakeable. When going through the doors, the tier of booths in front of everyone were Diageo's brands: Singleton, Bulleit, Dickel, Johnnie Walker, Talisker, and Bushmills. This powerhouse of distilling ensured that people tried their products, in a way that felt more like a carnival than a collection of whisky drinkers. Considering that they were one of the premier sponsors for the show, it's hard to blame them for wanting people to try their products.

Slightly related to that is a small maxim: If you need scantility clad women to draw people to your booth, then your product isn't selling itself on its own merits. The hall had numerous women in slinky cocktail dresses mingling with men looking for attention and being towards a specific company's offerings. This kind of marketing, while effective, does not improve the industry's standing as a male-oriented experience. To be blunt: WhiskyFest had less women there of their own volition than the computer hacking convention I went to in 1999. Plenty of dates and wives, but the industry has yet to crack the gender barrier. Whisky needs to draw in more women in order to be more viable in the future.

The Distilled Sprits Council has a horrible job. This political action committee has the charge of convincing the puritanical American interests that alcohol isn't a bad thing. At this point that means picking narrow interests like fighting silly blue laws and educating teenagers that they shouldn't drink. More broad subjects like convincing people that alcohol isn't a bad thing have to take a backseat because the audience of America doesn't agree.
One small aside: it was rather funny to find out that Chistopher Buckley spent time at the Distilled Spirits Council while writing his book, Thank You For Smoking.

One last observation: WhiskyFest is a lot like Mardi Gras. There's a lot of things that happen the week leading up to the actual holiday and if you aren't around for anything but the last day; then you're missing a lot. The week leading up to WhiskyFest had a number of events that were more intereting and more accessible than the event itself. So for next year I'll be there for more than just the event itself. Maybe next year I'll get more than just twenty tastes of the leading edge of the whisky industry.