Although the Aspiring Gentleman fully endorses Scotch Whisky as the drink pairing of choice with any of your favourite cigars, the realities of workplace, dinner table, time of day and other factors may warrant another beverage option. I’ve presented here what I consider to be the best pairings, but please let us know what your ideal pairings are.
Sherry is a beverage you most likely associate with your grandma at Thanksgiving. Or maybe because you enjoy your scotch aged in barrels that once held this mysterious liquid. Sherry today actually represents one of the world’s great wine bargains, and many examples are inspired pairings with your favourite cigars. In fact, they are often inspired pairings with your favourite foods. A good sherry deserves a place in your liquor cabinet, since most sweet or off-dry examples last virtually forever once opened. I recently tryed Noé from Gonzalez Byass and was …
After trying 3 scotches from a flask and a shot glass, there were 3 glasses that were most familiar to me for scotch drinking: the Tumbler, the Wine Glass and the Glencairn Glass. I feel that all 3 of these are acceptable scotch glasses. The tumbler probably carries the least pretense; you’re not very likely to be served scotch in crystal glassware at a restaurant. My question is, is there a better glass for drinking scotch?
Can different glasses effect the taste of scotch? I recently used myself as a lab rat and tried 3 scotch whiskies from 5 different vessels: The wedding flask, shot glass, tumbler, wine glass and a recent gift, the Glencairn glass.
Often the nature of our drinking determines the glass we choose, or that someone else chooses for us. This can in turn change our judgement of the scotch and the way we enjoy it. A good example of this is in a restaurant, when you often have no choice what type of glassware …
Alongside temperature, humidity is crucial to our personal comfort. In winter, as furnaces remove the water from the air in our homes and humidity drops, I often get dry skin and lips, and even nose bleeds. Those who live in the south where humidity is high will sweat constantly even when it is relatively cool. The importance of humidity extends beyond our personal comfort though, and effects both whisky and cigars. Dry or wet conditions can lead to cracked wrappers or mold, respectively. Similarly for whisky, whose corks expand and …
Are those pump hoses on the distillery floor or a velvet rope? Dallas Dhu has been preserved as a Historic distillery in Scotland, aka it is a Tourist Trap. These days tasting a product from Dallas Dhu is a true rarity since no malt has entered the copper stills there since 1983 when the distillery went out of business. Unless you actually visit in which case the whisky left in barrels when the distillery closed is used as samples for visitors.
