Gramercy southern blend lower east again

The wine advances and recedes in shuddering waves, fingers toying with fabric, a rusticated breeze from something useful nearby, and velvet, sure, but velvet is not her essence, any more than orange peel is orange juice, the limonene keeps the bugs away, the world turns, wine is a fantasy, drinking is deliverance, and Grenache is a tawny girl from anywhere that knew you before you got old.

Unknown 30-year old blended (SGWIAKFOWRWAPBFOSUB)

This one was epic. 

I stood, unsure, a barrel before me, waist high, a glass in my hand and then whoosh!  and splat!  and suddenly I am in a scooby-doo/sesame street animation tunnel of tubes and vines and roots, except that each one is the seuss-chute whereby the world of platonic forms lets out into our world the great multitude of delicious things that haunt whiskey barrels.  An unblemished papaya cradles in its scary seed-pocket a steaming roasted chestnut that longs to be reunited with the smoke of a Jurassic brush fire but pines in vain because its fate, like the fate of the swirling multitude that stretches my Huxleian reducing valve is to disappear amid fumes and language, never to be known again. 

Or in other words, dammit, Adam, what was this whisky and dammit, North Carolina, your sons and daughters are thirsty and curious.

Aberlour 12

Liter bottle! 

Tasted from a gorgeous Edinburgh crystal glass I received as a groomsman's gift at a wedding last weekend. 

Bourbon drinker's scotch, really sweet and basking in the sherry finish.  All the good brown flavors from the oloroso, and the associated raisins, cinnamon, sweet roasted nuts.  Good weight, pleasing heat, really a pure pleasure.  No challenge here, nor cthonic salt monsters, neither any too-eager to please glenlivet-style obsequy.  Very nice.  I would rather have a free bottle in front of me than a pre-frontal lobotomy. 

Balblair Vintage Highland (SGWIAKFOWRWAPBFOSUB)

Only bottle in the bag with a label, and somehow I managed to forget which vintage (I blame it on the Ginuwine blasting from tiny speakers or on using my entire brain to talk to a thick-accented Scotsman about beer cost numbers later).  Never had or seen this malt in NC, thanks, government! 

Generous baggie-wielding whisky genius said that he thought his nose wasn't working because this one smelled kind of crap.  I nosed and nosed, mind blown that I had a glencairn glass in my hand and we were really doing this, despite the furor spilling beer on the floor and "dancing" all around us. 

Gorgeous, big entry, balance, really pleasing sweetness. Highland as it is meant to be, not bland and middling, but elegant and understated. 

Glen Moray Chardonnay Cask (SGWIAKFOWRWAPBFOSUB)

First of my posts in the "Scottish guy walks into a kitchen full of wedding revelers with a plastic baggie full of small unlabeled bottles" series. 

Glen Moray he said was a producer much looked over/down upon because of its associations with grocery stores and cheap, serviceable whisky.  Not so this chardonnay cask.  The nose is a riot of the various things one finds in a barrel of chardonnay: tropical fruits, dairy, essence of springtime, blonde-ness made flavorful, heaven.  The palate is balanced and glycerin, and the finish is quiet.  In a good mood I would call it elegant, in a bad one, weak.  Finishes are for marathons though, and this is a quick drink, and a lovely drink, at a reasonable price for persons not living in liquor gulags like NC. 

Ken wright

Oregon Pinot Noir came into town looking for work, a dream in her eyes.  Ken Wright was all like, baby, it's hard out here.  But OPN wanted that crazy TV ending, so Ken Wright was all like, Alright, but you gotta do it my way. OMFG.   The classiest North American expression of Pinot Noir I have ever had.  Delicious, structured, brooding, sophisticated.  Lovely all-around.

Open Letter to an Unnamed Distributor

I don't mean to be sensitive, but based on my previous experience with you guys, and with the larger distributors in general, assigning a delivery day to your customer based on what is convenient for you sounds like the same misunderstanding of the difference between sales and logistics that was expressed in your company's previous poor handling of our account, which resulted in us not carrying beers from two of our favorite local breweries. When Fullsteam, who self-distribute, say that they are only going to deliver on Wednesday and Friday, they are making a business decision based upon their capacity to provide service.  When a large distributor says that they are unable to deliver on a day, they are flexing the muscle granted them by the monopolistic three tier system to make their lives easier.  Their accounts have to carry the brands to which they alone can grant access, so what was a sales relationship becomes a logistics relationship.  But even UPS gives better customer service.
      
Not that a complaint or even a complete lack of business from a small account that does small volume really makes a difference to your bottom line.  We are a small business, independently-owned, not a part of a restaurant group or chain.  Our success depends upon our relationships with other small businesses and upon our attention to service, detail, and quality.  Your business seems to be focused on the unthinking acceptance of the dictates of multinational soap/cereal/beer/industrial chemicals companies and the presumption that your customers' customers will uncritically swill whatever re-branded glop you foist on them.  And it is a good business model, because you will succeed and you will vacation and send your kids to private school and my kids will share a room and drive used cars.