It was another amazing night and thank you so much, Tran, for providing almost all the alcoholic contributions. My own notes as follows:
Century 21 yr Reserve Canadian Corn Whisky
Almost apple pie. Extraordinarily smooth–really quite delicious. Toffee and goes down so nice. with salmon ceviche with grapes, shaved apples and some herbs, much more butterscotch. Livens it up a bit too–may be the lime juice interacting with the corn whisky. Some of the others have a different reaction, more crispness and activity. Very fascinating to see the spectrum of palates. for $50, I think I need to get some of this.
Eagle Rare 17 Yr Bourbon
Some smoke, almost this date/red fruit thing. Walnut note with water added. Strong taste. Pasille adobo sauce covers a chipotle chili with panella cheese and avocado crema. Just intensifies everything about the Eagle Rare. The Century does not like this dish. Don’t listen to demented Tran about “the best dish of the night”. THIS was the best. The dish itself was truly revelicious. Truly. I used a finger to clean off the bowl and did—not—care.
Koval Oat Whisky
This was my contribution off a recent LCBO release, purely out of interest. More muted nose, havs some flavour and balance on its own but gets clashy with the food. It’s interesting without being dynamic.
Tomintoul 21 Year Single Malt
Some mustard seed maybe. Although not casked, it does have for me a kind of port nose. 40%, it’s light on its feet, very polished with some heather and sweet vanilla base. I had to skip the shrimp dish so can’t give you a food and whisky comparative here.
El Picador 20 Year Colombian Rum
42% probably my shocker of the night. Bits of smoke and some buttertart, good catch from Lynn. My goodness. That is quite good. More buttertart and I’ve never tasted a rum with anywhere near this level of freshness and vivacity. No syrup, no brown sugar. A fine rum. With the gnocchi, brought out more sweet fruitiness. A nice match.
Balvenie 21 year Port Wood Single Malt
Quite sweet nose. Chocolatey. Sweet again, very smooth, hint of absinthe aftertaste, has strength. This has always been for me the top of the class for the Balvenie line, though it’s been some years since I’ve sampled it. The fish taco (battered cod) with lime crema, guacamole crema, habanero, carrot, jalapeno cabbage and cauliflower top all serve to glorify the Balvenie, unlocks a lot of florals for me with a bit of backbite. Also warms it up a bit. And this dish is fine with the rum also.
Lismore 21 year Single malt
Comparative to a whisky negociant, a secret still. The guesses among the cognoscenti (not us) are Glenfarclas or Glen Mhor. 43%. Pears maybe? toffee? strong with strong pepper finish to counter the sweet. Interesting. Doesn’t speak of Macallan or Glenfarclas to me. The dish was puffed pastry with seafood picadillo, clams, mussels, crab, shrimp, octopus and squid in, I think, a chipotle cream. Couldn’t taste much of this dish, again the shellfish…
G.E. Massenez Framboise eau de vie
40%. Raspberry and kind of cream cheese. Yup, Lynn says “Schnapps” and indeed it is, with raspberry and other berry fruit. Paired with guava sorbet with chocolate, fine on its own, very unhappy with the eau de vie, just too many flavours en bataille.
Michel Huard 30 year Calvados Le Pertyer
A real treat, intense nose, pure apple strudel. intense too, like distilled champagne in a way with hay, apple. The apple fritter with calvados and caramel sauce and spiced chocolate ice cream makes the Calvados stricter but not lacking in character. A great way to almost end this evening.
Cardenal Mendoza Solera Gran Reserva Carta Real Brandy de Jerez
I didn’t take formal notes on this but this was quite smooth, if not with any outstanding aspect to it.
My extreme compliments too go out to Chef Elia, Chef Lili and their team, not only for the execution but for the adventurous spirit (yes, pun intended) to go after an idea like this with us and try it.
Slainte,
Mike