opinionated alchemist

Scotch can be very divers. It can be smokey and decisive, it can be floral and almost fruity - it can be delicate and really heavy and oily. Long time ago, I have been on a whisky-convention and in a workshop, they guys at Glenmorangie gave us Glenmorangie "spirit" to try - totally unaged Glenmorangie. I expected to be harsh and undrinkable - but it was beautiful - extremely fruity (think Poire William) - if they would have sold it, I would have purchased it. In the same event, they have introduced the experimental release of Glenmorangie Artisan Cask (I purchased later the bottle). For a very young whisky it hasn't been cheap, but it was truly incredible. A testament, that Single Malt Whisky doesn't need a lot of cask influences (at least some delicate distillates like Glenmorangie). Glenmorangie has shown for sure a lot of innovation. They also populated barrel-finishing - which is used now from most of the industry, to introduce interesting variants. As LVMH purcha...

Aging cocktails in oak is no more really cutting edge. A lot of bartender are doing it. But are you doing something meaningful with it? I have seen bartenders aging moonshine or corn whiskey - not really meaningful. Your Negroni? Not very novel... Well I received a sample oak bottles [and bought directly 2 more] of Ulric Nice - especially UAE and Dubai folks will know him [but he is also known by quite a lot of other popular bar people]. I used them now over a couple of months and I can attest, that they are really effective - far more effective than an oak barrel. In a bar, time is key - you don't want to age a several gallons of liquor for half a year or so... you want to have fast results - and the oak bottle is all about quick results. Our take at the Library Bar was a Last Word cocktail - hardly a very creative choice for an oak aged cocktail - but a delicious and sophisticated one nonetheless. We didn't kept it too long in the bottle and only aged the liqu...