See the light: I’m going nowhere

Seeing the light when nosing an empty whisky glass.

A few comments here and @emptywhiskyglas regarding my previous posting “…about, time” seems I might have been misunderstood. No, I’m not signing off from here or other social avenues I enjoy. I’m going nowhere. I’ll continue to discreetly and professionally post my enjoyments surrounding whisky and other drinks of choice.

So you too stick around and read what I have to say; and please feel free to comment if I so inspire you to.

(Thanks to my friend Christopher Ottosen for taking the foto above; be sure to check out his site)!

It’s about, time! (And how the Vinmonopolet helped save my life).

May already! My how time flies, it always amazes me. Thanks for your patience if you have been, and for returning now to read my excuses and excitements.

I began working for the Vinmonopolet Wednesday morning the 16th of November last year and I’m truly enjoying it like nothing else! I’m based at the Vika shop here in Oslo, one of two in Norway out of 269 total shops spread throughout the country that has a “Spesialbutikk.” (Google translate that link)!  I’m truly enjoying working in such a dynamic setting with a huge selection of world class products, customers, and with colleagues that constantly learn, teach and are equally passionate about what they’re doing. That should help explain excuse number one: why I haven’t posted “notes from an empty whisky glass” in these past months. As an employee I must remain “neutral, in the sense that no favouritism is shown between brands, producers, countries or suppliers.” Thus you’ll no longer find me tweeting @emptywhiskyglas about “booze specifics.” Sure it’s not easy to stifle my passion and not share what I’m enjoying with you, but come visit me at the shop, the arena I’m allowed to passionately share my favorites which is exactly what I continue to be appreciated for.

In these past six months I’ve found myself telling fellow colleagues and friends numerous times how relieved and happy I am to be free from the restaurant business I’ve loved and hated working in for over 20 years. To one colleague I even found myself blurting while stocking shelves one day, “The Vinmonopolet saved my life!” “In vino veritas.”

I’ve felt warmly welcomed into a large family of experts. Being able to use all of my past employment experiences and public speaking education, I continue to learn and grow which is exactly what I expect of myself not only in my free time but at work, too.

And it’s hard to call it work even when this lifetime night owl wakes up early to run around a booze mecca assisting mostly baffled customers regarding a selection of 12,000 available products. Crazy I know! 12,000 different alcoholic possibilities offered to a population of a mere 5,000,000. But I’m happily doing just that. And will continue to do so as I see myself growing (old) with this company.

Six months past? How about the 10 years that have flown by in Norway, celebrating so a few months back! Imagine that, May now, my how time does fly.

I’m still smelling empty whisky, wine, beer or whatever glasses. (And those aren’t my glasses, I don’t wear glasses, yet).

Yours truly, Emptywhiskyglass

Observations, experiences, and tasting notes from an empty whisky glass

Just to clear my name of guilt and misunderstanding, I’ve decided to once again inform you of the origins of said name, Emptywhiskyglass. It all started way back in the Fall of 2003 after I discovered my deep passion for whisky. I always left the empty glass by the side of the kitchen sink either cause it was just too late, or I was lazy. Or maybe because the kitchen was only slightly partitioned from the bedroom and I didn’t want to wake her up. Nevertheless there the glass stayed. Until whenever I got up, and the first thing I did was reach for that empty whisky glass for a sniff. The alcohol evaporated and what was left were “tasting notes from an empty whisky glass.” Sometimes different, sometimes similar, always interesting whatever I found. Now it seems these aromas have developed into observations, experiences, and tasting notes as seen or smelled through an empty whisky, beer, wine, sake or whatever glass. You’ll realize this if you follow me on Twitter @emptywhiskyglas. Hopefully that better explains I’m not looking for answers at the bottom of a bottle or a glass, but instead just another way of enjoying and learning about the whisky or whatever is in the glass. Experiences. Observations. Tasting notes from an empty whisky glass.

Tasting notes from a surprised empty whisky glass

 

A good spirit of unity is what whisky brings about so well

I was happily surprised the other night while working a shift at Dr. Jekyll’s when I spotted the Spirit of Unity bottling on the shelf. This ultra special and limited bottling was done in financial and brotherly support of the Japanese catastrophe’s in March, and the earthquake in New Zealand the previous month. The seven independent distilleries that donated a cask each, and all others involved with creating this whisky of just 2,000 bottles were sold exclusively by Royal Mile Whiskies and Loch Fyne Whiskies on this side of the world, while a few other shops in Japan and New Zealand sold out the rest.

Here’s what I found in that empty whisky glass…

Green skinned fruits, malt, slight smokey hint and bonfire, young whisky, peated malt all topped up with something nicely toasty.

The empty whisky glass

That’s what I came here for

Notes from emptied Amrut whisky glasses

Last night I really enjoyed my first whisky “twasting.” That’s Twitter + tasting = twasting for those unfamiliar with the term or concept. I even ran out of the tail end of a dual beer tasting hosted by James from Brew Dog and Evan from Ægir! I hated to but samples from Amrut Indian Single Malt Whisky (thanks again Ashok) awaited me. These twastings are happening more and more frequently, and if you’re participating or following, you’ll enjoy the flood of informative twasting notes on the same whiskies being tasted from various individuals spread out far and wide. It was a fantastic evening well organized and hosted by The Scots Dreamer Colin Campbell @TheScotsdreamer,  with of course @Amrutsinglemalt providing, and others participating or following, and in no particular order, find and follow @galg @AWG_whisky @blrbwmn @ScotchNoob @GJR71 @OliverKlimek @exmosis @theWhiskyReview @maltjerry @DavindeK (apologies, and please comment below if I accidentally missed mentioning you). Spaced throughout this big world made small via social media, we all enjoyed focusing on five different whiskies from the Amrut Distillery. Search Twitter for #amrut5 to find our twasting experience.

And as for today, as promised, here are my twasting “notes from an empty whisky glass” in the order we tasted…

@emptywhiskyglas: Amrut Single Malt 46% is raisin and malt.

@emptywhiskyglas: Amrut Intermediate Sherry Matured 57.1% prune, other dark slightly dried fruits

@emptywhiskyglas: Mystery Amrut wow nutty sweet brittle, some honey, popcorn even!

@emptywhiskyglas: Amrut Fusion 50% oh that perfect peat smoke from last night lingers, classic…

……and raisins too, intertwined with perfect peat, along with vanilla custard, fruit juice.

@emptywhiskyglas: Amrut Peated 46% medicinal peat prominent, some nut brittle in this one too.

Finally, if you have been following me @emptywhiskyglas you’ll be aware of my move from Brussels last month back up to Norway, and just this past Wednesday finally settling nicely into the beautiful, so far sunny, capital city of Oslo. This move back reunites me with my whiskies, so check back for more empty whisky tasting notes, plus whatever other glasses I’ll nose.  Thanks for reading and following!

Celebrate!

I feel lucky to have gotten the opportunity to taste such an old whisky

What better way to celebrate two years of the Empty Whisky Glass, (I missed mentioning the first posting’s anniversary on the 23rd) than with what I started off doing here: “notes from an empty whisky glass.” Though I’ve veered a bit recently, let’s celebrate with a very special whisky I feel lucky to have tasted last night in Oostende.

This is a bottle of Dewar’s White Label 8y from around the 1920′s. My friend Geert thought I should taste it since it has actually become tainted from its old lead cap closure. This unfortunate mishap has given the whisky a slightly murky green color. No not completely colored as said, but rather the edges, like an older red wine displays brownish hues when fanned in the glass, or as an aged white wine yellows. I instantly nosed this, or so I thought. What’s that smell I wondered? It was familiar for sure. Oh! It’s that stuff cat owners use when they have to “bomb” their house for fleas! Yes, remembered from my childhood, the powerful scent of flea foggers. Wow gosh how interesting indeed is this old, lead-tainted blend Geert informed me was probably all malt whisky. So exciting to taste such an old whisky, tainted, spoiled, ruined, whatever! But was it really? I proceeded to smell the hard rubber bar mat the whisky glass stood on and understood that the flea poison I was smelling wasn’t the whisky at all, but the rubber mat. I moved away, the poison dissipated as I kept my nose in the glass, trying to find off notes, something offensive or off, anything. I couldn’t really, nothing recognizable anyway. Obviously this is a well made whisky, high or all malt content as Geert suggests. Even with the lead interaction, this whisky has kept its ground. Great, let’s continue!

As I sip my mind works backwards and forwards, like randomly thumbing a history book while wondering what this whisky has lived through, now finding its way in my lucky, soon to be empty glass. Crazy indeed to taste a whisky like this! I continued to work towards my empty whisky glass tasting notes rather than becoming distracted by all of the history swirling in and around this bottle attempting to overwhelm me.

The glass was eventually, cautiously, painstakingly emptied, so I proceeded to roll it around allowing the remaining bit to distribute itself evenly around the glass. Old whiskies tend to have a bit of dustiness to them, which this whisky didn’t seem to contain at all. Had I not known what was poured into the glass I probably wouldn’t have known it was something so old. But then again, whisky doesn’t age once bottled! So this in fact was just an 8 year old, high or all malt blended whisky; I consider this as I attempt to go back in time to its first release. And of  good quality for sure! This is exactly what it was I realized as I nosed the now empty whisky glass, still somewhat young and fresh. Raisins! Fresh raisins, not completely dried ones from a small box. After the raisins came fresh pastry, sweet, doughy, stretchy pastry dough, but not yeasty at all. And still no dust, cardboard, or old notes, aged, yes, but not old. I continued to dig, dive, hunt for something else in the empty whisky glass, anything, but these notes continued, eventually fading, understandably. A whisky so special, distilled and bottled so many years back, and who knows the rest of its story?

Geuzing it up on a Sunday morning

Sunday morning thirst quenchers, before, during, and after church

It sounds crazy to most to get up early on a Sunday, especially to get on a bus heading out of town to go drink beer. It sure is, but when the place is where we were headed this past Sunday, it’s well worth it. And since “In de Verzekering tegen de Grote Dorst” is only open Sunday mornings from 10 until just after church lets out at 13.30, you don’t have much choice. Unless you’re having a funeral or another special event and book in advance, or it’s one of the few special events during the year that sees them also open, you’ll need to visit on a Sunday morning. It’s the same hours the “Insurance Against the Great Thirst,” as its name translates to, had been running for 51 years when two brothers took it over. Maybe you’re still wondering why it’s so special?

Eizeringen locals, brothers Yves and Kurt Paneels restored the pub to its old glory after taking it over from Marguerite, whom ran it for 51 years. When she decided to finally retire at 85 years old, on Christmas Eve 1999 she’d serve her last beer. The brothers decided they needed to continue the pub’s tradition in this small village and remain open.

Get me to the geuze on time!

The history of the pub is not only what makes it so special, it’s also the beer they serve, as local as the two brothers, lambic, and lambic-based beers such as geuze and kriek. It’s native to the areas of the Senne Valley (Brussels), and Pajottenland, the beautiful, fertile, and somewhat hilly area encompassing Brussels from the South to the West, the region you’ll find the pub. This special beer has earned an international reputation, as has this thirst-quenching gueze pub that breathes history, a sense of place, and tradtion. In his book Good Beer Guide Belgium, (2006 edition, p. 46) Tim Webb states “The bar stocks perhaps the best range of lambic beers on the planet.”  It’s not only the brothers that are doing their part to keep their historical, museum-like pub and this oh so special beer alive, it’s their parents, whom also help them out. This is the sort of place that makes you feel right at home, wishing you had this sort of place close to your home.

And if you don’t live close by and can’t visit, at least you can always have them send you some geuze, from The House of Geuze.

As for this incredible beer, empty tasting notes are a must! Typical notes nosed are of wheat, barley, fruit (if it’s a kriek or other fruit infused), cinnamon, summer flowers, and dried summer hay. From the Drie Fonteinen 2007 Geuze pictured below, I surprisingly found warm, baked chocolate fondant! Incredible stuff this spontaneously fermented sour beer.

Out of the ordinary from this empty geuze glass

Whisky whiskey everywhere, out in the middle of nowhere, part 2; or Glenrothes, “come out come out wherever you are”

A beautiful presentation of what can be found in The Glenrothes

The train to Kortemark was an hour and a half slightly North, very East, ride from the central train station here in Brussels. Stops were mostly in small towns besides Gent, and we saw fields and fields of grazing cows and growing vegetables. A downpour also ensued, something that hasn’t been so commonplace this Spring in Belgium. Again I found myself, as I did just the previous weekend, wondering where the hell I was going. I questioned myself, checked the train schedule over and over the days before, and maps many times to be sure I wouldn’t get off the train in the middle of nowhere, where I wouldn’t find what I came looking for, whisky, and have to maybe wait til the next day to find another train ride back home. I was once again hunting for whisky out in the middle of nowhere, Belgium.

What did I find? I found Marc Vandenberghe, The Glenrothes Official Belgian Ambassador! Marc and his warm, hospitable wife Christine’s café and Wijnhuis St.Antonius, “The Famous Whiskyshop in Werken,” offers a selection of whisky mostly devoted to distillery bottlings, (as opposed to independent bottlers), which doesn’t seem the norm here in Belgium. As just mentioned, I also found a plethora of original bottlings from that almost mysterious distillery in Speyside, The Glenrothes. Those bottles are specially and oddly shaped, not conforming to the norm, or changing with the season of marketing agencies deeming it’s time for a new look. And what’s inside those bottles, well, is not just whisky aged in ex-bourbon barrels as I was unfortunately misled last year. The Glenrothes offers so much more.

The Glenrothes ages in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, both American and European oak, and mainly bottling vintages when deemed mature and ready for us to enjoy. Age statements, the distillery feels, don’t tell you about what’s in their unique bottles, thus the whisky is bottled when ready. Vintages can be purposefully released out of sequence, and give the taster the opportunity to taste a variety of intended, understood and appreciated characteristics and charms from this distillery. Honey, vanilla, coconut, citrus fruits, ripe fruits, dried fruits, milk chcolate, are but a few. Again, depending on which casks held the ageing spirit, will you find those noted aromas and flavors.

I’m enjoying these trips out of Brussels! I’m finding what I’m looking for, and meeting some really nice people too. The amazement as to what I’m finding is starting to not surprise me any longer. It’s just that I expect to get certain things from a city: a vast whisky selection, headed by afficionados with a real passion for what they do, but I’m finding it’s not always the case. These special people are found all over, especially out in the middle of nowhere, Belgium.

I hope you're enjoying your retirement John Ramsay, 'cause I'm surely enjoying your whisky!

 

A small break between “Whisky Whiskey everywhere…” (parts 1 and 2): Gueuze it is!

I’m still wondering what site or link I luckily found that led me to this place on Saturday afternoon, but I’ll be visiting in the morning, not really too long from now actually.

In the Insurance against Great Thirst as its name translates to, recognized as possibly having the best offering of lambic, gueuze, and kriek, etc, in the world, a visit is a must, and seems quite out of the ordinary since they’re only open on Sundays from 10am-1.30pm. I’ll again leave Brussels and head East, this time on the bus, after the metro gets me to the bus station. It’s only 15km away, a small bike ride if I had one. Since I don’t I’ll get up at an abnormal hour, especially for a Sunday, and plan to arrive about 10am when they open. Wish me luck, and sweet gueuze dreams!

Whisky whiskey everywhere, out in the middle of nowhere, part 1

Finding cows, horses, sheep, and a huge assortment of whisky out in the middle of nowhere, Zottegem

As you have been reading since I settled here in Brussels, I’ve been hunting for whisky bars, shops, and whisky whatever I can find. It’s been a tug of war with myself since the unusually beautiful Belgian Spring, summery, isn’t my usual mood for enjoying whisky. Plus, since leaving my bottles packed away, my selection is also very limited to just a handful, previously, now down to a dwindling three.  And beer, especially the sour ones, lambic and geuze, have jumped into the front seat, perhaps cause they match this weather so perfectly, and they’re native to the area.

But a few recent hunts have rewarded my whisky passion greatly! Not only have I gotten to meet some social network whisky friends, I’ve gotten the opportunity to explore and taste lots of new whiskies. It hasn’t been easy,  I’ve had to travel, by foot, metro, train, and car out of Brussels to find these unbelievable whisky outposts hosted by these fellow passionate water of life ambassadors.

American, Japanese, Indian, Irish, Swedish, and Scottish crowd Jurgen's Whiskyhuis

First up was that first June weekend where those leftover days of Easter holiday’ed the country, and a trip to meet Jurgen in Zottegem and his “Open Days” was a must. Over those 4 days, Thursday the 2nd of June through Sunday the 5th, Jurgen offered free samplings from over 150 open bottles, and a small fee for the pricier, special bottlings. Jurgen’s Whiskyhuis stocks over a 1,000 different whiskies, a few other spirits too, and on those “Open Days” he discounted them all. This is, literally, Jurgen’s “huis,” almost a 4km walk from the Zottegem train station, (about a 40 minute train ride from the Central Station in Brussels). From there I decided to walk rather than hassle waiting for a bus maybe taking me further away from my goal. I finally wandered down a somewhat country road, fields surrounding it, people working on their cars, where peace and quiet met expanses of said fields and an impressive stock of whiskies from mostly independent bottlers awaited me. Introducing myself, Jurgen happily poured me maybe 15 samples on my visit, from bottlers I had never tasted before. I had a difficult time deciding upon which bottles to purchase, which bottles to share in the private whisky tasting I was hosting the following night.

I guess it’s appropriate to travel out of the cities to find whisky, since most whiskies are produced out of the cities. It’s just a surprise to me to find such collections and available bottles in these small spots of Belgium, rather than in its capital city.

Next time I’ll tell you about my visit to Kortemark, an even smaller destination, even further from Brussels.