Of Wines and Whisky

Offer me a glass of wine, the chances of me declining it will almost be impossible. With exception to the rule that you must know what you're about to offer me. I am a french wine person, especially Burgundy wines, using Pinot Noir grapes and from the Grand Cru and Premier Cru. These are the terms to classify the vineyards. Wine is not something that you should just gulp it down or "bottoms up" with your friends. It's something that should be appreciated like how you would appreciate a good piece of art.

Best way to enjoy the wine is to open the bottle and let it "breathe" for almost 4-5 hours for a new wine (produced a few years ago) and maybe about 2-3 hours for vintage wines (before year 2000). Don't ever drink straight from after opening the bottle. A good wine should have a good "nose" and try to swirl it around the glass before having a taste of the wine. This is the best way to enjoy the wine to the fullest. There's no reason to rush the wine down the throat because the art of drinking wine is always to appreciate it to the fullest sip by sip, taking one's own sweet time. A dinner with wine usually will take me about 3-4 hours to end. By the end of the dinner, everyone would have drank at least a bottle of wine!

This shelf of wines will cost you almost RM70k! Try recognising the wines. You'll never know when you're offered a chance of a lifetime to sip from these bottles.

Romanee-Conti will burn RM33k off your bank account.
I will be patiently waiting for my friend to open this bottle as promised.

If you want to offer me whisky, then you can save your speech. I never liked whisky. I don't know why, maybe it's the taste that I always reckon that how could anybody drink these stuffs?!! It smelled like cockroach right?!! However, my friend pestered me to try the single malt whisky that night, assuring me that I would love it at first sip. Okay, being an obliging a person, I tried. It was different!!! Not kidding, but definitely different and smooth....

Provenance Scotch Whisky

Single malt whisky is a whisky which is distilled at a single distillery, and which is made completely from a single type of malted grain, traditionally barley, (although there are also single malt rye whiskies). Most single malt whiskies are distilled using a pot still. Single malts are produced all over the world, but the best known single malts come from Scotland, Ireland and Japan. The source of water used will also influence the taste of the whisky. Usually spring water will be used.

Chivas, be it the 12 year old regal or 18 is actually an example of blended whisky. However, under Chivas, they do have Longmorn 16, a single malt whisky which is quite nice but I don't think it's available in Malaysia. A place where you can find single malt whisky is Single And Available in Bangsar Village.


Another nice single malt whisky is The Dalmore. I had the privilege to try the 35-year-old whisky last week. It was an indeed a "tongue" opener for me. The taste was smooth and the smell was just superb. I also liked the way they package the bottle. It comes in a wooden box with a signature reindeer logo. The location of where Dalmore was produced qualified it as a "highland" malt.

We are drinking bottle No.23 out of the 1000 bottles produced for the world. 1974 bottle is out and thus a 1973 bottle can cost up to RM5k today.

Well, I can conclude that not all whisky taste like cockroach. So for a change, I had a few glasses of Chivas 12 at Poppy yesterday. In clubs, I still prefer my Vodka Lime anytime over other drinks. Oh, by the way, Grey Goose is my absolut(e) favourite vodka.