Location: JW Marriott, Juhu, Mumbai, Reflections Bar

Date: November 2015

Price: $11.49 (753 Rupee)

Recipe: Not observed but bar tender told me used Canadian Club

Garnish: Maraschino cherry

Served: Up

Comments: Nice and cold on the larger side.  Use of Canadian Club meant it was less sweet than one made with bourbon.  Good one.   

What is this about? Check out  http://www.somanywhiskies.com/item/749-the-manhattan-project-ii

Location: Moscow Monarch Centre Hotel, Lobby Bar

Date: October 2015

Price: $12.50 (800 Rubles)

Recipe: No info provided / not observed

Garnish: Maraschino cherry

Served: Up

Comments: Nice, clean, not too sweet.  A well executed "classic" Manhattan

 What is this about? Check out  http://www.somanywhiskies.com/item/749-the-manhattan-project-ii

The original Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II. My personal Manhattan project will be slightly less impactful. Probably. As readers know in 2011 I set myself the task of finding and reviewing every whisky in Ian Buxton’s recent books 101 Whiskies to Try Before You Die and 101 World Whiskies to Try Before You Die. I was successful (pausing for gentle round of applause) but it did have a side effect. I know Ian won’t mind me saying that some, while interesting, were not that great and so I frequently found myself with bottles that I did not particularly enjoy. I have enough Scots blood in me to know that I could not see them go to waste so I started to dabble in mixing cocktails and found two that I particularly enjoyed. For unwanted or unloved scotch I would mix Rusty Nails (equal parts Drambuie and Scotch over ice) and for American whiskies, bourbon, rye and Canadian, I started mixing Manhattans. The simple and classic Manhattan recipe is 2 parts whiskey, 1 part sweet vermouth, 2 dash of bitters a garnish (cherry or citrus peel) served usually chilled but occasionally (and as I came to like them best in the Texas summer) over ice.

I have the great fortune to travel a lot for my job which means I frequently find myself in airport lounges, hotels and restaurants and often bored to tears by their whisky options I started to order Manhattans (a classic cocktail so there is a variant of it on almost every cocktail menu). And so like the thermonuclear chain reaction that was at heart of original Manhattan project, one passion led to another and now I find myself trying Manhattan’s all around the world. From now on, armed with a trusty camera phone (and probably a little too much jetlag), I will also use my website to track my Manhattan project noting location, price, quality, garnish, recipes and any other tweaks or embellishments of interest. Like the England football team in a World Cup penalty shootout I won’t be trying to score them, I don’t score whiskies either, just sharing my experiences and opinions with all of my readers (if there are any left).

As the Great Labelling Debate around words like “Small Batch”, “Artisan”, “Traditional” and “Handmade” continues apparently forever and mega distillers, micro distillers and even Pepsi (see last blog) cling to the word “craft” like a sailor clings to wreckage in a storm it seems to me that the value in these labels must be that people perceive it to be a better product.   It is rare on Scottish distillery tour if at least once the guide doesn’t point to a particular piece of equipment – usually the spirit safe – and explain how it was “the original one and built in eighteen blah de blah” as if somehow installing one less than 200 years old would run afoul of the SWA regulations and ruin the flavour. I can assure you that plenty of average to poor whisky has flowed through old equipment; Bruichladdich with their vintage and largely original Victorian distillery for example has had a few lows as well as lots of highs. However in general most whisky people seem to value “handmade” and by default see “technology” as somehow a bad thing. I have also observed the same people often seem to prefer it if their whisky was made by a character and have nice signature printed on the label to prove it. I have met plenty of whisky (and other industry) characters; often it is just a polite way of saying “important but occasionally grumpy bastard”. If someone put “Made mainly by Computers” on the label and the bottle was signed by a member of MegaDrinkCorp’s Graduate Trainee program people would run screaming but in many cases it is might be closer to the truth than many of the labels we see today.

With this in mind I recently made a trip to Alaska and was killing time in Anchorage airport when I found a museum style diorama (see picture) depicting the traditional method the Athabascan tribes, native to the Cook Inlet, used to hunt beluga whales.   It involved a massively complex system to find a spruce tree, create a platform out of the root structure, drag it out into the inlet at low tide and erect it. Then one hunter would climb onto the platform wait until the tide came in and for the whales to come by, then harpoon it and the others would come out and help drag it in.   I read this story, utterly absorbed and fascinated and then at the end read how the last time someone hunted for beluga like this was 1880 – ironically about the time that all those Scottish distilleries were all installing their “vital to the taste” spirit safes – because then they got rifles and could shoot the belugas from safety of beach. Ta da! Technology arrived. I am pretty sure and will go out on a limb (out on a limb – come on that is a hilarious Athabascan hunting on Spruce tree platform related joke) and say no-one complains that their blubber doesn’t taste the same when it isn’t traditionally hunted. Google reveals no whale blogs with reviews along the lines of “I can taste notes of the spruce platform and harpoon tang in the meat”.

I suspect there is not a major “craft Beluga blubber” craze sweeping Southeast Alaska. At the end of the day technology provided a better way to hunt. It is clear that sometimes technology can also provide us with a better way to make whisky and it makes no sense to me to reject something (or for that matter enthusiastically embrace something) because of the way it is made and then labelled. We simply should try it first. It’s a radical idea I know… but like the whale hunter who bought that first rifle and thought “Hey this just might work” I suggest we at least consider it.

OK whisky people, regardless of what a Florida judge may say, can we all agree it is now time to take the word "craft" out back and shoot it in the head like a diseased dog as it has become totally meaningless as Pepsi announce launch of their "craft soda". Time to call a good class action attorney? Mmmm a "good class action attorney".... add that to the list of sentences I thought I would never write.

http://m.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/pepsi-introduce-craft-soda-line-article-1.2247719

At the risk of never getting free samples from Beam and others ever again (oh wait… I never get free samples from Beam or others anyway) I thought I would express my thoughts on current US class action law suits launched against Beam, and many potentially many others, regarding the use of terms like “hand made” and “craft”. To keep this blog brief I will focus the debate around Makers Mark which is one of my favorite bourbons, that way it is clear this entry is not a hidden agenda or “spurned blogger with axe to grind” kind of thing. Also, as a fan of Makers, I have been to their distillery and seen it for myself so I can have an opinion on their production which is harder for me to do with other whiskies and spirits caught up in this.   I should also mention that I am a minor shareholder in a small “craft” distillery in London, The London Distillery Company, so I have some experience regarding production in that environment also. Mostly my experience to date involves writing checks to them.   (When asked about this investment my usual response is to recall Richard Branson’s line; the fastest way to become a millionaire is to start out as a billionaire and then start an airline.   However I am not a lawyer (or a billionaire). I do not understand class actions suits and I don’t understand burden of proof in such cases. This is not a legal discussion but my opinion on what these terms mean and how they are used by this industry.

Those being sued, like Beam, are of course keeping their arguments for court as they have to, but what little comment they have made has been less than compelling to me. The idea that their manufacturing processes are in fact posted on their websites and so all you have to do is search the internet, locate their webpage, identify the videos you want to watch, stream those and then make you own mind up if it is indeed handmade as the bottle says. When am I supposed to do this? In the liquor store? Clearly Beam’s lawyers don’t have T Mobile data services.

While I have seen some quite visceral reactions to the lawyers who are bringing the class action suit, I have not seen that many leap to the industry’s defence. With one exception… www.bourbonguy.com penned a very spirited defence on April 7^th (free joke there – enjoy) that making bourbon is indeed a craft because so much of it happens away from the manufacturing plant (yup I said it) and the real magic happens in the barrel and in the blending. I agree this is a great argument. I think this is what makes bourbon (and other whiskies) so special. I believe I could, with a few hours training, operate a still but I could not make a batch of Knob Creek (although there are times I have thought whoever blends Basil Haydens could use a few more hours of schooling). Based on this logic however I think Tito of Tito’s vodka (also being sued as they claim to be handcrafted) might want to pour himself a stiff drink because they don’t have that argument. Going straight from “still to bottle” is not a good look for this case.

I understand all of this because I have invested time and money to learn about whiskey but I am not so sure the judge will see it the same way.   Huge production sites with shiny stainless steel equipment everywhere and scale that simply does not scream “craft” to the layman. I also think massive sales volumes for products like Makers Mark won’t help either. I worked in enough oil and gas facilities to know there is nothing in a distillery that you could not walk into any of the Texas City petrochemical plants and find and I seriously doubt I could get away with selling hand crafted gasoline to hipster car owners. To use another metaphor, for me the problem is Beam have been found next to the body with a gun in their hand and a bad case of amnesia and despite whatever actually happened it really doesn’t look good. There has been some abuse of labelling without a doubt and I fear that some of the “good guys” will be on the wrong side of this decision at the end of the day. Perhaps it is time for Beam to accept a deal from the DA’s office? If it turns out the judge does dismiss the law suit then be on the lookout for Seaton’s Handcrafted in Texas Gasoline coming to a gas station near you soon.

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, (The End of the Road?) I had reached a point where I was not sure what my next whisky related move would be. When I started the website in 2011 I had set some goals and by late 2014 I had basically met them and my website was less active than JaDaveon Clowney. Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor after that brilliant joke and remind you all that JD Clowney was the Houston Texans first pick, and first pick overall in 2015 NFL draft, but that he contributed literally nothing during his first season and has so far spent his entire professional career injured and inactive.   I told you it was a brilliant joke.  Back to the whisky and so my solution was simply to back off a little, try not to worry about it, rework the website over a little and await inspiration. In hindsight this is clearly a strategy I have learned from observing the whisky industry and the fail safe marketing tactic for all tired brands; rework the packaging. If you are reading this blog entry then the website update has now happened (unless you are reading this over my shoulder while I type it on a flight back to Houston which makes you a little scary so please stop).

Rather remarkably fate did choose to intervene and while performing my website surgery I have been offered a new job this summer based in Singapore. As my constant typos, errors, inaccuracies and lack of palate consistency clearly demonstrate I am no writer (despite my brilliant Clowney joke above!) and have to find other ways to sustain my family and my expensive drinking habit. From September 2015 I will do that based in South East Asia. This move presents me with an astonishing opportunity and exposure to a whole new whisky scene that will include, but not be limited to, the brands and expressions only available in Asia, new bars and whisky events in a new city, other bloggers to meet and lots of travel retail opportunities. I also hope to work in trips to Japan and Taiwan (and perhaps India) so I can annoy distillery tour guides with my note taking and ridiculous questions on the other side of the world! In short not only does my website get refreshed but in a few months but my whole exposure to the world whisky will be refreshed and a whole new series of opportunities present themselves.

Between now I then I promise to use the coming months to iron out the remaining kinks in the website, work through the long list of typos (or as I frequently joke “tpyos”) and other corrections I have noted but never got around to fixing and of course will post some new tasting notes. If you read this and are based in Singapore please feel free to reach out to me and I will be happy to buy you a dram and explain the NFL, Houston Texans, the 2015 draft and the joke above. I promise you it will be worth it.

Some diligent readers may have noticed that I have posted less material online in recent months than Julian Assange. There are a number of reasons for this (fortunately being holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy is not one) but I don’t think it is a coincidence that my lack of output followed soon after completing my goal to find, taste and post my notes for all of the whiskies in Ian Buxton’s book “101 World Whiskies to Try Before You Die”.

When I look back at 2011, when I started this website and blog I wrote about using the Ian Buxton’s first book “101 Whiskies to Try before You Die” as a guide.  As I wrote then “I felt I needed some structure to my journey, a goal or destination, or I would risk wandering aimlessly”

I have to say I do feel now like a goal has been met and a destination reached. Perhaps by setting a clear goal in some ways I doomed my website and blog as it had a defined “end point” from day one. It had a purpose and that purpose has been achieved. My work has also intervened and this blog will always come third after my family and my career. I also look back and reflect that the blog started at a time I was very unhappy with my career and  it is clear my interest in whisky grew as my interest in my job at that time declined.

However this cannot be the end. Whisky has permeated my life in no small way and will be harder to remove than the last in-law at Christmas. I have invested (rather more than I intended) in a craft distillery in London that looks like it might return my investment about the same time that my nine year old daughter graduates college and I have made some real friendships that will go beyond a shared love of distilled grains aged in oak barrels.

So to paraphrase Winston Churchill perhaps this is not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning. Therefore I intend to continue post tasting notes as I find whiskies of interest (increasingly hard to do by the way) and will restructure website to be more focused on those tasting notes and less as blog, but from time to time you can still expect me to post an ill-informed opinion.

And what would be a good new goal for this revamped website? As I write today I have reviewed 566 whiskies, so 1000 seems like a nice round number to aim for…. perhaps as a nod to Ian Buxton I should say 1001 Whiskies (yes I know that is another book by another whisky writer but you get my point) and then see what happens.

In this entry I am going to try and consolidate the opinion I have shared on various other web pages, Twitter and Facebook into a single, possibly coherent, position. I am very conscious of the fact that “both sides of the story” have not yet come out and I may yet be proved to be more inaccurate than Matt Schaub throwing a pass.  However I am more interested in the core of this issue than the “he said / she said” of recent events that is no doubt going to be focus of most of the coverage. I am also conscious that I may be expelled from the virtual whisky community (#whiskyfabric) for heresy but if that is the case I was already out of step and all I am doing is stating how I feel and it will be cleansing to do so.

Balcones was started by Chip Tate in Waco, Texas and he produced some rather interesting, sometimes great, often weird and occasionally (in my opinion) average whisky. I think even he would admit to some inconsistency especially early on. However the whisky media and bloggers went “super ape shit crazy” (technical term) for his stuff, some with good reason and some for reasons I can’t begin to fathom. Chip went “global”. He became a Whisky Kardashian (without the sex tape – thank god – and an appalling mother figure trying to live vicariously through her daughters success).  A whisky superstar was born and I honestly saw more of Chip Tate at events like WhiskyLive London than I did at local events in Texas. Clearly he was “going to need a bigger boat” to secure Balcones place at the whisky’s top table and plans were announced to expand. And that is where this story goes to its darker second act. I have even suggested that media and bloggers who stoked the fires have some accountability for this.

Of course Chip needs money to expand and along come the investors (or the “suits” as they have been referred to). Chip asked them in. He wanted their money. He sold a majority share of the company to them. What bastards! How dare they try to run the company they bought the majority of! If you want to stay in control of your business, the best advice I can give is don’t sell it. Just because you started a business it doesn’t give you lifetime ownership of that business. If that means that expansion is not in your immediate future then accept that and stay in control. Perhaps he was badly advised, perhaps even mislead by investors or others, but when you sell something you lose control of it. That is the moral of this story. Chip apparently chose expansion over control. 

At end of the day I hope this situation is resolved, and the third act is happy, feel good ending. Perhaps they reconcile and go onto to great things, maybe Chip starts again and stays small (and in control) if that is what he wants. Personally I hope Chip and his investors are reunited and Chip goes onto to make lots more Balcones Single Malt, perhaps a follow up to the stunning Vth Bourbon and, if I had my way, a lot less Brimstone and Rumble.

Blog Reader:  Are you going to post any new interesting blog entries, or for that matter, any kind of blog entries, ever again?

Blog Writer: Yes.  When I have something to say that isn't tired and hacky.   I will in the meantime continue to post tasting notes and visit distilleries.

Blog Reader:  Thank you.

Blog Writer: No, thank you.