D’Vine Affair -Chicago’s Premier Wine Tasting
D’Vine Affair -Chicago’s Premier Wine Tasting
by Jeffrey Topping
Taste wines from over over 50 vintners along with gourmet hors d’oeuvres and desserts as you mingle throughout the 5th and 6th floors of the executive Union League Club of Chicago.
Wine-Appreciation Seminar: 2:30p.m – 3:30p.m.
Fine tune your knowledge with a seminar presented by Bob Bansberg, famous Chicago Sommelier, and Patrick Fegan, Founder of the Chicago Wine School.
Tasting tickets are $100 per person.
Event Registration
Business casual attire
Wild Scotsman Silent Auction item will be his new Wild Scotsman 27yr Single Cask Single Malt Scotch.
We will be tasting our entire line from John McDougall to Wild Scotsman.
More details: D’Vine Affair
Scotch & Steak Thursdays!
Scotch & Steak Thursdays!
By Jeffrey Topping
What does a Scotsman have to do on a Thursday night? I could spend an evening watching reruns of Graham Norton with Mamma Z or drive an 1 1/2 hours to C-Bus (Columbus) and enjoy a man night of drinking Scotch, eating steak, and enjoying a great cigar. Hmmmmmm……..Me want steak and scotch!
Scotch & Steak Group in Columbus is a regular who’s who of under ground media moguls, cutting edge graphic designers, out of the box computer programmers, bored financial planners, ex-punk rock band members, delicious food purveyors, and old school Sinatra crooners. This is not a hard core group of Scotch snobs and carnivores but rather the 21st century’s traveling Supper Club for men. Best of all they even allow me to come!
I rolled in early to C-Bus and stopped at a favorite Scotch & Steak location, The Rossi Bar and Kitchen, for a quick bottle of Chimay and one last business meeting before the food fest begins. Twitter traffic was heavy for #steakscotch and I could not resist a few tweets. The bar filled quickly with the guys as Rossi was a meeting point for the car pool to Top Steak.
We invaded The Top Steak House and headed straight to the bar. I started off with a Cragganmore 12yr neat and enjoyed the obvious 3 oz pour! The Top Steak had that classic 50′s decor with dark hardwood, wood paneling, piano bar, and copper bar tops. After 30 min of enjoying discussions of scotch, football, and work we headed off to our private room, complete with a hidden door to a past private party room.
After delivering a hearty Scottish Toast, “Here’s tay us”! It was time to eat. A nice 14oz prime rib eye cut, rare, was just what this Scotsman needed. I would have opted for the bone in Kansas City Strip; however, I had to think about having a food coma on my way home.
Finished off the evening with a Casa Magna Cigar and a long ride home. Worth it!
Check them out on facebook, Scotch & Steak
Brokers Gin -You Can Leave Your Hat On
You can leave your Hat on
By Jeffrey Topping
Whether you are feeling the financial pinch in your pocket or the excitement of a great stock tip we can all agree that we need a good Broker. So put on your finest Bowler (hat), put a bit of spit in that shine, and grab a few shillings as we are going to enjoy the only spirit England can call its own, Gin.
Hand crafted from a 200 year old recipe, Brokers Gin is the brain child of brothers Andy and Martin Dawson of England who left their respective careers in the 1990’s to pursue their passion for Gin. Using a turn of the century copper pot still they combine high grade triple distilled pure grain spirits produced from English wheat and 10 botanicals (Juniper berries, Coriander seed, Orris root, Nutmeg, Cassia bark, Cinnamon, Liquorice, Orange peel, Lemon peel, and Angelica root). Theses botanicals are left to steep in the old copper pot still for 24 hours before completing the fourth and final batch distillation. The use of a copper pot still allows for maximum flavor extraction. Much like in Scotch whisky production the Dawson boys discard both the heads/tails and keep the heart of the distillation for bottling this fine example of Premium London Dry gin.
The gin has a clean spring aroma of freshly cut citrus following through to light and creamy with tastes of sweet juniper, orange candy, and mellow lemon zest. The finish is a fading spice. Take is neat, on the rocks at 94 proof it will make for a wonderful afternoon.
Brokers Gin
Scotch exports show international resilience!
According to the SWA’s May 8, 2009 report titled, Scotch exports show international resilience things are looking up despite the global economy. Here are a few points from the report:
?Global exports up 8% in 2008, breaking £3 billion barrier for first time
? Exports earned £97 a second for the UK balance of trade
? Industry predicts challenging 2009 but remains confident on long term
prospects
The USA is still the top importer of Scotch by Value, however, we are down 11% from 2007 to 2008.
The USA is only second to France in total Scotch imports, however, we are also down 11% from 2007 to 2008.
Cheers,
The Wild Scotsman
Wild Scotsman Whisky & Alec Bradley Cigar Tasting Event
I am very pleased to announce that I will be pouring my Wild Scotsman Black Label Vatted Scotch Malt at the Alec Bradley Cigar Event, Which will be held at the Beer Sellar located in Newport, Kentucky.
My Wild Scotsman Black label was created with the cigar smoker in mind so this will be a great test for my dram. In addition to the Black label I will also be pouring my original Wild Scotsman 15yr Vatted Scotch Malt Whisky.
Start Time is 1700/hrs
Address: 301 Riverboat Row #1
City, State & Zip: Newport, KY 41071
Featured: Tempus Admission: $10, includes admission, Alec Bradley Cigar Pack an specials on Alec Bradley cigars.
Special: Buy 3 Featured Cigars, receive 1 free. Buy a featured box and receive a bundle of 10 family blend.
Hope to see you all there to enjoy some fantastic cigars and scotch!
Cheers,
The Wild Scotsman
Wild Scotsman Whisky heading to Georgia!
Just confirmed on Friday that the Wild Scotsman Brands will have a new home in Atlanta Georgia this fall! We have still have to fill out mountains of paper work, however, we anticipate on having the following brands this fall:
Wild Scotsman Black Label Vatted Malt Scotch
John McDougall’s Single Cask-Single Malt Bladnoch
Wild Scotsman Single Cask Series Royal Lochnagar 12yr They may also get our new 27yr Caol Ila and 12 Glen Grant
Blend No.888
Bella Vino Tasting tonight in Springboro, OH
Need a great excuse to get out of the house? How about drinking some hand crafted Scotch Malt Whisky? Come join me at Bella Vino for an evening of great scotch.
We start at 6pm and the cost is only $25. Wearing your kilt is optional.
We will be sampling:
-
John McDougall’s Bladnoch 15yr
John McDougall’s Bladnoch 16yr
Wild Scotsman Black Label Vatted Scotch Malt
Wild Scotsman 15yr Vatted Scotch Malt
Cheers,
The Wild Scotsman
Would the real “Golden Cask” please stand up!
Would the real “Golden Cask” please stand up!
by Jeffrey Topping
For those of you who do not know there are some general rules and guidelines in the Scotch Industry which Distilleries, bottlers, and blenders tend to follow. One of those R&G for an Independent bottler is never to make the name of the bottled distillery a focus on your label as to not confuse the consumer. Another is never put the name of a William Grant & Sons distillery or brand name on your bottled or you may face legal action.
It seems that R&G was broken by William Grant and Sons with their new bottling called, Balvenie Golden Cask. There is actually an independant bottling brand called, Golden Cask, which was created by John McDougall and Jane MacDuff of (cumbrae Supply Company). This brand is sold in the UK, EU, Asia, and some parts of the United States. The confusion is real as seen by a recent posting of Whisky Pages, which inadvertently used a picture of “Golden Cask” in an article about “Balvenie Golden Cask”. I am sure Balvenie would take extreme exception to Golden Cask coming out with Golden Cask- Balvenie or Golden Cask -Double Wood.
In the end I would give W&G the benefit of the doubt and wait to see if they do the honorable thing of acknowledging this perceived error and make amends with the small bottler.
What do you say?
Wild Scotsman Black Label and Blend 888 Ready for Ohio Distribution
I delievered the first shipment of my new Wild Scotsman Black Label Scotch Whisky and Blend No. 888. It should be available in the Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, and Cleveland warehouses by Monday. Blend 888 will be a special order item, however, at less than $20 per bottle I am sure it will not take long to become a regular shelf item. Approx WS Black Label retail price is approx $68. 
