Everytime I write about a beerfest or cover a wine tasting, I get a ribbing from Tim Leone, sportswriter. Yeah, he’s a professional sportswriter — a guy who gets paid for watching hockey. Tough duty. Tim, this single-malt Scotch whisky tasting, with appropriate food and music, is for you, bud.
Last night, I was privileged to attend a meeting of the ancient and honorable Delancey Scotsmen, guys who take their Scotch seriously. The venue was Mechanicsburg, the forage cockaleekie soup and a superb chicken dish with some wild Celtic name. The background music, muted, was Burns’ stirring “Scots wha’ hae wi’ Wallace bled” and other pipe melodies.
Enough atmosphere. The whisky ranged from Caol Ila, a smoky, peaty drink that left ashes on the tongue, to a 15-year-old Glenlivet matured in casks of French oak, smooth as … well, really, almost as smooth as an Irish whiskey.
The Delancey Scotsmen Scribe of Scribes, Chuck Kern, has promised to help me write a guide to giving single-malt Scotch for Christmas. We’ll see. As an amateur, I may need to do considerable tasting.
