Whyninspirits's Blog

whyninspirits — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:00:14 +0000

About to try Highland Park 12 years. Here are some great reviews.

Tasting notes are great idea as well.

A Camembert to look out for…

whyninspirits — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:45:24 +0000

Just read an interesting article about a wonderful French Camembert made by Herve Mons. Question posed: “…why was Herve Mons making a pasteurized-milk Camembert, and how did he make such a good one?”

Mons says that 90% of the quality of a cheese comes from the quality of the milk. Who knew?

Mmm Cheese

whyninspirits — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:12:58 +0000

Cheese is almost always the perfect accompaniment to a lovely cocktail or a glass of fine wine. That said, even though my task is to focus on wine and spirits, no exploration of the topic would be complete without a discussion of cheese.

Tonight I enjoyed some Cashel Blue. I am fairly knowledgeable about cheese, but this one was completely new to me. Cashel Blue is Ireland’s original artisinal blue cheese, and is a great starter cheese, I think, for those new blues. Made from cow’s milk, it’s milder and less salty compared to other, more popular, stronger-flavored blues. Definitely worth a try.

Starting reverse alphabetical: Vodka

whyninspirits — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:59:20 +0000

So sure, I’ve had my share of vodka shots, but that was a long time ago and before I knew there was well more beyond Absolut. Ah, the ignorance of youth…

This quest starts with finding out an answer to the following question: What’s the best vodka out there?

I initially thought to myself, “Hey, that’s easy, it’s Stoli” (natch! it’s Russian, for pete’s sake), but that was mighty narrow-sighted of me. Who knew there were a million different brands and a million different ways of making vodka? (Yes, that’s an exaggeration, but seriously, I had no idea you could make vodka from wheat, from rye, etc. etc.). So the Google search began, and lo-and-behold someone had done the work for me with this guide to the best vodkas.

**Spoiler alert**
For those who can’t be bothered to click, or just want to know already, two are tied for first place: Ketel One and Ciroc. I’d recommend reading the guide, though. It’s short and sweet.

If you’d like to venture into newbie-connoisseur land, then visit this fantastic vodka ratings and review site where you can read reviews, learn about every possible brand out there, and then rate them yourself.

Na zdorovia!

Hello world!

whyninspirits — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:55:08 +0000

Yes, I left the default wordpress post title.

As a complete novice/amateur/newbie connoisseur of wine and spirits, I am embarking on an unabashed quest of educating myself on anything and everything there is to know. End goal: to learn just enough to enhance my imbibing activities. I’ll leave the connoisseurship to the true connoisseurs.

The feedback, comments, and discoveries of like-minded folks are most welcome, so please post freely!